CALGARY— The Bearspaw Golf Club has reopened and is now welcoming non-members and the general public to play the links.
Back in 2019, the club announced that it would be closing, citing several setbacks and climbing costs associated with the construction of the course’s clubhouse.
According to the head professional Sam Hunt at the Bearspaw Golf Club, a year before that, in 2018, the club went into receivership and then operated for a season by Pricewaterhouse Coopers Inc.
That group operated the course for a season.
Around the end of 2019, a group of ex-members successfully put in a bid to purchase the property.
Now the course is back on track operated under the Bearspaw Equity Ventures Limited banner.
“Bearspaw has been a part of this community for 35-plus years. The guys who were the ex-members of the previous Bearspaw Golf Club really had the desire to keep this place as it is, and wanted to see it continue as a private golf club,” Hunt said.
He explained that the club still has memberships available, but is currently open to the public.
“This year we’re operating a semi-private club, so we have 110 primary members, 230 or so total members that have all re-joined as of, sort of that initial part of 2020,” he said. “We have those members plus we do allow non-member public play.”
Once the clubhouse, which was the source of the original closure, is completed and operational, Hunt said, he hopes membership purchases will increase.
He noted that construction on the clubhouse should wrap up in early 2021.
“We’ve got a new building that’s in process, we’re about 75 per cent done the exterior. The interior has had work done previously, but our timeline is, hopefully, to get at the interior mid-September, and hopefully be ready to go with that new facility sometime in May 2021.”
The clubhouse under construction is the same one that was cited for the previous closure.
This year, the club has had “an absolutely crazy season so far,” Hunt said.
“When golf was announced as one of the only sanctioned event or something that was OK by Alberta Health and Safety standards, we saw a massive participation rate,” he said. “I’ve been in the industry for a long time, 15-plus years, I don’t think I’ve ever seen tee times being booked at 8:30 and 8:45 p.m. until this year.”
He said that the season the Bearspaw Golf Club is having an “unprecedented” year in terms of players on the course.
“Certainly, the beginning part of the season, the first eight to 10, 12 weeks, I would certainly classify it as unprecedented for what I’ve seen in the previous 10 years. We had basically no openings from 7 a.m. until 8:30 p.m. every day.
“It gave them a chance to get out of the house when the COVID restrictions and quarantining were at its peak ... It was the first activity allowed, so I think everybody was taking advantage of it— Our participation rates were certainly higher than they’ve been in a long, long time.”
The goal, said Hunt, is to go back to a private facility, but that move is dependent on membership sales. For the time being, the course will be open to everyone, member or not.
“That will all depend on membership sales, which we have going on now,” he said. “We will continue to operate as a semi-private club, allowing public or non-member play until that time. I don’t know exactly what the number they’ve determined they would need to make that switch back to private.”
He noted that there is no firm timeline for a return to private-only play.
“From our perspective, we would like to get back to private as soon as possible, but we certainly welcome the non-member public play until that time. In the next year or two would kind of be our goal.”
For now, it’s a golden opportunity to play on a course that is traditionally reserved for members. To book a tee time visit GolfBearspaw.com/.
