{"id":357304,"date":"2025-12-20T09:06:27","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T09:06:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/357304\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T09:06:27","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T09:06:27","slug":"warm-december-extends-golf-season-as-drought-looms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/357304\/","title":{"rendered":"Warm December extends golf season as drought looms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>OGDEN \u2014 An unusually mild December is giving Utah golfers extra time on the green, even as many of them say they\u2019d rather see snow.<\/p>\n<p>With 93% of the state in drought, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/water.utah.gov\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Utah Division of Water Resources<\/a>, the lack of snowfall is raising concerns. But at Ogden City\u2019s Mount Ogden Golf Course, players are taking advantage of the rare opportunity to tee off in late December.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-859736\" class=\" wp-image-859736\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Brenkman-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"507\"  \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-859736\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Todd Brenkman is the PGA Professional and Golf Director at Ogden City\u2019s Mount Ogden Golf Course. (Mike Anderson KSL TV)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a rare occasion that we play golf on this property in December,\u201d said Todd Brenkman, PGA professional and director of golf at the course. \u201cWe\u2019ve had years where we may be open a day or two, but I can\u2019t ever remember a time in my career where we\u2019re playing this many days in a row, and in the 50s.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Related: <a href=\"https:\/\/ksltv.com\/weather\/utah-snowpack-at-55-of-normal-after-unseasonable-start-to-december\/859282\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Utah snowpack at 55% of normal after unseasonable start to December<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Golfers like Tony Hernandez say they\u2019re making the most of the warm weather.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had the day off and I was sitting around the house, I said, \u2018well, you know, it\u2019s pretty warm outside, I\u2019m going to go golfing,\u2019\u201d Hernandez said. Still, he added, \u201cI would like the snow, yes. A White Christmas would be very nice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-859738\" class=\" wp-image-859738\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/hernandez-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"507\"  \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-859738\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tony Hernandez prepares to golf with some friends at Mount Ogden Golf Course Friday. (Mike Anderson KSL TV)<\/p>\n<p>The extended season is fueling an ongoing golf boom that began during the pandemic, Brenkman said. \u201cIt\u2019s just really been fun to watch what\u2019s been happening all across the state of Utah and nationally with the game, because there was a while when it was a little touch and go and facilities were closing down.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite the surge in play, water remains a critical concern for courses and communities alike. \u201cWe definitely need it,\u201d Brenkman said. \u201cWe rely on water to water these golf courses and make them enjoyable and playable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-859737\" class=\" wp-image-859737\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/golfers-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"507\"  \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-859737\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Golfers enjoy the warm weather at Mount Ogden Golf Course Friday. (Mike Anderson KSL TV)<\/p>\n<p>Once snow does arrive, Mount Ogden plans to groom cross-country ski trails on the course \u2014 a reminder that winter sports enthusiasts are still waiting for their turn.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This story was adapted from a TV broadcast script using artificial intelligence. Every story, including those adapted with AI, is reviewed by a human editor before publication to ensure that KSL\u2019s editorial standards are upheld.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OGDEN \u2014 An unusually mild December is giving Utah golfers extra time on the green, even as many&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357305,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,2151,18223,18222,82,5293,1890,1133],"class_list":["post-357304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-home","tag-ksltv-com","tag-ksltv-com-utah-news","tag-sports","tag-talk-and-community","tag-traffic","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}