We have been blessed with unseasonably mild temperatures throughout the winter season, getting little snowfall and very few really cold days. In fact, I only had to use my snow shovel three times all year.
Throughout the warm spell, most of us were afraid to talk about it out of fear that a monumental blizzard was waiting to unleash itself at any moment.
Unbelievably, those seemingly inevitable snowstorms never materialized and here we are approaching mid-March with temperatures hovering in the mid-60s. And you know what happens when you get an unseasonably mild winter with very little precipitation or frost damage?
A golf course opening earlier then it ever has in its 100+ year history!
My home club, St. Catharines G&CC, opened the short game facility on Sunday morning and will be welcoming members to the first tee tomorrow, breaking a record set a couple years back by about 3 or 4 days.
It’s amazing how we can stretch out a golf season in these parts now – years ago you were lucky to get six months of golf in. Now, we can play right into the first week of December and start playing again in mid-March, meaning only about three months or so of rust instead of six.
That said, I haven’t picked up a club since Canadian Thanksgiving in early October so I’m pretty excited to get the opportunity to play again. I’ve got a lot of things going on here at home and at work, so it might be another week or two before I get to take advantage of the course opening but it’s very exciting to know that the opportunity exists if things improve with my schedule.