By Doug Sack

Although golf technically has been played in Whistler since 1971, just four years after the opening of Whistler Mountain for skiing, the 2002 season represents the 20th anniversary of full-length, championship style golf at Whistler which began in 1982 with the arrival of Arnold Palmer for the official opening of Whistler GC, his first Canadian design.

Prior to Arnie’s arrival, Whistlerites had been playing a nine hole homemade executive course on the same site (eight par threes and one par four) but local golfers who wanted to use the driver and play the complete game had to journey south to Squamish to play Squamish Valley which opened with nine holes in 1967, the same season as the mountain, and upgraded to 18 in 1972. Of course, there weren’t very many people in Whistler in those early days of the 70’s and golf was not a big reason to come here. The par three course was actually just a come-on for a nearby real estate project and anyone who says they envisioned Whistler someday becoming the golf mecca it has become, is simply guilty of revisionist historical analysis. In fact, many people thought it was absurd to have a golf course at this altitude and the sport was no more significant than tennis which also had an outdoor net used by a few weekenders.

However, that all changed dramatically when "The King" arrived in 1982 to open Whistler GC just as Whistler Land Company, the developers of the new village, was going into bankruptcy and the future of Whistler was in doubt. Bankruptcies and golf course openings are just not the kind of events promoters like to schedule simultaneously.

Opening the golf course at such a down time in Whistler’s history, in retrospect, was like planting a seed for the future during a drought. The course was an immediate success with the locals especially but weekenders also latched on to it because Whistler is a great place to play golf. Balls fly easier at higher altitudes. Drives go further. Players who would hit seven-iron from 150 yards at sea level, can go into the greens here with eight or nine or even wedge with a tail-wind. Golf was born and reared at sea level on the sand "links" of Scotland and many players seemed to be surprised how nicely it adapted to the Highlands of western Canada. Of course, mountain golf is the rage now, all around the world, but back then it was still a relatively new concept on the west coast and Whistler was an early player in that game.

Whistler GC’s heydays were 1982-85 and I’m sure I played it 250 times in those glory years of low greensfees and tee times galore. You could get on any time you wanted and play as long as you liked and everyone knew each other and there were tournaments every week and it was like having your own private country club in a public environment, the best of both worlds. Then came Expo ’86 which changed Whistler forever. Visitors from around the world flocked to Vancouver for the summerlong theme party and, low and behold, most of them brought their golf clubs with them. While the wife and kids were going to science and flower shows at Expo, the old man was scooting around the countryside with his sticks looking for places to swing them. Course records (of rounds played) were set all over the Lower Mainland that season including the all-time Canadian record, which still stands, of 96,000 golfers at Fraserview in Vancouver.

Whistler GC put through over 35,000 that summer, also still the course record, and Squamish Valley 56,000. Locals couldn’t get on the courses or, if they did, had to play five hour rounds to get off. Suddenly, tee times became like gold nuggets.

That dreadful summer of ’86 led directly to the course construction boom of the early 1990’s as golf boomed in BC generally and the Sea-to-Sky corridor specifically. First came Pemberton Valley in 1989 then Chateau Whistler in 1993, Furry Creek and Big Sky in 1994 and, finally, the Golden Bear himself came to town and opened Nicklaus North in 1995 to complete the picture begun by his lifelong rival and friend, Palmer, back in ’82. This time, however, Whistler was being called the biggest and best ski & golf resort in North America.

Back in ’85, the resort was still unranked in SKI magazine’s annual listings.

It’s like Arnie was here for the worst, Jack arrived for the best and in between one helluva lot of Canadians stayed busy like beavers making the transformation.

Yes, we’re a fabulous international golf destination now yet part of me yearns for the simplicity of that wonderful summer of 1985 before the rest of the world discovered Whistler.