Paradise Canyon eyeing tee times
By Lethbridge Herald on March 5, 2021.
Dale Woodard
Lethbridge Herald
Golf courses across southern Alberta are going to be finding out just how much of a fan Mother Nature is of the links.
The Paradise Canyon Golf Resort is hopeful she gives them the thumbs-up by the end of the month to tee it up for 2021. “The next two weeks, it looks like the highs are in the five degree range and the lows are in the minus-five degree range,” said Paradise Canyon Golf Resort executive professional Matt Barkway.
“We’re probably looking at March 26 as the best-case scenarilo.”
No matter what weather takes flight over the next few weeks, Barkway said the course in the coulees on the west side has wintered great.
“We had no issues out there. It was getting a little dry before the February cold snap and snow, so that was a nice bonus for us, to get a little moisture on the ground before it cooled off. It looks good. Everything is coming along nicely. There are no issues out there, no ice, no snow or snow mold, nothing like that.”
That’s been par for the course, pun intended.
“We haven’t had any really bad winters to speak of,” said Barkway. “Once in a while when we do get a lot of snow and then we get melting and freezing you notice things like the mounds that face east and face north might take a little morning sun, but they don’t get a whole bunch of heat on them. They might ice up and there will be drifts on there, you might notice a little snow mold in the spring, but that’s about the worst we ever see.”
After dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic last summer and the protocols that came with it, Barkway said Paradise Canyon hasn’t been given any new direction for the new season.
“So we’re basically looking at all of our practices from last summer and last fall, fairly normal procedure,” he said. “That basically means about 10-minutes (between) tee times. Golfers can book online or phone, but for their actual day of play, show up no more than 20 minutes or so before their tee time and check in outside by the pro shop window so everything is touchless at that point.”
“All carts will be sanitized after every use,” said Barkway. “I expect they’ll be able to ride with whoever they’re playing with, that won’t be an issue. When we started last year it was single individuals to a cart unless they were in the same household. For us, that basically meant husband and wife as what we had to narrow it down to. We just went to one person per cart unless it was husband and wife. In July that settled into two people per cart being fine. So I expect us to be that way based on restaurants being open right now. If you can sit down at a table with your mask off and eat and drink, you can ride in a cart beside someone. I don’t see that being an issue. Being outdoors, we’re not expecting to have to police masks, I think that is going to be up to the individuals.”
As for events at Paradise Canyon Golf Resort this summer,” Barkway said those are still up in the air. “I’m hoping restrictions change at some point this summer.”
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