Goose River Golf Course opens for the summer
Apr 26, 2019 -- Posted by :By Cole Short, Hillsboro Banner
The Goose River Golf Course in Hillsboro opened for the season Wednesday.
The nine-hole course’s debut came 15 days earlier compared to a year ago, when extensive flooding along the Goose River pushed back the course opening until May 9.
Ryan Opdahl, president of the Goose River Golf Club, said the course suffered minor flood damage from the Goose this spring.
Floodwaters covered Hole No. 1’s green, 40 to 50 yards of the fairway on Hole No. 2 and the men’s and women’s tee boxes and green on Hole No. 3.
“It was still fairly bad but not quite as bad as last year,” Opdahl said.
Opdahl credited past golf club president Tim Lee, maintenance supervisor Zach Hinkle and a team of volunteers with prepping the course for its debut Wednesday.
“We had a number of members who came out and did one, two, three days work to get the golf course in shape, especially Zach, who really cares about the course,” he said.
The course’s biggest event of the summer – the 22nd annual Sanford Health Foundation Hillsboro Charity Golf Tournament – has been scheduled July 19.
In a separate fundraiser, the golf club plans to kick off a summer-long raffle starting in May to raise money for a special projects fund.
Farmers Union Insurance in Hillsboro is donating a number of items for the raffle, including a Traeger grill, a suite for a Fargo Force hockey game and half the cost of an annual membership to the golf course.
Opdahl, who works as an agent for Farmers Union, said club officials hope to sell 500 tickets at $10 apiece from May 1 through early October, when winners will be drawn.
Rates for 2019 at Goose River Golf Club remain unchanged from a year ago.
A season single-stockholder membership is $390 compared to $525 for family stockholders.
First-time members and golfers who live outside a 30-mile radius of Hillsboro can purchase season passes for $200.
The Goose River Golf Course is located a half-mile north of Subway Restaurant at 700 6th St. N.W. in