GREAT FALLS — Despite what the calendar says, it might not be a bad time to pick up your clubs and hit the links this early in the year.
Ever since the week of sub-zero temperatures in early January, we’ve seen much milder, and even borderline warm weather. Reasonable weather, one might say, to go golfing.
“Weather around here is just, you can’t say typical, hardly, because it really fluctuates,” said Dudley Beard, Head Golf Pro at Meadowlark Country Club. “It can fluctuate 40, 50, 60 degrees if the weather is crazy, you know. But, looks like we’re in a trend right now where our weather is going to be good for the next 10 to 12 days and we’ll have golfers.”
Beard says that this January and last January are similar in the fact that they’re anomalies when compared to the rest of the winter.
February and March 2019 were much colder and harsher than January 2019, whereas November and December and even October 2019 were much less pleasant than January 2020.
“January of 2020 and January of 2019 were both good, solid months for golf,” said Beard. “February and March dropped off significantly last year with the weather and this year winter came early, in like October and November, so our rounds were way down at that part of the year, but now they’ve picked up because the weather has been great.”
Meadowlark Country Club is open year round, and let’s golfers onto the course as long as there is no snow on the ground.
Beard says that Montana golfers are bold, but the cutoff is usually around 40 degrees. When it gets below 40, or if it’s warmer but the wind is very strong, then that’s when numbers for the golf course start to dip. Any other time, however, swing away.
