MALONE — A local golf club capped off a busy year in 2024, closing for the season in early November.
Scott Delair, Malone Golf Club’s general manager, said the course remained open to golfers through the first weekend of November this year.
“It was definitely a good year. We provided a nice golf experience to a lot of different people and we were able to accomplish some of our operational goals. It set us up and gave us a little road map for 2025 and beyond,” Delair said.
Delair said each season the club’s goal is to remain open until around Halloween.
“That’s usually our benchmark, most years we have weather that is good enough to play golf until at least Halloween and some years we are lucky and can go beyond that,” he said, “We try to get to at least the end of October.”
Delair said even when there isn’t snow on the ground the lower temperatures can pose a challenge for the course at the end of the season.
“It’ so cold in the mornings now that the frost tends to last most of the day and we also do some of our preventative maintenance for next year now,” he said, “We will lay down applications to kind of mitigate disease, fungus and grubs that can lead to crow and skunk damage, things of that nature.”
Delair said once the course is closed the club’s maintenance crew can work on larger scale projects.
“It gives the maintenance crew a chance to tackle some kind of bigger drainage projects that they aren’t able to do during the year because of the volume of play,” he said, “This is a good time for us to take care of the detail stuff if you will.”
According to Delair, use of the course over the summer is trending upwards.
“We had about 42,000 rounds of golf, this year, in about 32 weeks which is a good volume for us,” he said, “It is pretty reflective of golf as a whole. A lot of people are participating in the game.”
Delair said the golf club saw a substantial number of younger golfers during the season too.
“We had a lot of young golfers this year, more so than we are used to seeing,” he said, “That makes us feel positive about the future. Now it is our job to kind of retain and capture those young golfers.”
According to Delair, weather during the spring and summer did present some challenges for the Malone club.
“We got a lot more rain than we are used to seeing which definitely impacted play a bit, effected the courses which in turn effected play,” he said, “All in all we didn’t lose a whole lot with the weather if anything it just made it a little more challenging on our crew but they managed it very well.”
Tropical Storm Debby, in early August, also had an impact, according to Delair.
“It didn’t impact the course as much as it impacted travel to the golf course,” he said, “A bridge on County Route 25 was shut down for at least a couple weeks, maybe more. I don’t think that golf suffered too much, I think that it might have played a role in the restaurant business. Luckily, we have a lot of people who are anxious to get here so they found a way.”
Delair said he appreciates Franklin County and the town of Malone putting up signage that the golf club was still open and accessible during the bridge closure.
“Without those signs the barriers kind of told a different story. I was really thankful for that and it let people know we were still open and they could still get to us,” he said.
Delair said the golf club opened for the season on April 15, in the spring.
“That’s pretty typical, anywhere between the second and third weeks of April that’s usually where it falls,” he said.
According to Delair, the club’s stay and play packages proved popular with Canadian golfers this year.
“It’s almost exclusively Canadian tourists who take advantage of that promotion,” he said, “We did close to 3,000 different individuals who came over on stay and play packages from Canada. We have definitely seen a little increase in that in the years after the pandemic and the border reopening. Not quite to the level we used to be at but we are definitely trending in the right direction and I think we are lucky to be able to do that because the exchange rate is less than ideal for them right now.”
Delair said the packages include golf and accommodations at area hotels including, the Holiday Inn, the Red Roof Inn, the Malone Inn, as well as Airbnbs around Titus Mountain.
