“We’ve only had to cancel one event so far,” said Dan Sainio of the Bunker Hulls Golf Club.
For now, Bunker’s bottom line has not been impacted by the dreary weather.
Said Sainio: “Business is booming.”
On a recent cloudy day, a steady stream of golfers came out to play Bunker.
“We’ve been pretty fortunate with some of the timing and we’ve got some pretty loyal patrons and groups as well, they don’t mind playing in the rain,” Sainio said. “They like to just be out here. We’ve had some wash out days but nothing overwhelming.”
According to Sainio, it would take a weather catastrophe to shut the course down.
“We don’t close unless something extreme were to happen,” Sainio said. “We’ve never had enough water to really have to shut things down.”
Embracing the elements
Blaine’s Kathryn VanArrogan is a two-time Minnesota state amateur champ who now golfs for the University of St. Thomas. She admits that the dreary conditions are sometimes challenging.
“Especially this past week it’s been a little bit frustrating having all the rain and not being able to play quite as much we’d like,” VanArrogan said. “I have still been able to play but I’ve seen tournaments getting postponed, cancelled and shortened. That’s not always ideal.”
However, VanArragon chooses to embrace the elements when she is on the course.
“I think that’s the mindset you have to have,” VanArrogan said. “In high school when we would start in late March, early April it was always hard to know what you’re going to be facing every day whether it was rain, snow whatever. I think we’re used to it here.”
VanArrogan believes playing in less than perfect conditions will improve her game.
“I think dealing with adversity when you golf is just in general something that you have to do,” VanArrogan said. “So this is probably good practice, good training for that, whether it’s weather or a bad shot.”
“Now we see so many folks coming out regardless of what it looks like,” Sainio said. “Because they have fallen back in love with the game which is one of the positives to come from the COVID boom.”
Tee times tough to get
Because of the rain, Bunker has greened up.
“The golf course is kind of built for handling a lot of water,” Sainio said.
As for getting a tee time, that is no guarantee.
“Weekend mornings are just about impossible at this stage,” Sainio said. “A lot of our nights are consumed with leagues.”
Bunker Hills opened in 1968.
