Patrons at the Maple Ridge golf course are finally set to get all 18 holes back after eight months of waiting.
The Maple Ridge golf course, which is located at 1240 Mapleglade Drive SE saw holes 13, 14 and 15 close last September due to the widening of the interchange at Southland Drive and Deerfoot Trail.
John Faber, Lead Golf Course Operations for the City of Calgary and Ryan Getschel Project Lead with Buildings and Architecture for the City of Calgary, were out at the all-new 13th hole to discuss the finished product of holes 13 and 14 after months of construction.
“As part of the interchange program Deerfoot is widening to three lanes here, and they’re putting in a basket weave, so that just meant they were going to need to encroach and get pretty close to our property line, so we helped them out and sold some land,” Faber said.
“We ended up reconfiguring the golf holes (13 and 14) to make it more playable, more player-friendly and hopefully it enhances our playing experience.”
Getschel oversaw the beginning of the project but is also a golfer himself at Maple Ridge.
He’s very happy with how the newly revamped holes turned out.
“I think the end result obviously is a really good quality product that’s playable and suits the needs of the golfers they have here,” Getschel said.
After testing out the drivability of hole 13, Faber and Getschel met up with Wade Horrocks on the 13th green.
Horrocks was the Ground Cubed Golf Course Architect of the project and much like Faber and Getschel he was very impressed with how the project turned out.
“The project went great, we had a great team, first we were supported very well and enabled by the City of Calgary and we had a great contractor (Wilco contracting) everyone worked together and I think I speak on behalf of all of us to saying that it turned out great overall,” Horrocks said.
“The entire project was about $1.2 million, and it came in on time and on budget.”
Changes to the course
The Southland/Deerfoot construction ended up impacting hole 14 the most by the end of the project.
Due to construction, the property boundary was shifting into hole 14, which necessitated the change.
The hole has now been converted from a par 5 into a par 4.
The reconstruction also allowed for wider fairways, which opens the possibility of driving the ball with more force due to the forgiving nature of the wider fairways. This also encourages newer golfers to swing more freely without the fear of hitting the ball into the rough.
Hole 14 still offers enough challenges for seasoned golfers, as there are now new bunkers that add a new element of strategy for regulars of the course, while also bringing visual appeal for all patrons.
The new renovations enabled more variety due to the new forward tees. This was done to make the overall experience enjoyable for everyone.
This was important to Horrocks when deciding on the changes that were being made.
“This project provided us the opportunity to add more forward tee’s for more diversity in length so it could be a more enjoyable playing experience for a greater variety of players, which of course is of the utmost importance on a public golf course,” Horrocks said.
Moving the tee approximately 70 yards forward had impacts on hole 13.
The green for hole 13 needed to be moved, and because of this, they were able to offer exciting new elements to the hole.
The elevation of the driving box to the green changed about 60 feet, which makes for a challenging par 3 that offers a much different look to the mostly flat front 9.
Much like hole 14, hole 13 has a new bunker to the left of the hole. Horrocks described this new bunker as one of the deepest and most challenging of the course.
Holes 13, 14, and 15 are set to reopen Wednesday, May 17 to all golfers. Tee times and rates for the par 71 course are located here.
