Rocky View County (RVC) will be home to Canada’s only Phil Mickelson-designed golf course with the Mickelson National Golf Club of Canada in Harmony, located in Springbank.
An announcement was made at Calgary’s Hamptons Golf Club Sept. 16 confirming the partnership between PGA superstar Mickelson and his company, Phil Mickelson Design (PMD) with the Windmill Golf Group, who will be working together to design and build the new club.
Construction on the first 18 holes is set to begin this fall in tandem with Harmony’s construction, which is being developed in partnership by Bordeaux Developments, Qualico Communities, and the original landowners, the Copithorne family.
“Phil Mickelson – he’s iconic, and he knows golf,” said Birol Fisekci, president and CEO of Bordeaux Developments. “For us, what was most impressive when we were deciding who we should work with on the golf project, the most important thing for us to focus on is does that person understand community? Do they understand what we are trying to create?”
Fisekci said his first meeting with Mickelson had him feeling confident about the partnership when Mickelson immediately started asking about the plans for Harmony, right down to details like street layouts and business opportunities for the county.
“It wasn’t about the golf, he wanted to know about the community. And at the end of it all, he looked at his team and said, ‘let’s make this happen.’ (Mickelson) said, ‘I’m sorry to ask so many questions about your vision, but it’s critical for me that I believe in what you are going to deliver, and it’s also important that I would want to come and play at this course after it’s built,’” said Fisekci.
Harmony – a residential community located along the border of the Springbank Airport – has been in the works for about eight years, with the aim of creating a holistically planned community, according to the website liveinharmony.ca.
The 1,700-acre development will incorporate 3,500 homes, one of the largest recreational lakes in the Calgary area, and 138-acre employment campus.
This course will be Mickelson’s only design in Canada.
His first course was Whisper Rock in Scottsdale, AZ, and he has completed other successful projects in Kunming and Shanghai, China. Mickelson also has ambitious plans for the renovation of Torrey Pines North in San Diego.
“He has a vision of having 10 courses in North America, and we are the Canadian course,” said Fisekci. “He really wanted to become a part of the community and create a course that he will want to come and play at. For someone who has been involved in Harmony from day one, to see that kind of passion in someone else’s eyes talking about the project, I was just giddy. There’s no other word for it.”
Local councillor Jerry Arshinoff said RVC council approved Harmony’s original conceptual plan in 2009, and the subdivision was approved in June 2013. The 1,700-acre development will incorporate 3,500 homes, one of the largest recreational lakes in the Calgary area, and 138-acre employment campus.
The support of RVC council and community has been vital in getting the Harmony project to this point, and Fisekci said he is very grateful for that. Now, he said, it’s time to deliver on what they’ve promised. PMD and the Windmill Golf Group are working together on a course that will offer fun and challenging golf experiences for golfers of every level, and will host the world’s top players at marquis PGA events upon completion.
“The whole opportunity we have here with Harmony in Rocky View (County) – the setting, the recreational opportunities, and now, bringing something world-class like this, just builds the legacy that we already have here in this region,” said Karin Finlay, vice-president of Qualico Communities.
“We had the Winter Olympics, we have the Calgary Flames, and now we have Phil Mickelson.”
Construction on the Mickelson National Golf Club of Canada is set to begin this fall, and Fisekci said that the course should be playable in 2016. Information on the cost of the project was not available at press time.
To learn more about the course and the Harmony development, visit liveinharmony.ca.
