PARK CITY, Utah — Utah’s weather is delivering a little bit of everything right now — fresh powder is still falling in parts of southern Utah, while ski season has already ended at many northern resorts.
At the same time, golf season is already in full swing in parts of northern Utah.
At Park City Golf Course, golfers have been teeing off weeks ahead of schedule after the course opened on March 27 — the earliest opening in its history.
“Typically, we're waiting for the snow to melt off, and this year we got open March 27, so a couple of weeks now,” said general manager Vaughn Robinson.
For many in Park City, the seasonal shift has been hard to ignore. Several nearby ski resorts have already closed for the season, and in some cases, residents say winter barely showed up at all.
“We had a few days and it would come and go, but, you know, just wondering when it was going to come and stay, and it never did. So now we're into golf season,” said golfer David Weiss.
For others, the choice was simple as conditions changed.
“It’s either this or going up and battling people at Snowbird. You know what? Golf — golf chose me today,” Weiss said.
Local golfers say the early start has also created a brief seasonal “in-between,” when winter crowds are gone but summer tourism hasn’t fully arrived yet.
“So those of us that live here full-time, we get to take advantage of it,” said golfer Dee Hill-Mey.
“You got a few extra layers… the wind stopped and the sun came out, so it was beautiful,” added golfer Elisa Karlson.
Course managers say some visitors who originally planned ski trips ended up on the golf course instead.
“Most of the people that were up here on their ski vacations were not able to ski, so they came down here and played some golf,” Robinson said.
But the early start comes with a tradeoff.
Water managers say Utah is entering another dry stretch, forcing courses and communities to be more conservative with irrigation.
“A lot of areas are just waiting until May 15 to turn on that secondary, which is a month later than what they normally do,” said Candace Shaible with the Utah Division of Water Resources.
At the golf course, that means watering strategies are already being adjusted, with more focus on greens and reduced use elsewhere to conserve water heading into summer.
Despite the concerns, golfers say they’re simply enjoying the unusual overlap of seasons— where ski boots and golf shoes are still competing for attention across the state.
Not often can you choose between skiing and golfing on the same day.
