canada Tilting at Windmill

The Royal Canadian Golf Association can breathe a sign of relief: After more than two years’ worth of delays, it appears that Windmill Golf Group will soon break ground on the course that may host the 2016 Canadian Open.

The 7,800-yard course, in suburban Calgary, has been pegged for Canada’s premier golf event since 2009, when it was known as the Legacy Club. Since then, the track has been given a new name -– Copithorne Club, after Bill and Harriette Copithorne, who own the land it’ll sit upon –- and all indications are that construction will begin in the spring of 2012.

Windmill owns three golf properties in and around Calgary, including Silverwing Golf Course and Elbow Springs Golf Club. Its track at Copithorne has been co-designed by a pair of well-known touring pros, Johnny Miller and Stephen Ames, with assistance from two of Tom Fazio’s former associates, Tim Jackson and David Kahn of Phoenix, Arizona-based Jackson Kahn Design.

Copithorne will be among the attractions at Harmony, a 1,748-acre community that’s being developed by Calgary-based Bordeaux Developments. The course, which could eventually grow to 27 or even 36 holes, is now scheduled to open in 2015.

That still may be cutting it a bit close for the RCGA.