It’s not unusual for golfers to take advantage of nice days in January at Kingfisher Golf Course.

But it is unusual to open up the course’s newest green in the first month of the year.

That was the case last week, however, as KGC unveiled its newest gem last Monday.

“We have never opened one before March 1,” said club pro Gary Wilson, who was a part of the group who played No. 1 to christen the new green just after noon.

Though the green isn’t actually “green” yet, it’s still ready for play.

“We just had the perfect conditions for it this season,” Wilson said.

The new green is the latest in the Kingfisher Golf Association’s drive to replace all the greens on the older front-nine of the golf course, which were built in the 1960s.

It follows holes 3, 4, 7 and 8. Hole No. 5 had been rebuilt within the last 20 years, making its replacement unnecessary.

The new No. 1 is about 5,000 square feet, which is 400 to 500 square feet larger than the previous one.

It’s not as much of a change in terms of size as the previous greens that were built, noted Wilson.

“No. 1 was already one of our biggest greens on the front, so we didn’t need to make a dramatic change there,” Wilson said.

Like all the others, the new green features updated drainage and sprinkler systems.

And, like the others, it was designed and built by Mike Chambers and Chambers Golf Construction.

The old green was closed down near the end of last year’s busy season.

The new green was finished and planted by Sept. 4.

“There was grass already germinating by Sept. 10,” Wilson said. “It already had a green tint to it.”

And the weather continued to cooperate with its progress.

“We just had exceptional growing weather,” Wilson said.

Wilson was joined by KGA board members Bill Loyall, Kent Weems, Chad Burnham, Reggie Redwine and Derrick Wolf in being the first group to play the new green.

Fellow board member Terry Niles also joined to inspect it.

Wilson said the KGA paid $43,000 to replace the green.

That puts its total investment into new greens at more than $200,000 in recent years.

“The board and all our members take a lot of pride in our golf course,” Wilson said. “They’ve all committed to continuing to try to improve on what we feel was already one of the best municipal golf courses around.”

With No. 1 now being complete, it just leaves two greens left to replace – Nos. 2 and 6 – to complete the project the KGA set out on several years ago.

Wilson said “the plan” is to replace both of those greens this year.

“That’s our hope and our plan,” he said. “Assuming everything works out the way we need it to, we can do both of those this year and be finished.”