Thermopolis golf course update

Thermopolis Golf Course President Kevin Simpson provided an update on their board and golf course activities.

Their new hours are 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. until 7 p.m. on Saturday, weather, and staff permitting. 

Simpson said, “Our hours lately have been fairly sporadic just because we’ve lacked help. We hire a lot of seasonal workers and some of them go off and find jobs in the fall. October always seems to be tough up there because its warm weather is hit or miss and to just find people that are willing to work in October is a whole other deal.”

At the golf board’s annual meeting in September, there were a few terms that expired. Ethan Brooks and Frank Toth leave the board and they decided to not re-up their terms. Simpson thanked them for their service. Newly elected board members are Vickie Moore and Lisa Bowman. However, Bowman has previously served on the board. Dan Yetter and Boone Belker are also still board members.

Regarding elected officers, Kevin Simpson is still president, Jason Ciz is vice president, Carrie Ryan is secretary, and Vickie Moore is treasurer. 

The golf course also had a tournament. Simpson said, “Every year when we do our annual meeting or recently lottery areas, we try to do like a fun two-person scramble and also try to encourage members to come up that day because we need members to be at their annual meeting to be able to vote on stuff. We pay out a gross winner and a net winner for each.”

The tournament results include: Jason Ciz and Boone Belker, 1st gross; Frank Toth and Vinnie Castle 2nd gross; Ethan Brooks and Danny Yetter 1st net and Melissa Johnson and Hayden Johnson 2nd net. There were cash awards.

Simpson also reported that they received money from the Town of Thermopolis to replace the motor to their pump so that the grass can be watered. However, there was a delivery problem, and the pump was sent to the wrong office. They are now having to reroute it. Simpson hopes they get it soon because the golf course grass has not been watered for two weeks at the time of the interview. 

Simpson added that they have been using town water, which is more expensive, to water the greens. They used a tank on a truck and rigged motors and sprinklers to water the course, driving it around. 

Regarding the golf course and its importance, Simpson said, “The golf course is a good asset to our community, whether you use it or not. Just because I think that business owners in town benefit from it, having an amenity like that. It brings people here, which means these people are getting into our bars or restaurants, they’re staying in our hotels, and utilizing the pool or going to the state park. It’s just one more thing for the town. So I feel like it is an asset that we as community members need to protect, whether you golf up there or not. It benefits everybody as a whole and can attract people to come here to work… At the end of the day, I can go and get a membership and go play. So I think that’s also a recruiting benefit to our town.”

Simpson also discussed their challenges and said, “With the age of the course and the age of equipment and infrastructure that we work with up there, you’re chasing leaks all the time just because the pipes are old and it’s hard to get funding for stuff like that. I know the Town chips in money, we appreciate it. It’s hard to keep something like that up and going and it takes a lot of our members’ support as well. I think we have a lot of good members that go up there and donate time and money and resources.”

Another item Simpson mentioned was how the golf course benefits the high school golf team who have five in a row of state championships. Simpson added that the team members don’t just use the golf course for their sport, but they also participate on clean-up days.