Mitch Calvert
There’s a new man behind the wheel at the Kitchen Creek Golf Course.
Jason Chwartacki, originally from Selkirk, Man., has taken over the reins as superintendent for the local course and comes with a golf cart full of experience.
Chwartacki, known as “Tick” to most, spent 16 years working in different capacities at his home course, the Selkirk Golf and Country Club, before helping build the Four Seasons Island Resort course in western Manitoba last year.
“The back nine basically looked like a parking lot, and meant starting from scratch,” Chwartacki said of Four Seasons.
“The course in Selkirk flooded three years in a row [including during the flood of the century in 1997], and it certainly challenges you, but it better prepares you for things you don’t necessarily think you’ll need to do with a course that’s already well-established,” he reasoned.
First opened in 1976, Kitchen Creek looks to have survived the winter in one of its best conditions in recent memory.
“The greens came out fantastic,” Chwartacki enthused. “We snowblowed them [two weeks ago] to get the ice cover off as any potential ice cover is really detrimental to the turf growth.
“It’s good to get the sunlight on them.”
Kitchen Creek president Jim Strachan said an application of fungicides on the greens in mid-October has made a world of difference, with the greens looking to be in mid-season form before the first putts even have been stroked.
Chwartacki received a diploma specializing in turf grass management from Fairview College in 2001, and is excited to take on the role here.
“I found the opportunity to come to a golf course that a lot of my friends had played and knew well, and said good things about,” he remarked.
“It was a no-brainer.”
Chwartacki also said he’s not out on the links working alone these days, with members of the golf course board and senior course members volunteering their time in any way possible.
“There was a little bit of washout from the high water with the creek that runs through the course, but it’s come down a lot in the last week and the volunteers have been working on that right now.
“They’ve been a great help,” he stressed.
That volunteer group helped repair the cart bridge on the par-three 11th hole, which had been in disrepair thanks to years of wear-and-tear.
“Over the years the erosion got to it, and you almost had to buy life insurance before you crossed it,” Strachan laughed.
“We had some material and decided to overhaul the bridge, and volunteers supplied torches, welders, machines, and everything, and it turned out well.”
Kitchen Creek also is hoping to incorporate some additional programs this year to attract young golfers.
“We’re working on the junior program, and trying to arrange some of the guys to run it,” Strachan said. “We used to bring in a teacher for a couple days, but we have a few qualified guys here at the club now and we’ve applied for a grant to make a little bigger program than what we’ve had.
“But until we get the grant finalized, we don’t know if we can do that.
“They [juniors] are the future of the golf course so we have to get them to love the game and get them out playing,” Strachan stressed.
Ready to roll
Meanwhile, Heron Landing Golf Course at Couchiching, which opened in 2004, also wintered well and plans to open this week (weather-permitting).
“The driving range has been open already, but probably [today] to later this week we’ll open the course depending on the weather,” club pro Brian Johnstone said.
“We don’t want to open until we know for sure that it isn’t going to dip below freezing at night.”
Johnstone also said the course is right on schedule when compared to previous years.
“It’s always right around the same time,” he noted. “May 1, no matter what the weather holds before then, seems to be where we end up.”
The first tournament on the schedule there is the fourth-annual Tim Perreault Memorial, which is set for May 23.
In Morson, Spruce Creek Golf Course is gearing up for its second summer of existence, with a drop-dead date of May 9 the target for opening.
“We might be open sooner than that, but that’s the last possible date we are looking at,” co-owner Laurie Pentney said.
“When we were there [last week], there was still snow laying around in shady spots and it was still wet, but it’s gotten warmer out.”
Spruce Creek superintendent Greg Ross, who spent more than two decades as the head greenskeeper at Kitchen Creek, is back in the fold for a second year.
“He’s very pleased with how things are looking and anxious to get going,” Pentney said.
She is hoping for increased traffic to the course this season—with several factors working in their favour.
“We rely more on tourists than memberships, and with the [Canadian] dollar way it is and the lower gas prices, it should be wonderful for us,” Pentney predicted.
“There are a lot of permanent summer camp owners and those who go to resorts in this area [from the United States].”
Meanwhile, Little Falls Golf Club in Atikokan offers hilly terrain and a winding creek over its nine-hole layout, including a waterfall view from the seventh tee box.
Across the river in International Falls, the Falls Country Club already has opened for business.
The 18-hole course features a challenging layout that brings water into play on 10 holes, including six of the last seven, and also hosts several competitive tournaments over the summer.
