Golf courses hoping for hole in one following success of 2020 season
The first round of golf is a welcome sign of spring in Newfoundland and Labrador, with the people running the courses hoping to continue the pandemic boom of last summer.
Pat Guitar, golf operations manager at The Willows in Holyrood, said the course saw its best ever season in 2020 and is off to a fast start since reopening in March.
"Everyone after having a tough winter was excited to get out. We've been flat out since we've opened up … even when the weather's not nice, we've had people on the course," she said Sunday.
Guitar said the success of the 2020 season was driven by people's desire to get outdoors at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, when golf was one of the only sports that could be played while following physical distancing.
With one pandemic summer now under their belt, she said preparing for this season was easier than the last.
"Last year, we were the first golf course on the island that opened under the COVID guidelines and it was new to everybody," she said. "This year it was a little bit easier because we've had the experience of last year."
The province's COVID-19 regulations for golf courses remain largely untouched from the beginning of the pandemic, including practicing physical distancing and wearing masks wherever possible, limiting the number of people on the course at one time by using tee time intervals and the removal of touch points like ball cleaners and flag sticks.
Walk-on play is not allowed under the provincial regulations, and golf carts can only be shared by people within a household or bubble.
Although people on the Avalon Peninsula are getting the chance to hit the links, golfers on Newfoundland's west coast may have to wait just a little bit longer.
Gary Oke, general manager of the Humber Valley Resort Golf Club in Little Rapids, said the club is shooting for a May opening and good golfing conditions.
Like Guitar, he said he hopes to continue the momentum from last season, which brought staycationers from across the province to the west coast.
"We're kind of hoping that it's going to be the same thing this year, that we're going to get a lot of internal traffic," he said.
"Outdoor snowmobiling and skiing was OK this year, but to get back on the golf course, I think everybody's anxious to get out in the fresh air and have some outdoor activities."
