A couple of busy and financially productive years have allowed the Souris Golf Club executive to pay of a bank loan about four years ahead of schedule.

The club took out a loan to build a new clubhouse back in 2010 and was supposed to pay if off over a 15 year period. The club managed to pay down the loan in 2021.

President Walter Finlay says it’s nice to have the loan paid off because that frees up those funds for other places on the course.

“We were paying $25,000 per year plus interest. We’ve had a few good years at the course and we were also able to access grants that helped us with other things and that allowed us to pay more on the clubhouse loan.”

Because of flooding in 2011 and then 2014 the club delayed the payments one year but they were still paid it off early.

“A combination of more green fee players and more members helped our financial picture. Two years ago we started a new program and this will be the third year allowing people 29 years of age and under getting a membership at half price. We figured that age group might be having a tougher time and this was a way of getting them onto the course and into the clubhouse.”

Finlay says response to the program has been excellent.

Finlay says another benefit to the course is the lotto program that Souris and some area courses take part in each year. He figures that program created 1,800 rounds of golf at the course in Souris in 2021.