The wet stormy spring weather hasn’t only been a problem for farmers, it hasn’t helped those trying to get a golf course in northwest Iowa up and running. The Grand Falls Casino near Larchwood had planned to open it’s 18 hole course this year, but general manager, Sharon Hasselhoff says it won’t happen. “As a lot of Iowans know, we dealt with a lot of weather conditions this year. Deep frost, and then we had a lot of wind damage… and the of course we had torrential rains in June, which really set us back,” Hasselhoff says.
She says they couldn’t get the grass growing they way they wanted. “We had a couple of holes we had to reseed three times, but the course is looking great right now –from the road,” Hasselhoff says. “I hear it every day, folks say ‘hey when can I get on that course?’ because it looks ready for play. And it does look like it’s ready for play, but the front nine is not into a condition where we’re ready and it meets our expectations.”
Hasselhoff says they decided it was better to wait and open the course when it’s fully ready. “We will open the course next year to the public when the holes meets our expectations, which will hopefully exceed our guests’ expectations,” Hasselhoff says. She says they will hold some invitation only events on the back nine this fall to start introducing people to the Reece Jones designed course. The Grand Falls Casino was one of two in the state to not see a drop in revenue in the last fiscal year, and Hasselhoff says the golf course will add to what they already have to offer.