A summer drive down Balmoral Street just got a little less hazardous.
Noting that six to 10 golf balls a day were hurtling over protective netting on Chapples’ penultimate hole, crashing into the busy crow-town route or bouncing their way into businesses that line the street, city director of golf Tom Forsythe said something had to be done.
The 17th, a lazy par four guarded by a strip of woods on the right and Balmoral to the left, has been cut in half over the winter, to about 165 yards, to ensure that all but the most wayward shots stay out of the path of oncoming vehicular traffic. ]
"The main reason is to reduce the potential risk of golf balls going off our property and hitting cars or businesses along the street," Forsythe said on Thursday, the day before the city’s three municipally-owned courses were set to open for the season.
Several attempts in the past have been made to correct the problem, but nothing seemed to work, Forsythe said.
With club technology improving and everyone hitting big balls off the tee, the netting in place along the road proved to be neither high nor long enough to keep stray shots on the course. Changing the location of the tees on the short hole also failed to stop the problem completely.
"We thought we had it fixed. We weren’t getting many incidents of windshields being hit over the course of the season. But last year we got a couple more complaints and did a survey with our staff," said Forsythe, noting most golfers control their irons better than their woods and the new-look No. 17 now directs them away from the road.
"We were averaging about six to 10 golf balls a day going across the road and over the netting. We felt it was time. That’s just too much of a risk."
To maintain the course’s par-71 rating, another hole is getting a facelift. And while No. 11 is getting longer, Forsythe said it will actually get a little easier for golfers, at least from a scoring standpoint.
The inward nine, when the new tee box on 11 is ready to go later this summer, will open with back-to-back par 5s. Forsythe said they had little choice.
"That’s about the only hole we had that we could reasonably lengthen, without getting into huge costs," he said. "It’ll play about 60 yards longer than the existing hole. It’ll be about a 470- or 480-yard par 5. That hole typically plays into the wind. It used to be our most difficult par 4 on the golf course. It might not be quite as difficult as a par 5, but there’s going to be one or two hazards I think that will come into play from the back tee that will still make it a difficult golf hole."
For now Chapples will play as a par 70 course.
New tee blocks aren’t the only work going on at the busy course. Mounds of earth line the space between the seventh and eighth fairways, material that will be used to build a three-hole, par 3 junior training academy. The work is being done in partnership with a local driving academy, who will use the project to train its students.
Forsythe said it could prove to be a busy construction year at the city courses. In addition to the work being done at Chapples, he also plans to begin building forward tees at Strathcona Golf Course, shortening the ladies’ tees by about 500 yards. When complete, he expects about 10 holes will see a new tee block built.
