Ottawa golfers spending Christmas Eve on the greens
All tee times at Falcon Ridge Golf Course booked for Christmas Eve
As the temperature hovered around 5 C on a foggy Ottawa morning on Dec. 23, Rob Gosse and Ian Pedley hit the greens at Falcon Ridge Golf Course — and they're planning on doing it all over again on Christmas Eve.
"I'd probably be out here on Christmas Day or Boxing Day if I could, but my family might have an issue with that, so this is the closest I can get to golfing on Christmas," Pedley said.
Gosse said he'll be thinking of his golfer friends in snow-covered parts of Canada when he arrives for his tee time on Christmas Eve.
"They don't have the opportunity. You know they're sitting there, shovelling the driveway or scraping ice off something," he said. "You know they want to be out here."
The owner of Falcon Ridge Golf Course said this is the first time the links have been open on Christmas Eve — and the day is fully booked with 140 golfers expected.
"We could've put 10 times as many people out. We're one of the only courses open right now and basically the phone's been going off the hook. We're saying, 'Sorry we don't have a tee time,'" said owner Steve Spratt.
"It's very rare. I mean, in our climate, every 10 years you might get this."
The Canadian Golf and Country Club in Ashton, Ont. and Champlain Golf Club in Aylmer, Que. are also open on Christmas Eve.