The Lac La Biche Golf and Country Club closed its gates to the public earlier this month after another season of good times playing golf, but also with economic struggles for the course.
The Lac La Biche Golf and Country Club closed its gates to the public earlier this month after another season of good times playing golf, but also with economic struggles for the course.
Lance Palamaruk, the head golf professional at the course, said this year’ s mid-October closing is par for the course.
“We usually close in mid-October,” he said. “We tarp the greens for the winter, as it insulates and keeps the heat during the spring. If it’ s five degrees outside, it will be nine to 10 degrees inside the tarp, which gives us a head start [to have proper grass for next season].”
Palamaruk said that the course has struggled over the last couple years. He estimated that revenue has fallen 10 per cent from last year, after a year that fell 25 per cent from the year before. The golf pro said a large part of this decline was due to the decline of some oil and gas industry participation in the golf course, which stems from the post-2014 recession.
“We used to host a lot of oilfield company tournaments,” he said, adding another contributing factor in the decline is the overall decrease in the area’ s working population due to oil workers from Conklin who aren’ t coming in the way they used to.
Despite the reduced activity, the lakeside 18-hole course that is often referred to as the gem of northeastern Alberta will see upgrades and improvements for the 2018 season when the winter tarps are removed in six months time.
“We’ ll be redoing the irrigation system, have a couple of tee-boxes. Any excess money is just not there,” he said.
Despite the hard times, the course did host several high profile fundraisers last season, such as the Regional Health Foundation fundraiser in July and Kevin Pare’ s hundred holes of golf fundraiser for Road to Hope in September.
Prices for green fees and memberships can be found here.
