As is the case at the beginning of every season, the links are a popular spot to be with golfers eager to shake off the rust after a long winter.
During the height of the pandemic, tee times were nearly impossible to find anywhere in the country, but golfers at Golf Rockwood in Saint John, N.B., haven’t found that to be the case so far this season.
“Not too bad,” says golfer T.J. Stevens. “I would say it’s a little less crowded out here. During the COVID years, you know, it was tough to even book a tee time.
“The course has been busy, but it’s been steady,” says fellow golfer Clark Fitzgerald. “Like the play has been steady. Very few times have we been held up, so we can’t complain about that.”
“We are able to make a tee time very close to when we wanted,” Greg Barker. “Were not going out later in the day.”
Golfer Roger Savoie says some times are easier to get then others.
“For us, it wasn’t too bad, hard to get in the morning usually,” according to Savoie. “Late morning/early afternoon is good to get a tee off at that time.”
Rockwood Golf general manager Jim Pearson believes another reason golfers are able to find more available tee times could be a change in the rules implemented during the pandemic.
“The COVID years, a lot of that was because we had to restrict tee times,” says Pearson. “To start, it was 20-minute tee times, 15-minute tee times. We’ve stuck with 10-minute tee times because we think it lets the course play along very smoothly.”
Pearson hasn’t noticed a big difference in how busy the course is comparing the opening months in the past. He notes the golf season usually does not pick up until later in the year due to Mother Nature.
“Saint John, the weather is always the big thing in the spring time,” says Pearson. “As much as we’d like it to be warmer, it isn’t. We have had a little bit of rain and a little bit of sun.”
During the height of the pandemic, golf was one of the few activities people could still do, leading to many people picking up the game for the first time. Pearson believes once the weather turns, the course will be back the same as they were for the past three summers.
“It’s supposed to be a good summer weather-wise,” Pearson says. “We think that will really translate into more golfers on the golf course.”
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