The “Diamond in the Rough of the Sierra Nevada Desert” aka Walker Lake Golf Course opened this week, with six or seven playable greens. They are in terrific condition and golfers are welcome to come out and play however much they want, contributing what they see fit to the donation box located on the course.
“We want people to come out, play, and sometime in the future put a fun event on,” Mineral County Recreation and Community Development Director Kyle Isom says.
Kayla Anderson – Hole number one at Walker Lake Golf Course. The course partially opened with six or seven playable greens this week.
While there’s still a lot of work to be done to get the course back to how it was before, additional funding is needed to get items like a box tiller, irrigation, and equipment. Isom is hoping that when that funding comes through, tee boxes and fairways can be done in the spring along with a second seeding for the greens.
“It’s not in the shape it was once in. There are no fairways available, but the greens are there,” Isom says, explaining that some other golf courses don’t even have fairways, just landing strips that seem to work for them.
At the October 11th Mineral County Board of Commissioners meeting, the Board unanimously voted to renew the Walker Lake Golf Course contract from the Army. The lease is a 4-year extension, giving county staff a concrete reason to continue its work in restoring the course.
“The Army has been amazing to work with. We’re meeting this week to discuss rerouting the fence to allow access to the public without them having to be vetted to enter the course,” Isom says. He is hoping that can happen before the course restoration is fully complete.
When asked about the decision to open the course so late before the start of winter, Isom replies, “We owe it to the golfers here to open the course. Even through it’s not a full course, it’s better than nothing. We are working with what we have and are shooting to hit it hard in the spring. Me, the golf course manager, and volunteers are working as many hours as possible to get it going.
“I’d like to thank Congressman [Steven] Horsford for his continuous efforts in making this a possibility with guiding us through finding the funds to rebuild the course and the irrigation. Without him this would not be possible,” Isom adds.
