canada Rod Whitman’s Next Project?

     One of Canada’s hottest architects is negotiating to design a sustainable, family-friendly golf course on a stretch of farmland in Alberta.
     The commission for the 18-hole track is being discussed with Rod Whitman, the minimalist who created Cabot Links in Inverness, Nova Scotia. Cabot Links, which took its inspiration from classic British links, is the odds-on favorite to be named as the best course to open in Canada in 2012.

 

     Whitman’s new track will anchor Chinook Ridge Lodge, a small, downscale resort outside the village of Madden, roughly a half-hour’s drive northwest of Calgary.
     “Some details need to be worked out,” Whitman said via e-mail late last year. “It’s a bit too early to discuss specific design concepts at this time, but the intention is to make this one of the most eco-friendly golf courses built in recent times.”
     Chinook Ridge is being developed by Chloe Cartwright, who operates a nearby bed-and-breakfast that she says is too often booked solid. She aims to build a modest golf course suited to the needs of her guests and local residents. “Golf doesn’t have to be a rich man’s sport,” she said at a public forum in 2011.
     The course will be only partially irrigated, and it may be operated by students in the hospitality management program at a local college. The rest of the resort is expected to consist of a 21-room country inn, 15 cabins, 15 spaces for RVs, and a banquet center.
     Cabot Links isn’t Whitman’s only claim to fame. He co-designed (with Richard Zokol and Armen Suny) Sagebrush Golf Club in Quilchena, British Columbia, a track that SCOREGolf named as Canada’s best new course for 2009. He also has two Alberta courses on SCOREGolf’s top 100, Blackhawk Golf Club in Edmonton and the Old course at Wolf Creek Golf Resort in Ponoka.
     Rocky View County’s council approved a rezoning of Cartwright’s property in late 2012. Whitman reports that golf construction could start in the spring of 2013.

     The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the December 2012 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.