Course architect Doug Carrick smacks another one out of the park in B.C.

VERNON -- For those scoring at home, Doug Carrick is now batting two-for-two in British Columbia. Both hits have been upper-deck home runs.

A decade ago, the Ontario-based Carrick made his first foray into B.C. and produced Greywolf, a magnificent course located at the Panorama Resort that has drawn considerable praise as one of the most playable mountainside layouts anywhere.

Now, Carrick has finally delivered his West Coast encore, the new Ridge course at Predator Ridge, which should further solidify the Vernon resort's reputation as one of this country's premiere golf destinations. It also figures to enhance Carrick's reputation as one of North America's pre-eminent designers.

Officially, Predator Ridge has only added nine new holes, going to 36 holes from 27. But Carrick would beg to differ. Not only did he add the nine new holes, he remade the existing Peregrine nine originally designed by Les Furber.

“We really completely rebuilt the golf course,” Carrick says. “There really wasn't a square inch of the existing golf course that we didn't regrade and rebuild from the ground up. Some of the things we wanted to do with the original Peregrine nine was to create a golf course that would be fun and playable for the average golfer but would still provide some challenge for the expert golfer.”

Many of those Peregrine holes will still look very familiar to those who have already played Predator Ridge. Carrick didn't mess too much with the routing of the existing holes, but softened some of the original features of course.

“We have tried to tone down some of the green contours that were considered to be maybe a little too challenging for some golfers and really tried to work with the natural landscape as much as possible and shape things in a way that feel like they belong in this setting,” Carrick said during a media tour of the course, which was seeded last summer.

Instead of three nine-hole layouts, Predator Ridge now has two 18-hole courses. The original Osprey and Redtail nines have been renamed the Predator course. So now you have the Predator and the Ridge. Get it?

"Having 27 holes was great, but the ability to have two completely separate golf experiences really enhances people's perception of the resort," said Predator Ridge general manager Rod Cochrane. "No one will get tired of playing these courses. You already have one that's popular and now you have one that is very different that I think will be equally if not more popular."

The Ridge course is scheduled for a "soft" opening in late June, with full public play scheduled for Aug. 1. It has a much different feel than its sister course. Dramatic elevation changes, rugged granite rock outcroppings and some drop-dead beautiful views of Okanagan Lake give the Ridge course a real wow factor.

Wow was one of the first reactions Carrick had when he viewed the property. The area where he built the nine completely new holes was, to put it mildly, spectacular, but rugged to the extreme. Finding space to rout the holes was a considerable challenge.

“When you get on a property like this, the routing of the holes is everything,” he said. “If you can't get the holes working with the landscape it's very difficult to make a good playable golf hole. That was the biggest challenge here, to find some of the seams between the rock where the holes could go without spending a fortune blasting rock.

“We didn't blast a whole lot, I think between 15,000 and 20,000 cubic metres which may sound like a lot, but in the overall scope of building a golf course we moved about 230,000 cubic metres total. So it was a small percentage of the earth moving. And on 18 holes, 200,000 cubic metres is not a lot. I have done projects that have been well over a million cubic metres."

Dealing with the elevation change was another challenge.

“The elevation is the tricky part of a property like this,” Carrick said. “We had 465 feet of elevation change. . .coming down is relatively easy, but going back up is tricky. You don't want to make it too strenuous. My philosophy is to come down the steep terrain and come back up the gradual terrain in stages.”

The most visually stunning part of the Ridge course comes when you reach the fourth green, which sits near the top of a ridge that affords some incredible views of Okanagan Lake. The downhill 240-yard (from the back tee) par 3 fifth hole features 100 feet of elevation change and marks the start of the completely new nine holes.

Carrick, who normally makes liberal use of bunkers on his courses, used them sparingly on the Ridge Course.

"I often get criticized for the number of bunkers I use and some clients have said that I'm sick and that I've got a mean streak in me," he said. "We actually didn't do too many bunkers on this course. We have about 44 and really they are there to kind of accent the play areas, the landing areas, the greens. There are a lot of holes where there are no bunkers at all. We had such beautiful, natural landscape to work with that it really didn't need some of those accents. Forty-four is quite a low number. Most courses are up in the 90 to 100 range."

The Ridge course will measure 7,190 yards from the tips, but can be played at a much more manageable length from a selection of forward tees.

"We tried to make it interesting, fun to play, challenging for good players and playable for an average golfer so they they can get around and not be totally frustrated playing the golf course," Carrick said.

bziemer@vancouversun.com