Keystone opens nine holes, the earliest start in club’s history
Previous record was March 12, 2016 when temperatures hit a high of 14 C
Keystone Links is almost always the first golf club to open in the Peterborough area but not usually this early.
The course on Clifford Line near Fraserville opened nine holes on Monday, the earliest they’ve opened since the course was founded in 1995.
It eclipses their previous earliest opening of March 12 in 2016 when temperatures hit a high of 14 C.
They were open for a few days before it snowed and they closed until April 4 that year, said clubhouse manager Natalie Wood.
Temperatures hit a high of 18 C on Monday with about 50 golfers playing the course and with 17 C temperatures on Tuesday and word spreading of their opening they had 60 golfers through by noon.
With snow forecast for later this week, Wood said it’s possible the opening may be short-lived.
“This is wildly early,” said Wood. “We take what Mother Nature gives us. It’s not always this friendly. We’ll take advantage of these days. By the same token, I feel terrible for all the snow and ski hills because this must be trouble. March break starts at the end of this week and that’s usually a big week for them.”
The course opened nine holes for walking only.
“I think his will be a short opening,” Wood said. “We are supposed to have snow again and we’re looking at 30 to 40 millimetres of rain on Friday and Saturday with some snow. I imagine though we will be open by the end of March.”
The amount of moisture on the course is always the deciding factor on whether to open the course and Wood said the property, once the rock pit for Highway 115, is blessed with very good drainage.
“It really depends on the moisture on the course,” she said. “If it’s too wet it will get destroyed.”
Wood wouldn’t speculate if climate change is a factor in the early opening, but said there’s no question there is a trend developing with earlier openings.
“I’m not really reading too much into that. Weather is weather. Some years are warmer than other years. Some years we get snow earlier. There is definitely a warmer trend,” she said. “February is the only month we’ve never had golf out here. Throughout the history of Keystone, this is our 29th year, we’re generally the first to open and last to close. There was one Christmas (2015) where we opened on Christmas Day. It depends on weather.”
They even opened on Jan. 4, 2006 for one day, she said.