It wasn’t too hard to top the previous record for number of golf rounds held in January at the Montgomery National Golf Club in Montgomery.
“We never had even one round in January before,” said Greg McKush, owner of the 18-hole course. But this year he’s had a steady stream of players eager to take advantage of the record January weather.
“We will do about 1,000 golfers in January.” He’d opened for three days earlier in the winter and now will have five more days of operation by the time the month ends.
“We opened on Saturday and have been booked full each day.”
McKush said he hasn’t heard of any other courses that have been open in the Mankato area but thinks several more will likely invite golfers in the next few days as decent temperatures and little chance of precipitation is in the 7-10 day forecast.
“I’m booking through next Wednesday at least,” he said.
McKush has been involved with golf since he was 15 and this is his seventh year owning the Montgomery course.
When he took over the course he began transforming it into the first Beatles-themed golf course, which landed the course a feature story in Golf Magazine.
The eccentric McKush is a music nut and the course and clubhouse are filled with Beatles-related designs and collectibles. There is a 17-foot guitar in the parking lot, a hole with a massive guitar-shaped bunker and a one-ton yellow submarine floating in a pond on the 18th.
All the holes are named after Beatles songs.
McKush is nearing completion of another ambitious project — a large log cabin clubhouse.
“It’s unique, I don’t think there’s another one like it.”