McHenry County golf courses stay busy as pandemic restrictions lift, Father’s Day approaches

Golf was one of the first activities to resume when pandemic restrictions first eased last summer

With good weather forecast for Father’s Day, McHenry County golf courses are booked for most of the weekend.

At Prairie Isle Golf Club in Crystal Lake, tee times were booked by the middle of the week for most of Saturday and Sunday, head golf professional Quentin Grasso said. Tee times were full through 2 p.m. Saturday and 12:30 p.m. Sunday as of Wednesday.

At Boone Creek Golf Club in Bull Valley, the situation was the same.

“Weekend mornings are pretty packed,” said Mike Kotiw, a pro shop attendant at Boone Creek.

The booked tee times are building on what has already been a busy year for local golf courses, which saw interest climb when pandemic restrictions slowly started to lift at the beginning of last summer and golf was one of the first activities that reopened.

With public health officials emphasizing socially distanced outdoor activities such as golf were safer than most other things, people took to the greens to find fun in a year of restrictions.

“Many of the people who came back to the game last year are still coming back,” Grasso said.

And even with the move to Phase 5 and the lifting of most restrictions, golf remains popular, said John Craig, the golf pro at Crystal Woods Golf Club in Woodstock.

“It’s stayed pretty busy,” Craig said. “Not COVID busy, but a lot of people took up the game in the last year now. We definitely saw a lot more kids and people that played when they were younger.”

Many people who haven’t golfed in years took up the game again, and those in the golf business hope they stay.

“Golf isn’t an inexpensive sport, but it costs the same as going to a baseball game,” Grasso said.

Grasso said golf is a social activity and people will play if they come with friends or substitute it for other similarly priced activities.

Workers at courses around McHenry County agreed that business has improved over the past two seasons. While bad for most other things in life, the pandemic helped the game of golf, Craig said.

“A lot of people were not working or working from home, so they had the time instead of traveling to work to come to the golf course,” Craig said. “They were never going to the airport or getting on a train. Golf was one of the few recreational sports that wasn’t organized. The pandemic was a good thing for the golf industry.”

Craig said attendance this year has been slightly slower at Crystal Woods because people are now back to their normal routines. However, Kotiw said business at Boone Creek picked up where it left off in 2020.

“Business has been [going] very well,” he said. “Because of the drought, we are not losing any days to rain. I would say it’s on par with last year.”

In the future, keeping interest in the game will be key to the game’s long-term success and keeping local courses busy.

Boone Creek hosts a junior golf league similar to Little League baseball where kids join teams, receive coaching and play in matches against other teams.

“It’s been extremely popular,” Kotiw said. “I field a lot of phone calls where people are looking to get their kids in.”

Craig said the attention good professional golfers receive also helps bring more attention to the game overall.

“I think it’s on the upswing,” he said “Even without Tiger [Woods] in the mix now, you’ve got a lot of really young stars. [Phil] Mickelson winning [the PGA Championship] a couple of weeks ago was a big thing.”

Golf is a sport played by all kinds of people at different skill levels. Local professionals said keeping fun as the priority will help continue to attract people to golf courses.

“It’s still a fun game,” Craig said. “You can play with anyone at any level. Most people find a good social part of golf.”