Wet Golf

It's not very ducky for golfers when water foul are swimming in the fairways. That was the scene last Tuesday afternoon at Highview in Powassan. Photo by Chris Dawson.

Its tough to play a round of golf when water hazards and muddy puddles line the fairway.

That's been the story at many area golf courses after a forgetful and very wet month of June.

Courses like Clear Springs had to shut down for a short period in June to dry out while other courses like Highview weren't far behind. Dean Harrington owns the Highview Golf Course in Powassan and these days he has a tough time even talking about the weather. On Saturday, the Chippewa Reunion Golf Tournament scheduled for his course was cancelled due to the rain.

"Well of course weather has been trying it’s the biggest run of rain that we’ve ever experienced that’s for sure," said Harrington last week.

"We’ve managed to stay open, we’ve closed a couple of holes to carts and right now the carts are just on the front nine but we’ve managed to stay open and there have been some courses that have closed and if it had gotten any wetter we would have been the same."

At Osprey Links in Callander, the fairways are slightly dryer but maintenance crews are still frustrated by all the rain.

"It’s been raining almost every day for about a month, we’ve had no more than three days of sunshine in a row and by the time things start drying out it’s time to rain again and we are back to square one," said course superintendent Craig Moody who admits he's had to send staff home on a regular basis in June because of the rain.

But even a long span of no rain isn't necessarily a good thing for area golf courses. Moody says that because the ground is so wet the grass roots are very short so a drought in July or August could turn those green fairways brown in a hurry.