Mitchell golf courses rebound from high temps

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With temperatures in triple digits last week, many golfers decided to take a hiatus from Mitchell’s courses.

But now that Mother Nature has made being outside more bearable, people in the area are returning to the greens.

“When you go five or six days of 100 degrees, you see not as many people will come out,” Wild Oak manager Cody Larson said. “But as soon as the temperatures come back down, you get busy.

“People get cooped just like the winter and it’s like having cabin fever.”

Lakeview Golf Course Manager Dan Sabers said when temperatures are expected to exceed 100 degrees, many golfers come out to the course earlier in the day.

“Last Monday, we were full,” he said. “Monday is usually a slow day but everybody golfed in the morning and nobody played in the afternoon. It was very unusual.”

Sabers said by the time the weather cooled off, the course hosted a good amount of rounds.

On Saturday, Sabers said 211 rounds were played with 204 rounds taking place Sunday. He said 200 rounds in a day is a very good day.

Sabers credited the weather conditions after a brutal week as well as the Fourth of July weekend for the solid numbers.

The large number of golfers taking the course over the weekend added to the total for the year that Sabers said has exceeded any of the summer’s that he has seen.

Sabers took over at Lakeview in 2007.

“We had a great June,” he said. “The weather was pretty good. The wind was down and it wasn’t overly hot and we haven’t had rain in a long time. People can play golf every day.”

Larson said Wild Oak’s numbers are up this year as well.

“We’re up considerably from where we’ve been,” he said.

Larson and Sabers both said the mild winter and early starts on the course helped this year’s revenue. Both said players would prefer to avoid another hot and humid week like last week.

“If you’ve got 100 degrees and it’s humid, it’s about as bad as rain,” Sabers said.

Larson added, “When it’s that hot out, it’s just tough in general for people to come outside at all and deal with those temperatures.”

Tags: sports, updates, golf, mitchell