Cardinal Golf Club celebrates 30th anniversary in style

By Robert Belardi

Since this year's opening on Victoria Day, it hasn't been the most picturesque moment to begin the 30th anniversary for Cardinal Golf Club.
Remaining patient through this difficult time has finally turned into a grateful reward. Not only has the club made booking your tee-times simple through their app the golf course is ensuring the safety of its players more than ever before. Also, players can enjoy and the opportunity to play “foot-golf” beginning this Friday.
“When staff members show up, they have to report to their manager and their temperature is taken,” GM and Chief Operating Officer, Daniel Lambert says.
With 72 holes in availability to play at multiple golf courses, Cardinal has ensured a safe environment, testing their own staff before employees safely greet and serve players.
Lambert says the club purposely opened up on Victoria Day, delaying the availability to open by two days to focus on this.
The staff is completely taken care of with Personal Protective Equipment. Members are limited within the clubhouse.
On the first day, it was anything but quiet. Lambert said the club received almost 1,500 calls within the first five to six hours and with payment now being taken digitally, he added this is one of the biggest challenges thus far.
“That was the biggest challenge is taking credit cards on the phone and so forth that is the new world. We have to ensure they all prepaid so they go from their car right to the first tee,” Lambert said, adding that this protocol will limit interaction within the clubhouse.
So far, the course has adhered to many of the protocols recommended by Golf Ontario. All corporate events are postponed until further notice of course and rental clubs will not be permitted to use. The golf range is closed as well, but Lambert says this will eventually open. The restaurant is currently for curb side take-out only and beverage karts are out on the course.
As for the power karts, Lambert expressed this has been a challenge. Thankfully the karts have lithium batteries to be able to withstand a prolonged use. If riders live in the same home they will be permitted to ride together.
For future use of power karts, Lambert is seeking a way to combat the single-rider challenge, with the installment of a plastic divider. This would allow two players to sit in one kart.
“There's dividers that you can install and this is all new technology to the marketplace,” Lambert said.
“We're not set up, and no golf course is set up, to give each golfer a kart. We're looking at that as an option. As a safe option.”
There are times throughout the day the course could run out of karts. Lambert estimates 75% of golfers ride karts at Cardinal because of the kart path and GPS feature.
Once the kart is used, the vehicles are washed and sprayed down.
As for the members, Lambert thanks the customers for their continued loyalty to Cardinal Golf Club.
“It's been great, the interaction between customers and staff has been fantastic. They're all following the rules.”