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A Player in the East Kootenays

Golf legend behind development of two of three new courses in southeast B.C.

Curtis Stock, Edmonton Journal Sports Writer

CRANBROOK, B.C. -- Golf on steroids. In what seems like a blink of an eye, B.C.'s East Kootenay region has muscled up, hitting one Grand Slam after another.

"When I first came to this area in 1976 as head professional at the Radium Resort course, there was just the old Radium and Fairmont," said Greywolf director of golf Peter Smith. "And Radium was just a nine-hole course."

Now there are 14 courses -- not including the smaller par-3 layouts like Creekside and Edgewater Hilltop -- and more on the way.

While the passage from Radium Hot Springs to Fairmount Hot Springs was the first to take off in B.C.'s Columbia Valley, the biggest growth is now coming from the south -- Kimberley and Cranbrook.

Three new golf course developments are key. Gary Player is behind two of them: Gary Player's Black Knight at Wildstone and the Gary Player Signature course. The third is Shadow Mountain. All three are minutes from Cranbrook.

"We're becoming a golf mecca," said Joel Savage, president of Wildstone, which is Player's first course design in Canada.

"With Shadow Mountain, St. Eugene Mission, Bootleg Gap and Trickle Creek, we've emerged as a golf destination."

Only accessible by road from the west in 1923 -- in 1915 the Kootenay Central Railroad began operating a regularly scheduled train service between Cranbrook and Golden -- the next biggest step is just around the corner. Cranbrook's newly expanded airport will soon be offering direct flights from Salt Lake City, Utah, three days a week.

"That will open the whole corridor up to the world," said Fred Mehl, director of marketing for Shadow Mountain, a course named because of the shadow of a bear -- really -- that appears below the ridge of Fisher Peak in the Canadian Rockies in the evenings.

"Without Delta, it probably wouldn't have been feasible until now; this gives us international status," agreed Savage, a former NHL first-round draft pick of the Buffalo Sabres in 1988.

Given the mountain vistas on all sides and the designs, Black Knight and Shadow Mountain both figure to become two of Canada's top courses. Both are looking at "soft" openings this fall with full use beginning next spring. The Gary Player Signature Course is further away, as is a fourth course -- Whiskey Jack, a Fred Couples design at Sparwood, north of Fernie near the Alberta border.

Player, who first toured Wildstone on horseback, has been quoted as saying: "This is the most beautiful site I've ever had the privilege to design a golf course on. Nature has given us this wonderful gift."

Lined in pine trees, the championship layout features some 900 feet in elevation change from the top of the course to the bottom.

"We wanted something that will make us stand out and that's what Wildstone will do," said Savage.

With the exception of greens and tee boxes, Wildstone is sodding the entire course; Shadow Mountain will be seeded in the next few weeks.

Both, of course, will have large residential components. While Wildstone will be a resort-style community, Mehl said Shadow Mountain "will have a community focus."

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