Course designer aims to tease golfer.

Some day Kevin Holmes might be mentioned in the same creative breath as golf course design geniuses Tom Fazio, Pete Dye or Stanley Thompson. The 37-year-old Sault Ste. Marie native's knack for bringing out the best in a tract of land is already earning him high praise in the golfing press for his two, and soon be three, tracts in Northern Ontario, once Heron Landing Golf Course in Fort Frances opens this summer.

Less than a decade after graduating from the University of Guelph, the senior architect at Toronto's MBTW Golf Design created a Northern Ontario masterpiece in his hometown with Crimson Ridge Golf Club.

The Sault's first public 18-hole course has received a number of accolades since opening in 2002, not only for its challenging layout, but its aesthetic use of rocky outcroppings, drastic elevation changes and century-old hardwood forests atop the highlands over-looking the city below.

The Globe and Mail added the 17th and 18th holes to its list of the Top Ten Golf Holes in Canada, and Ontario Golf Magazine named the course as one of the top three new courses in Ontario.

"The amount of land and the topography dictate what type of course you're going to get in terms of style," says Holmes, who counts pre-eminent golf course architects Canadian Stanley Thompson and American Robert Trent Jones, Sr. among his design influences.

Now in the process of designing a third set of nine holes for Crimson, known as the "Ridge Nine," Holmes promises the No. 4, Par 3 will be "more spectacular," nestled beside a dramatic cascading waterfall spilling over a stream bed of rocks.

"It will form a nice backdrop to the green, but it will also curve right in front of it. It will be quite exceptional with an elevated tee shot about 160-170 yards downhill."

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Once an up-and-coming junior golfer in Ontario, Holmes became a student of course design during his university years, while working summers on the greens crew at the venerable Sault Golf and Country Club, a Thompson-designed track.

Getting up for the dawn patrol with superintendent Gil Edwards--now one of the partnership group at Crimson Ridge--gave him some hands-on experience on a future career.

"Gil taught me a lot. When he moved over as one of the ownership groups at Crimson, he was instrumental in bringing our firm on board."

Upon graduating with a bachelor of landscape architecture from the University of Guelph, he caught on with an Ajax, Ont. landscaping firm, learning the ropes of business on various large and small projects, including a few courses, before joining a former classmate at the 30-year-old Toronto landscaping firm of The MBTW Group in 1997.

Holmes' experience in course design led to a spinoff company, MBTW Golf Design, that has had a hand in more than 30 new designs and renovations since 2000.

One of his first projects was the 18-hole Mnidoo Valley (now known as Rainbow Ridge) near Manitowaning on Manitoulin Island, before he landed the job to design the Island Springs course on St. Joseph's Island near Sault Ste. Marie. The front-nine opened in 2001 and Holmes plans to incorporate more of the property's daring water hazards for the back-nine for 2006.

"The No. 10 and 18 holes will be the two holes in Northern Ontario that people are going to talk about," promises Holmes, with No. 10 featuring an elevated tee across 180 yards of water, and the par 4, No. 18 playing to a peninsula fairway surrounded by water.

Holmes counts strategic bunkering is a signature of his courses, as well as adding a few "bold water features" with various tee placements to give some flexibility and choice for golfers of any calibre to enjoy their day.

Having had a hand in designing everything from par 3s and small executive courses to tough championship concepts such as Watson's Glen Golf Club in Pickering, Holmes prefers to present a challenging but "not punishing" layout, provided a golfer knows his or her limitations.

"I like to tease the golfer a little bit, challenge them off the tee, provide them with some aiming bunkers, but at the same time position a couple so it's a risk-and-reward type of shot," says Holmes, in mentioning Crimson's No. 11 hole--a driveable par 4 for long bombers that is just as manageable to hit an iron off the tee, then lob a second shot onto the green, rather than face a tough up-and-down from a greenside bunker.

"Every time we have a grand opening, people experience our projects and say "That was fun,' and that's probably the biggest compliment we can get. It's the sign of a project well done."

Though pained to rank his favourite course, Holmes is excited about opening Heron Landing for the Couchiching First Nation in northwestern Ontario, and was preparing to make a final inspection of the 18-hole, par-72 championship layout in early June for a mid-month official opening.

"Some of the views and vistas are certainly going to be worth taking a picture of."

As well, MBTW is finishing up a $1-million renovation master plan of the Parry Sound Golf and Country Club, featuring some club-house upgrades after earlier designing a practice facility and a nine-hole executive course on some adjacent land.

Holmes admits the slower growing season in the North makes for a more challenging design, "but at the end of the day, it's so much more rewarding. You've got rocks, creeks and trees. It's hard to beat that kind of topography."

Now Holmes passes on his knowledge to others as a part-time instructor at Humber College's School of Business teaching golf course design course to 20 or so golf professional management hopefuls or other budding amateur architects.

"I always find that course really interesting ..." Holmes says. "The final project is to design their own 18-hole golf course, so it's fun to critique their work."

www.mbtwgolfdesign.com

By IAN ROSS

Northern Ontario Business