It’s wide-open fairways and full swing ahead for golfers in Lethbridge, with the earliest opening on record for some courses.
“We’re getting the first one in pretty early here in March, so we’re looking forward to that,” said Jordon Hoffos, who teed off for his first round of the season on Friday.
“It’s a beautiful day; not much wind. Haven’t seen a cloud all day, so hopefully we can sneak in a few early rounds and green up and get a lot more going throughout the year.”
Henderson Lake Golf Club opened for the season Friday—the earliest on record for the course.
“We have a full tee sheet for sure on the weekend,” said Cam Waldbauer, head professional with Henderson Lake.
“Obviously, getting the crowds from Calgary and Edmonton coming down, too, so that’s good to see, as they won’t be golfing for a while.”
Land-O-Lakes Golf and Country Club in Coaldale is open, with Paradise Canyon Golf Resort set to welcome golfers on Saturday.
Picture Butte Golf Club is slated to open mid- to late March, while the Lethbridge Country Club intends to open April 1.
“A few weeks ago, we wouldn’t have imagined being opened March 7,” said Waldbauer.
Those hitting the links on Friday say they’re thrilled to be out for a round in the warm temperatures.
“It’s super exciting,” said Dallas Loewen, who took in his first round with friends on Friday.
“I’m hoping to push about 80 to 100 rounds if we can get started this early and get some good weather for the rest of the spring.”
While the fairways might still be brown and the greens are slow, Waldbauer says the early conditions are good considering the time of year.
“We just pulled the tarps off the greens last week, and everything’s wintered well,” he said.
“Our grounds crew has done a fantastic job getting it all ready to go for the 2025 season.”
While golfers are teeing off under blue skies in Lethbridge, about an hour and a half to the west, ski hills are seeing the best conditions they’ve had all season.
“We still have a little over four weeks left of our season and currently plan to close exactly when we intended to,” said Cole Fawcett, sales and marketing manager with Castle Mountain Resort.
Fawcett says visitation this year has been strong throughout the whole season.
“As temperatures warm through the day, snow softens and generally goes through some sort of refreeze overnight and then softens again during the day, so we’d call it classic spring-like conditions,” said Fawcett.
“In the higher alpine reaches of the resort, where it’s cooler, we aren’t seeing much of that.”
Fawcett says March is known for late-season snowfalls, which can improve conditions at Castle Mountain before closing day on April 6.
“We are below average for snowpack; there’s no question about that,” he said.
“Our consolidated base depth is also below average, but I think the key with this season has been, largely, that the snow, when it came, it stayed and we didn’t have much of this oscillating temperature where we’d get snow and we’d lose it.”
