Golf Course 101, or, If you build it they will come...

By 250 News

-by Lee Sexsmith, Alder Hills Golf 


Layout plans for the Alder Hills Golf Course while under construction

The idea for Alder Hills Golf, an 18-hole par three built in the eastern corner of Prince George, was born one sunny fall day in 2001. With all the confidence that a complete lack of experience will inspire, we dived head first into designing and building a golf course. It is only with generous portions of the luck usually reserved for fools and drunks that Alder Hills Golf successfully opened on September 05, 2004.

As luck would have it, members of our family are hard workers, and with a small JD 350 dozer and a power saw, we happily started work in the spring of 2002. It is hilarious now, but at that time we thought the golf course could be open that fall. We simply did not see the ton of bureaucratic bricks that would come down at us from the various levels of government.

The federal government DFO demanded fish studies and a huge eco zone along an adjacent seasonal creek, and the city demanded covenants to pave over the same darn creek. We were told we should keep water samples from the creek, but there was no water in the creek in mid-summer. The city demanded consultants and engineering studies on everything from water and access to fire protection etc. Dealing with those two levels of governments was very discouraging, but blind luck and stubbornness won the day and we were able to continue after many delays and battles. I wouldn’t recommend the experience to anyone. We could have just as easily lost everything.

On the other hand, liquor regulation changes by the provincial Liberal government in 2002, provided key improvements in the financial projections for the business. The banks like that kind of stuff. Lucky for us, because building the golf course cost twice as much as we first thought.

The 55 acre golf course is built mostly on a tan colour clay loam and we trucked about 450 loads, six yards each, of topsoil from the driving range to the fairways that needed a jump start. The fairways total about 11 acres in all, excluding a large gully that runs through the middle of the property. The greens, averaging about 50’ x 60’, were built by putting down a light filter cloth on a depressed clay pan, then laying down perforated drain tubes on top of the cloth and fitted into channels already cut in the clay for drainage. Next 4 inches of drain rock went over all that and finally 8 inches of sand on top. All water from the drain tubes is collected and fed into nearby collector ponds. During grow-in each greens was getting over 1500 gallons per day that had to be controlled and collected.

Water, beautiful water, was another bit of luck. We drilled a 6-inch casing down to 92 feet by the clubhouse and found a 12-foot gravel pay zone that produces 65 gallons per minute with ease. The well water is pumped into a 350,000-gallon reservoir and pushed into the irrigation line at 350 gallons per minute. The irrigation system, designed by Vern at Van-Kel, is a block system controlled by electric manifold valves. We are very happy with the system and thank-you very much Vern.

After two years of listening we finally decided on Poa Reptan from Scott Seeds for our greens, and a mixture of blue grass on the fairways and tee boxes. Time will tell if we have made a lucky choice again or not. The Poa came up on schedule with roots quickly going right to the bottom of the sand zone. The blue grass fairways were seeded on the snow in the March and had to go without water until mid July, but by the time we opened in September there was a good turf started.

The special features of our golf course were a combination of design and the variety of terrain and vegetation we had to work with. The seven bridges on our par three were a result of the terrain, but the design of tee boxes and placement was our contribution. Every tee box has a grass surface plus a concrete pad and driving range mat. The size of the grass tee boxes range from 1500 sq ft to 700 sq ft. Number Twelve has two tee pads with a second pad elevated about fourteen feet above the back of the tee box. Tee box numbers Five, Two and Seventeen are pushed up close to the gully and Ten is at the base of a hill. Every green except number Ten has a pond nearby, but these necessities were placed to come into play as little as possible. We wound up with a course layout that was easy to play, once one gets the hang of the optical illusions and mental challenges.

Yardages on our 18-hole course measures in at 2,393 yards, but can vary wildly, depending on how we set it up that day. For example number Three with its’ 60 foot long tee box, and down hill 70 yard fairway, must be played carefully when the tee blocks are moved. Number Ten, an 80 yard fairway and 32 feet vertical is a real spectator sport as everyone dials in their best club. Lots of smiles on that hole, most often from by the gallery. Number Fifteen our longest fairway can play from 170 to 195 yards. We have not selected a signature hole yet, but feedback from the players has narrowed it down to 12 of the 18 possibilities.

Roughs are a very important component of any golf course that I play, and as luck would have it most of our course was a hay field in the late 1960’s. Over the years the area had grown up in Spruce and Pine that is now 20 to 30 feet tall. Curiously, the regen produced lots of wild flowers but very little scrub or willows so all we needed to do was thin out the Pine and Spruce trees and mow in between to finish our roughs.

When it comes to luck I must mention the weather. If those construction summers had been wet we would not be open, but we were very lucky indeed. The summers of 2002, 2003 and 2004 were hot and sunny, and the rain did not trouble us until the day we opened. Then we were hit with three weeks of cold wet weather in September, but by then it did not matter.

We finished up the first season on October 10, 2004. After five weeks, at the end of the golf season, in cold, wet, muddy conditions, we still sold 1200 rounds plus revenue from the driving range, rentals, beverage etc.

Best of all was the high volume of positive feed back. Now we are really looking forward to the 2005 season, because the customer is never wrong.

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