b'BRITISH COLUMBIA GOLFSagebrush, Now and Againby Brad Ziemer That was the case with our group. I played with three of my colleagues from British Columbia Golf who had never laid Ieyes on the property. They all fell in love with Sagebrush. I recently got reacquainted with an old friend I hadnt seen in a long time. I am happy to report she is doing fine after a roughsimply rekindled my love affair with everything about the few years. course: its magnificent views, wide, rolling fairways, huge Sagebrush Golf Club is as wonderful as I remember.greens, rugged bunkers and the variety of shots it demands. Perched on a hillside above Nicola Lake in British ColumbiasHeck, I even have an affinity for the sagebrush that lines both cowboy country, Sagebrush offers a golf experience that is bothsides of most fairways.memorable and fun.I like to say a round at Sagebrush is not complete without a Its not quite as quiet as I remember and thats becausevisit to the sagebrush and my driver obliged on more than one word is apparently spreading that Sagebrush is back, withoccasion. The funny thing was I often emerged from it after not stable ownership and a solid management team who haveonly having found my Kirkland Costco ball, but with a couple of worked hard to get the course back to its former glory. errant Pro-V1s deposited by other players.Chris Hood, a respected veteran of the B.C. golf industry, isEven though there are more players on the course these the general manager at Sagebrush and he reports that 2024 isdays, we didnt notice it. We were neither pushed from behind shaping up to be a good year for the club. nor held up by a group in front of us. We are never going to Our rounds are way up, Hood says. We are going to dobe trying to do 20,000 rounds a season or anything like that, three and a half to four times as many rounds as we did lastHood says. That isnt what Sagebrush is. If we try to do that, year. And we still have the 15-minute tee times, so were notthen its just like every other course and you are hearing fore jamming people through from six in the morning until six atand dodging golf balls. That isnt what we want. We want it to night. The first tee time is at 8am. A full day for us might be 100be relaxed.rounds, where last year a busy day was 40 rounds. The course does continue to offer stay-and-play packages Hood estimates that at least 60 per cent of the play this seasonat its on-site accommodation. Hood says the course is seeing has come from individuals playing the course for the first time.more visits from golf groups on those three- or four-day 6 BRITISH COLUMBIA GOLF| SEPT2024'