Redwoods has also closed its driving range for a major renovation. It will re-open in May. Ted Locke, the original architect of the course, is consulting with the course on other improvements. “All 54 of our bunkers are being fully renovated,” Hawley says.

Click HERE to see more pipeline construction photos at Redwoods. 

“We are expanding some tees and doing lots of extra drainage. A number of our fairways, like No. 9, are being completely re-done. There is a lot happening on our side of things, so when we re-open it will never have been in such good shape. It will be pretty spectacular.”

Hawley hopes that is sooner rather than later. Right now, the best-case scenario is that Trans Mountain wraps up its work early next summer and the course re-opens next fall after restoration work is done. But Hawley rates the chances of a fall 2023 re-opening as “slim.” 

“We are anticipating they will be completed early summer. And then we’ll be in the restoration phase. I would imagine about the middle of June or the 1st of July we’ll know then what is happening. We have to get on to the restoration work. We don’t know how long it is going to take us to restore it. We just need them off site. Weather plays a big part in it. If it is a wet spring that will put them even further behind.”

Redwoods has kept its banquet business running during the course closure.

BIG IMPACT: Belmont, another Langley course, has also been closed by the Trans Mountain pipeline construction. The work there is not as intrusive as what Redwoods is experiencing and Belmont is expected to re-open next summer. Ledgeview Golf Club in Abbotsford remained open with some changes to its routing during pipeline work on its course that is now completed.

Kinkora Golf Course, an executive course in Chilliwack, is also currently closed due to pipeline work. The Trans Mountain pipeline is going around the perimeter of Eaglequest Golf in Coquitlam, but general manager Luke McKenzie says it is not having any impact on his facility’s operations. “It is not affecting us at all, thank goodness,” McKenzie says.

PAR TWEAKED: Shaughnessy Golf & Country Club will play as a par 72 for next summer’s CP Women’s Open. “We were going back and forth about keeping it at a par 73 or making it a 72,” says tournament director Ryan Paul. “We are going to go from a (par) five to a four on the fifth hole.” Paul says the back-line yardage — the longest it could be played during the tournament — has been set at just under 6,800 yards. The CP Women’s Open goes Aug. 24-27. Tickets are now on sale at cpwomensopen/tickets.

TEAM TITLE: The British Columbia squad of Mark Kitts (Shadow Ridge Golf Club), Rob Tadey (Fairview Mountain Golf Club), Nathan Grieve (Talking Rock Golf Course) and Wes Doka (Pitt Meadows Golf Club) won the 36-hole InterZone team competition at the PGA Head Professional Championship of Canada at Verrado Golf Club’s Victory course in Buckeye, Ariz.

The B.C. foursome finished at 16-under par, four shots ahead of Ontario. Tadey tied for third in the 54-hole individual competition at 10-under par, one shot behind winner Craig Gibson of Sirocco Golf Course in Foothills County, Alta. Gibson beat Stefan Cox of Calgary Golf & Country Club in a sudden-death playoff. Nathan Leonhardt of Par Tee Golf in Richmond tied for fifth at nine-under par.

CHIP SHOT: Maddie Szeryk, who won the 2017 B.C. Women’s Amateur title at Vernon Golf Club, has regained her LPGA Tour playing privileges at qualifying school. Szeryk, a dual Canadian-U.S. citizen, tied for 17th at the LPGA’s 144-hole Q-school in Alabama. The top 45 players earned some status on the 2023 LPGA Tour.