Kelownahousehunter Blog

VERNON — The news isn’t all bad for golfers on Canada Day.

Sure, thanks to the HST we’re getting slapped with a seven-per-cent increase on green fees, but British Columbians at least have another must-play golf course to visit.

The new Ridge course at the Predator Ridge resort in Vernon officially opens for play on Thursday and it’s not a stretch to call it one of B.C.’s best.

Doug Carrick, whose only previous work in B.C. produced the highly acclaimed Greywolf course at the Panorama Resort in Invermere, has created a new course that plays as good as it looks. And that is saying something because some of the holes at the Ridge are visually stunning.

Carrick had a wonderful piece of property to work with, but parts of it were extremely rugged. He managed to create a number of truly memorable holes, some of which offer outstanding views of Lake Okanagan.

Carrick, who has done most of his work in his home province of Ontario, drew upon some of his experience working in the rugged Muskoka region of that province in doing the routing at Predator’s Ridge course.

Like Muskoka, the Ridge site was full of granite rock and rather than blast it all away, Carrick used it to frame fairways and provide a natural look to the course.

“We have done some projects in Muskoka where we have exposed rock, so I thought this was a great opportunity to really feature it throughout the golf course,” Carrick said during a recent sneak preview of the course. “That is always a challenge when you get into rugged terrain and rocks like this. You want to make those features part of the golf course, but you also want to make the course one golfers will enjoy and not lose too many golf balls. The challenge is where do you find that line between playable golf and natural landscape.”

Carrick likes to think he has created a course that golfers of all levels can play, providing they choose the right tee. The Ridge course has four tees and can be played anywhere from 5,047 to 7,123 yards.

“The golf course is designed for golfers of all ability,” Carrick says. “The fairways are relatively generous for the most part. It’s tough to do that on a site like this where you have such a wild, rugged landscape, but wherever we had the room we tried to do that. The green entrances for the most part are open so you can run the ball onto the green.”

And Carrick, who has a reputation for loving his bunkers, didn’t use nearly as many as he normally does on the Ridge.

“I am a real bunker guy and sometimes get criticized for using too many bunkers,” he says. “Sometimes you need them on a site where there isn’t a lot of natural character to draw from. Here there is lots of that.”

Consequently, there are only 41 traps on the Ridge course.

Still, it would be wrong to suggest the Ridge course is a pushover. While the fairways are for the most part generous and there are not a lot of forced carries, there will be times when you find yourself standing over a shot that plays with your head. Carrick likes to think that is all part of the golf experience.

At Predator, one such challenge occurs on the tee of the par 4 sixth, a dramatic, downhill par 4 where you tee off through a narrow chute with trees left and a huge rock face on the right. There’s actually more room than it appears as the fairway widens the further you hit it. But it will be a scary shot for many.

“That is probably the most intimidating tee shot on the golf course,” Carrick says. “There are little things like that I think make the golf course unique and put a little bit of doubt in a golfer’s mind when they stand on the tee and they are not sure and a little bit uncomfortable about hitting that shot when in reality the fairway opens up.”

Part of the Ridge course will have a familiar feel to it for those who have played the old Peregrine nine at Predator. That nine, originally designed by Les Furber, is part of the new 18 at the Ridge, although the existing nine holes were all bulldozed and regraded.

“There really wasn’t a square inch of the Peregrine nine that we didn’t touch,” Carrick says. “It was regraded, redeveloped and there were a number of issues related to not only playability but to drainage and some turf aspects. It was a complete rebuild and it helped give the two nines a consistent character.”

The Ridge course opens Thursday for players who are staying at the Predator Ridge resort. Full public play opens Aug. 1. The Ridge course carries the Okanagan’s highest green fee. It will cost $160 (including power cart and range balls) to tee it up in peak season. That’s $20 more than the existing Predator course.

In the not too distant future, the two courses will alternate daily for public and private play similar to the way the Semiahmoo and Loomis Trail courses near Blaine do.

Predator Ridge general manager Rod Cochrane thinks the addition of the Ridge course will further solidify Predator’s standing as one of the country’s top golf resorts. It should also help drive real estate sales for Wesbild, the Vancouver-based company that bought the resort in 2007.

“We think the Ridge course will be on most golfers’ must-play list,” Cochrane says. “And people that have played Predator before now have another reason to visit us.

“What is very important for us is to get people to stay at the resort. If you have got two golf courses on site it makes a lot more stronger case for golfers to want to stay at our Lodge and make it their base for their visit. The more people we get staying here and feeling what Predator is all about the more people may possibly consider living here in the future.”

bziemer@vancouversun.com