Golf Preview 2016

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

With a mild winter and early spring-like temperatures, local golf courses have had a jump on the golf season. Here is a preview of five local courses and what they have in store for the 2016 season.

 

Boulder Creek Golf Course
Langdon’s Boulder Creek Golf Course is providing golfers with multiple playing options including the new windmill gold membership, which gives players unlimited rounds at the course plus eight others, while normal memberships give playing privileges at Boulder Creek and Silver Wing.
“It’s been very well received,” said Boulder Creek’s Operations Manager David Robinson. “It’s the entry level membership for the Windmill Group. Being associated with the Hamptons and the Mickelson (National), it’s an opportunity for players to get out and play exclusive private clubs that otherwise they wouldn’t have access to.”
The junior program and men’s league will get underway in a couple weeks time and are a hit every year.
“They always sell out,” said Robinson, referring to the junior programs.
“Langdon’s really a bustling little town with a lot of junior golfers and new golfers. Boulder Creek’s in a perfect spot to accommodate them and introduce them to the game.”
Aside from the programs, for Robinson it’s been great to see people out this early playing on mid-season form greens after the course held up well over the winter months.
However, they are seeing a decline in corporate golf, but the early start, is benefitting the course because it helps them offset the decrease in those events.
He recommends if players want to play weekend rounds to phone in on Tuesday to book a tee time.
More information on programs and specials can be obtained at www.bouldercreek.ca.

 

Muirfield Lakes Golf Club
Lyalta’s Muirfield Lakes Golf Club has 69 members and this year have introduced a new Ala Carte Pass, which allows players to build their own membership for any single day of the week in the season. So far 40 passes have already been sold.
Muirfield’s Golf Operations Manager Julian Klatzel said the idea stemmed from the course wanting to think outside the box as golf memberships became difficult to sell.
As for the course, it survived the winter well enough to open on March 10 and Klatzel expects it to be in mid-season form in about a month’s time.
“The golfers are raving about the course,” said Klatzel. “We’ve been packed wall-to-wall on weekends basically since we’ve opened. So lots of great feedback on the course.”
He added that the early rush is due to the $50 spring green fee, which includes a cart and golf.
The club’s events will feature the Spring Thaw tournament on May 14, which will include live entertainment from 14-year-old Cochrane country singer Sidney Mae.
There will also be the first annual Ladies Open later in June, which will be open to any lady golfer.
“We’re just trying to create these events to get people out here that may have never played out here,” said Klatzel.
He added that it still remains to be seen if clientele will drop off due to the economy but said it’s been the busiest he’s seen for the beginning of the season.
For more information visit www.muirfieldlakesgc.com.

 

Oxbow Country Golf Course
Oxbow Country Golf Course’s head pro Ryan Nordin saw the need to come up with new ideas after seeing a flurry of golfers coming in to play the course.
For those golfers’ convenience, he introduced a season’s pass for a cost of $800 or $1000 with a cart and a senior’s pass for $500 or $700 with a cart.
“It was just brought into the course to give players here more options because we had a lot of people come back here frequent,” he said.
“And that gave them an option to buy a seasons pass rather then paying every time they come in.”
He said that with the warmer early season temperatures they’ve been busy, and the course came out of the winter in great shape.
“It’s been nice every weekend so it’s been helping us out,” said Nordin.
The course will continue its Tuesday and Thursday night men’s league and a Wednesday ladies league.
“Players are signing up, they’re getting full,” said Nordin.
“The men’s league is half full and the ladies night is about three quarters full. We’re getting busier and busier, which considering it used to be the hidden gem that nobody really knew about, whereas we were in the golf show this year and people are starting to find out more and more about Oxbow. We’re trying to reach out more to Strathmore and letting everyone know we’re around.”
For more information you can go to www.oxbowgolf.ca.

 

Speargrass Golf Course
Speargrass is a green-fee only course that doesn’t carry memberships.
With the warmer weather coming earlier this year, they were able to take the tarps off the greens in early March. Over 50 per cent more players teed it up when the course opened in the middle of the month.
“It started off really good,” said Speargrass’s Golf Course Superintendent Warren Boese. “It’s a big deal because we don’t budget for any rounds in March and sort of minimal rounds in April and to get anything in March is a bonus.
“Especially to us, we’re green-fee traffic only, so we don’t get the up front costs or the revenue from the membership money. April’s been super nice and every day is a golf day.”
Boese said with the recent downturn in Alberta’s economy, fewer companies are hosting tournaments, which the course relied on for revenue.
However, depending on the day of the week you play, he considers Speargrass tough to beat for value because all green fees include a cart and a bucket of range balls.
Golf is a sport that is weather dependent and Speargrass has had some successful years. The hope for this season is to see improvements of more rounds played in a season.
The popular club events including men’s league, ladies day and couples night will start back up in May. These days will still provide cheaper golf and more exposure for the club.
More information on Speargrass can be found at www.speargrass.ca.

 

Strathmore Golf Club
Strathmore Golf Club’s customers have wasted no time getting back into the swing of things, putting many rounds into the course one month into the season.
“As long as the weather’s been good, it’s been busy,” said assistant pro Josh Witty. “We might be a little bit ahead of last year because the season started a little sooner. But for members, we’re probably the same or even up a little bit.”
Witty said they initially thought there was the possibility of a decrease in the amount of golfers, but with the flurry of golfers early on there is no sign of a drop off.
He added that a member at the club has created a fund for junior golfers, who couldn’t afford the sport.
The club released early season rates in April but have more decisions to make on specials for the rest of the season that have yet to be released to the public.
New scheduled events will include the South Pro-Junior that the club does for CPGA Alberta on July 11 and joined match play events with the Calgary Golf Association.
More information can be found at www.strathmoregolfclub.com.