Snow in June hits St. John's golf courses — but it's not all bad
Soggy conditions may delay season, but are actually good for the course, says Glendenning Golf director
Some regions of Newfoundland and Labrador woke up to a blanket of snow Monday morning, which may not be unprecedented in the province but still disrupts the start of the season for businesses that depend on warmer weather.
One of those businesses is Glendenning Golf in St. John's, where snow and moisture means soggy greens and not the best conditions for driving, pitching and putting.
But director Paul Kelly is taking it all in stride.
"I guess you've got to find a positive in it somewhere," he told the St. John's Morning Show.
"There's no flies and I'm looking at all the people in Fredericton and Halifax dying with the heat over there, so we're avoiding all that."
I don't like your birthday present, Mother Nature. *shakes fist at the sky* <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/nlwx?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#nlwx</a>
—@jollyrovingtarKelly said Monday will likely be a paperwork day for Glendenning staff, but the course may still open for the afternoon.
Looking at the bright side
While it's disheartening to wake up to snow on the course, Kelly said all that water on the grass actual helps in the long run.
"The courses are all in great shape in the city here. Ours is in fantastic shape. We're just waiting for the weather now to entice people to come out and play, and when they do they're going to forget all about it," he said.
"Besides that one big monsoon we had, everyone needed rain and everyone needed moisture so this will do good actually."
Kelly said this past winter was easy on the course compared with some previous ones, so golfers should be in for some great conditions whenever the weather warms up.
When he goes to conferences and talks to golf course managers from places like California, Kelly said they're always shocked to hear that golfers in Canada's most eastern province are willing to hit up the greens even when it's snowing out.
TBH I don't mind the snow that happened this morning but I do mind the weather teasing us with those beautiful summer day feelings in April and May and then giving us Winter 2.0 ugh <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/YYT?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#YYT</a> Please be more consistent <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/nlwx?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#nlwx</a>
—@AmandaandlolaDespite that, he said, he'd take Newfoundland weather any day.
"We don't have fires tearing us apart. We don't have all those things going on that the rest of the world does," Kelly said.
"We're out here in the Atlantic; we'll just have to deal with it."
With files from St. John's Morning Show