Better Fall Weather Boosting Golf Turnout in Cedar Rapids

Roger Hasselbrink of Cedar Rapids hits the ball onto the green of the 18th hole at Ellis Golf Course on Tuesday afternoon, Oct. 19, 2010, in Cedar Rapids. (Liz Martin/SourceMedia Group News)

CEDAR RAPIDS- A dry fall has boosted turnout at the four Cedar Rapids municipal golf courses this fall.  But it probably won’t make up for a soggy start to the golfing season earlier this year.

The Cedar Rapids golf department didn’t have year-to-date figures for rounds played or income in 2010 compared to 2009.  But they are tracking the numbers in October closely.

With a week and a half to go, the city has recorded more than 6,000 rounds of golf on the city courses in October of 2010.  Last October, with poor fall golfing weather, the rounds played in the entire month totaled just 4,063.

The better weather in the fall of 2010 is also showing up on the bottom line.  In October of 2009, the  city received just $61,826.00 in income for the month.  With October not over yet this year, the city has earned at least $116,000 in golf fees.

Still, that won’t totally make up for all the lost golf in the usually prime months of June and July.  One golfer playing Ellis Park on Tuesday still remembered all the rounds lost to rain in the early part of the summer.

Jim Ketchum said “I don’t know if you can ever make up for it.  You don’t get a round in—it’s lost forever.  But we’ll get some late season golf in.”

Cedar Rapids golf director Lisa Miller also isn’t expecting the dry fall to rescue the entire year for the golf department coffers.  Miller said “you can’t do that because of the number of hours involved.”