WAYNE – As the Wayne Country Club golf leagues await for their start date, board members met earlier this week.
The Wayne Country Club board of directors met Monday evening as a local doctor came in to talk to the group.
Kyle Schellpeper is about five months into the job of being the PGA Golf Professional for the Wayne Country Club. He spent the last 10 years with Oak Hills Country Club in Omaha and was the head golf professional the past four years. He married a Pender native, Mikki last October.
“So, I was actually commuting basically all of last year from Pender to Omaha,” said Schellpeper. “We were kind of planning on moving to Omaha eventually. Just got to last winter time and I saw that this job came available and put my name in the hat and was fortunate enough to be offered and I accepted it.”
Schellpeper’s first day on the job was January 1 to get familiar with the Wayne Country Club.
“As far as getting a new computer system and all that so we can get started what we needed to,” Schellpeper added. “We had to make a few changes just to get comfortable with but had some time over that winter, early part of this year to do those things.”
The Wayne Country Club has been open the entire time and has been busy when the weather is good. The course is only allowing one person per golf cart unless they live in the same household and there is no seating allowed in the clubhouse before, during or after a round of golf. Golfers can make purchases inside the clubhouse but then must exit the clubhouse and the premise once they complete their round of golf.
Each day the Wayne County Club puts out a fresh bucket of bleach by the cart rental area for golfers to wipe down the golf carts before and after each use. Schellpeper mentioned they have posted signs about not touching the flag sticks.
“We’ve put little pool noodles in the bottom of the cups so the ball just kind of falls right to the top there,” Schellpeper mentioned. “We’ve left the ball washers off the golf course, no rakes in the bunkers, we have not opened the bathrooms yet on the golf course.”
The Wayne Country Club board first limited groups of golfers to no more than five, but have now made it to no more than four in a group as signs are placed through the course to respect the social distancing in each group.
Earlier this week the board did address golf league as they usually start the first or second week of April.
“We did talk about the possibilities and different plans and scenarios to get league started,” said Schellpeper. “We’re just kind of waiting to make sure that the ideas we presented in the board meeting would be acceptable for the health departments in our area.”
With league golfers waiting to start there are 24, two-person teams for ladies and 48, three-person teams for men’s league.
The clubhouse does offer food options and even though the health district will be loosening restrictions for in-person dining on Monday, May 4, Schellpeper added the board will wait and see.
“Per our board and everything I think we’re going to hold off a couple weeks on that and just see how things go,” Schellpeper added. “We’re not going to fully open on the 4th (May) for people to come in, but we’re hoping that we’re able to do that sooner than later.”
The golf shop is also fully equipped and if you need golf equipment make sure to contact the Wayne Country Club.
The Wayne Country Club is located at 302 East 21st Street and the golf shop can be reached by calling 402-375-1152 or email kyleschellpeper@yahoo.com.