Proctor is not trying to throw a net on enthusiasm

OK, tee it up.

The danger, in all likelihood has past.

Wait. ‘Danger?’ What danger? Golfers, course and driving range owners and operators are chomping at the bit from the first of April, every year, to get going.

And every year as April rolls around, Tim Proctor finds himself telling everyone to slow down.

Proctor is owner/operator of Turf Net in Welland. They’re the go-to guys in Ontario for courses and driving ranges that have nets. The big, giant nets on poles that keep your errant tee shots from landing in someone’s backyard or on a highway or some horse farm or practically anywhere other than the golf course or driving range where they’re supposed to land.

Besides installing the big poles and the netting Turf Net is often contracted to roll the net up for the winter and roll it back down in the spring.

That brings us to why Proctor has been telling everyone to slow down, be patient.

“Being in the netting industry for more than 20 years and watching weather patterns in Southern Ontario, we’ve had ice storms come through the last four years in row between April 12-15,” said Proctor. “We missed it this year but not by much. We only had some ice pellets this year.”

Proctor said he’s had driving ranges call him as early as March asking to have their nets put back up and he’s had driving ranges that have had as many as six poles snap under the weight of ice on the nets.

“Four years ago, we had courses from Windsor to Richmond Hill that lost pretty well all of their nets and poles to ice,” said Proctor.

“Last year we had more than $600,000 in insurance that we quoted out.”

Proctor says after long, cold winters everyone is a hurry to get open and start getting some revenue in.

“And we’re all anxious because we see nice weather. I get it,” said Proctor. “But you have to be patient.”

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If you were driving around Southern Ontario this spring and happened to notice greens that looked completely black and it wasn’t a tarp they were probably covered with a black sand-like material.

Chances are there was some ice on the greens and the club was using this black material to get rid of it.

“It’s a bio-degradable material,” said Dean Baker the golf course superintendent at Burlington Golf and Country Club.

“Because it’s black it absorbs heat and boy does it melt ice. I’m hearing that some courses north of Highway 7 did suffer some winter damage.”

Baker echoed the frustration of golfers who want to get out in April but the weather just doesn’t seem to want to co-operate.

“It seems that more and more April is becoming a winter month.”

*****

A message to golf courses in the Hamilton/Burlington/ Niagara area.

If you have news, like aces or club results that you would like to see reported in this column, just send them to the email address below. Feel free to offer suggestions on golf stories that you would like to see here.

I’d also like to hear from golf clubs who are joining others around the province in placing beehives around their course.