Mike Godolphin attempts a bunker shot on the 12th hole at Henderson Lake Golf Club on Monday, Sept. 21, 2020
Despite a challenging start to the season, it has been a very good year for the Southern Alberta golf industry.
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses were forced to close their doors to prevent the spread of the virus.
Cam Waldbauer, Henderson Lake Golf Club Head Professional, says the outdoor nature of the sport was one of the main reasons that courses were able to operate this year at all.
“We really weren’t sure what the pandemic was going to do at first. Our saving grace was that golf is an outdoor activity. Working with our association’s zoom meetings and the government, they said it was a very good outlook for golf, it could be one of the very first things that opened.’
With the lack of other outdoor leisure activities available, Waldbauer says this lead to a significant increase in green fee sales and memberships with triple the twilight green fees from 2019.
“We’ve seen a big increase in both. Our green fee sales, it is mostly our twilight, where we have seen our biggest increase so far, but it’s actually tripled from last year. We’ve done triple the green fees and triple the revenue with twilight green fees.”
The increase in memberships has been a common theme at courses around the area. Neil Popson, an electrical engineer by trade, is a new member at Picture Butte Golf Club this season. Popson says safety on the course has been good this year.
“I think it is inherently good on golf courses because everyone is generally separated. For us, it’s pretty good because we normally walk the course. Golf is a great sport during the pandemic for that reason.”
With working from home becoming more commonplace during the pandemic, Popson says that the flexibility of his work schedule has allowed him to play more rounds of golf.
“I can work from home whenever I want to. I was able to schedule more rounds of golf during nice times of day; I’ve definitely been golfing more often this year.”