When to open the course is always a big decision for us.  There are many factors that we need to look at to decide when the optimal time to open is.  The biggest being the forecast, the forecast for next week has changed 3 times in the last 3 days.  Once we have some decent temperatures (overnights being very important) we will start to call up some staff to see who is ready to come in and help.  We have to be concious of the fact that many of our staff are leaving their winter jobs to come work so if we start them and then it snows for 3 weeks and they get no hours, it is not a great start to the season.  Ramping up includes all the initial orders for pop, beer, food, proshop inventory etc. etc. a good cleaning of the entire clubhouse and starting the on course work.  The on course work includes removing tarps, taking out tee markers, bunker rakes, garbage cans, plowing left over drifts of snow, taking down snow fence, etc etc.  Then you can start to cut the grass, even though it is not growing it will put a nice stripe on things and get it looking great.

Now things are getting done and we are getting close to ready, last thing we need, is...Golfers!  With todays technology it is alot easier to get the word out, a well timed email with updates on our Facebook and Twitter will get us full pretty quick.

What if the weather changes? If the temperatures over night dip to -10 or colder we have to seriously consider re tarping the greens, this is extra time, labour, and ultimately expense.

So...The only thing we can do is be ready and see what mother nature brings us.  GlenEagles only opens on regular greens and tee's and is one of the first to open in Calgary.