What Kinda Shape Could A Golf Course Be On March 1 In Minnesota? Here’s Some Photos

I was joking around last week and said, geez they should really open up the golf courses. With the mild winter with very little snow, and temperatures reaching the 50s, it's more like May in Minnesota than March. As soon as I heard a course nearby was opening up, I was on my way.

Big Lake Golf Club near Cloquet announced on Facebook that they would be opening up for this first weekend in March.

On days warmer than about 45 degrees they'll open up the rest of the year. They didn't start tee times until 11 am to give the greens a chance to thaw from the overnight frost.

Groundscrews went hole to hole with a torch to thaw out the cups. They attempted to remove stakes around the greens, but they were stuck.

We got there around 12:30 and there were quite a few people out golfing. I would 20-30 people were on the course. The wind was a little strong, but it was 54 degrees when we played. It was a nicer day than my last day of golf last season on November 17, 2023.

Get our free mobile app

I thought that was quite an accomplishment to golf that late. This is even more shocking. The fact that we didn't have snow means it was really nice and dry. The ground was firm. In fact we couldn't even get a tee in the ground because it was still frozen!

I almost slipped on some ice that was in the shade on the first fairway. When I approached the green I noticed the stakes to protect it with caution tape were still there. I didn't care. We were golfing in March.

I wondered what the greens would look like. I was surprised when I finally got there on my 4th shot and saw they were surprisingly good. They were slow because it's dead grass on frozen ground, but you could put on them and it wasn't bad at all.

Everyone was in a great mood that we came across. It didn't matter how rusty their game was, they were just happy to be outside this winter doing something. We all got to say we golfed on March 1st in Northern Minnesota.