Boom Boom’s new course
Published 10:39 pm Wednesday, June 18, 2008
The name Fred Couples has long been synonymous with Pacific Northwest golf, but that’s mostly because he remains one of the game’s best players.
That same name, though, is showing up is a different Northwest golf context. The Golf Club at The Rise in Vernon, B.C., which opens for public play this week, is a Fred Couples Signature Course, created with his longtime design partner Gene Bates.
Couples, a Seattle native and the 1992 Masters champion, has been working with Bates for many years, and between them they have developed 15 courses, including 10 in the United States, two in Canada and one each in China, Japan and the Philippines. Although Couples participated in a previous design effort in the Puget Sound area — he worked with noted golf course architect Robert E. Cupp on The Golf Club at Newcastle — The Rise is his first signature course in the Northwest.
The course is located on a ridge above the north and south arms of Okanagan Lake, with 12 of the 18 holes providing scenic views of the lake.
The scenery, said Couples, “is really breathtaking. … It’s a very special spot. I feel very lucky to have been chosen with Gene to build it here.”
Though the bulk of the design work was done by others, particularly Bates, Couples was involved in the project from the beginning. “My expertise,” he quipped, “is coming in and just touching the corners of a Picasso.”
There are five sets of tees on most holes, which allows the course to play from 5,100 yards from the forward tees to nearly 7,000 yards from the back tees. The latter are known as the “Boom Boom Tees,” a reference to Couples’ PGA Tour nickname.
A handful of holes stand out. No. 6 is a 180-yard par 3 from an elevated tee to a green bordered on the right by a rock wall and waterfall. One of the toughest holes on the golf course is probably 438-yard No. 8, which is a par 4 with a precariously narrow landing area off the tee. And the ninth hole is a mammoth par 5, measuring almost 600 yards from the back tees, though the downhill terrain from tee to green makes it somewhat less daunting.
“The course is absolutely stunning,” Couples said. “It will set the standard for championship golf in the Okanagan.
Couples was in British Columbia this week, partly for the opening at The Rise and partly for the World Skins Game at Vernon’s Predator Ridge Golf Course, where he competed against Canadian Mike Weir, Scotland’s Colin Montgomerie, Columbia’s Camilo Villegas and Australia’s Greg Norman, the latter accompanied by his soon-to-be wife Chris Evert, the former tennis star (the wedding is later this month).
The arrival of The Rise is just another reason to schedule an upcoming golf vacation to the beautiful Okanagan region. With the possible exceptions of Sunriver, Ore., Bandon, Ore., and Whistler, B.C., it would be hard to top southern British Columbia as a great golf destination within a day’s drive of the Puget Sound area.
From Osoyoos, B.C., near the Canadian border and then north to Penticton, Kelowna and Vernon, which all border Lake Okanagan, the region boasts several terrific golf courses. Among the best are Gallagher’s Canyon Golf Club, The Harvest Golf Club and the Okanagan Golf Club (36 holes), all in Kelowna, and the Sunset Ranch Golf and Country Club in South Kelowna.
In Vernon, of course, there is Predator Ridge (27 holes) and now The Rise.
