KANANASKIS RETURNS FROM THE BRINK
Lorette course to reopen after devastating floods
Five days after getting married and about to embark on a short honeymoon, the knock on Darren Robinson’s door came at 5:30 a.m., June 20, 2013.
At precisely that moment the life of the general manager of Kananaskis Country Golf Course’s was about to drastically change because on the other side of the door, wearing a dour grimace, was Kananaskis golf superintendent Calvin McNeely.
“We’ve got a problem,” said McNeely in what would be a huge understatement.
Hardly saying a word, McNeely took Robinson to the 14th hole of the Mount Kidd — one of the two world class courses on the property; Mount Lorette is the other.
There, the two watched helplessly as the banks of the Evan Thomas Creek — fuelled by heavy rain — breeched just before it ties into the Kananaskis River.
In a matter of two hours they watched as up to 200 millimetres of rain poured down on higher-than-usual snow pack and all hell broke loose.
Torrents of water flowed over land and then debris composed of massive boulders, silt and trees carved six-feet deep and 20feet wide channels and ravines throughout the property ripping through everything in its wake.
Only four of Kananaskis Country’s 36 holes — an hour’s drive west of Calgary — were untouched.
“It was overwhelming,” said Robinson, whose eyes moistened with tears as he recalled the destruction. “To a lot of people a flood hit a golf course. But to us it so much more than that because it hit a place we all cared deeply about.
“I never realized before just how powerful nature can be.”
Everything — fairways, greens and tee boxes — was swallowed.
“We were left with a magnificent piece of property that, to say the least, was badly damaged,” said Robinson of the courses which generated 60,000 annual rounds of golf and which were consistently ranked as top-100 courses in Canada by Score Golf Magazine.
“We all wondered where we were at and what our options were because at that point there was no playbook or training manual.
“Do we pull the life support cord or was there a way out?”
Robinson said one of the first calls he made was to noted Canadian golf architect Gary Browning, who is no stranger to golf in the area having designed Canmore’s fabulous Stewart Creek.
“I told Gary I needed some advice and asked if he would come and take a look at the site. He was there the next day.”
Considering the massive destruction, Browning told Robinson that reconstruction was “manageable.”
“That gave me a lot of peace and comfort,” said Robinson.
After several delays, the provincial government, which owns the properties, finally gave its approval to go ahead with reconstruction and Browning was hired as the restoration architect.
Robinson said the price tag was $15 million of which 90 per cent was paid for by the federal Disaster Relief Program and the other 10 per cent by the Alberta government.
With creeks filled in and ornamental ponds silted in, the biggest task was the clean-up. Then Browning was put to work.
“I got a chance to redo the Mona Lisa,” he was quoted as saying.
Because of the limited growing season, 625,000 square metres of sod was put down — the equivalent of 113 football fields.
The sod came from Coaldale, Alta.; the sand, as it has been for 30 years, once again came from Golden and the bent grass for the greens arrived from Abbotsford.
Remarkably, with its flawless greens and fairways and mindnumbing, craggy mountain scenery, Mount Lorette not only looks and feels like the Mount Lorette of old, it is quite arguably even better.
Opening day on Mount Lorette is scheduled for May 10, followed by the front nine on Mount Kidd in June. The entire course will be back in action Aug. 1.
“Our mandate was to preserve the integrity of both courses,” Robinson said of the layouts which opened in 1983 at a cost of $25.5 million and originally designed by Robert Trent Jones.
“But Gary added a few tweaks which have made the course a little more forgiving.
“Many of the landing areas off the tee are wider and we reduced or eliminated some of the bunkers which really only affected the high handicap player which is not the player you want to penalize.
“We’ve also opened up the access to some greens. And we’ve softened the contours on some of the putting surfaces.
“The risk/reward is still there for sure. But it’s not as penal.”
Two new sets of forward tees — including one which only plays from 3,800 yards — have also been added giving golfers six different and very varied sets of tee boxes.
The back tees, on the other hand, have been slightly increased in length allowing both courses to play from some 7,200 yards.
“It’s something special again,” said Robinson. “To actually see golfers play the course again has been a very surreal and humbling experience.”