ST. FRANCIS, Minn. – A warm-up in December isn’t always customary for the Minnesota course, but for some it does mean an extra round of golf.
“If it’s open, we’ll play,” Kevin Marsolek said.
While most courses are closed for the season, The Ponds Golf Course in St. Francis welcomed dedicated golfers on Sunday.
“When we started getting 10 or more calls, we thought, ‘Oh, we must have something going on here,’” said golf pro Joey Manthis.
It is not the first time that the St. Francis club has reopened in an unconventional way. They open every opportunity they can – Manthis says they operate all twelve months of the year.
“When you travel to Illinois and things like that, they don’t play when the weather is like this,” Manthis said. ‘Here the phone calls went through the roof [to play].”
It has made for happy players.
“We’re addicted to the game,” Jim Pauley said.
Pauley and Marsolek say they have played in Minnesota every month since last March.
“If it doesn’t snow, we’ll keep going,” Pauley said. “Cold or not.”
The old golf friends are not the only ones.
“I played two rounds here in February [The Ponds] last February,” said Jesse Jedlicki.
The Ponds says they try to open every opportunity out of season – and will post any off-season openings on their Facebook page.
Beret Leone
