Range At Warmouth To Open In Coming Weeks
The wait for golf in Toombs County is almost over as Warmouth Sands Golf Course nears completion. Significant progress has been made over the last few months, with parking lots and cart paths now fully paved. The Club House is receiving its finishing touches, and the greens and fairways are growing in nicely as the warmer spring weather arrives. While there is still work to be done, including leveling the grass, smoothing fairways, and installing steps around tee boxes, the new course is looking better every day.
A major highlight of the new facility is the state-of-the-art driving range, which is getting very close to opening. The highly anticipated Trackman equipment has been installed and calibrated across all 12 hitting bays. The hitting mats are down, landscaping is coming along, and comfortable patio furniture is already in place. Golfers will be able to purchase small, medium, or large buckets of balls by paying inside the Club House or simply scanning an app at the machine. Each bay’s monitor will offer full swing analytics or the ability to play digital courses and games, creating a TopGolf-style experience right here in Vidalia.
With the Vidalia Onion Festival just a few short weeks away, the city is pushing hard to open the range in time for the festivities. Vidalia Mayor Doug Roper noted the recent strides, stating, 'There have been some great leaps in the past few months. We are still doing some work down the hill with the maintenance continued from page
barn, but currently things are going well. They are top dressing all over the place, and with the warmer weather the grass is really starting to grow. The front nine greens are ahead of the back, and the back fairways are ahead of the front at the moment, but that is just from some being sprigged in and what was sodded. But all of it is looking good and there is a lot of progress being made. We are really shooting to get that range open before the Onion Festival to start building excitement for the course and getting some people out there.'
Excitement in the community is already evident. Recent job fairs hosted at the course yielded an abundance of interest, with over 120 applications submitted within the first 24 hours of posting. Meanwhile, Course Superintendent Hampton Kicklighter and his grounds crew are working tirelessly each day. A current focus for the crew is managing drainage, identifying where water tends to hold on the growing fairways, and taking the necessary steps to remedy those problem areas.
As for the big question on everyone's mind, the official opening date for the full course remains fluid. Roper added, 'I know the pressing question for everyone is, when are we going to play golf? We would love to be able to set a date but we do not want to set one and then not meet that mark. We are so dependent on what Mother Nature gives us, and with this initial grow in we just have to let it happen. We know we are getting close, we know that things are going in the right direction, and we are excited with the progress.' City officials hope to lock down a firmer timeframe for the course opening as they get further into April and May.
In addition to the golf amenities, thoughtful touches have been incorporated into the broader complex design. Spaces dedicated to hosting food trucks have been added at the edge of the parking lots. This will be a great feature for when the course hosts charity events and golf tournaments, or when the neighboring Recreation Department multipurpose fields are bustling with football and soccer tournaments. Warmouth Sands is shaping up to be a premier destination, and very soon, the community will finally be able to tee it up.
