BC GOLF COURSES FUN TO PLAY: MAYFAIR LAKES
By Scott A. Sumner
www.golfingnews.ca
On my recent trip to cover the RBC Canadian Open I was able to play two great golf courses owned by the Golf BC Company. Both were fantastic golf courses to experience and left me wanting to come back again.
Mayfair Lakes
The course was built in 1989 with Les Furber as architect and is owned by Golf BC which has 7 properties in BC and 2 courses in Hawaii. Mayfair Lakes is a semi private course with 400 members but the public can come and play 7 days a week except for member allotted times. The cost to join is a $10,000 intiation and dues of $300 a month. The intiation fee can be sold or transferred to someone else. The green fee rates vary through out the year from $25 to $89. The course is located in the Richmond area and about a 10-minute drive from the Vancouver
Airport.
“ We play golf all year round as we don’t get much snow that sticks. We do get lots of rain so we call our winter golfers “mudders” with the soft conditions. There are some frost days but many days of 10 to 11 Celsius. June through September are great months. Our temperature is
about 20 to 25 Celsius usually during this time period,” said Tony Rommel, Associate Golf Professional of Mayfair Lakes in Richmond and originally from Campbell River. “ We are a cross between a links and typically North American course. It is pretty open and we have quite a bit of wind here. The property is 110 acres so quite a small area. You always have different conditions as the wind blows in different directions. The greens are very true, very puttable. The golf course in generally always in good condition.”
At Mayfair Lakes the greens are poa as it takes over in BC according to Rommel. They do about 55,000 rounds per year and you can book on their website www.golfbc.com for all the properties in BC. You can also use the telephone.
“ Carts are not included because we have a very walkable course. We also have about 75 weddings here per year with up to 200 people,” said Rommel. “ Things are pretty good. We need some weather and the economy to turn around a little bit. The HST has hurt the restaurant business and us. We are busy with our academy and lessons which has been very positive side of the business.”
