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Local golf courses get national attention

Cranbrook-Kimberley featured on ScoreGolfTV, TSN; Wildstone, Shadow Mountain make top ranked list
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Aerial views of (left to right) Wildstone Golf Course

Barry Coulter

Local golf geography has drawn a lot of attention from Canada’s premier golf media outlet.

ScoreGolf TV recently focussed on the Cranbrook and Kimberley area as part of its “tour of BC.” Episdes featuring local courses and communities are currently airing on TSN and ScoreGolf TV.

SCOREGolf Magazine is a Canadian golf publication, which started in 1981 as the program for the Canadian Open golf tournament. The magazine is now the largest circulation golf publication in Canada and has grown into other media including television and radio.

ScoreGolf also released its rankings of the top 59 public golf courses in Canada. Two local courses, Wildstone and Shadow Mountain came in at numbers 42 and 52 respectively.

Chris Andrews, General Manager at Wildstone Golf Course in Cranbrook, said it was a great honour for the two courses to make the ranking, but he added that it speaks to the quality of golf in the whole area.

“It’s a great golf destination,” Andrews said of the Cranbrook-Kimberley area. “We work regularly with all the golf courses within the half hour — the guests are coming in, staying at St. Eugene, staying in local hotels. They stay up in Kimberley as well, and they play all seven courses that we’ve got locally.

“But it’s great, this recognition. You’ve got a couple of courses that will draw maybe a little more attention with that recognition and be part of destination packages for folks that will be coming into town.”

While visiting golfers are constanting remarking on the quality of the golf courses themselves, there are a lot of intangibles that make the golf experience unique.

“Courses conditions are superb, and we try to focus on that,” Andrews said. “But the stunning scenery that all the courses have and share, as well as a vibrant community are a big part of that as well.

“And the variety of golf is great. You’re not just coming in to play one course, you’re here to play three or four.”

Andrews said he went up in the ScoreGolfTV helicopter while they were here, getting a sense of the geography.  “We did a spin over all the golf courses. We went over Fort Steele, and up to Fisher Peak — it’s strong mountain peak you can see behind St. Eugene (Golf Course), or when you finish 18 at Shadow Mountain you see it, when you play Wildstone as well.”

Andrews said ScoreGolf hadn’t been out to the area for quite a few years, “so it was a great update for them.”

Also on hand was Bob Weeks — the former editor of ScoreGolf  and currently the golf analyst for TSN. “He’s the go-to guy for golf in Canada,” Andrews said. “He represents TSN at the British Open, the U.S. Open, the PGA …

“(The ScoreGolf crew) stayed at St. Eugene, they played golf courses, the came and shot the episode, then went downtown to the Heid-Out for food and drink, shot some footage of the city.”

The episodes are airing currently on TSN — running eight times over a two week period. Once they wrap up, they will be presented on line. So people can watch the episode locally if they can’t watch it on TSN.

As for the over-all season, Andrews says the golfing has been great.

“It’s been a good season for all the golf courses that I’ve talked to. The numbers are strong. A lot of visitors coming in and playing multi-course packages. The economic impact those visitors is great for the communities.”

 

For a ScoreGolf golf courses rankings, see  here

To see episodes on ScoreGolfTV featuring local courses, visit this link.