Golf course pumping up for 2005

By Meg Olson

It’s hardly been a quiet winter at the Point Roberts Golf and Country Club, but the course is gearing up for a busy 2005 peak season with new staff, new facilities and new services. “We’re going to buff up our operation and take it to the next level,” said general manager Mark Lundrigan.

A management shuffle will make daily operations smoother and allow the course to add features,” Lundrigan said. “We’re bringing in a new format,” he said. Key to that new format is Kyle German, who has joined the golf course as head professional and director of golf operations. German will take over daily course operations, freeing Lundrigan for special projects.

Born in the United States, German has been a golf professional for 11 years in Canada, working at familiar lower mainland courses such as Mayfair Lakes or Quilcena in Richmond and the University Golf Club in Vancouver. “The position has changed a lot even in the last 10 years,” he said, putting more and more emphasis on programs. “My job is to help grow the game,” he said. “Anything that helps to bring people to the game and keep them involved.”

A program German said he likes to promote is junior memberships in the golf course, which allow young people unlimited golf for $450 a year. “If we can maintain that interest they’ll grow up to be golfers and bring people here,” Lundrigan agreed.

Rod Forsman has been promoted to course superintendent and Lundrigan says he can take much of the credit for a course that is a pleasure to play while others in the area become sodden with winter rains. “We continually amaze our golfers with the condition of our course,” he said. “I like it when people tell me we’re the best course in Canada, and we’re not – in Canada.”

Lundrigan said he and Forsman are working on several projects to give the three-year old course a more finished look and feel: completing the driving range, signage and landscaping at the main entry, a new 18,000 square-foot putting green, improving cart paths, adding restrooms on the course. “We’re hoping this year to build house number one of the residential part as a gust house,” he added. “Kind of like a bed and breakfast.” Inside the clubhouse Lundrigan said changes are also expected with negotiations to bring in a new food and beverage manager.

Another push this year won’t happen on the Point but at the Vancouver head office of Yamato Development, the golf course’s Canadian parent company. They are enlisting the help of golf professional, trick-shot specialist and television host Brad Ewart to raise the course’s profile internationally. “Their target is tourists, visitors to this part of the world” Ewart said. In 2003, 40,000 rounds of golf were played on the golf course, a number that slipped a bit in 2004 and Ewart said Yamato was dedicated to bringing it back up and higher. “This is one of the finest golf courses in the Pacific Northwest,” Ewart said. “Really unique.”

Back in Point Roberts German said they would also continue to encourage active local use of the golf course through junior membership and the Point Players Club, which will have special rates and club activities. “We have a substantial number of local people who play,” Lundrigan said. “Percentage wise it’s small but we want to keep them coming.”