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.
