The Boissevain Golf Course is trying to expand from a par-33, nine-hole course to a par-36, but the project has run into bureaucratic delays.
The club has come to an agreement with local farmer Trevor Hart to purchase nearly 10 acres of his land southeast of the course, so that the second hole can be extended from a par-4 to a par-5, a new par-3 third hole can be built and new tee boxes for the fifth hole can be added to make it a par-5. The Town of Boissevain has also approved the land sale and the surveying is done. All club organizers need now is the land title documents to be approved.
Club president Garry Zeiler has been waiting for approval since June, and the extended wait is putting the project behind schedule.
“The original plan was to open a new course in the spring of 2014,” Zeiler said. “That was to get it graded, irrigated and grass growing this year and we’re nowhere near that. The worst case scenario is the spring of 2015. The best case is sometime in the summer of 2014.”
Zeiler and the rest of the club’s executive have been looking at expanding the course for a while, but finally got the proposal approved this year. The current course doesn’t have a par-5 hole, and it has a reputation of being a pitch-and-putt because it’s only a par-33, even though the last three holes are 400, 420 and 370 yards.
That has resulted in an aging membership and fewer people from outside the community coming to Boissevain to play. Zeiler hopes these modifications will bring out more people, especially from Brandon.
“Our course right now is made up of mainly senior golfers, so in the future you have to attract the younger golfers,” Zeiler said. “The younger golfers with the technology nowadays, they can hit it a mile. To me, everyone likes to get on a par-5 and putt for eagle and you can’t do that if you don’t have one.”
The original estimate of the addition was around $210,000, but Zeiler is hoping that number will decrease. He’s found three farmers who are willing to donate tractors and scrapers for a day to help them grade the land and he’s hoping more volunteer labour and equipment will save the course some money so they can work on more projects. The club wants to expand a lot of its greens as well.
However, that is all in limbo right now until the land title documents go through. Until then, organizers are sitting and hoping they can get some work done before the snow hits the ground.
“The perfect scenario would be to get it graded this year,” Zeiler said. “Who knows, maybe get some topsoil down and maybe throw some seed down to let it mature itself over the winter and then in the spring irrigate.”
CHIP SHOTS: The Rose Bowl match-play tournament will run from Saturday through Monday at the Neepawa and Country Club … Neepawa will then host the Cornucopia Classic on Sept. 9 … Five of the top 25 golfers on the MGI Wealth Tour will have their season come to an end on Sept. 9 at a tournament at the Pleasant Valley Golf Club. Five more will be eliminated at the Westman Invitational at the Shilo Country Club from Sept. 15-16 … The Greenskeeper’s Revenge tournament will be held at Boissevain on Sept. 22 … The Minnedosa Golf and Country Club is hosting its cross-country golf tournament on Sept. 29 ... Three Westman players competed in the 14-16-year-old boys division in the Maple Leaf Junior Tour stop in Winkler this week. Brandon’s Kolby Day finished 17th after shooting back-to-back 81s, while Brandonite Austin Dobrescu was 20th after going 85-81-166, with Carberry’s Joel Baron placing 23rd after carding rounds of 85 and 86 for 171.
Republished from the Brandon Sun print edition August 30, 2012
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