Minakwa Golf Course opened over the weekend, allowing walkers on the course. However, due to COVID-19, the course has put some changes into effect.
“When you come out to the golf course to golf, we don’t have the clubhouse open,” said Jessica Ross. “You’ll come to the west side of the building, and we’re doing everything through the window there. You can still get drinks, pay for your round, and do all that. But we’re trying to maintain social distancing and making sure we carefully sanitize everything after we have a customer come to the window. On the golf course, we have pool noodles around the bottom of the pin, so you don’t have to reach into the hole to grab your golf ball. We’d just ask that you maintain social distancing on the golf course. Don’t pick up your playing partners clubs for them, don’t shake hands after the round, just maintain social distancing in any way you can.”
Ross said parts of the course are still pretty wet, so it’s uncertain when carts will be allowed on the course. “Currently, we are not allowing golf carts,” said Ross. “It’s still pretty soggy down at the bottom of the hill. With this rain coming in today, we’re not entirely sure when we will have them available on the course. We’ll have to see how much rain comes, and hopefully, we’ll have them sooner than later.”
To do what it can for the community to ease the burden of COVID-19, especially on youth cooped up inside with no spring sports season, Minakwa will offer free golf to juniors for May explained Ross. “Due to all this COVID stuff and the high school team seasons being canceled, we are allowing junior golfers to golf for free for the month of May,” said Ross. “It’s a good opportunity for kids to break away from their schoolwork and get out to enjoy some fresh air. Hopefully, we see more junior play, and we look forward to seeing everyone out here, hopefully soon.”
Ross also said that the course will not be able to host tournaments at the course until the social distancing guidelines are lifted. “As long as the social distancing guidelines are in place, we won’t be able to host tournaments,” said Ross. “We don’t know when those will be lifted, so at the moment we don’t have anything coming up in the foreseeable future. A lot of our fundraiser tournaments that we host have been rescheduled to later in the summer or early fall. So, you can plan on playing a lot of those in August and September.”
The driving range is also currently closed as Minakwa works to find a way to safely open the range following COVID-19 social distancing guidelines. Finally, the Kitchen at the Kwa usually opens seasonally Memorial weekend, and Ross said the plan is to open the kitchen up with a more limited menu in 2020 on Memorial Day. “We revamped the menu,” said Ross. “We’re going to have a more limited menu this year, and we’re currently looking for a cook. Right now, we’re planning to have the kitchen open for to-go orders from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. I’d guess starting the Monday of Memorial Day weekend.”
