The day the first Rockford Park District golf course opens for the year feels like a holiday to die-hard Rockford golfers — even the ones who have been already playing at another nearby course.
“I have been playing at Timber Pointe with friends, but I’ve got the golf pass and can play (Park District courses) for free, so since it was the first day here, I came by myself,” Austin Sikora said of playing Friday, March 21, at Sinnissippi. “I was going to play no matter what.”
Although the temperature reached 59 degrees Friday, winds gusting up to 38 mph led many golfers to cancel morning tee times at Sinnissippi. Others didn’t care.
“It’s spring. You have to play with what you get,” said Roy Blumenshine, a pass holder for more than 20 years.
Timber Pointe had opened 10 days earlier with golfers wearing shorts and playing in sunny, 68-degree weather.
“That was a lot better than today,” Sikora said, “but still it’s great to be out here. I thought I would have to go down South and play where my grandparents live. This is incredible. Incredible.”
It’s also part of a trend. Freeport’s two municipal courses, Park Hills East and West, opened March 14. That’s almost a month earlier than some years in the recent past. Everyone has been asking head pro/general manager Jeff Hartman if that is the earliest opening ever for Park Hills. No. That was March 1 last year. But this is the second-earliest.
“With the mild winter weather there was no reason not to open,” Hartman said. “The courses were ready. The golfers were ready. There is absolutely no damage being done to the courses.”
Thirty years ago, Lost Nation in Dixon, an hour’s drive south of Rockford, was often the only local public golf course that would open before April. Now Swanhills in rural Belvidere already has hosted over 1,000 rounds. That includes two days it was open in January.
Swanhills is renowned for being open year-round on any day when golf seems feasible.
“We’ve always said that if you have any doubts, just give us a call and see if we are open,” assistant manager Michelle Marks said. “If it’s in the 40s and there is no snow on the ground, we will be open.”
Now everyone seems to be opening in mid-March. City courses in Freeport and Byron have been open for a week. Rockford and Winnebago County have opened at least one of their courses. And some privately owned courses open to the public have been open even longer. Timber Pointe set a course record with 822 rounds the first five days it was open.
Opening day for Rockford golf is now a moving day — moving to or even before — the official first day of spring on March 20.
“The weather has changed dramatically,” Timber Pointe general manager JJ Maville said. “We are seeming to get more and more early warm-weather days in February and March than we ever did. And golfers, once they see 60 degrees, their expectation is you guys should be open. We’re in the people pleasing business. We know it’s a long winter, and they want to get out there, so if we can make people happy, that’s what we want to do.
“Twenty, thirty years ago, in the golf pro world, we always talked about April 1st being a target date (for a course to open for the season). That would be a best-case scenario. But now I wonder if it’s going to end up being March 1st as your target date instead of April 1st.”
Status of local municipal golf courses
Rockford Park District
Sinnissippi: Open
Sandy Hollow: Opens on Monday, March 24
Aldeen: Opens on Friday, March 28
Ingersoll: Opens on Tuesday, April 1
Winnebago County Forest Preserve
Atwood: Open
Ledges: To be announced
Macktown: To be announced
Freeport
Park Hills East and West: Open
Byron
PrairieView: Open
Matt Trowbridge is a Rockford Register Star sports reporter. Email him at mtrowbridge@rrstar.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @MattTrowbridge.
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