Source: The Vancouver (B.C.) Sun
Like Tiger Woods in major championships, the golf industry is supposed to be in a slump.
Golf course operators -- and there are more than 250 in B.C. -- have only needed to look at their tee sheets the past couple of years to know that the game is hurting. Play, which peaked a few years ago when Woods was winning all those majors, is down. Not dramatically, but down nonetheless.
Back in 1998, a B.C. Golf Association survey found there were 771,000 golfers in B.C. (A golfer is rather loosely defined as someone 12 or older who had played at least one round in the previous year). In 2002, that number had dropped to 698,000 and when the association releases new numbers later this year, executive director Kris Jonasson doesn't expect great news. He notes that women, in particular, are leaving the game in substantial numbers.
"Our association's focus is very much on how we can grow the game," says Jonasson.
Yet a funny thing is happening in nearly every corner of our province. New courses are being constructed or planned to accommodate a target audience that, for now at least, appears to be shrinking.
To make them work, most of these new developments are selling more than golf. Many developers are using golf as a way to market ambitious real-estate projects. Others, like longtime PGA Tour pro Dick Zokol, are targeting a niche audience.
When Zokol decided a couple of years ago to hang up his golf spikes --at least until he is 50 and the Champions Tour beckons -- the Vancouver native knew he wanted to stay close to the game that hooked him as a kid when he was a junior member at Marine Drive Golf Club.
This spring, he hopes to break ground on an exclusive 18-hole layout on the shores of Nicola Lake near Merritt that he hopes will become a playground of sorts for the corporate jet set from B.C., Alberta and the U.S. Pacific Northwest.
Zokol's project is called the Sagebrush Golf & Sporting Club. Zokol and his partners have acquired a 149-year lease on 126 hectares (311 acres) from the historic Quilchena Ranch and plan to model their resort after exclusive clubs like Redtail in Ontario and Sutton Bay in South Dakota.
"I would never get into the conventional golf business," says Zokol. "You have to take a different approach and ours is a very different approach. I'm trying to create an exclusivity that will be unlike any other experience in all of Canada. It will be primarily for the corporate community."
A western-themed lodge is planned and the resort's members will be able to take advantage of the 40 flyfishing lakes located within an hour of the resort. Sagebrush will also feature 31 lots of .4 hectare (one-acre) each.
Zokol and Rod Whitman --who created the critically acclaimed Wolf Creek (Ponoka) and Blackhawk (Edmonton) layouts in Alberta -- are co-designing the Sagebrush course. A sneak preview is available at www.sagebrushgolf.com.
"I have been working on this full-time for two years now," says Zokol. "My ability to put food on the table from playing has diminished as I've aged. I very much look forward to the Champions Tour when that time comes, but there is an interim period here where I am looking to utilize my credibility and build something. I want to build a legacy."
And how much will it cost to become a member at what Zokol hopes will be one of Canada's most exclusive golf clubs? Well, it's kind of like that story about the guy who walks into the Mercedes dealership and asks how many miles per gallon the SL600 Roadster gets. If you have to ask, you probably can't afford it.
Shark sighting
There has been a shark sighting in B.C. Actually, a couple. Australian Greg Norman, once the world's top-ranked player, is now a highly sought-after designer.
And when developer Warren Paulin went looking for a way to add cachet to his real-estate project near Duncan, he immediately thought of the man dubbed the Great White Shark.
"Having his name on the course changes the whole logistics of real estate," says Paulin. "His name is really a valuable one."
Paulin's project is called The Cliffs Over Maple Bay and when completed, it is expected to have a championship golf course, several hundred lots and a 125-room hotel. You could think of it as a mini Bear Mountain, the highly successful course and real-estate development in Victoria started by a group of present and past NHL players.
Paulin is confident the Duncan area is ready for a major resort and isn't frightened by the recent downturn in the golf industry.
"You have to build the right project," he says. "On Vancouver Island you can play in Victoria and the next really good courses are further up-island. We don't have a championship-calibre course to fill that gap between Victoria and the middle part of the island. Our prices will be competitive and quite a bit less than Bear Mountain. We'll take those people that couldn't afford or didn't want to afford Bear Mountain."
Norman visited the site in late August and Paulin says rough grading has already begun on the first, second, third and 18th holes.
The course will offer views of Maple Bay and Saltspring Island.
In an e-mail to The Sun, Norman said the steep site presents some unique design challenges.
"The site features tremendous elevation change that served as the dominant factor in determining the course routing," Norman wrote. "We really concentrated on laying the course along, instead of against, the contours. This concept was necessary to ensure that the holes did not play too far uphill or downhill. We are just starting to move dirt so our design concepts are still evolving."
"It's a difficult site," adds Paulin. "These guys are used to building Florida courses on flat land. This is their first real kick at a mountain course and they seem pretty excited about it."
Norman is also apparently excited about a project he has been commissioned to do in the booming southeastern B.C. community of Fernie. It's called Blackstone and like The Cliffs Over Maple Bay, it will contain a significant real-estate component.
"The Blackstone site at Fernie is a wonderful piece of property with the most dramatic mountain views we have ever experienced," Norman said in an e-mail. "The front nine is located in a flat river plain along Coal Creek. The back nine winds through the hills and incorporates some interesting elevation change."
The Blackstone project is being fronted by Reto Barrington, who was a member of the Canadian ski team at the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, Japan. Although the project still has a couple of regulatory hurdles to clear, Fernie Mayor Randal Macnair has no doubt it will proceed. Macnair says it will be a welcome addition to a community that has experienced explosive growth in recent years.
"I have actually been very pleased with the approach these guys have taken," says Macnair. "They have slowed things down a little bit and are not pressuring the city to do things that are unattainable. I think some people got a little nervous about that. The reality is they are doing things right and sometimes that means taking a little more time."
The golf course, which is expected to be completed by 2007 or 2008, is part of a project that Macnair says will likely contain in the neighbourhood of 1,000 residential units.
