Walnut Grove’s Redwoods Golf Course will have its 18 holes shut down for at least four months starting on April 19, as the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion is constructed across its greens.
Redwoods announced this week that April 18 will be the last day of regular play for the near future.
“There will be no summer season for us,” said Redwoods managing director Doug Hawley.
Both the course and the Redwoods Grill restaurant will remain closed, but the driving range and the clubhouse will continue to operate as usual throughout the construction event, so weddings and private banquets will still take place.
Hawley said that work was supposed to start earlier in the year, but the November floods and storms pushed things back.
Redwoods has put off most of its spring hiring, and people will be kept on for the clubhouse and to maintain the greens, so few existing jobs will be affected.
The construction work is part of the expansion of the Trans Mountain oil pipeline, which runs through North Langley.
Since the original pipeline was built in the 1950s, many areas near the original line are now much more heavily built up, and the new expanded pipeline is being installed along a different route. The stretch through Redwoods is one of those routes.
Maps by Trans Mountain shows it makes a zig-zagging path through the Redwoods property, which runs from 88th Avenue almost as far north as 96th Avenue, but Hawley said newer maps show a straight line route through the course.
READ MORE: Construction of Trans Mountain pipeline underway in Langley
According to Redwoods management, the course will be taking advantage of the temporary disruption to enhance a number of projects, including upgrading five fairways – nine, 10, 11, 13, and 15 – with soil, new irrigation systems, and fresh turf.
Three par-three tee decks will be renovated and almost doubled in size, and bunkers will also be updated.
Renovating the areas impacted by the new pipeline will be challenging, acknowledged managing director Doug Hawley.
Some holes might appear slightly different after the pipeline passes through, but Hawley said course architect Ted Locke and the Redwoods team will be working to get the course back into shape post-construction.
“You have to completely rebuild the area,” Hawley said.
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