Kananaskis Golf Courses rebuild to re-start

 Kananaskis Golf Courses rebuild to restart


Tonight I feel sort of like the back-up goalie on a championship team. You know, the guy that for the most part sat on the bench but who, every once in a while, stepped in to put a point or two on the board as their team rolled toward a title.

In this case the sport is golf, not hockey. And no, I am not accustomed to stepping in front of tee shots attempting to stop their journey, although truth be told I have done that once (and it hurt!).

Rather, I feel I lent a bit of a hand in having the two great courses in Kananaskis Country brought back to life. I wrote several pieces for Inside Golf on the two adult playpens - Mt. Kidd and Mt. Lorette - following the floods of 2013 in Alberta and then again when the former PC government finally came up with a plan to rebuild them.

Then, the PC’s got tossed like yesterday’s lettuce salad and the NDP came into power. Their first move on the rebuild was to halt proceedings because of some nefarious shenanigans by their opponents.

During the time before the stoppage, I was one of a few golf writers who outlined the benefit of bringing the provincially owned golf courses back to life. That was based on what the tracks mean to businesses not only in the Rocky Mountain corridor of Alberta but also in the outlying areas like Calgary, Canmore and Banff.

To me, at that time, it didn’t make sense not to go ahead and rebuild what was there. After all, in conversations with GM Darren Robinson it was pointed out that to bury the golf courses and allow nature to take the area over would be as expensive as rebuilding.

In an op-ed piece I did for the spring issue of Inside Golf magazine, I outlined that theory, plus others, that in essence said it would be a shame to waste such a beauty. Sure it was going to cost millions to restore the two courses but in this day and age you have to spend money to make money, and that’s what will happen here, hopefully starting again in early 2017.

“It’s just great!” Kananaskis head pro Bob Paley began in a phone interview. “Moving forward, it’s just great to have some direction. There’s no question that the March stop-work order was a major issue that caused some significant delays. It was a small glitch and now we have to get back at this. We’re just ecstatic to be a part of such an important project and I have to tell you, the feedback on social media has been 99 per cent positive. It’s been awesome! ”

To say golfers around the province, and the world for that matter, are happy about this news is akin to saying the Edmonton Oilers have high hopes for this coming season, what with some guy named Conner McDavid and all.

But like every hockey team, everywhere, there is a back-up to the big boys and every once in a while, the little guys come up big.

For me, this was one of those times.

For more on what Paley had to say on the rebuild re-starting, go to insidegolf.ca.