Home Sweet Home.
For the members at the Innisfail Golf Club it’s a saying which has a little extra meaning as they embark on an approximately two million dollar build of a clubhouse they will call home away from home for years to come.
More than two years ago the process to get a new clubhouse began when Alberta Health Services deemed the kitchen on site was not up to code and a new sink had to be installed.
It was a real domino effect as the current layout simply had no room for a new sink so an exterior wall would have had to be torn down and rebuilt which would have caused some issues with the fire lane, said Darren Black, the club’s G.M..
So the decision was made to look at a brand new clubhouse.
“Inside of that year we started to get drawings, initial rendering of this is how it could look, this is what we can do, this is what we can’t do,” he said.
The process saw the committee looking at the rebuild check out at least four different locations on the property including the current putting green which would have provided a spectacular view of the Spruce nine, said Black.
“We got the drawings and it looked great,” he said. “It was a little more expensive than what we’re currently going to do. Everything was great except the functionality of it.”
Placing a building on the putting green location would have meant replacing the driving range with the putting green which in turn would have meant a driving range rebuild. It was not something the club was willing to do, said Black.
Another option was to put the new building on the site of the current tournament house but that location presented its own set of problems so they scratched that idea.
“We looked at the far end of the parking lot and joining it to the tournament house but all that stuff just didn’t work for one reason or another,” he said.
In the end the decision was made to put a slightly larger structure on top of where the current clubhouse stands and has stood for decades.
The design, which will measure out to around 58 hundred square feet, will include an expanded, adequate kitchen with new equipment and seating inside for about 100 people comfortably.
“This basically opens the door to outside golf events,” said Black. “We can do a meeting room without having to block off half our building. We can do a wedding upstairs in the clubhouse and then the function as far as the banquet can be in the tournament house.”
The new kitchen would also allow the course to host two events at the same time, one in the clubhouse and the other in the tournament house, with some proper meal planning being done.
The price tag for the new digs will be shared by anyone who uses the facility in some way, shape or form, including the shareholders who gave the plan the thumbs up.
The bottom line here is the need for a new facility was not a matter of if it was going to happen but when.
“Our common complaint from our members and even some of our guests was that the atmosphere in that building was just not inviting,” said Black. “When you first walked into that building the ceiling was an eight foot ceiling so you felt like you we’re in a box. The veranda was nice but you had to get to it. The bar was old and you could hear the people in the kitchen.”
In many ways it was an old school layout but it served its purpose after going up on the property back in 1971, said Black.
The course has grown over the years to become one of the top end tracks in Alberta.
Innisfail is always one of the best groomed courses, along with the other pieces of the golf business puzzle but the clubhouse was the one glaring missing piece.
So the demolition began earlier this month and over the winter the real work will commence with the plan to be done by the end of June in 2016.
Black says the general consensus is people are looking forward to having this building and using it. He’s been at Innisfail since 1989 and says personally he can’t wait for the doors to swing open next season.
“It was sad to see the old building go,” he said. “I started working there when that was our pro shop, club storage and our kitchen. So I’ve seen the progression of our buildings and our golf course.”
He says it’s the last connection to the 70’s for the course but he admits he didn’t shed a tear when it started to come down.
“I put the first hole in it. The operator let me drive the bucket into it first and it was awesome and a sense of power.”
So the staff, members and guests will experience some small pain at the start of next golf season in order to reap the benefits of a big time gain.
No time like the present to deal with a bit of the past.
