THUNDER BAY - The late spring and significant amount of flooding has caused golf courses around the city to have a late start to the season.
Emerald Greens Golf Course has yet to open due to a large amount of water coming from the river that goes through the course and owner, Jack Watson, says that while flooding is pretty typical for this time of year, it only gets this bad every 10 years.
"It's because of the large snow-melt, and also the heavy rains for a couple of days there just added to it. The good thing is it took the frost out of the ground, quicker than usual. So that's almost a nice thing that happened, versus a long slow spring like last year,” said Watson.
Despite the flooding, the golf course is only 5 days behind schedule, and now that the frost is gone, they can start maintaining the grass. With all the sun in the forecast and the water quickly receding, Watson is hoping to open the course next week.
"In most years, you know, you always have dreams of opening in April, but they're few and far between, and if you do get an early start, it seems like it's good for a week, and then you get bad weather for two weeks. So I'd say if you get going in the first couple of weeks in May you're pretty much on schedule," said Watson.
Meanwhile, Dragon Hills Golf Course is in full swing, with the driving range, disc golf course, and most of their greens open.
Golf carts aren't allowed on the course at the moment due to the damp ground but, despite the dampness, golfers are excited to finally be out on the course.
"The phone has been ringing off the wall from 8 in the morning for the last three days. It's like okay, we're doing the best we can. The course is in great shape, but I mean it's still wet on certain holes. I mean the frost is still coming out of the ground, but I guess every day is a vast improvement," said Michael Komar, owner.
Dragon Hills will start opening at 9 a.m. and Komar says that his staff is excited for everyone to come back.
