The last putt of the 2019 golf season found the bottom of the 18th hole on Sunday at the Steinbach Fly-In Golf Club.

That means the tee markers, flagsticks and patio furniture have already been put in storage.

Brian Guenther, who is wrapping up his 15th season as head professional at the Fly-In, said golfers enjoyed fabulous weather conditions during the summer months at the 18-hole layout.

"We had a great June, July and August. For the last couple of years the tendency has been that we don't have the shoulder seasons. April and May this year were not very good with the cold and obviously September and October with the most amounts of precipitation we've had ever recorded. Just not a lot of play in the shoulder seasons but the summer was very nice."

"I feel really bad for the golfers," added Guether who along with greens superintendent Rob Fast saw 10 inches of rain hit the golf course from in the middle of September until the end of the golf season this past Sunday. "Fall in my opinion is the best time of year to play. The golf course is always in great shape in fall. The temperature is a little cooler but it's still nice to be outside. We just didn't have a lot of play in September and October due to the weather. It's disappointing how it ended."

A Colorado Low during the Thanksgiving long weekend also turned the golf course white as 27 centimeters of snow fell in Steinbach.

"Rob and the crew do such a good job but their hands are tied right now. We have standing water still that hasn't gone away and we're getting closer to freeze now so it would really be nice if we could get a couple of weeks where at least the sun comes out and dries us up a little bit."

Back in the day, the tee sheet would be full from sunup until late in the afternoon every weekend at the Fly-In.

"Believe it or not we hung in," replied Guenther when asked about 2019 numbers. "I'll give a lot of credit to our membership. They are very supportive. A lot of credit to our Board of Directors who have given us a focus on a lot of things around here and especially the community commitment to fundraising. Our finances look okay but you take three weeks out of the end of the season and three weeks at the start of the season and it adds up."

Year in and year out, golfers who book a tee time at the Steinbach Fly-In golf course have been treated to some of the best playing conditions in the province.

"We got compliments every day about the golf course, the course conditions, the layout and our service here," noted Guenther. "The people that come back that haven't been here for 20 years or something like that, they can't believe the changes to the property. When I started here you could see Rob Fast's maintenance shed and now you can't see past number 18 because of how the trees have grown. The course has matured. Even our practices, how we cut the turf and how we prepare the turf conditions with applications - chemical and everything else - it's just become a beautiful property here."

And now it's time to put the course to bed.

"It would have been nice to see a couple of thousand more rounds out here and it would have been just spectacular," noted Guenther. "Now we have some work to do to insure that we give ourselves the best opportunity to have the golf course come up in spring. We have a lot of work to do still out there."