New clubhouse is ready to open

Pipestone Hills Golf Club

May 2, 2019, 6:28 am
Kevin Weedmark

The Pipestone Hills Golf Club’s new clubhouse is ready to open after two years of fundraising and hard work.

The golf club purchased the former Tourism Saskatchewan Building from the provincial government and moved it from the Manitoba-Saskatchewan border to the golf course, nestled in the Pipestone Valley just south of Moosomin, and built a large addition on the north side of the building, and lots of decking.

The former tourism building includes washrooms and the kitchen, and the addition includes the seating area.

Pat McDonald of the fundraising committee said everything was done to keep the costs as low as possible.
“This is a $500,000 building. We have over $100,000 of volunteer work in it, we bought the tourist booth for $1, so we were able to build a great clubhouse on a reasonable budget,” he says. “A lot of the volunteer work was members coming out and helping out. A lot of the tradespeople would come out and do their work and donate some back—there was a lot of that. The $100,000 is hours that we know members were out here volunteering, non-tradespeople, so the trades’ donations are on top of that. The tradespeople were all good. They all made a donation of some sort.

“Everything we could repurpose from the old building, we did, so we are moving over some of the kitchen equipment,” he said.

What could be reused from the old building is being reused, and some items are being contributed to other local groups. Bathroom fixtures from the old clubhouse have been donated to the Moosomin Generals for their dressing room project.

“We’re really happy with how it turned out,” said McDonald while looking over the clubhouse last week. “There were no corners cut. It’s going to be turn-key, there’s nothing left to do.”

He said reviews have been positive so far.

“We’ve heard all positive comments. We heard a lot of ‘Oh, wow, this is not what we expected.’ We haven’t had a lot of people who have seen the finished product, but the people who have come in have really been impressed.”

One change during construction was making the addition a little larger. “From the original plan, we added an extra 10 feet on,” says McDonald. “We wanted to make it big enough for some of the things people are asking about. We’ve been asked about weddings, we’ve been asked about suppers. Adding 10 feet onto the end of the building was a minimal cost but gives us more room. We’re glad we’ve got the extra space. We’ve got the parks and rec awards and the windup for the NHL draft, that should bring a lot of people out.”

Fundraising has gone well so far.

“We’re over $150,000 in fundraising. We took the mortgage out for $375,000 and we’ve made our first payment on the mortgage.

“The Sportsmens Dinner last year brought in $75,000, but a lot of that was in promissary notes. When we do our grand opening a lot of those will be coming through as cheques. We’re doing the $10,000 lottery as well. The idea of the lottery is we can make enough money on the lottery to pay the mortgage, and then any other fundraising we do will pay down the capital and help us pay it off sooner.

“If we sell out the lottery, we will make $38,250.”

The grand opening is set for the weekend of June 14 and 15.

“We will have the Parks and Rec event on June 14th, they’re presenting awards,” said McDonald. “We’re winning one of the awards for this project. That will bring out a lot of people, and closing out the Friday will be the hockey draft fundraiser.

“Saturday will be a Texas Scramble golf tournament for anyone who wants to come out. That will be free golf. We’re going to put a meal on, and that will be free. We’re going to have all the people who made donations present cheques and get some recognition.”

McDonald said it’s a great feeling to see the finished clubhouse ready to move into. “It’s amazing,” he said. “To look at this building and know we have built this for $500,000, that’s pretty impressive.”

The former tourist centre came available just at the right time to make the golf course project a go.

“It’s a unique building, it’s got the aesthetics, it’s got some history. The building was $1, moving it here was $30,000, the basement was $20,000, so this part of the building cost us $50,000 and there’s a lot of value in it.”

“To get to this point, it has been countless, countless volunteer hours,” says Ferrell Horn, another member of the committee. “We were looking at doing something, and the tourist building came up just at the right time. The parts that were expensive, the bathrooms, were already in here.

“It’s a great asset for the town. The town was a great help in getting this, and with a facility like this we can accommodate more tournaments.

“We’re hoping it will attract people who haven’t been here before—golfers and just people coming to eat and enjoy the valley. It has so much natural beauty. If people just want to come out and enjoy a coffee and the valley and the sun, or come out for breakfast, they’re very welcome. We’ve been asked about weddings and meetings and events like that, and I think there’s a lot of potential to host events like that in this facility.”

The new clubhouse is officially open this Wednesday, May 1.