LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) – While golf is typically played between April and October, this season golfers have gotten lucky.

The weather has been a treat this year, as Lincoln City Golf sees its fifth consecutive year of increased play.

While it may be too cold now for hitting the links, there have been several opportunities from the drier climate and warmer days that golfers have taken full advantage of.

It’s unusual to be golfing this time of year.

“This year we got started in February with people starting early and then more golf played in March as well,” said Wade Foreman, Lincoln City Golf Business Coordinator.

Throughout Lincoln’s five courses, their rounds increased by 6.7% over the last year.

“This year we did over 235,000 rounds of golf with Lincoln City Golf, it’s the fourth highest we’ve had since 1999,” said Foreman.

One of the biggest reasons why more rounds have been played this year.

“We’re just seeing a lot of golfers that are enjoying our courses, they’re affordable golf courses, good quality courses and then the weather,” said Foreman.

The increase has generated 40% more profit than last year, at just over $1 million.

“We take these profits that we make and reinvest back into our golf courses, so a project that we did this year was at the Mahoney golf courses redoing the cart path,” Foreman said.

Last weekend, temperatures topped out in the 60s. Climatologists tell us the weather this year has made golfing more accessible.

“The trend that we seen is fall’s are getting warmer. The warmth we see in November has been carrying over into the first half of December, so we traditionally would have more snow cover on the ground in December and would have more colder days,” Eric Hunt, Extension Educator at University of Nebraska Extension said.

Extended days with no rain also makes it easier to hit a fairway.

“We’ve been in drought more often than not in the last five years, so we’ve had a lot more days where there’s no precipitation,” Hunt said.

If the weather continues to stay comfortable throughout the year, Lincoln City Golf expects their rounds to continue to rise in the years to come.

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