Point Roberts’ course hopes to re-open in August

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Updated: May 31, 2023

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit a couple of years ago, everything in the world changed. People were forced indoors. Masks were everywhere. Broadway shut down. Sporting events were played in front of no fans. Schools went online.

Yet one thing seemed to go on- the world of golf. Since golf courses are outside, it seemed reasonable that golf would be an OK thing to keep doing during the pandemic. Most courses found ways to keep the doors open – sort of. Many courses didn’t allow people inside, instead putting check-in desks outside and collecting the green fees and checking people in from a patio or just outside the front door.

But there were some courses that felt the sting of the pandemic. Just take a look at Bald Eagle Golf Course in Point Roberts, Wash. Now this is a course where you have to understand where the course is located and why it was in trouble when COVID-19 struck. The course is located in the United States but to get there you have to go through Canada, then back to the United States. When the pandemic hit, the borders shut down. And subsequently so did Bald Eagle Golf Course.

There was nothing they could do about it. Many of the golfers who play Bald Eagle came from Canada and because the borders were closed they had no way in. And there weren’t enough golfers in Point Roberts to justify keeping the golf course open.

So the doors shut in March of 2021. But Superintendent Rick Hoole found a way to keep the course in decent shape. He and an army of volunteer workers mowed enough to keep the course from growing over, but not in good enough shape to allow golfers to play on the course.

The owner did try and re-open the course for a few months last year, but the course was not in the best of shape and only a few golfers showed up. It stayed open from June through November of 2022 but Hoole knew the course needed to be better. The course shut down again in November and since the day it closed, that is what has happened at Bald Eagle Golf Course. No golfers. No revenue. Just a course that still kind of looked like a course but had no golfers.

Hoole and his team of volunteers did what they could to keep the course from growing over before finally an investor stepped in and allowed Hoole to bring in additional full-time maintenance workers to get the course going again. They are mowing the fairways and rough. They are getting the greens back in shape. And they are pulling the weeds which had started to take over the bunkers.

Hoole hopes the course is on track to re-open in August and show off how good Bald Eagle Golf Course can be.

At age 67 Hoole is someone who has been at the course since 2000 said he is close to retirement. And his goal is to see the course re-open and golfers again roaming the fairways.

“It’s going to take a lot of TLC to get the course back,” said Hoole. “But we can do it. The volunteers really helped keep things going when we needed to do it. Now we have full time people here to get things even better. Let’s hope things keep going in the right direction.”