Tim Harty, The Business Times

A second consecutive extremely dry winter could have been damaging to the grounds and the bottom lines of local golf courses, but most of them entered spring with a rosy outlook.

Tim Tafoya, director of golf for the City of Grand Junction, which owns Tiara Rado and Lincoln Park golf courses, said strategic watering throughout the winter, especially of the greens and tee boxes, has both courses “in better shape at this point in time than we were last year.”

Tiara Rado and Lincoln Park also limited golfers to walking during the winter months to preserve the fairways, and as of this past weekend they’re allowing carts on the courses again.

Tiara Rado also hosted its men’s league opener this past Saturday and Sunday, which Tafoya said was scheduled to have 144 players on the course.

Tafoya credited the superintendent staff for its work to keep the golf courses in the best shape they could be during the winter. It helped that each course had water stored in ponds and access to city water trucks that could get the water from the ponds to the far reaches of the grounds.

Because of the abnormally warm temperatures and lack of snow throughout the winter, the city courses were busy with golfers willing to walk. And the steady diet of temperatures above 60 degrees and into the 80s during March took the numbers to another level.

“Once it turns 70, everybody comes out in droves,” Tafoya said. “I don’t have the numbers on that, but I would say if we’re averaging about 120 rounds in Lincoln Park, that’s pretty good during the wintertime.”

All of that foot traffic can cause some damage, but “that’s where our guys are focused on tees and greens, high-traffic areas, getting as much water as we possibly can to those spots,” Tafoya said.

Having an even greener start to the spring is Redlands Mesa Golf Course, where assistant General Manager Nico Weckerly said Redlands Mesa has been able to water the course for the past couple of months.

“We did get our water turned on some time ago, actually, and the course is beautiful right now,” he said. “It’s super green. We’ve had carts going on the course since like February, and the course is actually in really, really great condition right now.”

The Business Times did not hear back from management at Adobe Creek National Golf Course, Chipeta Golf Course or Bookcliff Country Club in time to include in this article.

Adobe Creek has water shares of the Colorado River and its general manager, Joe Toke, told The Business Times previously that Adobe Creek usually starts watering its 27-hole layout in early March, while other courses are waiting until early to mid-April for irrigation water to be turned on.

Bookcliff Country Club appears to be the local course that didn’t weather the warm, dry winter so well. Tafoya said he heard Bookcliff closed its course to all golf in mid-March, and a Bookcliff Country Club member confirmed it.

The club member, who spoke on the condition his name not be used, said Bookcliff is looking to address the issue in the future with water storage.

“Bookcliff members have foregone playing golf for more than a month in hopes of preserving the course in the face of drought,” he said. “Creating additional water storage along Interstate 70 will hedge against dry conditions and beautify the course. That will benefit Bookcliff and the city in general by beautifying a major gateway to the city.”