THUNDER BAY — The 100th anniversary season at Strathcona Golf Course will kick off a little later than planned.
Freezing rain in December and limited snow cover until into January didn’t do the city owned course any favours this year.
Things aren’t any better at the city’s other 18-hole track, Chapples Golf Course.
City supervisor of golf, Pat Berezowski, on Friday said with a few too many greens in rough shape, he and his staff have decided to delay opening the two courses until after the May long weekend, a move echoed by staff at the privately owned Whitewater Golf Course.
“Those two items caused a little bit of ice coverage on the greens and turf can only survive under ice conditions for so long,” Berezowski said.
“All we can do a that point is hope for an early spring, and we didn’t really get that. So now we’re a little bit behind, but our crews have been out there and they’re seeding greens and fertilizing.”
Berezowski said they’ve also left the covers on a few greens at both Chapples and Strathcona to give them a little extra tender loving care.
“We’re hopeful in the next two weeks that we’re going to see a lot of improvement.”
He’s anticipating the courses will be able to open around May 21 or May 22.
“I think that will give us a bit of a chance to wake up the greens,” Berezowski said. “A lot of the ones that were struggling are just slow. I think the turf is still there. The ones that we’ve seeded will germinate and we’ll bet set to go.
“We’ll give it a couple of weeks and if we have a few temporary greens at that point, we’ll let the public go.”
It’s building up to be an exciting year, especially at Strathcona, where the course will celebrate a century in business and the Strathcona Invitational will celebrate its 95th anniversary.
One thing Berezowski is sure about, once they’re up and running, it’s going to be busy. Tee times have been at more of a premium since the pandemic, but that’s not a bad thing.
“It’s nice to see the kids, the families coming out. Everybody finds their time of the day when golf is easy to get out on the course. You’ve got morning traffic, you’ve got the afternoon and you’ve got the evening traffic now,” Berezowski said.
“We’re utilizing a bigger portion the day for everybody to golf, which seems to be working.”
City memberships are still available, with a variety of options for golfers to choose from.
Though the city owned courses have yet to open, several private courses are up and running, including Dragon Hills, Centennial, Emerald Greens and Northern Lights.
