Coal Creek designed to be different
Edmonton area’s newest golf course opens Friday
With its black sand bunkers majestically contrasting the wispy, white-crested wheat grasses, the Coal Creek Golf Resort has given a whole new meaning to Stevie Wonder’s song Ebony and Ivory.
The sharp opposition of black against white is just one of many intoxicating nuances of a big, bold layout which, even in its infancy, has already propelled the course into the upper echelon in the Edmonton area.
Coal Creek, located 20 kilometres from Tofield, opens Friday.
“It needed to be special and different from anything else,” said Grant Puddicombe, managing director of Puddicombe Golf, the Edmontonbased family owned and operated golf design and construction business.
“A run of the mill course would not survive in that location, being 45 minutes from Sherwood Park.”
Coal Creek is anything but “run of the mill.” Then again, any golf course built on a coal mine — in this case the old Dodds mine, owned by the Bowal and Kudrowich families — is bound to be unique.
As well as the black sand, pieces of mining equipment, like earthmoving equipment and the old tipple — where mine cars were tipped and emptied of their coal — line several fairways.
“You really do feel like you are playing on a mine,” said Puddicombe.
Then there is the course itself. Running through three distinct types of golf architecture — quarry, links and woodlands — each hole is distinctive.
“There are no holes even vaguely similar,” said Puddicombe’s father, Sid, president of the golf architectural company. “There is always something new coming up with the next hole.”
Seven years in the making, Coal Creek was ambitious from the outset, given that more than 1-1/2 million cubic yards of dirt had to be moved. Yet the course looks like it was always there, the hallmark of any great golf course.
“It was a big challenge; a massive undertaking,” said Grant Puddicombe.
With one lone exception — a course in Japan built on the side of a mountain — this is easily the Puddicombe’s most aggressive undertaking, and they have worked on or designed more than 100 golf courses from scratch.
“The potential was always there,” said Grant. “We always knew what it could be. But it has exceeded the expectations of a lot of people.”
“It’s alot better than i expected and I had high expectations,” said jason rasmuson, the course general manager. “But I never would have dreamt it would turn out this well.
“I don’t want to say it was a joke at first, but it was humorous because, at the outset, we had to reclaim the mine. We were thinking farmland at first, but then different members of the two families that own the course started saying things like, ‘You know, this piece of land would make a great golf hole.’ Then someone else would say another piece of the property would also make a good golf hole. It just blossomed from there.”
“The owners allowed us to get there,” said Grant. “A lot of the time, owners will hold back — at the end of the day, it is always the almighty dollar that lets you do everything you want. There was no holding back with this project.”
There are four tee boxes on every hole, enabling the course to stretch out to 7,207 yards from the back tees. The front boxes play from 5,384 yards, blues from just under 6,000 yards and silvers from 6,537 yards.
Coal Creek will be closed Mondays and Tuesdays to continue work on the course — about only half of the bunkers are finished — and green fees start at $42 from Wednesday to Friday and $54 on weekends.
“Best value in the Edmonton area. By far,” said Sid.
Seven holes were built on what Grant called “the baldass prairie,” while the other 11 were constructed on various stages of mining land. It seems to be impossible to pick out a signature hole, although Grant believes it will be No. 13, a lengthy 208 yards from the tips downhill par 3 that has octopus-shaped bunkers lining the front of the green.
But how you place that hole, good as it is, ahead of many of the others is anyone’s guess. There are simply no weak holes anywhere.
The opening hole, a mediumlength par 4 is simply gorgeous. Water left and right of the fairway, the hole ends on a green semi-circled by an amphitheatre where the white wheat grasses grow knee high. The green, as is the case throughout, is huge — two to three clubs different from front to back.
No. 3 is a beast. A par 5, the hole looks timid from the tee box. But first looks are deceiving.
“When you get to your drive, you see all the stuff going on. It’s like the curtains are drawn back and, all of a sudden, it’s fasten your seat belts,” Grant said of a hole with three bunkers by the green, part of the old quarry on the left.
No. 4 is a pretty, downhill par 3: bunkers left, water on the right. The presence of water is hardly an anomaly. It comes fully into play on 12 holes.
No. 7 is a risk/reward hole, like many at Coal Creek. There are two ways to get home — a shorter but chancier route, and the longer but safer option.
On and on it goes until you get to No. 18, a great finishing hole with more risk/reward options, a series of fairway bunkers off the tee and water protecting both sides of the green.
“There’s a lot of wow now,” said Rasmuson.
Coal Creek is only going to get better as the course matures. Some of the greens have had only four months of growing time.
“It’ll get better every day,” said Grant.