Summer is finally here and opening is just around the corner.

Opening day at the Tsawwassen Springs Golf is August 8, 2012 and we know it will be spectacular. The course is looking beautiful and most importantly ready to welcome you!Book online as early as July 31st after 5pm.

We’ve caught up with designer Ted Locke as he describes 18 new holes with a natural twist.

TS: How much of the old course design (by Ted and Hazel Gibbs) remains? Ted Locke: You would recognize some of the features – especially the trees. But they’re not in the same place! We’ve moved over 30 of them from the southern part of the old course to the north. I’m particularly fond of two old Scots pines on the first hole that are framed by the mountains.

It sounds as though you have tried to conserve the best of the old? There’s Gordy’s Bridge, for sure. And on the south, the more manicured fairways. But the course is really completely new in terms of layout.

How would you characterize the course? I’ve tried to give it a big course feel but kept it as a par 70, without the long walks. One of the really distinctive features is the serpentine channel that twists and turns right through eight new holes to the north where it’s a bit wilder – and there are 10 significant ponds overall.

Is water in play? Water only comes into play at the 18th, where we have a peninsular green, and at 4.  Really, the ponds and channel are more about our commitment to riparian habitat for waterfowl like the great blue heron. We’ve created more habitat than we lost to the development. Once we make that decision, the course was designed around that concept.

What’s your favourite hole? The 16th is a good par 5 – there are going to be lots of ways to play it.

To keep golfers and non-golfers equally happy you need to think twice as hard

Some of our development team are avid golfers. Some are not. So when we were designing our new golf resort community we were able to create ‘the best of both worlds.’

The golfers saw immediately that placing the course on the outside of the community would improve the golf experience immensely. We like to see fairways and greens and tees—not houses, they said.

Like links of old, they wanted to set out from the clubhouse into an environment that was pure golf: just the rough, sand traps, water hazards, trees and views. With no homes behind most of the greens, the golf course would always be the star.

Some of the team don’t play golf at all. For them, living at the centre of the golf course immediately increased the feeling of real community.

Instead of a string of beautiful homes that felt very separate, Tsawwassen Springs would encourage the natural spark of neighbourliness that some resorts never find. At Tsawwassen Springs, there are proper streets, paths and trails leading to proper amenities, all within walking distance—a whole new kind of community is what we call it. Because that’s what it is.

Now, let’s be upfront about this—quite frankly, the land around Tsawwassen could have been designed by the gods of golf. Green fields, deceptive dips, water at every turn and sand in large quantity—in short, great raw materials.

Enter Ted Locke, renowned Vancouver course designer. He has redrawn the old 18 holes to accommodate new homes at the centre. The result is a comprehensive reworking of the landscape, including the transplantation of trees and the creation of a watercourse habitat for herons and other wildlife.

The outcome promises to be a challenging golf experience with stunning views north to the mountains and south to the bluffs. Never forgetting that Tsawwassen Springs has kept the course public for the benefit of everyone in the Lower Mainland. So the golfers were more than happy.

On the other hand, homeowners were always at the centre of the team’s thinking, even when the golfers thought they were top dogs. Thanks to the foresight of our architect Wayne Fougere, the clubhouse has become a much greater focus for the community simply—because it’s not all golf. In fact, it’s a great deal more than golf. There’s a spa, fitness studio, restaurant, bar, neighbourhood shop and café—even an outdoor ice rink and tennis court.

For the 490 homeowners who will eventually call Tsawwassen Springs home, the golf course will guarantee great views and a real sense of space. Even if they never sink a putt, they’ll enjoy knowing that they can drink a pint in the clubhouse pub, just steps from their own front door. All thanks to masterplanning that thinks twice as hard as usual.

What you’ll see if you look at our masterplan is a great community at the centre of a great golf course. As we planned it—the best of both worlds.

Come and see for yourself!

Length isn’t everything at Tsawwassen Springs

New course – totalling 5,400 yards but still a par 70 – features plenty of  water, and places a premium on shotmaking

Michael Bublé is a minority owner of the Tsawwassen Springs development.
Photograph by: Ian Smith, PNG , Vancouver Sun

Hybrid golf clubs have become extremely popular in recent years and golf  architect Ted Locke likes to think there’s a market for what he calls a hybrid  course.

That’s how Locke describes Tsawwassen Springs, a new course he designed on  the site of the former Tsawwassen Golf Club.

Tsawwassen Springs, which is scheduled to open this July, is not an executive layout, but it’s not what you would call a full-length championship course either.

From the tips, the par-70 track will measure about 5,400 yards and offer a  mix of four par 5s, six par 3s and eight par 4s.

“I’d have to say it’s pretty unique because it’s a shorter-yardage layout,”  says the Vancouver-based Locke, whose local work includes Redwoods in Langley  and North Belling-ham in Washington state.

“It will play between 5,300 and 5,400 yards. It’s a par-70, though, so that  makes it different right away. The best way to describe it is as kind of a  hybrid course. The par 4s are a bit on the short side, but the par 3s and 5s  have a lot of variety.

“There’s a lot of open space and there are some areas with trees, so when you  move from one area of the course to another, it’s changed. I think it adds to a  more adventurous linkage of 18 holes. It’s interesting that way. There’s a  little bit of length, a little bit of traditional, a little bit of target  golf.”

In an era when the majority of newer courses are measuring as much as 7,500  yards or even longer, Locke thinks Tsawwassen Springs might just be a welcome  change for many golfers.

“I think it will appeal to everybody,” he says. “The better player has to  take a more benevolent approach to it, where if they try to blast one out and  hit big tee shots it’s not going to fit well. I’d like to see the better players  just hit hybrids off the tees, on the par 4s and 5s, and then have some good  shots into the greens.

“For the kids we’ve got some really short tees where they can play it for the  appropriate length for the type of tee shots they are going to hit and for  seniors it’s an easy walking course and lends itself to their kind of touch and  feel around the greens.”

Locke isn’t big on signature holes, although he acknowledges the par five  18th hole could well become regarded as one at Tsawwassen Springs. Course owner  Ron Toigo told Locke he wanted a dramatic finishing hole.

“Ron really wanted to have a dramatic finish, so there’s a semi-island green,  kind of a peninsula green, so that might be one that people will talk about  more,” he says.

There’s also lots more water on the course.

What Locke calls “a serpentine channel” winds its way through much of the  course and there are 10 other ponds located on the property.

Toigo’s Shato Holdings Ltd. is the majority owner of Tsawwassen Springs, but  the likes of former Canucks player and coach Pat Quinn, singer Michael Bublé and  entertainment agent Bruce Allen also have stakes in the development.

Tsawwassen Springs is more than just a golf course.

It’s a residential community that one day will include nearly 300 condos and  200 houses spread over the 55-hectare site.

“You can drive your golf cart right into your garage,” says head professional  Murray Poje.

A 35,000-square-foot club-house is planned that will include a sports bar  overlooking the 18th green.

Eleven holes were seeded last fall and the remainder of the course will be  seeded this spring.

“We have all the greens done, just the fairways and tees to do on seven  holes,” Locke says.

“We should be open some-time in July.”

[email protected]

Twitter.com/bradziemer

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/Length+everything+Tsawwassen+Springs/6663817/story.html#ixzz20EW7jDS0

Par for this course: Residential golf development bucks trend and expands