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Media Coverage
Reprinted from National Post
National Post, July 18, 2008
On Course For the Good Life
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On Course For the Good Life
Vernon, B.C.
Fred Couples takes out his driver on the par 4 No. 10 at The Rise and hits the ball to the right. It's heading over the water and, for a moment, you think great golfers make mistakes, too, because this is obviously going to get wet.
But it doesn't get wet. The ball keeps climbing and climbing and, just when it's almost out of sight, your eye picks it up as it begins a graceful drop to dry land, settling pin high, just off the green, about 330 yards from where Mr. Couples launched it.
To those of us who have perfected only two shots — the practice swing and the gimme put — the game played by Mr. Couples is not golf, it's rocketry. Try as we may, with lessons, practice and the latest in golf technology, we will never hit it as far with such accuracy, power and grace as the man known as Boom Boom.
We can, however, play from his tee boxes, if course marshals at The Rise like John Gradon, an affable Scot, let us. The back tees at the Rise are called the Boom Boom boxes after Mr. Couples, who helped design The Rise. Realistically they are the preserve of golfers with single-digit handicaps, especially on a course this young. Young courses play long because the fairways are soft. The Rise, officially christened last month in a ceremonial round by Mr. Couples, plays 6,884 yards from the Boom Boom tees, a distance that feels more like 7,000-plus given the age of this newcomer to the B.C. golf scene.
Even Mr. Couples admits the course will remain a challenge until it matures. Young course are like turbulent adolescents that will drive you crazy. They require patience and time.
"For the better players, my advice is to not play the back tees because it's pretty long right now," says the 1992 Masters champion. He recommends playing a mix of back and mid-tees, and don't hit driver every hole like he did. For mere mortals, stick to the whites. "Five years from now it will be an incredible place and be very playable." The Rise — one of dozens of golf-course communities in virtually every corner of B.C. — is a $1 billion residential golf resort and winery overlooking Lake Okanagan at Vernon. The course is destined to rival nearby Predator Ridge, which Mr. Couples has played twice as part of the Telus Skins Game. Unlike Predator, most holes at The Rise have views of the lake, as do the residential lots that are currently being
marketed in five neighbourhoods at prices ranging from $189,900 to $659,900.
Last week, The Rise released 1/4 to 1/2 acre vineyard lots starting at $399,900. Its top-end lots are in Watermark, a neighbourhood with sweeping, south-facing views straight down the lake. Cottages set among the developing vineyard will eventually come on the market starting at $349,000, a price point that developers says is in huge demand. "We are seeing a trend of young professionals who make good money but aren't ready to spend money on a big home," says Predator Ridge sales manager Ross McGaw. "They want the amenities of a large, beautiful home but they want it in a smaller package."
Predator Ridge will soon release 1,300 to 1,800 square foot townhomes in a community called Osprey Green, priced between $389,000 and $550,000.
Despite a market slowdown and fewer American buyers, developers remain bullish on B.C.'s residential golf market. According to the B.C. office of the National Golf Course Owners Association, there are 39 new proposals for golf course developments in that province, all with real-estate components.
In addition to The Rise, the other major newcomer to the B.C. golf resort scene is Tobiano, located within a working cattle ranch on a lake 20 minutes west of Kamloops that includes a full-slip marina. The real estate component of Tobiano features 95 golf course homes, 52 townhomes on a bluff overlooking Kamloops Lake and residences located near an equestrian centre complete with a network of trails that will connect riders to 17,000 acres of forest.
Tobiano is one of the first stops on the north-to-south route of what is being marketed as the Thompson-Okanagan Golf Trail. Winding from Kamloops in the north to Osoyoos in the south, it features 14 golf resorts and more than 100 wineries, all of which can be covered in four hours by car. The resort course tour represent just a fraction of the courses in the region. The Okanagan Valley alone has more than 60 courses. A website set up by the Okanagan Golf Alliance (www.spectaculargolf.com) offers one-stop booking for five of the best courses in the valley: Gallagher's Canyon, Harvest Golf Club, Predator Ridge, the Okanagan Golf Club and The Rise.
Mr. Couples first played the Okanagan at the 2000 Telus Skins came at Predator Ridge and was blown away by the region's weather and topography. He returned last month to play the 2008 Skins Game and to launch The Rise.
"Greg Norman came up, Phil Mickelson, everybody ranted and raved about it. Sergio (Garcia) bought a couple of places at Predator Ridge and has since sold them." For his inaugural round at The Rise, Couples invited NHL players Jarome Iginla of the Calgary Flames, Chuck Kobasew of the Boston Bruins and former NHL’ers Brent Gilchrist and Jeff Finley. "They flipped out. The views are incredible," said Mr. Couples.
Not be overlooked is B.C.'s Kootenay region, which offers both ski-and-golf residences at places such as the Greywolf course at Panorama ski resort, owned by Intrawest, the owners of Whistler-Blackcomb. Trickle Creek near Kimberley is a fabulous course with a ski hill that is consistently rated one of the best golf resorts in the country. Riverside Estates at Fairmont Hot Springs Resort recently released fairway and riverfront lots ranging form $179,000 to $499,000. Further west, there are also fairway residences at Sun Peaks, near Kamloops, which remains better known as a ski resort.
Developers says they aren’t nervous about market conditions that have seen Canadians flock to purchase Sun Belt properties, which according to a recent ReMax report has cut into the recreational property market in Canada.
“The market is slow, yes, but will it continue to stay there? I don't think so,” says Leona Snider, president and CEO of The Rise. “People who were coming to the Okanagan last year are still coming. Some of them might have bought homes in Phoenix or Palm Springs, but there are a lot of things to think about when you do that — health care, airfare, security. I think there is a big segment of the market that just doesn't want to hassle.”
Snider says with the coming wave of Baby Boom retirees, prospects remain strong for the Okanagan in particular.
“There's four million Canadians that are going to be retiring in the next 10 years. Of all the place in Canada, the Okanagan has been voted in the Top 10 for quite a long time,” says Snider, who doesn’t golf. For buyers like her, The Rise also has 100-feet of private beach on Lake Okanagan. She does, however, enjoy walking the 735-acre site, which she has done often since Purchasing the land 18 years ago. “At the age I am today, I’m so glad there a lot of cart paths so I can drive it instead of walk it.”
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Reprinted from National Post
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