By Troy Gillard and Josh Hall

Lots of work to do

Golf courses scramble to tee off as province gives go ahead to open

May 1, 2020 | 1:21 PM

It’s the news golfers in wild rose country have been dying to hear. And now courses across Alberta are scrambling to open as soon as possible now that the provincial government is letting them do so.

Premier Jason Kenney said Thursday that courses can open as early as this weekend as part of Alberta’s three-phase economic relaunch plan.

Innisfail Golf Club is working on opening May 8 (next Friday).

“We definitely weren’t expecting it to be this soon. But everybody’s pretty excited about it,” says Dwayne Simpson, General Manager. “The tough part for us is it’s very little notice, so we have a lot of work to do and a lot of protocols and things to get in place.”

Simpson says they have most all their health protocols in place and are waiting to confirm that they meet provincial requirements.

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“We’re going to have a greeter in the parking lot that will meet all the (incoming) groups, talk about the protocol and walk them through that,” he explains. “Then we’ll have a starter marshal on the first tee that will again go through all the protocols. We’ll also have everything outlined on the golf carts.”

While courses are now allowed to open, clubhouses and pro shops are to remain closed. Simpson says they’ll be offering food and beverage service from a takeout window at their restaurant, Divots, and hopefully their snack shack on the course.

There will be no sand bunker rakes or sand/seed bottles on the course. Simpson says they’ll also be making it so golfers don’t have to reach to the bottom of the hole to retrieve their ball. Carts are limited to one person at a time, unless a twosome is from the same household, and will be sanitized after each use. Locker rooms will be closed for at least the first part of the season.

Even with fewer players allowed on at a time Simpson is hopeful they can make the best of their season.

“We rely a lot on green fees and corporate tournaments. We were worried that if we weren’t starting until June that some people wouldn’t buy memberships, that they may just buy passes or play a few times. Now we should have our membership numbers up to where they were. With no mass gatherings we’re going to take a lot of revenue loss from tournaments and groups. So we’re definitely changing some of our expenses.”

Innisfail Golf Club kept most of its year-round employees on board with many of them helping with other jobs to ensure the course was ready for play if and when the time came. Simpson is hopeful they will qualify for wage subsidy programs to help pay their staff.

Other local golf courses will be announcing their opening plans today and tomorrow (Friday and Saturday).