Golfers were among the first to get back into the swing of things when Covid-19 restrictions began to ease up.
And they have been flooding the fairways on Selkirk-area courses ever since. While other sports and various industries were suffering, those links enjoyed a brisk business.
“It’s been a fantastic year,” said Lee Poworoznik, general manger of the Netley Creek Golf course. “Right from the get-go on May 4th, there’s been a dramatic increase in business, even with the Covid restrictions in place. It was never ending. Every day was like a weekend in July, at least until the cold weather started to come in recently.”
Those restrictions included staggering tee times further apart than usual, sanitizing equipment, no touching flagpoles, no ball washers, no rakes in sand traps and so on.
“I’d say it was a 25-30% improvement in green fees,” said Poworoznik, adding that the course does not host weddings and other large gatherings.
“It’s been a very good golf season for us at Larters,” said Peter Ewert, general manager of Larters at St. Andrews Golf and Country Club. “We’re up about 20% over last year, which is pretty significant. Due to the great weather and the restrictions with Covid elsewhere, it made it a lot more accessible to play the game. We had a lot more play by our members because we did not have a lot of tournaments because we could not have bigger crowds (due to restrictions).”
However, the increase in revenue on the golf side was balanced by the cancellations of weddings and other gatherings.
“Our banquet sales are down about 93% because the pandemic shut down every big wedding we had planned because of the restricted crowds, which is now down to 10 people (due to Code Orange),” Ewert said. “We’ll be pretty close to breaking even.”
The Selkirk Golf and Country Club has a similar outlook.
“It’s definitely been a busy season,” said club manager Mike Hill. “We started late – May 4th – which was about two weeks behind due to the (Covid) shutdown. And with the restricted tee times, we had a slow start. But people got used to the new Covid rules and we were at 90% capacity from the May long weekend to (late September).
“And the weather was great. We only closed two half days because of rain.”
Membership play was up about 30% with other green fees up 20%, he said.
“But our food and beverage side was down due to fewer tournaments this year,” Hill said. “And most corporate events were cancelled due to people being uneasy to be in large groups because of Covid (risks).
“We’ll see what happens with Christmas parties, but everything looks really good right now. We’ll be pretty close (in revenue) to our average year.”
Larters will expand its patio this winter to prepare for those golfers who feel safer eating outdoors during the pandemic next summer, Ewert said.
