FORE! Find out when golf starts at your favorite Tri-Cities course

I look out a window of my house at Canyon Lakes and stare wistfully at the golf course. There’s still a bit of snow covering the ground.

But we’re getting closer to hitting that little white ball again.

As a matter of fact, sounds like just a few more days. And it can’t be soon enough.

“I’m taking 60 phone calls a day, wondering when we’ll be open,” said Cory Spencer out at Wine Valley Golf Club.

Canyon Lakes general manager Mike Lundgren understands golfers’ urgency: it’s well past time to play.

“Right now, we have the driving range open,” said Lundgren on Monday afternoon. “We’re hitting off of mats, and the practice green still has some snow on it. But the waiting lines on the mats this past weekend were 10 deep.”

Make sure to call ahead for this weekend, as it should be very crowded out on the courses.

Here’s a look at many of the courses and their situations:



Canyon Lakes – Lundgren says he’s optimistic he can start taking tee times by Friday, but it could end up being Monday. It will all depend on how fast the snow melts this week.

Columbia Park – “We’re hoping that by the end of the week we’ll be open,” a pro shop worker said. “Because hopefully by the end of the week this snow will all be melted.”

Expect to walk. No carts will be allowed on the course until the ground has enough time to recover.

Columbia Point – General manager Joe Creager said it’ll be close to this coming weekend before anyone can play on the Richland course. He said he hopes they can start taking tee times by Friday.

Horn Rapids – The staff is thinking the course could be open by Thursday or Friday.

The course has few trees, so the snow’s melted faster. Still, there is likely some damage to the course from all of the snow.

Meadow Springs County Club – They’re hoping to be open by this weekend, but it could likely be more like the middle of next week. There are plenty of shady spots on the back nine of the course that still have snow on them. The course might be able to open a few holes this weekend.

Pasco GolfLand – Golf pro Mike Kasch said he’s hoping to be open by Thursday.

Sun Willows – “It’s a long shot for Friday,” said Aaron Raihl, GM at Sun Willows. “But we’re hopeful for the weekend. We’re taking tee times for the weekend.”

West Richland – Golfers were out hitting golf balls Tuesday. So if the entire course isn’t open yet, it will be soon.

Wine Valley – Spencer said it would be Friday at the earliest, but it will only be walking the course for the first week.

Zintel Creek – “I am hopeful and optimistic that we can take tee times on Saturday,” said Clint Ables, general manager and head pro. “We’re hopeful we’ll get to host the Kennewick (High School) Invite on Friday morning, and possibly take some tee times Friday afternoon.”

Again, make sure you call ahead to get a tee time at whichever course you decide to play.

Richland’s Turner an academic star

Richland High grad Hailey Turner was one of just 148 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics D1 women’s basketball players nationwide who was named a 2019 Daktronics NAIA Scholar Athlete.

In order to be named to the team, a student-athlete must maintain a minimum grade point average of 3.5 to 4.0, and must have achieved junior academic status to qualify.

Turner, a senior, just completed her senior season at Lewis-Clark State College.

The Warriors made it to the NAIA national tournament quarterfinals with wins over William Penn and LSU Alexandria, before losing to Freed-Hardeman 82-60.

LCSC finished the season with a 22-12 record.

Americans hand out awards

The Tri-City Americans announced their season award winners on Saturday. Here they are:

• Harrington’s Trophies MVP is goalie Beck Warm.
• Local Union 598 Hardest Working Player Awar goes to Nolan Yaremko.
• The Jack in the Box 3-Star Award goes to Warm.
• The Les Schwab Tire Center Scholastic Player of the Year award goes to Paycen Bjorklund.
• The Toyota of Tri-Cities Todd Klassen Humanitarian of the Year award goes to Yaremko.
• The Red Lion Hotel-Columbia Center Most Sportsmanlike Player award winner is Parker AuCoin.
• The Berkshire Hathaway Defenseman of the Year award goes to Dominic Schmiemann.
• The Gerber Collision & Glass Offensive Player of the Year award went to AuCoin.
• And the SunWest Sportswear Rookie of the Year was awarded to Krystof Hrabek.

WIAA

The WIAA Executive Board deemed last year’s seeding committee experiment for the high school football playoffs a success. So the WIAA has approved the setup for the 2019 football season too.

The main change will be instead of 12-person committees seeding two classifications each, smaller committees – possibly eight people -- will work on one classification each.

O’Malley signs with independent club

Southridge grad Shawn O’Malley signed with the independent Kansas City T-Bones at the end of February.

An infielder, O’Malley is a 13-year veteran who played parts of three seasons with the Mariners.

He was with the Colorado Rockies’ Triple-A affiliate last season in Albuquerque, N.M.

Kansas City is part of the 12-team independent American Association Baseball league. The T-Bones’ season begins May 17 against the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks.

Former Kamiakin and CBC catcher Maxx Garrett has once again signed with the Sioux Falls Canaries in the same league.

This story was originally published March 19, 2019 at 6:36 PM.