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Bayside Plumbing & Gas Fitting
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April 24, 2013
▼ GROWING THE GAME
Inside Tourism is a huge part of the economy for Lake Country. The district is looking for residents to be part of a commission to develop a new visitors’ information centre. ...............................
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Oral health includes having your dentist check for cancer. April is Oral Cancer Awareness month. ...............................
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Jim Taylor has learned that most of what we learn does not come from rules and regulations, rather from experience and learning from others. That’s why we need good mentors. ...............................
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Flyers ■ Home Depot ■ JYSK ■ Pro Steam Plus ■ Rona ■ Shoppers Drug Mart
Attracting new golfers is the name of the game KEVIN PARNELL STAFF REPORTER
As the snow was melting earlier this spring and golfers across the Okanagan Valley prepared to dust off their golf clubs for another season, managers at Okanagan-area golf courses watched in anticipation of how their respective courses would survive the winter. Snow remained on the ground from November into March then melted and stayed away, rather than a melt-freeze-ice scenario that can damage delicate golf course greens. The winter may have seemed long for linksters looking to pull out their driver but the snow cover and melt was perfect for conditions, and across the board this season, local golf courses opened in excellent condition. And while that’s good for the golfer and for the courses, the golf industry is still looking to rebound from a downturn that began in 2008. New partnerships are being formed and facilities are working together to increase the number of people playing golf in the Central Okanagan. “The good news is the golf courses around the valley wintered well and we’ve got the best conditions we’ve had in 10 years,” said Dan Matheson, general manager at the Okanagan Golf Club, with the Quail and Bear courses near Lake Country. “In the last two years there is a feeling amongst most of the golf courses that there has
KEVIN PARNELL/LAKE COUNTRY CALENDAR
LAKE COUNTRY resident Ed Weiss enjoyed some early season play at the Aspen
Grove Golf Course last week. been a leveling off of the downward trend which gives us reason for optimism. We’re hoping we are about to enter a new phase in golf.” ••• What’s clear about this phase of golf in the Okanagan is that golf courses in the Okanagan are working together to grow the game. The most successful and longest running partnership between independently-owned courses is the Play Golf Kelowna (www.playgolfkelowna. com) partnership where golfers can purchase a
value card that can be redeemed at Kelowna Springs, Sunset Ranch, Shadow Ridge, Shannon Lake and Two Eagles as well as three different driving ranges. It’s a partnership that began in 1999 with three courses and earned about $58,000 and has seen huge growth up to last year when $1.5 million in green fees was split between the different facilities. And the success of the program has led to other partnerships in the Kelowna golf industry. Twelve courses are into
the third year of a program being run by Tourism Kelowna called Golf Kelowna, which is marketing the Okanagan as a destination for golf, hoping to attract tourists to the area and providing information and a general booking system for the local golf courses. “I think that is the direction we had to go in,” said Matheson. “Golf Kelowna is doing as much as they can to enhance the golf climate in the Okanagan. The entire golf community has to work together to get more golfers out.”
And it seems to be working. So far in 2013 bookings through www. golfkelowna.com are up 36.3 per cent over the same time in 2012. Golf Kelowna is reporting a much higher volume of information requests and quote requests from tourist golfers with the Alberta market leading the way early in the season with many golf courses in Edmonton and Calgary yet to open. “The last few years with this Golf Kelowna partnership we have been making steady gains,” said Catherine Frechette, communications manager at Tourism Kelowna. “But we have been coming out of the recession. We are still in that situation where we have an economic factor as part of people’s travel decisions. We’re still trying to build people’s trust in the product Kelowna has to offer.” Kelowna Springs general manager Ian Robertson, who sits on the board of Tourism Kelowna and who started the Play Golf Kelowna program, says the Golf
3223 Woodsdale Rd., Lake Country • 250-766-2118
SEE GOLF A3
All-candidates tonight Lake Country can hear what provincial political candidates have to say as part of the B.C. election campaign tonight, April 24, starting at 7 p.m. The Lake Country Chamber of Commerce is hosting this free all-candidates forum for the May 14 election. Chamber manager Corrine Cross says: “Allcandidates forums are very important community events where residents and business owners can get answers to questions, gauge responses and be aware of issues. Elections are a great way to be vested in your area, to be part of that decision making process.” Submit questions in advance for specific candidates or for the entire panel to manager@lakecountrychamber. com or fax to 250-766-0170.
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Kelowna partnership is extremely important to the area. “It’s very important that it survive,” he said. “The irony is the timing was not ideal. We started putting this program together three years ago so we were trying to ramp up a successful program in a down market. In hindsight, if we had that program started in 2006, we would be in a better position. But we’re here and we’re doing it now. The more people coming into Kelowna and golfing, the better for everybody.” Ironically Robertson’s Play Golf Kelowna partnership used to be called Golf Kelowna. When the group added Two Eagles and Sunset Ranch three years ago it changed its name to Play Golf Kelowna and sold the domain name of www.golfkelowna.com to Tourism Kelowna for one dollar. Robertson’s group also no longer markets its program outside of Kelowna, leaving
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