THE Portland Golf Club’s annual Spring Tournament kicks off today with plenty of players jumping on board for the popular event.

While there have been some tweaks to the tournament to accommodate for the current coronavirus restrictions, the club is looking at welcoming more players than usual to the course.

There will be seven days of play across the tournament which begins today and runs through to November 1.

With golf one of the sports that has been given the go ahead under the current restrictions, Portland Golf Club manager Lyndi Ball says participants are excited for the opportunity to compete in the popular tournament.

“With the restrictions we’ve had to tweak the format a little bit; there won’t be any presentations in the club but our captain Ben (Cumming) will be presenting them each night live on Facebook,” she said.

“Other things have been changed too; normally it’s a shotgun start but this year we’ve got a time sheet start instead.

“Our numbers are way up compared to other years, we have lots of people keen and visitors who are coming are saying how thankful they are that we’re going ahead with it and it’s been a really good response.

“Our sponsors have also appreciated that we’ve had a whack at getting the tournament running.”

Since the coronavirus restrictions came into play the golf club has adjusted their booking and payment procedures to use the BookATee website.

The site allows members and non-members to book a tee time and pay online to prevent any contact.

The change has been useful not only for the tournament but for the club in general.

“Golf has been going great guns since we’ve been allowed back and we have a lot of new members,” Ball said.

“The online booking has been really good for us in terms of seeing the numbers of people that come and use the course; before all of this members could come and use the course and they didn’t have to tell anyone but since we’ve had the BookATee we actually see how many people are using it and the numbers are huge.

“For the tournament especially having everyone book online and pay online has saved me a huge job.”