Newmarket-area golf clubs are ready for the return to the green this long weekend, after the welcome announcement from Premier Doug Ford that they can reopen on Saturday, May 22.
And local golfers didn't waste anytime booking tee times.
“People are elated!” Craig Evans, president of Pheasant Run Golf Club in Sharon, said.
“There’s been so much pent-up demand," he said. "Everybody’s been trying to be patient and sitting on their hands but when this weather comes and they can’t get outside and participate in an activity that they enjoy so much, it’s been very difficult — so they’re so excited.”
He added that the course's website crashed with all the activity on it following the announcement yesterday.
“Typically we see 30 to 40 visits to our website, yesterday we had 1,400,” Evans said.
Evans saying that they don't have any more tee times available until the middle of next week.
At Westview Golf Club in Aurora, they are seeing the same increased interest.
“It’s been overwhelming, the demand is through the roof,” general manager Colin Nisbet said. “We’re basically now sold out through the long weekend and we’re booking well out into June right now.”
Both golf clubs have COVID-19 protocols in place such as enhanced sanitization, mandatory for people riding golf carts, and players are being told not to show up more than 20 minutes before their game time.
At Pheasant Run, Evans said the gates will also be kept locked so players will have to use the intercom or call to be let in.
“There’s a lot about the game that lends itself naturally to distancing. So it’s not difficult for us to make this a safe place to be,” he said. “I think we’ve created as safe an environment as can be expected.”
Among the excitement, golf courses have had little time to prepare for the reopening as both clubs said they didn’t hear about the news until the provincial news conference on May 20.
“We would have certainly preferred a little more lead time,” the Westview manager said, adding that it might be a little hectic at first but he hopes golfers will be patient.
The reopening has meant they can hire back a lot of their staff.
“We’re bringing back our full complement of staff. We had pretty well everybody lined up,” Nisbet said.
He expects to hire more people than normal this year to meet the steady demand they are anticipating all summer.
At Pheasant Run, it’s the same, as Evans said, “Everybody that would normally be working this time of year is expected back over the weekend, so we should be back to full speed very quickly.”
Golf courses are just one of the outdoor amenities allowed to reopen in Ontario on May 22. The province is also allowing basketball, tennis, skate parks and other outdoor sports to resume, as well as permitting outdoor gatherings with up to five people.
