Paradise Canyon swings into a season of normalcy

By Lethbridge Herald on April 29, 2022.

Herald Photo by Justin Seward Kye Fisher blasts shot out of the green side bunker at the ninth hole during a practice round on Friday at Paradise Canyon Golf Resort. Fisher will be competing in the Maple Junior Tour stop that will be happening all weekend at the course. The golf club is excited to be hosting events such as this one and many more in 2022.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

Paradise Canyon  Golf Resort’s hope is to have a normal season as golfers hit the first tee last month for the 2022 season.

“(We are) focusing on getting back to normal more than anything,” said Matt Barkway,  Paradise Canyon’s executive professional.

“We don’t have any restrictions right now. We’re hoping that we get to stay that way and because of that we’ve still got all of our golfers here. But I know people have options on what they can do outside right now. So, it was really nice to get going in mid-March and kind of be back to normal and with that little two-week slowdown in April, that put a quick little hold on things.”

Barkway said, “We’re just looking forward to getting back to doing tournaments and events and having a little more  normal  feel to the season.

“Golf tournaments  — they were kind of laid out the same they had been last year,” said Barkway.

“We had a whole bunch of tentative tournaments last year and restrictions caused some of them to not go and some of them did go just based on when they were. So now that we’re in to hopefully a fully unrestricted season, they’re all looking forward to getting back to normal.”

Paradise hosts charity and association tournaments and don’t normally do a lot of  competitive events.

Barkway said it’s more fundraisers for whichever cause happens to be going on that week.

“Whether it’s a fundraiser for baseball or fundraiser for KidSport or anything that we do, we’ve got a whole list on our website of the tournaments that are projected to go,” said Barkway.

“And they all raise various amounts of money for various causes and that’s the bulk of what they end of being.”

The course has three tournaments planned at the end of May right now and a few more booked through the summer months.

Golf was a sport that has thrived during the pandemic with busy tee-sheets and Paradise Canyon was no different when it came to consistent business.

“As much as the pandemic wasn’t good, it forced everybody into golf for a couple of years and there’s going to be some pretty good retention on that,” said Barkway.

“But I think that looking at it going forward,  yeah we’re still going to have tons of golfers. We’re still going to be full most days and we’re still projecting a very good (and) a very busy summer. But we’ll get back to events and back to other stuff as well.”

The important aspect to the course has been its memberships.

“We’ve got a few hundred more corporate members that bought  their unlimited membership or their brown packages,” he said.

“We want the golf course to be available to them as much as possible.”

-Paradise Canyon saw success in its junior program last year with the restrictions and will only expand more this season.

Kye Fisher was in from Leduc over the weekend for the Maple Junior Tour stop at the course.

“The greens are rolling fantastic,” he said.

“They’ve got them in really good shape for so early in the season and the fairways look great. So hoping for a good weekend and see how it goes.”

Fisher said the greens are a little slopy.

“It’s fast and quick. So that’s a new experience compared to the fury greens we have back home so far. But as  the season goes on, I’ll get used to them a little bit more.”