The expansion of the Trans Mountain Pipeline will have a profound impact on a pair of Fraser Valley golf courses next year.
One of them, Redwoods in Langley, plans to close for part of the 2022 season, while the other, Ledgeview in Abbotsford, hopes to reconfigure part of its layout and remain open.
“It goes right down the middle of our course,” Redwoods managing director Doug Hawley says of the pipeline. “Basically, it kind of ties our hands.” Hawley doesn’t yet know exactly when pipeline work will begin at Redwoods or how long it will take.
“We are trying to get that confirmed with them now,” he said. “But it will definitely run into the 2022 golf season. As soon as we know we’ll post it so everyone will know what is happening.”
Hawley cited one positive that will come out of the forced closure of the course. “The only good thing is when we re-open we’ll just be in beautiful shape,” he said. “We’ll do some other course improvements at the same time.”
Over at Ledgeview, General Manager Brad Clapp is determined to keep 18 holes in play during pipeline construction. “We are doing something different,” Clapp said. “We are not shutting down. We worked out an agreement as far as re-routing with Trans Mountain.”
Some of the holes won’t look the same. The par 5 fifth hole, for example, will be turned into two holes -- a par 4 and a short par 3. The 12th and 15th holes will be closed during construction. “We were able to build a 100-yard temporary hole,” Clapp said.
“Long-term, once Trans Mountain is gone, it becomes a brand new 100-yard short-game facility. We also have a very substantial reclamation project planned to make the golf course better than what it was and an opportunity improve the areas the pipeline does go through.”
The pipeline will also run through Belmont Golf Course in Langley. But plans call for the pipeline to go underneath the golf course. “My understanding is that it won’t interfere with play at Belmont,” said Troy Peverley, vice president of the West Coast Golf Group.
BJORNSON THIRD: Simon Fraser University freshman Bailey Bjornson of Surrey tied for third place at the Dennis Rose Intercollegiate tournament in Waikoloa, Hawaii. Bjornson fired three straight rounds of 69 to finish the 54-hole event at three-under par, four shots behind winner Cam Sandland of Colorado Christian University. Jordan Bean and Aidan Goodfellow both tied for 21st for Simon Fraser, which placed fourth in the team competition.
The tournament was hosted by the University of Hawaii-Hilo, which has a strong B.C. contingent of its own. Keith Ng of Richmond, Dustin Franko of Delta and Jungwhan Lee of Langley are all members of the team. Ng, who has had three wins this fall, tied for eighth. Franko tied for 13th.
SOLID START: Surrey’s Adam Svensson had his best result of the new 2021-22 PGA TOUR season at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship. Svensson tied for 22nd at eight-under par, seven shots behind winner Lucas Herbert, and earned $57,363. Abbotsford’s Adam Hadwin tied for 43rd and made $18,343. Fellow Abbotsford native Nick Taylor missed the cut.
The tournament was plagued by heavy rain and wind in the first and final rounds. Taylor Pendrith of Thornhill, Ont., carried a three-shot lead into Sunday’s final round, but struggled to a five-over 76 and tied for fifth at 12-under par. The PGA TOUR heads to Mexico this week for the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba. Hadwin, Svensson, Taylor and Merritt’s Roger Sloan, who did not play in Bermuda, are in the Mayakoba field.
MATCH PLAY CHAMPS: Chris Crisologo and Lawren Rowe won the 76th playing of the B.C. Match Play Championship this past weekend at Fraserview Golf Course in Vancouver. Crisologo, of Richmond, and Rowe, who now calls Squamish home, defeated the formidable team of Langley’s James Allenby and Kevin Stinson of Mission 2&1. Crisologo and Rowe each earned $1,500 for the win. Allenby and Stinson each took home $900. Both teams played well, Crisologo and Rowe were 10-under for their round when the match ended on the 17th hole. Allenby and Stinson were eight-under.
EWART FIFTH: Coquitlam’s A.J. Ewart continues his fine play for Barry University in south Florida. A fifth-place finish by Ewart helped Barry win the Southern Tide Intercollegíate tourney in Milton, Ga. Ewart completed the 54-hole event at three-under par, four shots behind winner Jonathan Nielsen of Carson-Newman University. Barry won the team title by one shot over Limestone University. “It was nice to be able to end the fall season with a team win,” Ewart said.
“I think I can take some positives away, but there is a lot of work that needs to be done. The golf course played extremely difficult in the windy, cold conditions. We were able to show some grit which allowed us to finish the tournament on top. I’m looking forward to working hard this winter and excited for next spring.” Ewart, a junior at Barry, is currently fourth in Golfstat’s latest NCAA Division II player rankings.
B.C.’s BEST: Dave Zibrik of Point Grey and Kyle German of Bald Eagle were the top B.C. players at the PGA Head Professional Championship of Canada at Lookout Point Country Club in Fonthill, Ont. They finished the event tied for 11th at three-over par. Nick Kenney of The National Golf Club in Woodbridge, Ont., won by four shots with a score of seven-under par.
