It won't be too long before Cooke Municipal Golf Course is looking like this again. (Submitted Photo/Cooke Municipal Golf Course)

By Rob Mahon

Golf Course Preparation

Excitement grows for local golf course with season looming

Apr 5, 2022 | 2:54 PM

Spring is taking its sweet time arriving in full force in Prince Albert, but that suits at least one local golf course just fine. After all, the snow cover is doing them a big favor ahead of their season.

Cooke Municipal Course is left to play the waiting game while the thick blanket of snow slowly melts away. The slower the meltdown, however, the better position that leaves the course in once the time comes to open up.

“Hopefully, with the slow melt we’ve been having, the moisture is going to go into the ground instead of pooling up in areas,” said Darcy Myers, general manager of the course. “The slow melt has been good so far. It’s been a long winter and I know everyone is getting anxious to get going, but we still have a lot of snow out there so it’s going to be a little while yet.”

Because the snow arrived early in the season and never really melted away, the ground didn’t freeze over to the same degree it often does. This was important for the course.

“The frost isn’t very deep in the ground this year because of the early snow cover,” Myers said. “Once things warm up a little bit things should start to disappear.”

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Of course, that requires it to warm up a bit and that, along with other aspects of the weather, is beyond the course’s control. Right now it’s largely a waiting game, so predicting when they’ll be able to open up is a bit of a trick.

“Typically, here at Cooke, we open last week of April or first week of May,” Myers said. “That’s kind of been where we’ve been at the last several years and we’re hoping to stay the same this year.”

There is some concern from the course that a recent PST hike on golf course memberships might hurt them, but most of the members Myers has spoken to have been eagerly awaiting a return to play at Cooke, even if it’s a little more costly this season.

“It’s been a long, tough winter for everybody with the cold and the amount of snow,” Myers said. “People just haven’t been able to get outside as much as usual. People are really anxious to get going once the course opens up here.”

Myers added that while the amount of moisture they’ve received is helpful, their irrigation system allowed them to keep the course nice and green last season.

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Rob.Mahon@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @RobMahonPxP