Facelift for an old friend

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/06/2010 (5771 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A rain check always involves inconvenience. As in something’s out of stock or somebody isn’t available.

In golf, it’s the weather than causes most of them.

As rain checks go, none are likely to turn out better than the one Niakwa Country Club is about to cash in.

 

Originally scheduled for the 2008 Canadian Men’s Amateur Championship, the club could see its infrastructure and course improvements weren’t going to be completed to a satisfactory level and rather than put on a brave face and stage the event, opted to take the rain check from Golf Canada.

That’s going to turn into the 2011 Canadian Men’s Amateur and the Niakwa the competitors will see is one that will be moving back towards the prestige the club enjoyed as the host of the 1961 Canadian Open.

The anniversary will be a happy one indeed now that a stunning new drainage system, renovated bunkers and, at long last, three new and proper greens are complete.

The short-term pain began in 2005 under the presidency of Brad King, and a push from Mother Nature.

The miserable weather of recent years garnered plenty of support for the proposal to spend more than $1 million on fairway drainage alone.

With more than 20 days lost to rain and puddled fairways in 2005, it was none too soon.

About 42 miles of drainage pipe has been laid under the fairways, originally designed by the acclaimed Stanley Thompson, and of all the dollars spent to improve the club, this portion of the recently spent $2.4 million will pay off the most.

"We’re very pleased to be done," said Niakwa’s current president Rob Sproule. "We lost more than 20 days (for rain and slow drainage) in 2005. We had already started the project and it was just a mucky mess around here.

"But people have been very supportive, especially how things have turned out."

Not even the excess water of much of May and June has impeded play at Niakwa. Sproule said the club’s fairways are so well-drained, it hasn’t had to restrict cart use a single day this season.

More visible work at Niakwa is the bunker changes, designed to fix drainage and style problems.

Carrick design came up with the concept of returning Niakwa’s bunkers to the Thompson style — more mounded, more fingers and more face showing and in places, deeper. Thanks largely to the good work of Ian Andrew (now out on his own and also partnered with Mike Weir) and Cam Tyers, Niakwa’s formerly blah bunkers now catch the eye with a look of tradition.

The club has also added 14 new tees, some to lengthen the course to 6,618 yards and some to make it more playable for those not on the World Golf Rankings list.

And finally, Niakwa has gotten it right with three Doug Carrick-designed greens that have been problematic for years. Rebuilt putting surfaces at Nos. 5, 11 and 12 opened this spring and aside from a little customary firmness, you’d be hard-pressed to tell they were new.

"Dug right out with new drainage and all the layers to USGA specs," said Sproule of the three new greens. "And expanded in size a little to be able to take the traffic, because historically, our greens have been a little smaller."

The club is also adding a new greens nursery.

While the course is finally again a construction-free zone, there is one wrinkle. There always is.

The par-5 16th hole’s green complex remains unchanged and now its old-style round and flat bunkers don’t seem to fit.

Wanting to get it right, Sproule said, the club has held off on bunker restoration there because of issues with the nearby lake.

"We thought we’d have to dredge our lakes and looking at renovations, we’d like to extend that lake nearer the green," Sproule said. "We don’t have to dredge the lakes now but once we get our greens nursery done, I think we’re going to redo all of that around 16."

Looks are important, but in another wet year, if anyone involved in any way with golf in Manitoba needs convincing how important drainage is, we’ve got a long list of Niakwa members’ phone numbers we’d be glad to share.

 

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca