Sault Ste. Marie is home to the rugged beauty of the vast forests, rivers and wildlife that dominate Northern Ontario's landscape and one spectacular new golf course.
Cut through dense maple, oak and pine forest and along side winding rivers and creeks, Crimson Ridge Golf Club is now open for its first full season and ready to set a new standard for public golf in Ontario's north country, says Dan Missere, director of golf. "We have come through the winter in fabulous shape and we are really looking forward to our first full summer. It's our goal to make Crimson Ridge the best conditioned facility in the north with a level of service to match and we're well on our way to achieving it."
For a long time there has been a shortage of first-class golf facilities in Northern Ontario, but the landscape is slowly changing. Within the last five years Canadian architects including Les Furber, Graham Cooke, Thomas McBroom and Rene Muylaert have added new holes and designed new courses, while others projects are in the works. This spring it's Crimson Ridge's turn to bloom.
Construction at Crimson Ridge GC started in late 2000, shortly after architect Kevin Holmes of MBTW Golf Design in Toronto was hired to design a 27-hole golf complex that would rival resort courses in neighbouring Michigan - but at a reasonable cost, $5.5 million Canadian.
"First and foremost this is a very playable golf course. It was one of the key objectives of the design,'' says Holmes, who was born and raised not far from the course. "The owners envisioned a golf course that the people of Sault Ste. Marie can enjoy, a course where families can learn to golf together and have fun, but at the same time if you want to step back to the back tees on any of these holes it's a completely different outlook."
Holmes worked in unison with Mother Nature's natural setting. He has incorporated, the granite rock of the northern Canadian Shield, the two waterfalls, a cold-water creek, dense forest, dramatic elevation changes and existing wildlife into the 27-hole design on 335 acres of forested land.
"The scenery in unparalleled. There's 300-feet of elevation change across the golf course," he says. "We have preserved some magnificent 100-year-old oak and maple trees. You sort of have to work your ball around a few of the majestic old trees, but they only add to the exceptional northern golf experience."
The nine-hole Valley Course opened last July and the Falls Course opened soon after. Combined they play from 5,274 to 6,827-yards, par-72. Construction on the third nine, the Ridge Course is expected to start as early as the fall of 2003.
Located just 10 minutes from downtown Sault Ste. Marie and 60 minutes from the MacKinac Bridge, which leads into northern Michigan, Crimson Ridge CG is strategically positioned to target American tourists coming from Detroit, Chicago and Milwaukee.