{"id":748416,"date":"2026-04-23T21:54:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T21:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/748416\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T21:54:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T21:54:15","slug":"golf-notebook-fargo-no-show-policy-addresses-accessibility-complaint-inforum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/748416\/","title":{"rendered":"Golf notebook: Fargo no-show policy addresses accessibility complaint – InForum"},"content":{"rendered":"

FARGO \u2014 The Fargo Park District is putting some teeth into golfers who don\u2019t show up for tee times this summer, testing a no-show policy at its five public courses. It\u2019s a light bite, but it stands to be an attention-getter nonetheless.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all in the math.<\/p>\n

Park District figures show there were 8,894 rounds that were reserved, but not played in 2025. That\u2019s players, not tee times. Over the course of an estimated 20 weeks of a golf season, that\u2019s almost 450 rounds per week at all the courses.<\/p>\n

That significantly cut into the biggest complaint for golfers on Park District surveys \u2014 accessibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving access to tee times is difficult in Fargo for people looking to play,\u201d said Rocky Papachek, golf director for the Park District. \u201cThis is just the first step in how do we make more tee times accessible and the procedure was just more notifications.\u201d<\/p>\n

A player will get a first reminder 48 hours in advance of a tee time. If not confirmed, another reminder will be sent 24 hours prior. If it\u2019s not confirmed two hours before the tee time, it will be considered a violation.<\/p>\n

A golfer will lose online booking privileges for the season after two violations. That includes a golfer booking a tee time for four players and, say, two show up.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat goes to show that we can fill tee times two hours in advance if somebody cancels,\u201d Papachek said.<\/p>\n

In comparison to losing booking privileges, some courses charge a fee for not showing up.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe felt like this first year, let\u2019s try the additional notifications and not charge anything,\u201d Papachek said. \u201cAnd at the end of the year, we\u2019ll review the policy and make any necessary recommendations or modifications for next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edgewood, Rose Creek, Prairiewood, Osgood and El Zagal are all open, although some warmer weather would help course conditions. Papachek said they avoided a late freeze like last year that killed Poa grass at most courses across the Red River Valley.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the bent grass just needs heat to get growing,\u201d Papachek said.<\/p>\n

Local noted golfer Chuck Sjostrom dies<\/p>\n

The local golf community lost a staple figure when Chuck Sjostrom passed away last week at the age of 79. He was most noted for his involvement with the Bobcat North Dakota Open, where he was named the honorary chairman for the 2018 event.<\/p>\n

He first played in the tournament in 1971, only missing with an occasional business trip or back surgery. Of note: he played with future PGA Tour pro Eddie Langert in the first Bobcat tournament in 1964.<\/p>\n

Langert went on to invent the TaylorMade metal driver and was part of a group that founded metal wood technology. At the Bobcat, Langert had Sjostrom play with a metal club.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe tried to get me to play with this little metal driver, it was pretty primitive to what they have nowadays,\u201d Sjostrom said in an article before the 2018 Bobcat. \u201cI did hit a few shots with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

A former club pro at Maple River and Edgewood, Sjostrom served on the Fargo Country Club Board of Directors in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

The funeral service for Sjostrom is set for 2 p.m. Thursday, May 14, at Nativity Catholic Church in Fargo.<\/p>\n

Fargo Davies graduate Lexi Bartley, a sophomore at Northwest Missouri State, birdied the final hole to claim a top-10 finish in the Mid-American Athletic Association championships at Mules National Golf Club in Warrensburg, Missouri. Bartley finished in a tie for sixth with rounds of 74-78-75. \u2026 Another Davies golfer, Minnesota State Mankato senior Ava Olson, was in a tie for fourth heading into Friday\u2019s final day at the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Championships at Adams Pointe Golf Club in Blue Springs, Missouri. \u2026 North Dakota State\u2019s Avery Bartels, a sophomore from Kindred, registered her third straight top-10 finish tying teammate Jeri Lafleche for fifth place at the Bobcat Desert Classic in Goodyear, Arizona. Next up for the Bison is the Summit League Championships beginning Sunday at Longbow Golf Club in Mesa, Arizona. \u2026 The Minnesota Golf Association, in its 2025 annual survey of rounds played at state courses, reported an increase for the sixth time in the last seven years. The 2.8 million rounds in \u201825 was a 2% increase from the previous year.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Jeff<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\n Jeff Kolpack, the son of a reporter and an English teacher, and the brother of a reporter, worked at the Jamestown Sun, Bismarck Tribune and since 1990 The Forum, where he’s covered North Dakota State athletics since 1995. He has covered all 10 of NDSU’s Division I FCS national football titles and has written four books: “Horns Up,” “North Dakota Tough,” “Covid Kids” and “They Caught Them Sleeping: How Dot Reinvented the Pretzel.” He is also the radio host of “The Golf Show with Jeff Kolpack” April through August.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FARGO \u2014 The Fargo Park District is putting some teeth into golfers who don\u2019t show up for tee…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":748417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[47],"tags":[308174,308175,308176,152878,308177,1430,24246,308178,152880,152881,62,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-748416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ava-olson","tag-avery-bartels","tag-chuck-sjostrom","tag-fargo-golf","tag-fargo-golf-no-show-policy","tag-golf","tag-jeff-kolpack","tag-lexi-bartley","tag-rocky-papachek","tag-rose-creek-golf-course","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116456250890426117","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=748416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/748417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=748416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=748416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=748416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}