Donald MacKay, President of Muskoka Highlands Golf Course, says you won’t have to use the golf simulators for much longer.
“We hope to open in spring-like conditions. So, probably mid-April this year. I’m looking at the weather patterns and the weather forecast from fairly reliable sources and it’s looking like we could be opening in mid-April. But, we are at the mercy of mother nature.”
As far as restrictions go, MacKay doesn’t think there will be more or less compared to last season.
“We anticipate opening with the same restrictions with which we closed. We don’t think there’s going to be that much change, I think we are still going to be distancing, we’re still going to be dealing with pre-books, pre-pays, doing everything we can to go contactless in the journey from your car to the first tee and back to your car.”
He says most golf clubs have been able to thrive throughout the pandemic because it gave people something to do.
“Golf is one of those sports that is very healthy, and judging from the reaction from people as they arrived last year for their first round on May 17th, the elation was unbelievable. The happiness that we saw was unbelievable, and it wasn’t that they were playing golf; it was that they were outside able to do something. Golf just happened to be that vehicle that was deemed safe for them to do.”
April 10-15 is when he anticipates the course will open which is about a month earlier compared to last year.