Golf courses open early in record-warm temperatures

You know a golf course has opened early when a golfer's drive rolls onto the green after skipping across the ice on a water hazard.

Terra O'Neil, general manager at Angushire Golf Club, chuckled at the sight Sunday, the course's fourth day being open to golfers.

"Where else but Minnesota can you find that?" she said. "I guess that's a bonus of being open early in the year."

As temperatures hit the 60s last week, including a record-setting 70 on Sunday, courses around the area opened and golfers jumped at the chance to play their first rounds of the year.

O'Neil said Angushire opened Thursday, saw 150 golfers Friday and Saturday, and was expecting 150 more on Sunday. Most years the course doesn't open until April. Last year it opened April 9, and had to close after St. Cloud saw nine inches of snow a week later.

Other courses around the area opened earlier than normal as well. Rich-Spring Golf Club in Cold Spring was flooded with players after opening Saturday. Boulder Ridge Golf Course had very few unused tee times between 9:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. since opening Thursday afternoon, according to employee Joe Imholte.

Despite the warmer temperatures, there is still frost in the ground. Imholte played a round at Boulder Ridge over the weekend and said the grass on the greens had "a ways to go." At Angushire, it meant mostly yellow grass, a few damp spots on the course, and some makeshift holes in greens still covered by longer grass.

Ken Heathcote, 58, and Mike Jordet, 29, didn't mind.

"I'm just excited we're not in three feet of snow and it's not 40 below zero," Jordet said during the pair's first round of the year Sunday.

"It's about what you'd expect this time of year," Heathcote said of the course conditions. "Grass is still dormant."

Blackberry Ridge Golf Course in Sartell stayed closed over the weekend and was aiming for a mid-week opening, according to Brock Swanson, the PGA Professional at the course. Course officials tried to pull the covers off the greens to find the stakes were still frozen in the ground, Swanson said. That indicated the grass wasn't ready yet.

"The worry is that you could do long-term damage to the greens for some short-term gain," Swanson said.

But Swanson knows members at Blackberry Ridge, like golfers all over Minnesota, are ready to start playing.

"By the amount of phone calls we're getting asking if we're open," he said, "you can tell golfers are starting to get the itch."

Follow Sam Louwagie on Twitter @SamLouwagie.