Highland Pacific is the region’s newest golf course, and you’re excused for not knowing more about the 190-acre layout in the hills close to Thetis Lake Park. There was a step-by-step opening of the property. The course’s first three holes, driving range, and café opened in July 2007, then the remaining six holes were playable by last October. One more growing season, and the full 18-hole course will debut in spring 2010.

But the low profile is being discarded, and the biggest sign that the pace is being stepped up is the hiring of Doug Hastie as general manager and director of golf. “We needed someone who could start and help the business grow,” says Anney Fagan, marketing co-ordinator.

Hastie started his career in golf management at the National in Toronto, one of Canada’s top courses. He spent 13 years there, doing everything from cleaning clubs in the back shop to head pro. In 1997, Hastie moved out to Vancouver and the Musqueam golf course and, two years ago, was named best B.C. golf teacher.
You drive up to Highland Pacific through a modern subdivision but, out on the course, civilization drops away. At the highest point, golfers have views to the west of Mt. Finlayson. Thetis Lake Park is a couple of long drives across the valley and the course borders Francis King regional park on the north. A central feature at Highland Pacific is a 200-metre-long reservoir, the water supply, along with smaller ponds that capture rainfall, for irrigating greens and fairways.

“The idea for this course isn’t to be a Bear Mountain or a Crown Isle. We want this to be a local golf course,” says Hastie. “It’ll be very playable: an easy bogie but a difficult birdie.”

Highland Pacific also has plans for accommodation near the entrance, but there’s no start date yet. “We’re zoned for 100 ‘doors.’ The plan is for time-share units, more of a resort,” says Hastie.

Hastie is optimistic that golfers will come. Studies done early in the decade, before Bear Mountain opened, suggested the Victoria region could support half a dozen more golf courses. He says, in the Toronto area, you can choose from eight to ten times as many courses, comparing populations per capita.

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