Heritage Country Club in Charlton, Mass., and Blissful Meadows Golf Club in Uxbridge, Mass., each opened for a handful of days in February, but both had to close when a series of March storms brought 20 to 28 inches of snow, even before a fourth Nor’easter hit the region on March 21-22.
Some golf courses in the Worcester, Mass., area opened when the temperatures soared into the 60s and 70s in February, but they had to close again when one storm dropped heavy rain and snow on the region and two others buried Worcester with nearly 40 inches of snow, the Worcester Telegram reported last week, just before the latest Nor’easter hit this week.
Heritage Country Club in Charlton, Mass., opened for about 10 days in February and hosted 200 golfers when the temperature reached the low 70s on February 21. The course was so busy, as soon as a golfer finished a round, someone else was waiting to use the cart, the Telegram reported.
“I’m sitting in Florida,” owner Bill Plante said, “saying, ‘Finally, after a bad spring last year we’re going to get this great February and we’ll roll right into March.’ I come back from Florida and all we get is three Nor’easters. Maybe it’s me.”
Heritage was hit with 20 inches of snow last Tuesday and Wednesday after receiving 13 inches the week before, the Telegram reported.
“Obviously, it’s disappointing because it seemed so promising,” Plante said. “But I’ve been in the business so long, it is what it is. Hopefully, it’ll melt quickly and we don’t get this next one they’re calling for. Just get out of this pattern and keep our fingers crossed that Mother Nature gets back on our side.”
Plante hopes Heritage can reopen within a couple of weeks, the Telegram reported.
Blissful Meadows Golf Club in Uxbridge, Mass., has good drainage and purposely aerates its greens in late November so it can be one of the first golf courses in Central Massachusetts to open for the season each year. Blissful opened for a handful of days in February and hosted 160 golfers on February 15, the Telegram reported.
“We did have some people who said they played hooky from work that day,” club manager Mark Laskowski said.
Another 160 golfers played on February 17. Laskowski figured the golf season was here to stay. “We all thought that,” Laskowski said. “We all thought we were going to be open and we were starting the season early. We were all excited.”
Unfortunately, that didn’t turn out to be the case. Last Tuesday and Wednesday, Uxbridge received 28 inches of snow, the most in the region. Laskowski said on Friday the course was still covered by anywhere from six to 20 inches of snow. Drifts of 35 inches covered the dogleg 11th hole, which dips into a valley and doesn’t get much sun, the Telegram reported.
“I’ve been here 15 years,” Laskowski said, “and I don’t remember this much snow on our golf course at one time, not this much, not 28 inches.”
Each year, Blissful superintendent Chris Knapp and his staff shovel off the last few greens in shaded areas, remove tree limbs and fix potholes on the cart paths so Blissful can open, the Telegram reported.
With the temperature not expected to rise much above freezing until late this week, the snow could be around awhile even if the next storm doesn’t produce much more of it, the Telegram reported.
“It’s not the storms, it’s the cold temperatures,” said Matt Moison, Head Pro of Green Hill Municipal Golf Course in Worcester. “It just doesn’t look like things are going to melt quick enough. That’s pushing us back probably into April, which is shame. It puts us a month behind where we were the last few seasons.
“If we just had normal March weather at this time, the snow would be gone in a day or two.”
Green Hill didn’t open last month, but quite a few people dropped by the pro shop. “The warm weather brings everybody out,” Moison said. “It brings them out to say hello, poke around the pro shop, grab their membership information, general questions about just about everything you can think of.”
The visitors disappeared once storms dropped 16 inches and 22 inches on Worcester the last two weeks. “They curl up like a spooked turtle once the weather changes,” Moison said. “They head back into hibernation mode.”
Once Green Hill opens, the course will have a new look. Moison said the new par-5 12th hole and the new par-4 17th should open by mid-May and the new range by early July, the Telegram reported.
Cyprian Keyes Golf Club in Boylston opened its range last month, but not its 18-hole regulation course or par-3 nine-hole course. Last week, 22 inches of snow fell on top of the 12-18 inches already on the course. Director of golf Scott Hickey doesn’t expect Cyprian Keyes to open for a while, the Telegram reported.
“Last year, weather-wise April and May were horrendous,” Hickey said. “We’d rather open April 10 and have beautiful weather in April and May than open March 15 and have it be just OK for three months.”
After the warm temperatures of last month, Jeff Bailey, General Manager of Holden Hills Country Club in Jefferson, Mass., figured his course would be open by now. “We got a lot of phone calls,” Bailey said, “wanting to know when we were going to open. We were about ready to go.”
But even though Holden Hills didn’t get as much snow as some other courses—Bailey estimated about 10 inches in the latest storm and a foot the week before—people drove snowmobiles, not golf carts, across the snow-covered fairways last week, the Telegram reported.
“The superintendent wasn’t happy,” Bailey said. “They were all over the greens and the tees.” Bailey expects Holden to open in mid-April, the Telegram reported.
Gardner (Mass.) Municipal Golf Course is usually one of the last golf courses to open each year, but for a change Gardner didn’t receive as much snow as some other places, about a foot last week and about eight inches the week before, the Telegram reported.
Dan Berry, Gardner golf pro manager, said there was no snow on the course last month so people hiked across it. Last week, people returned with their cross-country skis, snowshoes and toboggans, the Telegram reported.
“Our average opening is April 15,” Berry said. “In my opinion that would be pushing it a little bit this year. What will help is when the snow melts we were fairly dry before because of the February we had.”
Tell Us What You Think!
You must be logged in to post a comment.