Cooke Municipal opens for 2023 golf season

Nathan Reiter/Daily Herald. Peter Hoemsen attempts a tee shot at the first hole of Cooke Municipal Golf Course on Friday, May 5, 2023.

After several weeks of warm weather, the golf season is officially underway in Prince Albert.

Cooke Municipal opened for the season on Friday, and head professional Darcy Myers says the atmosphere around the course was buzzing with anticipation prior to the first tee time at 11 A.M.

“Everybody is really excited to get going. Surprisingly, the snow disappeared quite fast, and the crew has done a great job getting on the golf course prepped for opening day, which is today. The excitement level is really through the roof right now.”

Cooke Municipal saw a lot of use on opening day. The course was completely booked from the first tee time of the day at 11 A.M. until after 6 P.M.

“Everybody wants to get going and we’ve got a short season.” Myers says.  “We’ve got to try and capitalize on things and try and get as many people out as we can, so, it’s really good to see the tee sheets full again.”

Myers gives a lot of credit to the maintenance team at Cooke for getting the course ready.

“They put in a ton of work, just pumping water out of certain areas, cleaning up all the debris from windstorms throughout the winter, removing tarps. There’s just there is a lot of a lot of work that needs to happen to get a golf course ready. In fact, turning on the irrigation system, getting water through the golf course is really important before we open, the crew has done an amazing job. We’ve got a pretty small crew at the moment but we are getting staff back, so that’s going to be important going forward. We got the best crew in the province no question and we are proud of the work they do.”

One group taking on Cooke for opening day was the trio of Peter Hoemsen, Larry Hammett and Bob Kutzan who teed off at 11:30 A.M.

Hoemsen says he was impressed with the course conditions when he arrived.

“The course looks like it’s in amazing condition. I can’t believe how green it is. I wish my yard looked just as green. It’s been a long winter, but the course looks like it weathered it well.”

Hoemsen, who is an eight-handicap golfer, says the first round of the year is always a special feeling.

“It’s unbelievable. Like I said, it’s been a long winter and it’s great to see the work that the crew has done here over the winter. It’s just in amazing condition.”

sports@paherald.sk.ca

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