Winter Recreation at the Balfour Golf Course
December 20, 2022
Winter recreation is an extremely popular activity in our region and a regular occurrence on our golf course property. It had been this way for years without incident until you know who started digging into insurance liability about this time last year. Of course what I learnt is that that although we have a year round policy in place for liability insurance as a golf course, this policy did not cover any sort of winter activity that may happen while the course was closed.
Fast forward 10 months and the process to find appropriate coverage began and I am very happy to say, is very close to being in place. As of December 29th, we will no longer have a liability issue surrounding winter activities on our golf course property including Cross Country Skiing, Snow Shoeing, Walking or Tobogganing. Unfortunately ice skating on our ponds is still a no go and will not be permissible moving forward.
Ultimately, in order to continue working toward our mission of promoting healthy living and community spirit, making winter recreation permissible on our golf course was an absolute priority. Thank you to Leo Jansma for your continued volunteerism in track setting for our XC Skiers!
By introducing this additional winter liability coverage, Balfour Golf & Recreation has taken on a significant increase to it's annual insurance premium and thus will be asking our community to show their support for winter recreation in Balfour by purchasing your BRC Membership along with a Winter Recreation Pass. This newly introduced Winter Recreation Pass will be a per household purchase of $50 and is a support mechanism more than it is a requirement for use of our Golf Course property during our non-golfing months. Support shown through purchase of these passes will guide us in future years as to how much of our resources we will be able to put back into facilitating winter recreation. Ultimately it is our goal to see the golf course property become a destination for winter recreation that sees consistent use and maybe one day even hosts organized activities. The best way to make this happen will be through your show of support by purchasing your Winter Recreation Pass via the link below.
One final note regarding winter recreation at the golf course and the parking situation. Moving forward we are asking that there no longer be vehicle parking on Queens Bay Rd. at the head of our driveway. There were several instances last year where this parking area over flowed onto both sides of Queens Bay Rd. and created more congestion than necessary in this area. Instead we would like to see increased use our nicely plowed parking lot up by the club house become the hub for Winter Recreation activities. For those only interested in walking the Queens Bay Trail, please use the parking area at the Balfour Cemetery as your starting point moving forward.