The TS&M Woodlawn Golf Course reflected on its past year during the organization’s annual general meeting on Feb. 26.
Jeff Ward, who has been the president for the past two years, said it was another strong year at the course. He paid tribute to the course’s management team, and to those who have worked hard on the upkeep of the course.
Among the biggest accomplishments from the past year was the resurfacing of cart paths. They were taking on water and potholes were developing, and dust was also a problem.
“We worked with the city on trying out some reclaimed asphalt, and it has been a night and day difference on the golf course in regards to dust and maintenance of the paths,” said Ward.
Members responded well to the practice through surveys, and Ward said the golf course would look at expanding it into parking lot areas in the future.
It was cost-prohibitive to pave the cart paths, so this was the next-best option. The reclaimed asphalt was slightly more expensive than gravel, he said.
Trees were added around the course, and access behind the 15th green will be revamped.
Several other reports were released at the meeting. Amanda Minchin filed her first report as both the head professional and the general manager. She noted the golf course will be adding a memorial wall to honour members who have died and wanted to leave something for the golf course. It will be located near the clubhouse.
Art Wrubleski will be the first name on the wall, as his family made a donation to the project.
Ward said this new memorial wall will be similar to the donor wall at the Estevan Leisure Centre, with engraved bricks.
“It will be something that’s consistent, so that we’re not doing something different with each case that comes up,” said Ward.
Superintendent Bob Currie said the course saw a little bit of everything weather-wise, with a huge hail and wind storm in June, and a prolonged drought.
There is still some cleanup remaining from the hail storm in June, with windows to be replaced and roofing to be fixed, which will be completed through insurance.
A 2 1/2 per cent membership fee increase was approved at the meeting.
“If we want to keep that high level of facility that we have – doing those small incremental increases so that we can continue to have the equipment needed to facilitate the manicuring and the upkeep of the golf course – the board made that recommendation,” Ward said.
He pointed out that nobody commented about the increase at the meeting.
An adult membership rate will increase from $1,365 to $1,399.13, including taxes, while a student rate will be $699.57 instead of $682.50.
The new adult membership rate and the restricted membership rate will jump from $840 to $861.
Golf cart storage fees will also increase by 2 1/2 per cent this year.
Green fees will remain the same, at $30 for an adult for nine holes, $51.75 for an adult for 18 holes, $14.75 for a junior for nine holes and $21 for a junior for 18 holes.
“We always do an assessment of how we compare to local courses of our calibre and around in our area. Our membership, we’re still fairly low in our membership compared with some of the other courses, but we know that our green fee rates are in line with some of the other ones,” said Ward.
The new president for the golf course wasn’t elected at the meeting. That position will be decided at their next meeting in March.
Ward hopes the course could be open for the season in late April.
“With some heat here, we’ll lift up the tarps and see if there was any initial freezing before there was snow, but I think Bob and his crew do a great job of managing any of that as we move into the spring season,” said Ward.
