Ziemer's B.C. Golf Notes: Westwood Plateau Gets New Owner And Name
Westwood Plateau GC Is Now Known As GreenTee Country Club Westwood Plateau
Taylor ties for 12th at American Express; Zalli set for Challenge Tour debut; Amy Lee a finalist for Sport BC award; Rivershore to play host to Canadian University/College Championship
By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf
(January 20, 2025) - The new owners of Westwood Plateau hope to restore the mountainside layout in Coquitlam to its former glory.
Coquitlam-based JK World Group finalized the purchase just before Christmas. The property includes a championship course, executive course, driving range and two restaurants.
Along with the new owners comes a new name. The facility is now known as GreenTee Country Club Westwood Plateau.
Westwood’s Country Club course is now known as the Sky Course, while the executive layout has been renamed the Fine Course.
If that GreenTee name sounds familiar, it’s because the JK World Group also owns GreenTee Country Club Langley, formerly Pagoda Ridge. “GreenTee is our brand name,” said Patrick Pan, marketing director with JKWG.
Pan said the company will be heavily focused on improving conditioning at the newly named Sky Course. When it opened in 1995, the Michael Hurdzan design was selected by ScoreGolf as the best new course in Canada. Its original owners kept the course in great shape, but that conditioning has suffered in recent years.
“We are going to bring the glory back to Westwood Plateau,” Pan said. “Thirty years ago Westwood was one of the best courses in Canada. In recent years it hasn’t been in good shape. It takes time but we will be working on the bunkers, the fairways, the greens step by step. We saw the potential of this course. You rarely find a mountain course like this.”
Pan said the JKWG hopes to eventually make the Sky course private, but said that likely won’t happen for a few years. “Down the road we are looking to make it private but we won’t change anything for at least five years,” he said. Work will also be done on the executive course and driving range.
The executive course will likely return to its former 12-hole format and Pan said the driving range facility will be updated and new netting needs to be installed. “We will also do something with the ground of the driving range. It’s so muddy right now, the ball will not roll.”
Westwood’s two restaurants/bars, Fairways Grill and Patio and Apres Bar and Kitchen, have been rebranded as Jess’ Fine and Jess’ Sky. The company owns and operates another restaurant, Jess’ Cafe, in Vancouver’s Kerrisdale area.
JKWG’s head office and GreenTee golf shop are located on the Lougheed Highway in Coquitlam near IKEA.
https://www.gtccwestwoodplateau.com/
ENCORE PERFORMANCE: Abbotsford’s Nick Taylor delivered a pretty nice encore to his win at the Sony Open of Hawaii. Taylor played the tough Stadium course at PGA West as well as anyone last week and tied for 12th at the American Express tourney in La Quinta, Calif. Taylor opened the 90-hole event with a seven-under 65 at the Stadium course and then closed things out with a final-round 67.
He finished the tournament at 17-under par. That was eight shots behind winner Sepp Straka of Austria. Taylor earned $169,400. Adam Hadwin of Abbotsford and Adam Svensson of Surrey both missed the cut. Svensson is in the field for this week’s Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines near San Diego.
GOOD COMPANY: Of Nick Taylor’s five PGA TOUR wins, three have come since the middle of the 2023 PGA TOUR season when he rolled in that 72-foot putt to win the RBC Canadian Open. Taylor, of course, has won twice since then at the 2024 WM Phoenix Open and at the recent Sony Open in Hawaii. The list of players who have won three or more times since the beginning of 2023 is a short one.
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler has won nine times in that span and Jon Rahm won four times in 2023 before defecting to LIV Golf. Like Taylor, Wyndham Clark, Hideki Matsuyama, Viktor Hovland and Rory McIlroy have won three times. One of McIroy’s wins comes with an asterisk of sorts as it came in a team event with partner Shane Lowry at the 2024 Zurich Classic of New Orleans.
AWARD FINALIST: Amy Lee’s stellar play last summer has made the Langley resident a finalist for the Sport BC junior female athlete of the year award. Lee, a Grade 11 student at Walnut Grove secondary, won the B.C. Women’s Amateur Championship by three shots at Balfour Golf Course. She followed that up with a record-setting 18-shot win at the B.C. Junior Girls Championship at Gallagher’s Canyon Golf & Country Club in Kelowna. The 57th annual Sport BC Athlete of the Year Awards ceremony goes March 6 at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver.
SEASON-OPENER: Vancouver’s Ilirian Zalli will make his DP Challenge Tour debut at this week’s SDC Open at Zebula Golf Estate & Spa in Limpopo, South Africa. The event is the season-opener on the Challenge Tour, which is the feeder tour for the DP World Tour, and the first of four straight tournaments in South Africa. It offers a purse of $375,000 US. Zalli, a former B.C. Junior and Vancouver Open champion, qualified for the Challenge Tour at the DP World Tour Q-school last fall.
IN THE LOOPS: This year’s Canadian University/College Championship will be held June 3-6 at Rivershore Golf Links in Kamloops. The University of B.C. Thunderbirds won the men’s and women’s team titles at last year’s competition, which was held at Idylwylde Golf & Country Club in Sudbury, Ont. UBC’s Dylan Macdonald won the men’s individual title, while UBC’s Una Chou took the women’s individual title.
UBC coach Chris Macdonald thinks Rivershore will be an excellent venue for the Canadian championship. “Obviously I’m very grateful the course and membership would give up such a unique and high-quality facility for a week of their season,” Macdonald said.
NATIONAL VENUES: Golf Canada has selected several other British Columbia venues for some of its other national championships this year. The NextGen Pacific Championship goes May 2-4 at Ledgeview Golf Club in Abbotsford. The Canadian All Abilities Championship is scheduled for Aug. 6-8 at The Dunes in Kamloops.
Seymour Golf & Country Club in North Vancouver will play host to the Canadian Men’s Mid-Amateur Championship Aug. 19-22. The Canadian Senior Women’s Championship will be played Aug. 26-28 at Nanaimo Golf Club. The Canadian U15 Championship goes Aug. 27-29 at Pitt Meadows Golf Club.
NEW SPONSOR: The Victoria Times Colonist is the new title sponsor of the Victoria stop on the PGA Tour Americas circuit. The Times Colonist Victoria Open presented by Andrew Sheret Limited goes Sept. 18-21 at Uplands Golf Club. It is the final full-field event of the season and will be followed by the Fortinet Cup Championship at Morgan Creek Golf Club in Surrey.