Tom Schmidt had not bothered to look at the weekend forecast. It is February in the Upper Midwest, after all, the offseason for most golf course owners in the area.
Then Schmidt, owner of ShadowBrooke Golf Course in Lester Prairie, Minn., got a call with a crazy idea: open the course on Saturday. The forecasted high is 57 degrees and mostly sunny in the small town about 45 miles southeast of Minneapolis. The same temperatures are expected for the Twin Cities metro area.
Schmidt agreed and in four hours the scheduled shotgun start sold out. Approximately 120 eager golfers will tee off at noon in Lester Prairie to kick off the Minnesota golf season. The driving range will also open and Schmidt is taking tee times for Sunday.
"Our motto is if you want to golf, we'll show up," Schmidt said. "This will be the earliest we've ever opened.
"[Golfers are] definitely excited about the early start. I had one golfer who called and said she's never golfed on her birthday … so I made a rare exception [to fit her in]."
ShadowBrooke isn't the only Twin Cities golf course that will capitalize on unusually warm temperatures. Gross National in Minneapolis sent out an email blast announcing its driving range would open Saturday.
According to TwinsCitiesGolf.com, several other courses will open to the public. Creeksbend Golf Course in New Prague will open Saturday with the use of carts. Summit Golf Club's executive course and driving range in Cannon Falls is scheduled to open Saturday.
The driving range will be open at Bunker Hills in Coon Rapids, Majestic Oaks in Ham Lake, and Oak Marsh in Oakdale.
"It's the end of February and it's nice and people have an itch to get out and we want to give them an opportunity to get out and hit," said Dave Bratland, Gross National general manager. "I wouldn't be surprised if I saw people out there in short sleeves and shorts. It will probably feel like 80 degrees after the winter."
Range mats will protect Gross National's turf from being damaged and Bratland expects most of the lingering snow to melt by noon Saturday.
Schmidt toured his course on Thursday before committing to opening and determined it was good enough. The shotgun was announced online around 2 p.m. Thursday and sold out by 6 p.m. with golfers as far as Coon Rapids willing to drive 70-plus minutes to play.
"We've got three greens we're hoping and praying will thaw out by Saturday," Schmidt said. "So the course is coming along, but we'll need Mother Nature to cooperate with us. … But given the temperatures we thought we'd take the chance we'd thaw by Saturday and try to do our best to let people know that conditions will not be perfect."
Perfect or not, Bratland supports any outdoor golf this early in the year.
"There are always one or two [courses] that try to be first one out and get the first round. Good for them to be able to do it," Bratland said. "Might as well be out there hitting balls.
"If the weather stays good we can open our golf course by mid-March. That'd be great. [An early start is] a huge bonus. It's money that you don't count on every year and to have that additional revenue is awesome."
