Skip to content

Minchin excited golf course will open April 18

The TS&M Woodlawn Golf Course has announced its opening day for the 2019 golf season will be April 18. Amanda Minchin, who is the golf course’s head pro and general manager, said the course handled the winter well, despite a couple of challenges.
TS&M Woodlawn Golf Course
The TS&M Woodlawn Golf Course will be open for the season April 18.

The TS&M Woodlawn Golf Course has announced its opening day for the 2019 golf season will be April 18.

Amanda Minchin, who is the golf course’s head pro and general manager, said the course handled the winter well, despite a couple of challenges. The first was the lack of snow in the first few weeks of winter.

The other was the cold snap from mid-January to early March, when several extreme cold warnings were issued.

“Obviously it’s been a long cold winter, so people are anxious to get out there, and we are anxious to get going,” said Minchin.

She believes the first inquiry about when the course would open came in February.

“This year was a little different. We didn’t have a tonne of snow, and the snow has been gone for a few weeks, so it’s even harder to wait, to see that there’s no snow out there, and think that we should be out on the golf course.”

Temperatures haven’t co-operated, particularly the overnight lows.

“It’s been a little bit of a different year, but we’ve had lots of inquiries (about opening day) and I think people will be very happy to get out here and play some golf,” said Minchin.

Bob Currie and the greens crew have been working hard to prep the course for opening day.

“It’s an all or nothing sort of thing. You have to wait until you can get out on the grounds to do stuff, and then once you get out there, there’s a million things to do,” said Minchin.

Even pulling tarps is a big job, and they have to find a day when it’s not windy outside to get it done.

The golf course is also adding 45 new irrigation heads. There will be a few irrigation holes dug out, which will be clearly marked and roped off, but they shouldn’t be in the line of play.

“You might come across them, and obviously if you hit your ball there, just pull it out and take a free drop, and that irrigation should be wrapped up in a week and a half,” said Minchin.

Carts won’t be restricted to the cart paths, but people will be asked to keep the carts off of soft spots.

The driving range has been open since March 29. Some people have capitalized on the opportunity to practice, and they have had some club fittings and a few lessons.

The clubhouse opened April 15 for full service. There has been construction taking place in the clubhouse, due to repairs to the roof, carpet windows stemming from the hail storm that struck the course last June.

Minchin expects those repairs will be taking place for the rest of the month.