1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

1 2 A masterpiece of design, Capilano Golf Course has remained true to the genius behind it.

"Capilano was and still is a tribute to the architectural genius of Stanley Thompson. There is no need for any tampering apart from taking care of the normal wear and tear. The members have a work of art in their care and possession."

So said Jock McKinnon upon his retirement, and a generation later the course is still as Mr. Thompson and the Scottish pro would have had it. In fact, a decade's worth of what current Course Superintendent Dennis Pellrene refers to as a 'sympathetic restoration' has polished and improved many aspects of the breathtaking layout.

A keen sense of stewardship and tradition has guided the membership in all aspects of Capilano Golf & Country Club over the years, and nowhere is that more evident than on the golf course.

Built for enjoyment and built to last
Essentially unchanged from that first Saturday in April 1939, when club president and future Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia W. C. (Billy) Woodward cracked that historic tee shot down the 1st fairway, the par 72 layout exemplifies many of Stanley Thompson's basic design principles. "The most successful course is one that will test the skill of the most advanced player, without discouraging the duffer, while adding to the enjoyment of both," he wrote in his seminal General Thoughts on Golf Course Design, a document that would become the foundation for modern golf course architecture. "One should always keep in mind that more than 85 per cent of golfers play 90 or over. These are the men that support the clubs and therefore the course should not be built for the men who play in the 70 class."

Between the 1923 publication of this manifesto and the time he was hired to build Capilano golf course, Thompson designed dozens of layouts across North America, including his masterworks at Jasper Park, Banff Springs and St. George's in Toronto. After completing Capilano, he updated his thoughts on design with the publication of About Golf Courses: Their Construction and Upkeep. Focusing more on the maintenance of a course than his earlier treatise, this small book contains much wise advice and guidance for current day stewards of Stanley Thompson courses, in particular Capilano. Indeed, his description of hole layout and his general principles on hole lengths are a blueprint for the West Vancouver course.

"There should be three or four short holes – five is perhaps one too many, as the remaining holes are apt to be unbalanced. The starting holes should be comparatively easy, so as not to congest the course; the finishing ones should be long and difficult, for they are often the deciding ones in a match and no one should win a game on an easy hole."

In terms of scoring opportunities at Capilano, Club Professional Gerry Chatelain's mantra is "Get your birdies early." The first 11 holes include three par 3s and all but one of the five par 5s, while the finishing four holes feature two strong par 4s, a long par 3 and the epic uphill par 5 finishing hole.

Always cognizant of the real world aspects of operating a golf course, Thompson opined "whatever tends to make golf unnecessarily expensive is bad for the game and those connected with it." He incorporated logic to many of his design attributes, and while his belief that "the 1st and 10th tee should be at the clubhouse," it could not apply to Capilano due to the available site configuration and the desire to have the clubhouse located on the prominent knoll.

Bunker design is a Stanley Thompson signature, and Capilano has excellent examples of his work. He wrote, "The careful placing of bunkers and proper treatment of the round tends to speed up play by eliminating lost balls."

Another Thompson trademark is his philosophy behind greens, reflected in many of Capilano's undulating putting surfaces, particularly pertaining to his belief that the contours must blend into the surrounding terrain.

This could well explain the wild-ride putts found on 4, 5, 12 and 17, each with significant surface undulations. "A green," he wrote, "should face the shot but should never recede from the player for the very reason that it is invisible." Without exception, this is true of all Capilano's greens.

Thompson was prophetic about the pressures that would come to many golf courses over time, as technological advances would change the way the game is played. Responding to those changes, the architect cautioned against knee-jerk reaction.

"With the advent of the improved clubs and balls, the game became too easy and a reaction set in," he wrote in the mid-1930's. Men became fanatical on the subject and built ungainly and unnatural bunkers and traps all over the course without apparent reason. Good and bad shots alike were penalized most unfairly, and the beautiful natural hazards of the landscape were not only disregarded, but completely demolished."

Thompson would be pleased to know the beautiful natural hazards he incorporated into Capilano, epitomized by the stunning par 3s over water at 4 and 11, remain essentially unchanged. And despite the fact that his observation about equipment was made long before graphite, titanium and computer-designed golf balls existed, his basic philosophy of not tinkering with a course, particularly one that he designed, has been embraced by the Capilano membership.

Jock McKinnon, self-appointed guardian of the course for its first four decades, set an early tone when he advised, "... they should never permit this to be spoiled by people who come along as they have done and will, and suggest major changes at great cost in what I think is a useless attempt to improve a great golf course."

Small improvements, cautiously made over time
Though very similar to its original design, in no small part due to McKinnon's diligence, Capilano has had the occasional course architect drop by to make some minor improvements. The late 1960's saw the addition of a number of trees separating the 6th fairway from the 9th tee box, a move that not only tightened up the 6th tee shot but also protected those teeing it up on the 9th from wayward balls. Trees were also planted on the left side of the 12th fairway to narrow the landing area off the tee.

Trees weren't the only addition over the years, with a few sand traps cropping up, including the last trap on the left as you approach the 10th green, and a right-hand greenside trap on number 17. That last suggestion came from no less a player than Gene Sarazen, who made the comment during the Shell's Wonderful World of Golf competition at Capilano in the summer of 1963. Sarazan was working as a commentator during the television broadcast.

Another man-made addition to the course was the construction of cart paths in 1974 to accommodate and lessen the course impact of the four-wheeled motorized golf carts that, despite some membership grumbles, roared onto the Cap grounds a couple of years earlier. The paths were laid sparingly as not to disrupt the natural ebb and flow of the courses sightlines, and in some cases landscaping has been done to hide the paths from sight (a good example of this is the cart path behind the 16th green, which thanks to some creative design is not visible from the par 3's tee box or fairway.)