Top 5 B.C. Golf Trends This Summer

Posted on 25. Mar, 2010 by Jim Sutherland in Living, teaser

Good news all round for B.C. golfers

by Jim Sutherland

1. Movement toward mininalism is … minimal

Last spring Westworld magazine published an article I wrote on the minimalist movement in golf design — the trend toward rougher-hewn courses more reminiscent of Scottish links than the suburban country club style popular in North America. Prominent examples include Oregon’s Bandon Dunes, Tacoma’s Chambers Bay and Richard Zokol’s new Sagebrush, near Merritt. However, it appears golfers will have to wait awhile for other B.C. examples, which have been sideswiped by the current slowdown as well as more specific issues. It will be two or three years at least before anyone gets to play Union Bay Golf Links, south of Comox, designed by Gil Hanse (Golf magazine’s current designer of the year); and the design of Blackstone, near Fernie, appears to have been shifted to Greg Norman’s firm from that of David McLay Kidd (Bandon Dunes). There is a flipside to all this, however. Zokol’s Sagebrush was originally intended to be exclusive. But last summer, and again this year, he opened it up to “invitees” (which means anyone who asks). The course is just up the hill from the Quilchena Hotel, B.C.’s oldest, which offers basic but very characterful accommodation at a reasonable price. Playing Sagebrush is a treat, and the deals ain’t bad either, all things considered.

2. Clip those coupons, name that price

Over the winter, through judicious coupon clipping and by sticking to twilight golf, I averaged about $10 per round. Obviously no-one can pull that off during the summer, but operators are getting more and more aggressive with pricing and discounting, especially during off-peak hours and when the weather is poor. One I spoke to for the BC Business article told me “If you want to play golf, we will try to find a time and a price to suit,” which practically invites haggling.

3. Competition from south of the border

One reason operators here have to be flexible is the situation in Bellingham, where the economy is poor, the courses are emptier and the cost to play not much more than half of the norm on our side, given the strong dollar. If border waits don’t intervene, the parking lots at courses like Shuksan, Semiahmoo and Avalon will be crowded with B.C. plates this summer.

4. The environmental imperative

Sustainability hasn’t exactly been a buzzword in the golf industry, and indeed there are more than a few golfers who like the idea that their footprint is bigger than yours. But change is in the air. All the operators I spoke to for the BC Business article wanted to talk about the little things they were doing to make their courses more environmentally benign, though none of them mentioned the much bigger things that are just around the corner. Especially in the U.S., there’s a new mantra, currently being promoted by USGA president Jim Hyler: “Brown is the new green.” Courses are being urged to cut back dramatically on the use of water and chemical inputs, a movement that has the triple-threat advantage of saving money, promoting sustainability and making the game more fun to play, thanks to those fast, firm fairways. Golf Digest magazine has even just changed its course ranking criteria to reward exactly those kinds of playing conditions, in effect penalizing courses that are too lush and overwatered. Golfers: do us all a favour and complain about the conditions the next time you arrive somewhere to find the fairways all manicured and weedless.

Read my lips: No new courses

That’s right. As far as I could determine, not a single brand new course is certain to open in B.C. this year. There are several in the works, mostly in the Interior, and a couple might be playable later in the year, but developers are going slow — very slow — as money is tight and prospects are poor. That said, so many courses have opened in recent years that no-one touring B.C. will feel deprived of fresh experiences. My own list of favourites includes Sagebrush (see above), Kelowna’s Tower Ranch, Salmon Arm’s Canoe Creek and Rossland’s Redstone.

Lead photo courtesy Jim Sutherland.

Tags: BC golf deals, Top BC golf trends