With warm spring weather taking over, many local golfers are antsy to get back out there. 

A number of local golf courses are getting ready for the season, and Gareth Tanswell from the Lorette Golf Course says they actually opened their doors on Friday. 

“It's been certainly busy, for sure. The phone line has really been ringing off the hook. We are a pretty busy golf course at Lorette Golf Course. It's great to see everybody eager to get back on the course for sure.” 

Being that they are one of the only golf courses already open in southern Manitoba, Tanswell says tee times are going fast. He encourages those who are interested to visit their website. 

Kyle Guenther, Manager of the Steinbach Fly-In Golf Club says their driving range opened for the season on Thursday. It may seem early, but Guenther says this isn't too far off of the average. 

"Our average is the second or third week of April. Last year, opening the course on May 5th was late, so we did miss a couple of weeks. We'd like to get the course open in a week or so here, but we'll see how the forecast ends up next week but we would like to be open by the third week of April, for sure.” 

Guenther says they really liked the rain we got earlier this week as it helps pull the frost out of the ground and should help the course green up. Now, he notes we could use some heat. 

Mike Pittman from Quarry Oaks Golf Course says their target opening date is also next week.  

“We're super excited to get the season started. We have tentatively picked a date for next Friday the 19th. We plan to open the Oak Course and the Desert Course that day, Quarry is still a little bit wet, we're going to let that dry a little bit before we get that going but it'll be shortly behind the first two.” 

Pittman says their phones are also ringing off the hook as members and community golfers eagerly await the start of the season.  

Alex Edney is the General Manager of Maplewood Golf Course in St. Pierre.  

He notes “Normally I'd say we're opening up next week, but we're in the middle of redoing our whole parking lot because we got a brand-new clubhouse so everything's going to be sparkly, shiny new but we're not opening until April 26th.” 

Meanwhile, Pat Gauthier from La Broquerie Golf Course says “We're still in the preparation stages here. We still got, probably another week or so, we've got to let the course dry up a little bit here, but we've been working hard at it trying to get open so we can get those golfers on the course.” 

Gauthier says their are shoot for an April 22nd open date.  

Finally, Lucille Friesen from Girouxsalem Golf Course says “We have to cut the greens and clean up some branches, but we've done a lot of work here already. We're also in the process of getting newer carts, so I am in the middle of selling older carts. Campers as well, a lot of phone calls, people that want to camp either for the weekend or for the season.” 

Friesen says they are hoping to open Girouxsalem Golf Course on April 20th, though that date is weather dependent.  

Managers of all of these courses say conditions are surprisingly good, all things considered.  

In fact, Edney from Maplewood notes “Greens are in mint shape, I don't think we've seen a single dead spot yet, which we're a little bit worried about, because it was a pretty interesting winter with the back and forth thawing. So, we're definitely a little worried, but greenskeeper has been coming back with a smile so we’ve got to be pretty excited about the season.”