Olympic View Staying In The Limelight
While Olympic View may have set records for rounds played in 2021, it will be developments in other areas that will be taking centre stage this year...
General Manager Randy Frank has certainly had his hands full over the past 24 months managing a major golf facility through a pandemic, but that was not all he had to do.
From overseeing major renovations to the clubhouse and bringing onboard a new superintendent, to rebranding their restaurant to coordinating with the developers of Olympic View’s long-awaited real estate component, Frank has been more than busy. Each of these initiatives has now come to fruition and all are definitely worth the wait.
After A Record-Setting 2021, Olympic View General Manager Randy Frank Is Confident OV Is Poised For Even Bigger Things In 2022...
Phase One At Olympic View
The biggest change is hard to miss: the first phase of real estate development for the 569-acre property.
Located between the golf course and Latoria Road, 32 single-family and three multi-family building lots are now online. Almost all of the single homesites are reportedly already sold and construction is underway on many lots.
Olympic View is actually located in three separate communities (Colwood, Langford, and Metchosin) making approvals somewhat more of a challenge than may be usual. And planner Michael von Hausen (www.mvhinc.com) has clearly risen to that challenge.
The building lots’ positioning, as well as the streets’ routings, follow a sensitive ecological framework that conserves and protects natural area uplands and lower wetlands. The forested setting gives the homes a real sense of privacy.
The City of Colwood is currently looking at the construction of a roundabout at the intersection of Latoria Road and Veterans Memorial Parkway. This eventually will be the new main entrance to the golf course and entire development, making the current entrance into a residential street.
For more on Phase One at Olympic View, visit their website.
The New TABLE NINETEEN Restaurant + Bar + Patio
Olympic View has long had an architecturally well-regarded West Coast-style clubhouse and two years ago, the owners, Burrard International — who own five golf facilities across the province — decided it was time to renovate the 30-year old building.
Part of that was a renovation and rebranding for the restaurant following the approach taken for their flagship restaurant at Nicklaus North in Whistler called Table Nineteen.
The result is a bright and airy aesthetic with welcoming colours, refined natural elements, and cozy lighting.
The menu has input from GolfBC’s corporate chef, Eric Gilchrist and 20-year OV executive chef Melbourne O’Brien and features thoughtfully selected, locally available and ethically sourced ingredients with clever house-made twists.
Menu items change seasonally, and range from the Buffalo Tofu appetizer (crispy fried tofu, crudité, house buttermilk ranch dressing) to a Margherita Pizza (roma tomatoes, fresh basil, mozzarella) to Roast Beef Au Jus (thinly sliced roast beef, aged white cheddar, pickle, Portuguese roll, rosemary garlic au jus, roast garlic aioli).
The overall result puts Table Nineteen Victoria in the upper-tier of dining establishments in the Capital Region.
Two weekly specials deserve mention:
- Tuesday after 5PM is “Date Night” where you and your significant other, or your best friend, can enjoy a 3-course dinner for two for $60!
- Thursdays from 5PM is Prime Rib Night (8oz $29 | 10oz $34)... a meal so good that you might well start planning your entire week around it
To see the full TABLE NINETEEN Victoria menu, visit their website.
The Course Manicure
OV has long had a reputation for very good conditioning but this year, you can expect it to be even better for a few reasons.
First, they implemented the same fairway mat program Cordova Bay started using two years ago. Basically, over the winter months, players have been using a small mat to hit on from anywhere in the fairway.
This means there are no bad lies and, more importantly from a course maintenance perspective, no divots. GM Randy Frank estimates that around 200,000 divots did not happen, meaning the fairways this year are already in great shape.
The #13 Green From July 2021
Second-year Superintendent T-Jay Creamer also started an aggressive sand top-dressing program in fall 2021 and it is showing dividends with the course already in drier, firmer condition.
T-Jay has also revived the Olympic View Grounds Blog, where you learn a lot about golf agronomy. In his first post, he talked about the process of settling in and getting to know the course:
“... Heat domes, droughts, atmospheric rivers and pandemic challenges aside, a golf course is a living, breathing entity and it takes time to learn and understand the course. Myself and new Assistant Superintendent Josh Edgar had a lot to take in last season and have spent the winter re-grouping and building new plans for 2022. We can assure you that the best is yet to come for our tenure here and we look forward to communicating those steps as we progress through the year in this blog.”
For more on Olympic View GC, visit their website.