Pondarosa Pines Lives: New Course Coming to Kelowna
Following the crash of 2008, Pondarosa Pines Golf Club, an 18 hole golf course and development in Peachland, BC failed to get off the drawing board. Greg Norman was the man behind the golf course. In fact, tree clearing had begun on the 18 hole routing before plans stalled in 2011. The project was incredibly controversial amongst locals, ripping up their local golf course to build a new championship style course before the development halted and left Peachland without a golf course until this point.
Instead of 18 holes, the new golf course will be a nine hole golf course from Les Furber on land around the original driving range, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 17th, and 18th area.
I must admit, it is incredibly shocking to see Les Furber still working, but even more shocking someone would actually let him build more golf holes than he already has. The routing, shown below, is atrocious, but I guess golf is golf and in the grand scheme of things, good for Peachland to get a facility back. I particularly love the walk from 1 green up the hill to 2, from the 2nd green up the hill to the 3rd tee, the walk back from 4 to 5, between 5 and 6, then walking the entirety of the 6th hole back to hit the tee shot on the 7th, hoofing it back halfway down the 7th to play the 8th, and then teeing off from the 7th green to finish off.
Of particular interest, the routing has essentially flipped. The new 1st and 2nd plays down the 556 yard par 5, 18th corridors. The 3rd stays the same on both routings, while the 4th and 5th play down the Norman 17th. To finish off, the 6th plays around the greenside pond on the Norman 2nd, the 7th works back down the 2nd hole, the 8th adjacent, and the 9th down the Norman opening hole into land that would have been on the driving range.
As part of the deal, the golf course must be finished before the end of golf season 2025 (November 1). No word on when the project will officially start.
