April can be a finicky month.

All it takes is one day of above normal temperatures and golfers believe the season can't start soon enough.

And then when courses finally open and golfers get a small taste of it - something totally unexpected, like six inches of snow falls.

"The snow kind of slowed us down but we're very excited to be open," said Darren Dundas, the manager at La Verendrye Golf. “The course weathered very well. There's no complaints there. A little bit of standing water but that should go away. We had a great winter. Things are looking great for the season. We have no complaints about the conditions this year."

Dundas said they had a soft opening at the 18-hole layout in La Broquerie just before the white stuff fell a couple of Monday's ago.

"I really didn't have a reaction simply because it's Manitoba and it's springtime. Last year our first round was April 24th and some years we've been as early as late March but that is so seldom. It is what it is. We roll with the snow, or roll with the punches, however you want to look at it. It really doesn't slow us down."

"A lot of our golfers are diehards who will come out and get one or two rounds in but the majority of our players start coming out in mid-May when the weather starts changing," added Dundas. "That's kind of what we look forward to and then the course conditions absolutely change by that point in time too."

As challenging as late April was, the beginning of May has been spectacular with double digit temperatures that are putting a smile on everyone's faces.

"It will definitely change all aspects of the golf course," said Dundas. "Everything will dry out. All the grass will start coming to life more. Two more weeks of double digit temperatures, everything will come to life."

This is also year three of FootGolf which Dundas hopes to start in a couple of weeks thanks to these double digit temperatures.

"We've got a lot of excitement about that again this year. It's a great endeavour on our part. It fills the tee sheet in an afternoon and for those individuals that don't really want to play golf but come out to play FootGolf - some of them are returning to the game of golf and that's what we need right now in this industry. Something else to get them out to see what the golf course really is."