Park City Golf Season: When Each Course Opens and Closes
PC golf is a five-month sport. Here's the calendar I plan in March, course by course, with shoulder-season tricks.
I plan the entire summer's golf calendar in March. I sit at the kitchen island with a paper calendar — yes, paper, I'm a millennial-adjacent Gen-X hybrid and the paper still works — and I block out tee times by course based on when each one opens, when it peaks, and when it starts losing daylight. Mark thinks this is excessive. Mark also doesn't have to coordinate four foursomes of Notre Dame friends across one summer.
Park City golf is short. Roughly May through October, with a stubborn handful of November rounds in good years. Each course has its own opening and closing rhythm, and if you understand the calendar you can play more golf with less driving and fewer bad weather days. So here's the version I work from, course by course.
Earliest to Open
Park Meadows Country Club — typically opens late April to very early May. It's the lowest elevation of the major Park City courses (around 6,500 feet) and it dries out first. This is where I take my early-spring rounds. The conditions in early May aren't championship — frost delays, soft fairways — but the joy of being back outside outweighs everything.
Red Ledges (Heber) — also early-mid May. Heber Valley sits a little lower than the Snyderville Basin, and Red Ledges' southern exposure helps. If you want a destination-feeling round in May, Red Ledges is the answer.
Mid-May to Memorial Day
Glenwild and Promontory's two courses generally open mid-to-late May. Promontory Painted Valley (Nicklaus) usually opens a hair before the Pete Dye, because the canyon course holds shade and snow longer. Tuhaye opens around the same time, sometimes Memorial Day weekend exactly.
Peak Season
June 15 through August 31 is the season. Every course is at its best, conditions are dialed, and you should not waste a single day. Tee times go fast — at Promontory the desirable morning slots get booked the hour they open. This is when I'm most ruthless about the calendar.
Shoulder Season Tricks
The best-kept secret in PC golf is September. Crowds are thinner because school's back, the aspens start turning the second week of September, and the conditions are still championship-grade. I will book a Glenwild round on a Tuesday morning in mid-September over almost any July tee time.
Shoulder-season specifically means:
- Better availability. Member tee sheets actually have gaps.
- Twilight rates kick back in earlier — at Glenwild and Park Meadows, twilight pricing starts earlier in the afternoon as the sun drops.
- Aspens change. The 9th at Promontory Pete Dye in late September is a postcard.
Latest to Close
Park Meadows again — last to open, also one of the last to close. They'll usually push into mid-October, weather permitting. Red Ledges hangs on similarly. The Promontory and Glenwild closings are weather-dependent — there's an unofficial rule that they close after the first sustained snow event above 7,000 feet.
In a great year I've gotten a Park Meadows round in the first week of November. In a tough year (looking at you, 2023), the courses were done by October 10.
How I Actually Plan a Summer
- Late March: Block major dates — kids' camps, Notre Dame friends visiting, tournaments. Lock in any out-of-town members or reciprocal requests now.
- April 1: Book Park Meadows opening week.
- Mid-April: Book the May rounds at the early-opener courses.
- May 1: The Promontory tee sheet for June opens — book the desirable mornings the hour they release.
- June 1: Reciprocal requests for July at Glenwild submitted.
- August 1: Lock in the September shoulder rounds. This is where most people miss out.
Weather Considerations Course by Course
Each course has a personality with weather:
- Promontory Pete Dye holds shade — late opening, but cooler in mid-summer afternoons.
- Promontory Painted Valley opens to sun — earliest of the two to play in May, hottest in July afternoons.
- Glenwild sits in a wind corridor — you'll feel it on the back nine. Plan a windbreaker even on hot days.
- Park Meadows is the most weather-forgiving of the bunch — lower elevation, less wind, drains fastest after rain.
- Tuhaye gets afternoon thunderstorms first — book mornings.
- Red Ledges is the warmest in the shoulders — late April rounds are genuinely playable in shorts on warm afternoons.
The Frost Delay Reality
Until late June, frost delays are a real thing in PC. Tee times before 7:30 a.m. in May and early June get pushed back. Don't book a true sunrise round at altitude until at least the third week of June. Plan around it.
If you treat Park City golf like a five-month sprint instead of an open-ended option, you play more rounds and you play better courses. Get the paper calendar out. Block the dates. Book the tee times. The summer is short and the snow comes back faster than you think — and if you've been here 20 years like I have, you don't waste a single morning.