The Monday snowstorm put a damper on some golf course openings but several remain upbeat thanks to a mild and forgiving winter that left courses in good shape and expecting early opening dates.
Rob Jarvis, golf pro at the Bangor Municipal Golf Course, said if they open by April 1 any year,
“I’m tickled pink.”
“I can’t begin to guess when we’re going to open. It’s hard to say,” said Jarvis. “The snow should be gone in a couple of days but they’re predicting more snow showers at the end of the week.”
Jarvis said he wasn’t frustrated by the storm because the easy winter was a welcome sight after two difficult ones.
“Normally, you never even entertain the thought of being open this time of year,” said Jarvis. “It’s always a bonus [if you can]. This isn’t an unlikely occurrence. We’ve had plenty of March snowstorms like this.”
He added that “we don’t have to have the course bone dry to open up. But we want the people to enjoy the experience when they come out to play. If they’re soaked, it won’t be fun for anybody.”
Mark Anderson, the pro at Sable Oaks Golf Club in South Portland, said he doesn’t see the need to open their course until the conditions are favorable for the golfers.
“We want to make everybody happy as much as we can, but we don’t want to sacrifice the summer [course conditions] to appease people in March. We’re looking long-term,” he said. “We’ll open the first or second week of April in conjunction with the Masters (April 7-10). We didn’t open until the last week of April last year, so we’ve got a big head start this year.
“We had 28 inches of snow at this time last season,” he added.
Joe Perdue, the owner and golf pro at Hidden Meadows Golf Course in Old Town, said he sets up his budget from April 15 to Oct. 15. He would like to open within two weeks and hopes all the frost will be out of the ground.
“We’ll see what happens over the next couple of days. I figure we get about 185 days of golf and any more than that is a bonus,” he said. “I’ve only been here since 2010 and, my first year, we opened on March 15. The last two years, we didn’t open until the last day of April.”
Ice was the culprit for the late opening two years ago and snow was the reason last year.
“The course came through the winter really well. We had a little bit of winter kill in the fairways but the greens and tees look really good,” Perdue said.
“We’re ahead of the game this year,” said John Snyer, the owner of the Hermon Meadows Golf Club.
Hermon Meadows, like several other golf courses statewide, including Orono’s Penobscot Valley Country Club, had already opened.
“We’ve been open for three to four weeks,” said Snyer. “We’ll reopen when the snow melts. The greens came through the winter in great shape. We never had any ice. When it snowed, it drained. Everything looks real good.”