THUNDER BAY – It’s the words that local golfers have been waiting to hear for months.
Driving ranges are now open.
On Sunday, the Northern Lights Golf Complex and Dragon Hills Golf Course welcomed golfers to their respective ranges for the unofficial start to the 2024 golf season.
“This is unprecedented for us,” Northern Lights owner Nadeen Breukelman said. “This is the earliest we have ever been open.
“It’s exciting for us, but it’s really exciting for our customers. We just made a quick little post on Facebook yesterday (Sunday) and we must have had anywhere between 40 and 50 people here.
“Everybody’s just excited to be out here. It hasn’t been the best winter in terms of doing outdoor activities, so I think are lot of people are happy to be outside and doing something again.”
It’s been a little bit quieter at Dragon Hills, though owner Michael Komar expects more people to come out as the temperatures warm up this week.
“We got a lot of people phoning and asking ‘When are you going to be opening the golf course,” because they all want to be out there playing,” Komar said.
“We are hoping that we would open up the course on Friday, but we don’t know what the weather is going to be like. My crystal ball isn’t working too well right now.”
Komar said Dragon Hills, which is located north of the city, has no snow on the greens or fairways.
The biggest issue though is just waiting for everything to thaw out, especially since it’s still below freezing at night.
“We’re kind of caught in the middle right now because we can’t really open, but everybody’s calling and they want to get out here and just get that fresh air and everything,” Komar said.
“They (the callers) keep saying, ‘Oh Minneapolis is open and Toronto is open.’ Well, we’re not Minneapolis … and Geraldton’s still got a foot of snow on the ground. So you never know what we’re going to get.”
The wait-and-see approach is also what Breukelman said Northern Lights is doing as they determine a date for the golfers to take to the course.
“A lot of times when we have opened up the range, there’s still a lot of snow on the golf course and still more snow in the mountains,” Breukelman said.
“This is the first year where we’ve been clear of snow and the temperatures have been beautiful.
“However, we are at the mercy of Mother Nature. The ground is still frozen despite the nice weather -- and it’s supposed to be getting cold again. So we really can’t say or predict when we’re going to have the courses open.”
