June 2007
Dear Ted,
I wanted to take a moment and congratulate you and your staff on Sandpiper Golf Club being voted ‘Most Scenic Golf Course’ in British Columbiain our 2006 GolfNerve Readers Choice Awards. Readers were invited to vote for the Best Golf Courses via ballot form published in our Sept/Oct issue of GolfNerve Magazine as well as a downloadable ballot form on www.golfnerve.net.
GolfNerve Magazine is the premiere golf and leisure lifestyle magazine in the Chinese language and is read by 40,000 mother tongue Chinese golfers in British Columbia.
The winners, as featured in Mar/Apr 2007 issue of GolfNerve Magazine,
are as follows:
Mark Hood, Special To North Shore News
http://www.canada.com/northshorenews/story.html?id=4c9561e7-ab21-43be-822d-18fdae49ccbb
Click the above link to watch the story in video!
Sandpiper is a labour of love
Fraser Valley course is a quick country getaway
Published: Wednesday, April 30, 2008
In Harrison Mills, the Sandpiper Golf Resort is celebrating its 10th anniversary as an 18-hole course this June. Chronologically at the new end of the spectrum, Sandpiper is something more. There's a serenity about the place that has its roots in more than eight decades of symbiotic stewardship. This is a family's legacy and a labour of love shared with all who pass through the gates.
Charles and Rowena Pretty purchased a large acreage on the western shore of the Harrison River in 1924. Over the years, they raised a family, worked in the lumber business and turned their property into a private retreat, someplace were they could escape the bustle of city life.
When Charles passed away in 1992 at the age of 102, the estate went to his surviving children, Ivan Pretty and Betty Anne Faulkner. They had grown up surrounded by the all of property's exquisite natural beauty of forests and mountains, streams and rivers. Betty Anne was actually born there.
Between them the siblings developed a vision and a concept to share this very private, personal place with the rest of the world. Plans for Rowena's Inn on the River and the Sandpiper Golf Resort began to form.
The house was in need of renovating and updating. They kept it in the family. Betty Anne's husband Doug was an architect, and his keen eye and sense of space enabled them to restore the building, using design elements from the original construction to recreate a quiet, intimate grandeur.
Betty Anne did the interior design and used her knowledge of antiques, supplemented with pieces from the family's own collection, to conjure an ambience of sophisticated simplicity. Now called Rowena's Inn on the River, the house is open to all and has become a preferred destination for harried city dwellers looking for a peaceful refuge. It is the geographic centrepiece of the resort.
Brother Ivan attended to the property away from the house. He looked at the setting, a gradually rising forested landscape between the river and mountains, and thought: golf course. Choosing the Sechelt-based golf course design firm of Olson, Beatty, Hnatiuk, Ivan began the process of carefully adding a golf facility to the property, weaving fairways between ancient trees, creating a giant living tapestry. It was done with sensitivity to both the surrounding environment and memories of the land he had known and loved all his life.
Charles Pretty's descendants could have just sold the valuable waterfront property off for developers to log and level. A wild stretch of river, a historic home and a playground for eagles and otters could have become one more housing development in the anonymous line of urban transmutation stretching from Howe Sound to Hope.
But to have sold it would have been to put an end to the very thing they loved. No amount of money would have been worth it for them.They felt that with hard work and determination you can always make more money. Only God can create a setting like this. It was, and is, theirs still.
That they have chosen to share it with the world is to their credit and our benefit.
Today, the Sandpiper Golf Resort continues to attract rave reviews from locals and visitors alike. Opened at first as an inn in 1995 (with the initial nine holes added in 1996) the final unveiling came on June 1, 1998 when the full 18 holes were inaugurated for public play.
We had an opportunity recently to play, and play we did.
It was Masters Saturday and, after a cold extended winter, it was the sunniest day of the year so far. The group assembled: Dan Rees of 3-D landscaping, Dan Foster of NAR Construction, Andrew Skuse of Biopacific Diagnostic, and me.
The forecast had been calling for a rare sunny day, yet with only a few days to go, snow fell. We were hopeful but not overly optimistic.Then: dawn, Saturday. The sun was shining and you could feel the air slowly stirring as it warmed in the unfamiliar glare of sunlight. We had nailed it.
To drive from North Vancouver to Harrison Mills is to see the psychic geography of relaxation unfold before your eyes. Tall buildings and congested traffic arteries yield gradually to lower density fields and farms. Whether you cross the Fraser River at Mission or Rosedale on your way out, you're soon surrounded by rolling countryside, lazy estuaries, forests and birdsong.
Driving through the gates of the Sandpiper Golf Resort for the first time is to find something you didn't even know you were looking for. The inn, restaurant and clubhouse are all tucked discreetly away at the end of the drive, inviting you in.
We parked, unloaded and prepared. Arriving early gave us time to check in, enjoy a leisurely breakfast at the River's Edge restaurant, and check out the combined course guide and scorecard.
At 6,500 yards from the rear tees, Sandpiper offers plenty of length for big hitters. Andrew is a very good golfer and can send the ball a long way, yet consented to join us mere mortals on the white tees for a lowly 6,008 yards of play.
From the whites, the first hole is a 543-yard gradual dogleg left. Andrew's draw left him in ideal position to attack the pin in two as we caught up with him and soldiered on toward the green.
Beginning on the second tee, it's essentially an uphill meander as you stroll toward the eighth hole and the highest spot on the course. Along the way, there are a couple of interesting highlights. The front nine par 3s look benign, but pack a surprising challenge. The 199-yard third hole is on a slight down slope and distances are deceiving. Likewise, the short par-3 seventh. At 106 yards, it looks simple, yet none of us landed our tee shots on the green.
The sixth hole is an uphill 364-yard dogleg left, well treed on either side of the fairway. You've got a larger landing area than you think but if you tend to slice, avoiding the woods is a challenge. Play for the slice to the left side, and the trees are very grabby. Too far to the right and there's long rough, sand traps and worse trouble waiting for you. The green is fronted with a large bunker and the shallow putting surface demands accuracy on approach. It's a terrific hole.
From the ninth tee, your journey back begins as you traverse the grade down toward the river and the final hole. Fairways criss-cross the forest floor and streams and creeks add soothing background music to accompany your shot contemplations. Bald Eagles soar with majestic indifference above it all.
If you can't relax here, I suggest therapy.
