After a long winter, the Bigfork golf team is thawing out

The Vikes and Vals host 16 other teams at their host tournament today at Eagle Bend Golf Club. It’s the first tournament of the season for the Bigfork golfers and the first competitive rounds for most of the players on the course after a prolonged cold snap delayed the opening of many golf courses around the state.

“This year’s been such a long winter,” Bigfork golf coach Steve Hullett said. “The first two weeks of practice have been lousy weather. Hopefully the weather is coming around and it’ll be better this week.”

As the weather warms up, even the more experienced players on Bigfork’s young team will have to shake off the rust. Unlike their counterparts in Class AA and A who get to play in the fall, most of the Vikes and Vals have spent the last three months indoors, playing other sports and, generally, not swinging a golf club.

“It’s starting from scratch,” Hullett said. “This year I’ve got a whole bunch of young players. It’s basically learning the game.

“In the fall, most of them have played all summer long. They’re more ready to compete.”

That means starting from square one for a lot of golfers, with a focus on growing for the future.

“The new kids are learning what to do and trying to build on it for the summer and next year,” Hullett said. “They’re just getting into the game now ... it’s learning a game they’ve never played. Step by step, every day they improve a little bit. Trying to get a feel for what they need to do.”

Even the more experienced players are using this time early in the season to find their swing. As with most golfers, it takes a while to get back in a groove.

“Generally, the kids who have played before improve by the end of the month,” Hullett said. “They’ll start to be getting pretty consistent.”

One thing that isn’t lacking is excitement, as the PGA season gets ready to play its first major tournament of the year, and golf weather slowly returns to Montana.

“The kids who like golf and have an interest in it are talking about the Masters,” Hullett said of this weekend’s major tournament in Augusta, Ga. “That’s the big tournament of the year for everybody.”

With its rolling green hills and seemingly endless sunshine, the Masters is a symbol of spring for a lot of golfers. For Bigfork and Montana’s Class B golfers, this weekend’s golf tournament also marks an end to a few long, dark months and the beginning of more than one new season.

“(We’re) trying to get some sunshine,” Hullett said. “It makes everybody feel better.”

Joseph Terry is a sports reporter and columnist at the Daily Inter Lake. His column ‘Sidelines’ runs every Wednesday and is now available online at DailyInterLake.com. He can be contacted by phone at 758-4463 or email at jterry@dailyinterlake.com.