Alberta/British Columbia Golf Course Scene

Market Leader on Track for Best Year Ever Despite Down Economy  

Knetgolf – the world’s largest combined recycler and refinisher of premium, pre-owned, brand-name golf balls – reports a year-to-date customer savings in excess of $20 million, averaging more than a dollar per ball. 

Projected to sell a company-best 20 million golf balls in 2009 across North America (and in 30 other countries), Knetgolf’s sophisticated recycling process provides consumers with quality, unblemished balls at significant discounts.

The vision and dream of Stan Tower has come to life. The Club at Tower Ranch is open on all 18 Bent grass golf holes.

The Club at Tower Ranch has more than 100 white silica sand bunkers, and boasts amazing views of the Okanagan Lake and the City of Kelowna.

Sixteeen of the 18 holes, to be exact, take in the breathtaking scenery. Each golf hole is unique and will challenge the skill level of every golfer.

The course has 650 feet of elevation change, yet only two holes play uphill, a testament to the award-winning talents of architect Thomas McBroom.

With greens perched on cliffs as if suspended in mid-air, with fairways funnelling down canyons carpeted by brilliant green bentgrass, with white sand bunkers defining ridges dotted with sagebrush and windswept fescues, with heartstopping carries over canyons and washes, with views of the Kamloops Lake from every hole, the golf at Tobiano is as bold, powerful, and dramatic as the stunning natural surroundings. On a bluff shaped over the millennia by water and wind, on the edge of a pristine 18-mile long lake, one of golf’s finest modern architects has created a masterpiece.

“I think it’s probably the most memorable course I’ve made,” said Thomas McBroom, five of whose creations have been named ‘Best New Course in Canada’ by Golf Digest.  “What makes me very proud about Tobiano is that there is really nothing else like it anywhere in the world.” On the site of the historic Six Mile Ranch, Tobiano (pronounced tow-be-yahno, the name of the famous painted horses of the American Southwest) is unquestionably one of the most visually dramatic golf courses in the world. McBroom is an acknowledged master at painstakingly creating designs that bring the utmost enjoyment to a landscape for all players.

The Okanagan Valley is one of the warmest regions in all of Canada. It doesn't conform to the preconceived views many have of the country that might include hockey, ice fishing and snow storms. In this part of the country golf can be played for the better part of the year.

 High above Okanagan Lake is one of the newest and most spectacular layouts in all of North America, The Golf Club at The Rise; Western Canada's only Fred Couples Signature Golf Course.

"The course is absolutely stunning," said Couples, the 1992 Masters Champion after a recent tour of the layout. "It will set the standard for championship golf in the Okanagan. The first three holes are the best holes I've ever played opening up a golf course."

Putting is one of the most unique parts of the game with equipment that ranges from 30-72 inch length putters; golfers use whatever it takes to put the ball in the hole. Whether you use a conventional putting grip, split grip, or the new “claw” grip, putting still comes down to how well you can control your distance. Distance is the primary variable in good putting.

Those who cannot control their distance will have a hard time with 3-putting. The speed of your putt will determine how much or how little your putt will break. The line you need to be aware of is the line about 18 inches behind the hole, not the line to the hole. 

The word “destination” can be defined in a couple of different ways, both of which apply to Crown Isle Resort and Golf Community. As “the place designated as the end of the journey,” Crown Isle certainly defines the phrase “off the beaten path.” But then there’s also a definition of destination as “the ultimate goal for which something is done.”

With British Columbia just named the #1 Golf Destination in North America for 2007 by the International Golf Tour Operators Association, Crown Isle’s platinum-rated course, an unparalleled resort, and a master-planned residential community truly might entice you to “come for a tee time and stay for a lifetime.”

Located on 831 acres in Courtenay in the heart of the gorgeous Comox Valley, about a 2-1/2 hour drive north of Victoria, Crown Isle Resort and Golf Community defines the word “pristine.” Yes, it is a little out of the way. But once there, you can leave your car for a golf cart and enjoy the getaway of a lifetime, a vacation you might want to consider permanent once you meet those who’ve settled in the golf resort community surrounding Crown Isle.

Don Seable says his family’s Riverside Golf Resort at Fairmont is just what he envisioned when he started sketching out the course on horseback 20 years ago, after his wife Carol had lured him from his home at the wide end of the Columbia River in Origon to meet her family at the headwaters.

He vowed then that guests would always be able to drink the water right out of the Columbia at its source, and they still can. He hoped he could keep the resort and the residential community surrounding it as environmentally friendly as it was personally friendly, and has succeeded on that dream as well.

Riverside Golf Resort celebrates its 20th Anniversary in 2007 with the same stunning Kootenay Rockies backdrop and the climatological magic that allows skiing on the upper slopes of Fairmont’s ski hill on spring mornings, and golf at its marvelously manicured championship course in the afternoon. 

Driving out of the city, tension melting away with each passing minute, over the next hill is 250KM of awe-insprining panoramic Rocky Mountain views that range from the western edge of Calgary to the entrance of Kananaskis Country.

From the moment you arrive at The Links of GlenEagles, you are taken back by the pristine beauty of the course. The radiant fairways, sparkling white sand bunkers and exceptionally manicured greens await. You are grabbed by the vistas just as the Nationwide Tour Pros were during the Alberta Classic hosted in 2003.

You ask yourself, how can this course possibly be cut into the side of the rugged foothills where they meet the Rocky Mountains and still blend in as naturally as if it were always meant to be there?

Located just six minutes south of Calgary, Heritage Pointe Golf Club is a full-service, 27- hole golf facility built amidst a growing residential community.

Heritage Pointe Golf Club offers three distinct nine-hole courses, the Heritage, the Pointe, and the Desert.

The Heritage Pointe represents the beauty of a course blended into the terrain of the foothills. Starting directly at the clubhouse with a steep drop into the Pine Creek Valley, the Pointe offers an experience you won’t soon forget. The Pine Creek meanders throughout the course and comes into play on nearly every hole as a natural hazard. The Pointe offers a wonderful setting, and will challenge your concentration level with its surrounding beauty and wildlife.

Canadian golf course architect Thomas McBroom is one of the most respected of the modern-day course designers. On a beautiful site 30 miles south of Vancouver McBroom has created one of Canada’s finest courses – A Golf Digest Recognized “Places to Play” and ranked in the Top 50 in Canada by Score Magazine – one that would certainly qualify as host to the highest level of competitions such as the BCPGA Championship – hosted twice by Morgan Creek since opening in 1995.

Morgan Creek, is an 18 hole championship course designed for golfers of all skill levels who want to experience rolling bent grass, tree lined fairways and white sand bunkers; a course that rewards strategy, not only power. “The carries over water and the environmental areas test your mettle, not your muscle,” McBroom explains.