Less than a month into golf season, course owners are happy to say their greens survived the winter in fine form.
“It’s in the best shape I ever saw,” said Glen Lovat co-owner Zdravka Galic. “The greens are perfect.”
Abercrombie Golf manager Drew Taylor says the situation is the same at their course as well. The ground never froze over the winter and then a good snowfall kept it protected from any damage.
“We didn’t have a mark on our greens,” he said.
Other courses in the area experienced some some minor damage due to snow mould, but that is quickly disappearing.
The quality of the courses bodes well for the season, which is already in full swing. All courses are reporting on par or an increase in membership this season.
When Galic and her husband bought the Glen Lovat golf course in 2007 there were less than 100 members. This year they are quickly reaching the 400-member limit they’ve set for themselves for this year.
A large part of that success she believes is due to upgrades to the course and the new clubhouse they built on site.
“The golf course is coming where we want it to be,” she said.
The Pictou Golf Club is also expecting growth this season.
“We’ve signed up some members that we didn’t have last year already,” he says.
They’ve seen growth primarily in their junior (18-and-under) and in their 60-and-over program.
“Almost a third of our members are juniors,” he said.
They have dedicated Wednesday morning from to 11:30 a.m. to the youth and provide instruction in the game to them.
Abercrombie is also boasting a strong youth program, particularly among those who hope to participate in the Nova Scotia Junior Championship which will be held at the club in 2012.
The club is also seeing some success with a new partnership they’ve made with a course in Antigonish where members from each course can get membership at the other town’s course for just $100 more.
“It’s got a lot of appeal,” says Taylor.
As they celebrate their 10th anniversary Linacy Greens has been busy sprucing up their course, adding sand traps and removing stumps and other debris from the course. Although damp weather slowed the start of their season some, they’re quickly making up for lost time.
“The last couple weeks, it’s been climbing really hard,” says course manager Jason Allen.
He says they’ve seen good turnout from older golfers, but are drawing in people of all ages.
With the economy the way it’s been the last couple years, he said the numbers are actually surprising.
“We didn’t figure it’d be as good as it is,” he said.
You won’t hear him complaining about that though.
The only thing he’d like to see to make this the perfect golf season – a little sun.
