With the frigid temperatures of winter starting to succeed, many golfers are getting the itch to hit the fairway and begin the 2024 golf season.
Cooke Municipal Golf Course in Prince Albert has not yet announced when they will open this year. Head professional Darcy Myers says they are waiting for weather conditions to improve before they decide on a specific date.
“Everybody’s getting excited with this nice weather of late. There’s a lot of factors involved in opening up the course and a lot of it’s just weather-related, the temperature’s got to be above zero overnight. All the snow and ice and water has to be gone and pumped off and dried out a little bit before we can get equipment and our staff back prepping things. We’re just going to play the opening day by ear right now and just monitor the forecast and see what happens here in the next week.”
According to Environment Canada, Prince Albert will see daytime temperatures reach as high as 18 degrees celsius over the next seven days.
Myers says if those temperatures hold, plus some overnight lows of above zero, could lead to the course opening during the month of April.
“We’re all really excited to get going. It’s looking like we potentially could have some April golf, which we haven’t had for a number of years. A little bit longer season would be a nice little bonus for us.”
The game of golf has seen slight growth in recent years, thanks to the sport being one of the only available activities during the pandemic. Myers says Cooke has sold some memberships and the numbers are comparable to last season.
“Right now things seem pretty stable. We’re still a ways away from opening, so I’m sure we’re going to hopefully sell a little bit more. (It) looks very comparable to the last few years, which we’ve seen some growth since COVID and we’re kind of maintaining those numbers. That’s a really good sign going forward.”
Cooke enjoyed a successful season in 2024 hosting the Monday qualifier for PGA Tour Canada’s Elk Ridge Saskatchewan Open as well as the Golf Saskatchewan Senior Mens’ and Women’s Championships.
The 2024 PGA Saskatchewan Zone Championship will be hosted at Cooke Municipal July 29 and 30. It will be the first time the event will be hosted at Cooke in nearly a decade.
Myers says Cooke is hoping to build off the momentum of success the course built last season.
“Last year was a fantastic year. We’re hosting a few events similar to what we did last year. The PGA Tour Canada is here again for the Monday qualifier. We’ve got provincial PGA championships here this summer and a lot of our annual Northern tournaments and other charity fundraiser events are being held here again as well. We’re looking forward to another busy season and hope the success continues.”
Information about an official opening date for Cooke Municipal Golf Course can be found on the course’s social media as it becomes available.
