By Garry McKay (May 2008)
Almost every builder of a new golf course talks about building the kind of course the public wants.
Bryan DeCunha actually did.
When he set out to build his new course in the village of Carlisle in the North East part of Hamilton, DeCunha had a pretty good idea of what he wanted. After all, he was no novice in the business. DeCunha had been the managing partner of Royal Ontario Golf Club in Milton through construction and the first few years of operation before selling his share to Ignat Kaneff in 2006.
DeCunha laid out his vision for Dragon’s Fire Golf Club to architect Boris Danoff. It was then that DeCunha did something almost unheard of. He set out to find out if his vision for the course was the same as the general golfing public. He set up a website and asked anyone and everyone what they wanted the golf course to be. Some of the answers surprised DeCunha so much that he and Danoff went back to the drawing board.
“We had a lot of input of what people wanted and we adapted the plan to include that,” said DeCunha.
“My initial thought, thinking as an owner from a maintenance standpoint, was to keep the bunkers low, not flash them up high and to put regular sand in them. But when the survey came back it turned out that bunkers were an important part of their golfing experience.”
As a result DeCunha and Danoff changed the plan from 30 bunkers to about 85 and quite a number of them are flashed into the face of the area surrounding greens.
“The quality of sand was also important to them so instead of just local sand we put in Ohio sand,” DeCunha added. “They also wanted wide fairways and we knew that was coming from average golfers.
The challenge Boris faced was making it fun for them and still making it a challenge for the single digit handicapper. Because we have 7,200 yards if you play from the back tees, the course gets much tougher to play.”
Danoff says he was happy to make the changes because he feels they make his finished product even better.
“As an architect, you often fight with the owner when you make changes like this because they end up costing a lot of money. “More bunkers - a lot of money,” said Danoff who noted DeCunha didn’t balk at the extra expense because he had wanted a first class course right from the beginning.
“I don’t need a hundred bunkers to make it nice but when it (the survey) came in I just said ‘okay, let’s make it nice with the bunkers.”
Danoff, then working for Ted Baker, was the onsite architect at Royal Ontario and then did Thundering Waters in Niagara Falls.
DeCunha, a Mississauga based real estate developer, had already been looking for and found the right tract of land to build his own course when he sold his share of Royal Ontario to Kaneff two years ago. The 77-hectare property on Eighth concession, just east of Centre Road, is the former Environs Nursery and had previously been rezoned for a 27-hole golf course. Although it hadn’t been an active nursery in a number of years there were still large areas covered with stands of many different types of mature trees and bushes. These trees provided DeCunha and Danoff with the opportunity to create a golf course that appeared mature the day it opened. DeCunha adds, “Because it was a tree farm, we have all kinds of exotic species of trees here.”
DeCunha said he decided to build 18 holes instead of 27 and leave a large environmentally sensitive area at the back of the golf course completely untouched. It’s currently home to a number of deer and lots of wild turkeys that occasionally wander onto the course.
The golf course sits on gently rolling terrain which suited DeCunha perfectly because he also wanted a course that is very walkable. Danoff delivered on that requirement.
“I encourage people to walk,” said DeCunha. “Golf should be healthy and fun and I know that at previous courses when we made carts mandatory we took something away from the purists who want to put that bag on their shoulder and walk.
Dragon’s Fire has six sets of teens and can be played at (black) 7,212; (gold) 6,942; (blue) 6,639; (white) 5,622 or (red) 5,075 yards.
It’s strictly public and green fees are, Monday to Thursday, $55 before 8:30 a.m., $68 between 8:30 a.m. and 3 p.m., and $55 after 3 p.m.
From Friday through Sunday, it’s $74 before 3 p.m. and $55 after 3 p.m. Nine hole, junior and senior rates are also available.
Power carts are available but aren’t mandatory.
More articles by Garry McKay
