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Every Summer, Canada’s Top Ski Resort Becomes a Magnificent Four-Course Meal of Mountain Golf and Outdoor Ecstasy
by Vic Williams
Sometimes the good ol’ iPod plays wonderful tricks on a writer’s mind during an extended shuffle session. As I struggled to find the perfect start to a golf, grub and good-times tour of Whistler, British Columbia, the little digital white wonder threw together, as if by providence, two songs that sum up the beginning of any journey to that sublime alpine locale: A reflective Paul McCartney crooning “The Long and Winding Road,” followed by Sheryl Crow throwing her soul into “Every Day is a Winding Road.”
Visit Whistler and you’ll understand. The road from the Vancouver airport is not only long and winding, it’s 75 miles (120 kilometers) of such incredible mountain-meets-ocean beauty that it’s nearly beyond description. As with a great pop song, Canada’s first visual “listen” is a doozie, and its singular tune will ring through your mind for months.
Once you get there — first zigzagging through downtown Vancouver, then skirting fjord, river, cliff and forest in a gradual “Sea to Sky” climb through granite, glacier-capped coast ranges — and find your way to one of Whistler’s four magical golf courses, the musical leitmotif continues: Long. Winding. Transcendent.
In short, Whistler is a wonder to all who venture there, no matter what the season. Its already high profile as a world-class ski resort will go stratospheric when Vancouver hosts the Olympic Winter Games in 2010 — Whistler will host all outdoor events except snowboarding and freestyle — but for folks who prefer swinging over schussing, it’s already among the higher reaches of North American golf.
“When you come to Whistler, there are so many things to do in the summer recreation-wise, besides the golf,” says Alan Kristmanson, director of golf at Whistler Golf Club, an Arnold Palmer-designed, parkland-style track that opened in 1989. “You can be entertained for a week or two-week stay — alpine hiking, mountain biking, dining, shopping. And we think the facilities are second to none — some of the top hotels in North America, the top restaurants in North America. So it’s just a great place to come, and you can’t get it all done in one trip. You’ll have to come back a few more times.”
Arnie was the first to leave his mark on the magnificent terrain. Then came Robert Trent Jones (Chateau Whistler Golf Club, 1993), Bob Cupp (Big Sky Golf and Country Club, 1994) and finally Jack Nicklaus, whose Nicklaus North opened as the Bear’s first British Columbia signature course in 1995.
“All the courses are great, but Nicklaus North gave us enough golf — four big courses — to offer a really different, unique experience,” says Hugh O’Reilly, the town’s mayor, official Olympic envoy and all-around font of information for all things Whistler. “The Nicklaus name, the brand, and being able to host big events sort of pulled up the caliber and expectations of everybody. Add to that the resort experience, the village and the setting, and that is what really carried the day.”
(“Big Event” alert: Vijay Singh, John Daly and two other to-be-named Tour stars will tee it up at Nicklaus North on July 3-5 for the Canadian Skins Game, making Whistler the first place to host the popular made-for-TV event twice).
Andrew Smart, Nicklaus North’s head golf professional, says his course is the perfect spot to host such a soiree. “Having a Nicklaus signature course puts the cherry on top. It gives credibility to the other three. In the early ’90s, things really started to happen in Whistler, both from a ski standpoint and a golf standpoint. Timing was impeccable for Nicklaus North to come on line. And the development around here kind of took it up a notch. It’s really unique.”
Together Whistler’s fearsome foursome of architectural talent wrote a living textbook on how to build a course to the proper scale in soaring surroundings. Peaks rise 7,000 to 9,000 feet above each course.
Big Sky, located 25 miles north of Whistler in the verdant Pemberton Valley, is close enough to Mount Currie’s sheer cliffs for golfers to hear the low, throaty rumble of rockslides and the hawk’s high cry.
Chateau Whistler, meanwhile, is the one true mountain golf experience, terraced along piney slopes, rife with trademark Trent Jones bunkering and trickily-tiered greens, and frequented most often by bears that sometimes venture into the village below.
Each architect used the spectacular setting to huge advantage. They framed as many tee shots as possible with jagged peaks and ancient glaciers, then doubled the effect by reflecting the severe topography in lakes and ponds. Their designs are never dwarfed in scale. They’re enhanced — dramatized, even.
“The best thing about the golf aspect of coming to Whistler is the four courses,” says Kristmanson. “That’s a pretty solid group of designers. They’ve all got their own tendencies, and the golf courses are all very different. You’ve got mountain golf at Chateau, valley golf at the other three. Nicklaus and Palmer are two very distinct designers. But even taking them out of the equation, it’s what you’re playing around, what you’re looking at, that make this place special.”
The visuals, the scale, the weather (deep-powder paradise in the 30s and 40s in winter, 50s and 60s in the shoulder seasons, near-perfect 70s to 80s in summer, the ability to ski and golf in the same day well into late spring) … yeah, Whistler has nature dialed in (or vice-versa), and that’s what attracted resort giant Intrawest to the region back in the 1970s. They took the original plans of the Whistler Village Land Company (which, along with land owned by Crown Corporation, was bought out by British Columbia’s provincial government in the early 1980s) and ratcheted up the manmade wow factor.
“Intrawest weren’t really the master planners of the Village; they liked what they saw and replicated it in other locations, but they had little involvement in the original Village,�� says O’Reilly. “They were given development rights when the [ski] mountains were first created; the ski areas were built separately, then combined under Intrawest. Other than what’s on the mountain, they have a few shops and do some property management.”
Like the courses, the Village — actually two villages, “Main” and “Upper” — maintain a perfect sense of scale and simply beg visitors to wander from shop to shop, restaurant to restaurant and bar to bar, just as glacier-fed, milky-blue Fitzsimmons Creek twists and tumbles through the valley itself. The entire community is planned to the square centimeter, but always with deference to the granite sentries surrounding every hotel, ski chalet and tee box.
“The Village was master-planned in 1975 — it took seven and a half years to do all the studies, sun angles, parking, seating, etc,” O’Reilly says. “It’s designed like a mountain stream — it meanders. You know how water in a stream pools and fish gather at the edges? That’s the idea here. Traffic is in the middle for pedestrians, and there are places along the edges for people to sit and gather. It’s built to proper scale — buildings are smaller at the front, taller behind. It’s not overwhelming.”
What is overwhelming, in a good way, is the epic view from atop Whistler Mountain after a 20-minute gondola ride from the main Village. Several thousand feet down is the valley floor with its dozens of hotels, lodges, homes and three of the four golf courses; tucked between peaks above and across the way are several glaciers that, when viewed from a helicopter (spring for a tour if you’re adventurous), are among the most breathtaking sights in North America. Skiers get this view all winter long and for much of the summer; a few slopes stay open for all but a couple weeks in August.
Golfers get their fill of killer views from below — the kind of to-die-for diversions found in only a handful of Western Hemisphere mountain destinations. Then there’s the golf itself, which is amazing enough on an individual basis. Taken together, Whistler’s four courses offer a rare journey into giddy golf gestalt, all summer long.
“We’re a little farther north, so in June you can play until 10 o’clock in the evening, with the lakes beside you — it’s a really magical experience,” O’Reilly says. “When we start in May, half the mountain is still open for skiing; you can watch people ski while you’re playing golf, with that beautiful alpenglow at sundown — about five minutes when all the peaks and glaciers turn pink. It’s pretty amazing.”
A persistent run of low-hanging clouds and drizzle didn’t hamper the amazement factor as 10 golf scribes from the United States and Canada, along with O’Reilly, Smart, Kristmanson, Chateau Whistler Director of Corporate Golf Rod Cochrane and Big Sky Director of Sales Dean Larsen, teed it up last August in Whistler’s “Writer’s Cup,” a semi-Ryder Cup styled event that put a slight competitive edge into an otherwise relaxed four-day, four-course tour of Canadian high life.
By day it was wall-to-wall golf interspersed with some friendly gamesmanship. By night it was luxury accommodations at the 550-room Fairmont Chateau Whistler (named Canada’s No. 1 Golf and Ski Resort by Conde Nast Traveler), the best food Whistler could muster, more than a few cocktails and cigars and nearly unrelenting spells of laughter.
Chateau Whistler Golf Club opened the festivities with a tour of the David Leadbetter Golf Academy, where Senior Certified Instructor Jeff Saager and his staff make full use of what might be the most beautiful and peaceful practice facility in Canada, with a 330-yard, double-sided range, two putting greens and chipping greens, seven target greens, three bunkers and an indoor learning and clubfitting center outfitted with state-of-the-art video swing analysis. What a place to warm up — and we needed every minute of range time because Trent Jones Jr. was on his game when he laid Chateau Whistler on the side of Blackcomb Mountain. Routed through narrow pine-and-granite corridors with a river and the occasional waterfall in play on several holes, the course covers more than 300 feet of elevation change. To a man, it qualified as the week’s toughest test, though Cochrane says great strides are taken to keep it fun.
“Of all the golf the courses — and there are reasons to fall in love with each of them �� it’s the one that delivers on what people are expecting from a mountain golf destination,” he says. “We’re always doing things to enhance playability, to make sure people don’t feel like they fought the course at the end of the day.”
The next day brought a 36-hole marathon set — Nicklaus North in the morning, Whistler Golf Club in the afternoon. It’s a good one-day pairing since the courses are close to each other and offer different takes on Whistler’s brand of valley golf.
Jack’s strongest design traits are in full evidence here — wide fairways, plenty of bunkering and interesting greens, including a double green shared by holes 3 and 12, the latter a signature, 200-yard par 3 over water. It doesn’t reach the 7,000 yard mark and the longest par 5 is 529 yards from the blue tees, though a couple of 4-pars are quite muscular by any standards.
“This course is a little bit kinder than Chateau Whistler,” Smart says. “There’s lots of room to swing the golf club and hit it all over the joint. People say the fairways are wide enough to land a jet — across the fairway. It’s not really a traditional Nicklaus course; there’s lots of openings into the greens so you can run it up.”
Still, with water on 12 holes, Nicklaus North doesn’t treat sloppy or unfocused play well. And its wide-open, unfiltered views of the mountains are tops among Whistler’s three courses.
Down the road at Whistler Golf Club, there’s a more traditional feel around the clubhouse and course — country clubbish with a fine top-level muni streak, in keeping with Arnold Palmer’s “everyman” ethic. The grounds are well-groomed and the course itself has the mature look of one much older. And don’t let the 6,676-yard maximum distance fool you; the course’s lush rough, lots of water (14 holes if you count the creeks) and Arnie’s penchant for tight and quick doglegs turns this into a surprising test. Put a steady light rain into the mix and it’s a (non-Golden) bear.
“The last few holes on the back nine, especially, are challenging and very memorable,” Kristmanson says. “The greens here are always in top condition, and you’ve got to be accurate off the tee. And make sure to enjoy the wildlife — waterfowl, deer, a black or brown bear once in a while.”
The Whistler crew saved the most spectacular round for last, at least in Fairways & Greens’ eyes. We didn’t hop a bus to Big Sky Golf and Country Club; instead we arrived by helicopter in shifts, swooping through the canyon between Whistler and Pemberton, incredible terrain seemingly at our fingertips. I couldn’t help but think of the famous scene from Apocalypse Now, complete with Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries.” There we were, Yanks and Canucks going to golf battle for the final time. We all loved the smell of tee times in the morning — and positively adored what Bob Cupp hath wrought over Big Sky’s wetlands and forests. After all, he excels in this type of setting.
“You’ll see some similar design features to Pumpkin Ridge and Crosswater and The Reserve [Cupp’s award-winners in Oregon],” Larsen says. “You look at the greens and they’re pretty good size, with collection areas. Cupp’s hollows, they call them … false fronts where you really have to hit it to the right place.
“There are generous landing areas, but if you miss the fairway, it makes the approach shots pretty tough. If you play closer to the hazards, the approach is much easier; if you veer away, the approach is tougher — the greens are more shallow. A lot of subtle risk-reward stuff. There are shorter little 4-pars where you think you can get one back, but it’s tight.”
Big Sky has four sets of tees — over 7,000 yards from the blacks, a pretty good test since it’s only 600 feet above sea level, 1,600 feet below Whistler. And it’s five to six degrees Celsius warmer than Whistler, close to 10 degrees in the summer. “It can get close to 100 degrees Fahrenheit here, though in winter we’ll have five or six feet of snow,” Larsen says. The bentgrass greens, tees and fairways weather the extremes well.
Big Sky has been rated among the Top 100 courses for women in North America, so if you’re vacationing as a couple (or a family, for that matter) and have time for just one round, this might be the place. It’s also right up there with Chateau Whistler for practice and teaching facilities, with a separate, expansive range and adjacent short course.
So how to rank Whistler’s Fab Four? Call it a dead heat, not only for grizzled golf writers (though Fairways & Greens puts Big Sky first because we carded our best round there, helping the American team take the Writer’s Cup), but the general public as well.
“The best thing we hear about the golf,” Krismanson says, “is when we ask people what’s their favorite course, we hear different things all the time. That’s truly a strength.”
Want an even stronger reason to visit? This year, for the first time, Whistler’s golf and lodging entities have partnered up to offer true stay-and-play packages for individuals and groups, at rates that should keep Yanks coming across the border despite their dollar weakening against Canada’s over the past few months.
“It gets us more in line with Palm Springs, Arizona, Myrtle Beach, Florida, catches us up to the rest of the market,” Smart says. “The golf is pretty cool, but we need a hook. For instance, from Reno-Tahoe there are 20 regions within five hours that people can drive to. We have to come up with a reason for people to go, ‘You know what? It’s worthwhile to take a flight for three hours, then drive for an hour and a half to get up here.’”
For Whistler and its sun-loving army of summertime visitors, the long and winding road is certainly rewarding. FG
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WHISTLER
BRITISH COLUMBIA
CANADA
(866) 338-4026
www.golfwhistler.com
Four-course Stay & Play packages are available
Whistler Golf Club
(800) 376-1777
www.whistlergolf.com
Rates from $49 to $159
Chateau Whistler Golf Club
(604) 938-8000
www.fairmont.com
Rates from $55 to $225
Nicklaus North Golf Club
(800) 386-9898
www.golfbc.com
Rates from $60 to $210
Big Sky Golf and Country Club
(800) 668-7900
www.bigskygolf.com
Rates from $40 to $199
Whistler is located 75 miles north of Vancouver via Highway 99.
Air service to Vancouver from all major West Coast airports via Alaska, America West, Delta and others, with ground, rail or commuter plane transportation.
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