‘Trying to survive.’ Tri-Cities golf courses ready to open, but tough times still ahead

Brad Rew, the owner of Horn Rapids Golf Course in Richland, noted immediately the date that golf can open back up in the state of Washington: May 5.

“We’re doing a big Cinco de Mayo celebration,” said Rew, who was able to make some more course improvements during the 6-week shutdown. “We’ll have a big taco truck there, and Mexican beer. We’ll also be following social distancing guidelines.”

Public golf course proprietors in the Mid-Columbia are champing at the bit to open their courses for play.

This past week, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced a gradual reopening of outdoor activities, which included some hunting, fishing and golf.

As soon as that announcement came April 27, golfers were trying to get tee times reserved on area courses.

But reopening also comes with many social distancing rules to prevent a rise in coronavirus cases.

The governor stressed that all of these activities must be done with appropriate social distancing and the safety and security of participants and the people who work in outdoor recreation.

“If we see a sharp uptick in the number of people who are getting sick or are not following appropriate steps, then we won’t hesitate to scale this back again,” said Inslee in his news conference last week. “This is not a return to normal. This is only a beginning phase of relaxing outdoor recreation restrictions.”

New golf course rules

And there will be restrictions on the local golf courses many that were in place before the shutdown began in March:

• All golfers must maintain safe social distancing from each other.

• Riding in a golf cart is restricted to just one player, unless people live together. Then those two people can ride together. Carts will be cleaned and sanitized before each round.

• The flag stick at each green must remain in at all times and not touched.

• Sand bunker rakes will be removed, as will all ball washing stations.

Each course will have a list of restrictions.

But there also are some newer requirements.

For instance, most courses will use credit cards instead of handling cash. If a course has an online reservation system, golfers are encouraged to use it.

Club and equipment rentals are suggested to be discontinued; cups and holes on practice greens will be eliminated; and those practice greens and the driving range should be restricted to those who have a tee time scheduled within 30 minutes.

Trash receptacles are to be removed from the course, and golfers are asked to take out their own garbage.

The biggest change, however, is the requirement of allowing no more than two golfers from different households to be allowed at the same tee time.

Only if everyone involved is from the same household will foursomes be allowed.

“Instead of having 40 golfers come through here in an hour-long period, you’re going to have 20,” said Rew.

That twosomes requirement got Canyon Lakes Golf Course general manager Mike Lundgren, and his head professional, Matt Mandell, thinking they need to take care of their season pass and partial season pass holders first.

“We’ve been closed for a while,” said Mandell, who said on the first day possible to take online tee times, the course was quickly full for this Tuesday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.

“We feel that it’s only right to take membership tee times for a while. This is not us turning our back on public play. As soon as we can get foursomes, we can open the course up for the rest of the public to play.”

Other courses will take care of their membership, but they will also need the public customers too.

And owners are expecting everyone to follow the new rules, lest the governor change his mind and reverses course.

“I’m gonna abide by everything,” said Jeff Marcum, who owns the 9-hole Buckskin Golf Course in West Richland. “I don’t want someone to go rogue and have it shut down again.”

Time to walk the course

Another thing many golfers should be aware of — you might have to walk, depending on the course.

Chris Isaacson, the head pro at Wine Valley Golf Club near Walla Walla, said his course just doesn’t have enough golf carts for the one person, one cart ratio.

“So we’re encouraging people to walk,” said Isaacson. “Walking greens fees will be $20 less than normal.”

Since Wine Valley considers Tri-Citians to be part of its local clientele, that means a walker can play 18 holes for $64.

Rew is in the same situation with carts at Horn Rapids.

“We have 60 golf carts,” he said. “They’ll be gone by 10 a.m.”

His team will flip those around — get them recharged or gassed up — to be ready by noon.

For others, the cart situation won’t be a problem.

“We’ve been ready for this,” said Michelle Marcum, who owns West Richland Golf Course and has been getting tee time requests constantly since the governor’s announcement. “A lot of my members have their own carts. And we have a 100-cart shed where they store them.”

Bring back some employees

The good news is some courses have been able to bring back some of their employees.

Not all, because most of the restaurants or snack bars aren’t open yet.

But for those who work in the golf cart shack, pro shop or out on the course, they are coming back.

“We’ve had five or six working this past month, and when we’re fully operational, facility-wise we have 45 employees,” said Mandell.

Rew said he’s bringing back “not as many as we had hoped because we won’t be able to open the restaurant fully. So rather than 39, it will be about 22 until Inslee opens up more.”

All courses have been running this last month on the bare minimum number of employees.

“We laid off all of our employees but four,” said Clint Ables, general manger of Zintel Creek Golf Club and The Edge restaurant and sports bar up the hill. “When we have a full boat it’s 40 employees.”

Ables has had his golf course employees out for the past month, taking care of the grass, as well as the full maintenance staff. But that’s nine employees.

He’ll add more.

“I have to staff to be prepared to fully open, but I only have 60 percent of my tee sheet available,” Ables said.

The three Tri-City courses managed by CourseCo out of California have been with skeleton crews this past month — two at Columbia Park in Kennewick, and 3.5 each at Columbia Point in Richland and Sun Willows in Pasco.

“Staffers were taking care of basically administration duties,” said Tom Bugbee, Chief Operating Officer of CourseCo, which manages 38 courses in six states. “But even our general managers have been on mowers.”

New economic reality

Bugbee said employees are being called back to work.

“But we’re going to have to keep our belts tight,” he said.

Isaacson agrees on that point.

“This is going to be a major (financial) hit for us,” admits Isaacson. “We are finding ways to modify our budget to reduce expenses. April and May are absolutely our best time of the year out here. We lost all of April, and basically will lose half of May (with the twosomes instead of foursomes).”

Ables is in the same situation at Zintel Creek.

“We’re trying to survive this year,” said Ables. “You take six weeks out of the busiest time of year, and it hurts.”

But each golf course official also admits being open is better than being closed.

“It’ll be a new world for at least a little while,” said Bugbee. “Golf has been around for a long time. We’ll get through this. And there will be golf in 2021 and 2022.”

This story was originally published May 2, 2020 at 1:29 PM.