By Cynthia Grau/WJEZ News
With Livingston County, and much of Illinois, receiving above average rainfall over the weekend, local golf courses are reeling from the impact of closing down to wait for the greens to dry.
In speaking with people at Indian Creek Golf Course in Fairbury, they fared better than Wolf Creek and the Pontiac Elks, saying they only measured one inch Sunday, and golfing was happening all day Monday as usual. They are watching the creek, as it typically takes a day or two to rise if areas to the south receive high amounts of rain.
The Pontiac Elks received a little more than three inches over the weekend and several holes are flooded. Business isn’t expected to start back up until today, but in limited capacity. General Manager Alex Arbogast describes how weather can impact business.
“Weekends are the days we make the most money in the golf industry when people don’t have to work, so having to shut down on a Sunday certainly hurts business a lot. Saturday was not much better. While we had a little bit of play, there wasn’t a tremendous amount. Closing definitely is impactful, but just as long as there wasn’t a tremendous amount of damage to the course, which there will not be. It doesn’t have much of an impact on the overall picture. We just hope that the farmers are able to get back in the field,” Arbogast said.
Nobody from Wolf Creek Golf Course, located North of Pontiac, was able to be reached, although their outgoing voice message was from Sunday, stating the golf course was closed for the time being.
