Les Furber, ASGCA Fellow (Golf Design Services, Ltd.), has been asked to provide updates to his original design at Morningstar Golf Club in Parksville, British Columbia, near Vancouver. “What we’re going to try to do is make the course more friendly for the members, the green fee players and to speed up play and let people enjoy it,” Furber said.
PQB News reports:
“I get a huge feeling of gratitude and satisfaction when I know that people love the gold course, the layout,” said Furber. “If you do something that caters for the masses rather than just the individual or my own ego, that’s very satisfying.”
Furber, who has designed and created more than 80 golf courses globally, said the game has evolved over the years and the objective he wants to achieve at Morningstar is to make the whole experience more palatable and enjoyable.
“It’s just a matter of more flexibility and playability off the tees, maybe some more tee boxes, thinking about a bunker or two that might be redundant because people don’t hit the ball now where they used to. Things like that.”
“I love the variety and the pin placements that are on the greens,” he said. “It still all there. It comes back to me. There is a reason that it’s designed that way. Sometimes people try to cheat on the design and cut corners. It always bite them if they don’t play it the way it’s designed.”
Restoring Morningstar to its former glory is not too far off, said Furber.
“It’s on its way back,” said Furber. “It’s just a matter of injecting some money into improving things that would make the ease of maintenance better. That’s what makes people happy. We’re talking about bunkers, how we cut the roughs. It’s very mature now. It’s got a place in the upper echelons of golf and you can’t take that away from it.”
Golf writer Bill Flowers said Furber’s involvement in enhancing Morningstar is a major step in the right direction.
“Having Les Furber come out for this one-day consultation was obviously rewarding for many of the members,” said Flowers. “For me personally it shows the commitment by the receiver to seek the best of advice from the course designer himself. Les and I go back 30 years to our association in building Moonlake Golf and Country Club in Saskatoon. Me as an irrigation technician and he as the designer.”