Too much snow is never a good thing.
But in the golf course business, a thick white winter blanket is like an insurance policy.
If it gets really warm in January, warm enough to turn fairways to lakes, the cold that's sure to follow can wreak havoc. That's what happened two winters ago, when Prince George temperatures dropped from 14 C to -35 C in the span of only a few weeks. If there's not enough snow, that's a recipe for icy fairways and come springtime that can be a killer for golf courses.
Fortunately for golfers this year, city
courses came out of a mild but snowy winter looking better than they have in years.
"As long as it was, it was a favourable winter for all the golf courses," said Keith Good, who owns Yellowhead Grove golf course and is general manager at Pine Valley. "There was no freeze-thaw like we had the last two years, so no ice damage, and the snow kind of left just as the cold weather went. So the greens are just as we put them to bed, just perfect.
"It's going to make for an easy summer. We fought the ice damage all year last year at Pine Valley, but this year we're basically starting where we left off."
Pine Valley will be opening for the season today at 9 a.m. Good remains optimistic about the future of the city-owned course and said there are signs it might remain a municipal course indefinitely.
"The Friends of Pine Valley did a presentation [Monday] night before council and it seems the longer they go before they make a decision, the more in favour they are," he said. "My gut feeling is they will keep it going.
"We've got a few counsellors who have told us they are on board. It would be a shame to lose it, it's perfect for seniors, juniors and beginners, and the location is perfect. If they would invest some money in the course, we could build a driving range on the John
McInnis [school] side."
The driving range at Aberdeen Glen has been open since Saturday, and the Prince George Golf and Curling Club expects to be open for business this Saturday.
"We got a real nice snowfall blanket and it's probably the best I've seen it in 10 years," said Claude Bertoli, pro shop manager at the
PGGCC. "The greens, for this time of year, are looking good but the grass on the fairways always takes awhile. We'll have a shotgun start at 10 o'clock Saturday morning and be open the rest of the year, as long as it doesn't snow again."
Bertoili says after years of an uncertain future, and plans to move to a new location in the northwest corner of the city that were scuttled when a land deal fell through, the existing course is here to stay. The city's oldest golf course was severely damaged a few years ago when beetles attacked the pine tree boundaries that used to line the fairways,
creating a safety hazard that forced removal of those trees.
There's a plan in the works to totally remodel the 18-hole course, nine holes at a time. Bertoli said the city's short growing season [83 days on average] means they can't rebuild all 18 holes at once, as a city like Kamloops can. The first phase of that project is to begin in September, depending on whether a pending sale is completed on the second and third parcels of land which used to be taken up by the driving range.
"We're not going anywhere, we're selling off the driving range and one sale has already gone through," said Bertoli. "Once we sell it all, then we will rebuild the course. Because of the loss of the trees, there are a few areas where there's more protection from one fairway to the next, so there will be some re-routing.
"We also need a new sprinkler system. Where there used to be trees there will be grass and the sprinklers have to reach that, so there will be a lot of underground work. Six of the [clay-based] greens have never been rebuilt."
Aberdeen Glen's location up the Hart Highway means it is higher than the city's bowl area, which usually means more snow than most city-dwellers get. The course relies on loaders to remove snow from its fairways and that allows earlier openings. The target date this year is next weekend.
Aberdeen has the only driving range in close proximity to the city and it's been busy, said Ian Wrynn, Aberdeen's director of golf.
"We did some snow removal on the fairways and driving range and we just started snow removal with snow blowers on the greens, and pretty much all the greens are cleared off now and they all look really good," said Wrynn.
"We're usually worried about ice underneath the snow but there didn't seem to be any ice. The new process we do for the greens at the end of the season has really paid off. We have bent-grass greens and we put a special chemical on them and use bubble wrap and tarps and that seems to do the trick. The fairways are starting to green up."
Good said Yellowhead won't likely open for another week to 10 days.
The Links of Maggie May website indicates the course east of the city near Shelley is still closed for the season and Aspen Grove, south of the airport, is also a few days away from getting in the swing of things.
Alder Hills, east of the airport in Pineview, was still buried in metre-deep snow a week ago but clubhouse manager Andrew Clark says it's been melting fast. Alder Hills is shooting for a May 8 opening, which would coincide with the first ladies day of the season.
