There’s still a lot of work to be done to the Walker Lake Golf Course since Mineral County took over the lease last year, and the parks and recreation department is doing all it can to resurrect the course as funding allows.
It is currently focused on rebuilding the tee boxes, greens, and driving range but to do any more, progress has been slow because of lack of funding. Early this year, the county was able to hire Gerald Reeves as its new golf course manager who has been able to dedicate a significant amount of time to helping restore the course, but a lot of the golf course must be rebuilt pretty much from scratch.
The department tried to hire a second groundskeeper back in March, but the Mineral County Commissioners voted it down due to budget constraints. Fortunately, the Mineral County Sportsmens Club has agreed to buy green seed and donate it to the county.
“Our plan of attack is to focus on getting the greens and the tee boxes back to 100 percent, bring them back to life,” says Mineral County Parks & Recreation Director Kyle Isom. “Sometime down the road we’d like to get landing strips for the fairways, but money is tight. The state is trying to help us find money, but everything is so bound up right now,” he adds.
Since the last golf course update, though, staff was able to turn the water on for the first eight holes (they are currently fixing the valve on Hole 9), but they are leaving the fairways alone because there is no grass.
There is no expected opening date yet as staff continues to rebuild/handplant the course.
“I’ve never built a golf course, and that’s what we’re doing right now. I’d like to extend a big thank you to Gerald who is out there by himself at least 25-30 hours a week- and Pete Summerbell and Rob Mathias who works a fulltime job- to make this happen,” Isom adds.
The Walker Lake Golf Course will also be hosting a cleanup day sometime in the coming weeks and could use a lot more volunteers. The cart barn is open and available for people to store their carts in; if you are interested in pricing and more information, call the Mineral County Parks & Recreation Department at 775-481-5925.
