You don’t need an elephant’s memory to recall when Kananaskis Country Club – and its two 18-hole gems, Mount Kidd and Mount Lorette – was considered Canada’s Shangri-La, a postcard-perfect golfing community.
Located in a bucolic fold in the Alberta Rockies, you need only travel back to June 19, 2013 to recall when playing there was bucket list material.
Then overnight, everything changed.
Some called the June 20 flood a 200-year storm. In all, an estimated 300 millimeters fell, dislodging the deep spring snow still clinging to the surrounding foothills. The Evan Thomas Creek alluvial fan literally buried alive the course in all the spillage. In some places, the debris was eight-feet deep.
The K-Club’s general manager, Darren Robinson, remembers standing gap-jawed with course superintendent Calvin McNeely and long-time pro Bob Paley on a high hill above the course and eyeing up the carnage. But mincing disbelief with disappointment and blaming Mother Nature, isn’t the K-Club way. Robinson and his team got busy and recruited an army of volunteers. Cue the clean-up and rebuild.
On May 10th, the K-Club’s Mount Lorette 18-holer will re-open. Mount Kidd will be back in business by August.
Kananaskis 2.0 is a true tale of renewal, with the full support of its neighbour clubs in a consortium called Canadian Rockies Golf (www.canadianrockiesgolf.ca/). That group includes Canmore Golf and Curling Club, Jasper, Banff Springs, Kananaskis, Stewart Creek and Silvertip.
At its height, Kananaskis pumped out 56,000 to 70,0000 rounds per year, divided between club members, corporate events, and inbound golf vacationers. So, where did those rounds go when Kananaskis was destroyed?
Darren Cooke, director of golf at Canmore Golf and Curling Club thinks the old saying, “a rising tide raises all boats,” very much applies here. Sure, he says, other clubs opened their doors when Kananaskis closed, but it was always with the idea that the K-Club would rejoin its portfolio.
Adds Cooke: “Playing golf in the Rockies can be a lifelong memory for many people. We love sharing it with others. To see it coming back on stream is exciting for us. I feel businesses in Kananaskis, Canmore and Banff will benefit from this renewed excitement.”
Greg Andrew, the general manager and executive professional at Stewart Creek Golf and CC in Canmore, agrees. Kananaskis gives many of the three or four-day visitors to the region another great golfing choice. “Visitors to our area will be able to feed off the collective,” he says.
Persistence describes the hours spent by community volunteers who literally dug the courses out of the muck. The executive team also formulated a plan to recreate the former Robert Trent Jones design and make it “more playable.” What didn’t change, and never will, is the K-Club’s gobsmacking beauty.
Yes, the Kananaskis comeback is a minor miracle. Earlier this year, it reopened its reservations office. It will be back to full employment (150) by the end of this summer, which includes 15 full-timers. By the time the first snowflakes fly this fall, it will be clear if it comes close to matching the numbers it produced in 2012 – its last season of full operation.
