FORE! Spruce Golf Course to hold grand opening Saturday!

By Ken Johnston
Editor

While many people take up golfing when they retire, few build a course for everyone to enjoy. That is what Ken and Laurie Pentney of Minahico (just south of Morson) have done over the past few years.
In 2004 the couple who was retired from the commercial fishing business and from operating a tourist camp on Lake of the Woods decided they were going to need something to do to keep busy in their retirement. They had some land on Highway 619, just east of Highway 621 and a few minutes south of Morson. The decided to build Spruce Creek Golf Course.
“We needed something to do and we thought this would be good for the area,” said Ken in 2005.
They hired Architect Dave Grant of Grant Golf to design the course and over the next two summers a paradise was carved into the Canadian Shield that is now a first class par 36 golf course.
Grant said in 2006 that they basically let Mother Nature determine how hard of a game it would be. “We used the lay of the land. In other words let Mother Nature dictate the course’s difficulty.”
It is 3,393 yards from the blue tees, 3,214 from the white tees and 2,766 from the red. It features hills, rock formations, water and sand hazards. It is the complete package for a golf enthusiast.
Last summer they hired a Superintendant, Greg Ross, who had years of experience at a Fort Frances course. He nurtured the course to perfection and on August 18th last summer they let golfers use it for the first time.
This Saturday, June 21st they are holding their grand opening from Noon to 6 p.m. Green fees have been reduced to $10, there will be hourly prizes and a grand prize of 10 free nine rounds of golf. A ribbon cutting with dignitaries will be held at 2 p.m. and refreshments and burgers and smokies will be served all during the event.
“It has been a long procedure but it feels really, really good to be as ready as we can be,” said Laurie last Thursday. “It is amazing to see what has come out of what was just a piece of bush a few years ago,” she added.
Pentney said she and Ken are very grateful to all who have worked so hard to make this dream a reality and encourages the public to come out and celebrate with them this Saturday.
To get there take Hwy. 621 north from Sleeman to Hwy. 619. Then turn east and Spruce Creek is about three miles down the road.
It features nine very challenging holes, a driving range, a fleet of new carts for rent, and some of the most beautiful holes to be golfed in the region.