British Columbia`s Chateau Whistler a beautiful bear of a golf club
Released on = July 27, 2007, 11:06 am
Press Release Author = GolfPublisher Syndications
Industry = Media
Press Release Summary = Nature rules at B.C.\'s Chateau Whistler Golf Club. Course review at WorldGolf.com
Press Release Body = By Chris Baldwin, Senior Writer, Golf Publisher Syndications
Carved into the forest around British Columbia\'s Mount Blackcomb, Robert Trent Jones Jr.-designed Chateau Whistler Golf Club confronts golfers with tight fairways, natural hazards, black bears and one of the most spectacular settings in Canada golf.
WHISTLER, B.C. - When you\'re told there\'s a bear-testing station in the brush right behind the tee, your thoughts tend to stray from your swing.
Chateau Whistler Golf Club Director of Golf Rob Cochrane took on a reassuring tone. \"The bears are more afraid of you than you are of them.\"
He paused.
\"OK, that\'s completely not true,\" he laughed. \"The bears have actually gotten pretty used to people around here. They\'re not scared of golfers at all.\"
Hey, you wanted to golf in nature. In Whistler, the hip outdoor playground 80 miles north of Vancouver, that means bears with your birdies.
And you\'re more likely to encounter the bears at this Robert Trent Jones Jr. design, a 6,635-yard British Columbia golf course that plays tougher than many of today\'s 7,500-yarders.
Particularly if you\'re a slow starter or a late partier. The first four holes are Whistler\'s hardest, climbing 400 feet up Mount Blackcomb. Many a golfer\'s left a trail of curses and lost balls.
\"It\'s all downhill from here,\" Cochrane said enthusiastically after putting out on No. 4.
That doesn\'t necessarily mean your scorecard will get prettier. Chateau Whistler is not a golf course with some tidy nature around it. It\'s a thick forest that happens to have some fairways and greens tucked between the 1,300-year-old Douglas first.
The fairways are tighter than the Kansas City Royals\' budget. The doglegs are as plentiful as gray ponytails at a Dylan show. There are so many little rushing creeks you\'ll think God is scavenging for golf balls.
And there\'s a reason Cochrane guaranteed a bear sighting as we teed off.
Black bears romp through this forest, mere minutes from Whistler\'s bustling resort village. The testing station is right near the 10th tee; strands of barb wire snag fur samples, and disguised weights measure bears\' size when they step on to grab food left by the testers.
\"They\'re the friendly bears, though,\" Cochrane said of the blacks.
Maybe, but they have ways of letting golfers know whose forest this is. Mounds of droppings can be seen near a number of Chateau Whistler tees.
\"You want to mess with something that leaves that?\" visiting golfer Joe Grimm laughed.
For more details visit - : http://www.worldgolf.com/course-reviews/canada/chateau-whistler-british-columbia-golf-course-a-great-choice-5463.htm
July 27, 2007 Any opinions expressed above are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of the management.
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