Shell Lake's Brooklin Fry sinks a putt at the Saskatchewan Junior Golf Provincials held at the Evergreen Golf Course last season.(Mat Barrett/northeastNOW Staff)

By Mat Barrett

On The Links

Nipawin Evergreen Golf Course preparing and adjusting for season during COVID-19

May 1, 2020 | 8:00 AM

Golf courses in Saskatchewan are permitted to open on Friday, May 15 as part of Phase One of the Re-Open Saskatchewan plan.

At the Nipawin Evergreen Golf Course, General Manager Derrick Tallon said he was very pleased to hear courses would be able to open this season.

“I was concerned for a while that we might not have a season at all,” he said. “So having the opportunity to open is great for our organization and for everybody that really loves to golf.”

With opening, comes plenty of restrictions that have been put in place by the provincial government. Tee times are to be separated by 20 minutes, washrooms on the course are to be closed, the driving range, and putting greens are to be closed, and high touch surfaces are to be sanitized between every golfer. Tallon said they have decided to remove benches, rakes in bunkers, ball washers, and even the tee markers.

Tallon said adjusting to the new restrictions, on top of getting the course ready as per usual, they won’t be able to open on May 15.

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“It’ll be some trial and error before we get open, we’ve got some time to maybe get most of the kinks ironed out,” Tallon told northeastNOW. “And then also trying to make sure the public follows all the protocols, there will be a learning curve there too.”

Another restriction put in place is to have the cups raised to avoid taking the flag out, as well as avoiding hands going into the hole and transferring hand germs. Some courses are going to raise the cups so the ball doesn’t actually go in the hole, some are adding a foam insert to allow for the ball to still go in the hole, and some are raising the cups just enough so the ball still goes into the hole, but where golfers can use their putter to remove the ball.

Tallon said for the Evergreen, their superintendent came up with a ‘plunger like’ contraption that would allow someone to use their putter to pull the ball out with some sort of lever.

“If you’re allowed to see the ball go in the hole, and then create some sort of mechanism where the player doesn’t have to touch the cup and just use their putter to lift the plunger out to get the ball out of the hole,” Tallon said. “Then that’s a good remedy we can use.”

Tee times are not quite being accepted yet according to Tallon, but when they know more about their opening date, golfers will be able to book online to try and limit the traffic going into the clubhouse.

As for the course conditions themself, Tallon said they might be about a week or two behind their average opening, but with the weather the way it is, they’re pretty close to where they thought they would open. Tallon said the course is looking pretty good to start the year.

“We thought we might have some challenges with the way the fall presented itself with the early snow and ice and things like that,” he said. “But no, we’ve come through the winter really well, so that part of the golf course is very promising.”

Tallon added tournaments have been cancelled for the time being along with men’s and ladies nights due to the mass gatherings limits.

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mat.barrett@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @matbarrett6