New Southwood in play

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/07/2011 (5411 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Today is an important day in Manitoba golf. It is a dream-to-reality day for Southwood Golf and Country Club.

The first members went off Southwood’s new first tee in St. Norbert early this morning as the Tom McBroom creation at long last opened.

It’s been more than four years since Southwood’s shareholders voted 98.5 per cent in favour of a move from their old facility next to the University of Manitoba to the 297-acre site adjacent to the old monastery ruins in St. Norbert.

As a reward for its patient shareholders and members, Southwood will be in member-only mode until Aug. 8, at which point guests will be allowed.

Today’s tee sheet was 200 per cent subscribed. Those who didn’t garner a time on Day 1 will be on the tee Saturday.

This is the first complete relocation of a regulation course in Canada in 40 years. Only two are known to have taken place in the country in the last 50 years, York Downs in 1971 and Shaughnessy in 1961.

The old Southwood’s last official day was last Sunday. The move took place this week, though some players have hit some shots without tee times or services at the old course.

Southwood’s opening today pretty much finishes Manitoba’s most expensive golf project ever, at nearly $15 million.

McBroom has moved 500 million cubic metres of earth to create the prairie/meadow look and his interest has been very hands-on.

And it was the renowned Canadian architect who urged the Southwood board and committee to wait until mid-year this year to let the golfers loose.

The back nine was easily playable last summer and the front nine could have been passable in a pinch, many have said.

Opening day is later than originally promised, but less than a year so, and considering the two wet seasons the Winnipeg area was presented during the bulk of the course construction, it’s a pretty good result.

“I’m very glad we waited,” said Ian Shaw, chair of Southwood’s project steering committee. “We saw the early part of this spring, we did not have good growing conditions. The golf course needed time. Tom was here several times. We were monitoring it and he was very keen to give the course as much time as possible to get it to a good state.”

Shaw and several committee and board members had a sneak peak last week on a windy afternoon.

“It’s awesome,” Shaw said. “It was a very emotional day for me personally. The course has everything that Tom promised, wide fairways, so even on a windy day it played well.

“It’s got some fescue like the British Open, a hazard, and some fescue that’s very playable. And I think the people who went out were totally blown away by the quality of the greens and their speed.”

The new par-72 track will measure from 7,336 yards back to 5,318, depending on how much you wish to bite off.

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Adam Hadwin, who shot 64 on Sunday and finished seventh at the Players Cup, tied former U.S. Open champ Geoff Ogilvy for fourth at two-under 278 for the four trips over lush Shaughnessy.

Hadwin has now had three PGA Tour starts and to call them promising is understatement.

He was the best Canadian at our Open last summer, 37th at St. George’s in Toronto. He finished tied-39th at the U.S. Open last month, and was tied-fourth at our Open.

Hadwin finished second in greens in regulation over the 72 holes at Shaughnessy and his latest finish put Hadwin in the field for this week’s tour event in West Virginia. He opened Thursday with an even-par 70 and trails Trevor Immelman by six.

There wasn’t a single bogey-free round posted at Shaughnessy. The last time that happened in a non-major was the 2008 Players Championship.

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A final note: Yet another press release from the Canadian PGA on Thursday but alas, once again it was not to say the organization has re-instated a proper Canadian PGA Championship, a tournament that used to carry lustre and weight in the world golf community.

FYI, Thursday’s press release was to reveal that the organization has changed its official name to The PGA of Canada.

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca