'Heller of a good golf time

CalgarySun (Canada): 'Heller of a good golf time '
These days, there are countless lost golf balls littered across the Badlands.

But before golfers were digging up divots at Drumheller’s Dinosaur Trail Golf & Country Club, palaeontologists were scouring the historic site for a different sort of artifact.

“Even now, the grounds crew — the people that have been here a number of years — will recognize some fossils and some plant fauna and things like that,” said Scott Westman, the GM at Dinosaur Trail.

“Every year, with the rain and snow, there’s always something getting exposed.”

Since the completion of its one-of-a-kind back nine in 1996, Dinosaur Trail has been exposed as one of the hidden gems on Alberta’s golf scene.

Pin-seekers affectionately refer to the halfway point of their round as ‘the turn.’ In the case of Dinosaur Trail, a 6,409-yard public track located about 120 km northeast of Calgary and just a couple of wedge shots down the road from the world-famous Royal Tyrell Museum, that’s when the course really turns into something special.

The front nine opened in 1965 and is an old-school stroll under the shade of tree-lined fairways.

The finishing stretch, on the other hand, is carved out of the coulees and features more ups and downs than the back side of a stegosaurus.

“It’s a different kind of golf experience — it’s something very unique,” Westman said.

“The front nine is a very gentle park-like setting and a more traditional style. Then you jump across the highway and get into a totally different land. Things tighten up, and it’s a little more scenic and up and down. As we tell people, it’s a very unique experience — not just playing but visually as well.”

The scenery is spectacular. The tough part is keeping your golf ball from becoming a part of it.

From the launch pad at

No. 11, you might wonder where the rest of the fairway is hiding. Alberta-based course architect Sid Puddicombe initially envisioned a more generous landing area, but the hole had to be re-configured because of the possibility of a dinosaur skeleton buried in the hillside.

At the tricky 12th, there’s so much danger surrounding the dance-floor you’ll feel like you’re firing at an island green, even though there’s not a drop of water in sight.

And the most talked-about test at Dinosaur Trail is undoubtedly No. 14, which features a staircase-style fairway and a map that details your options from the tee-box.

You might never find another golf hole that’s anything like it.

In fact, you could make the same statement about the entire course.

“As tough as it is, we still get people coming back that are high-handicaps but want to play because it’s just so different,” Westman said.

“I think, sometimes, with a course being so tough, people will say, ‘I’m not coming back. I lose too many balls.’ But people keep coming back here to experience it year after year.

“Here’s something I don’t hear very much — ‘I used the same ball the whole way around,’ ” he added.

“But we hear words like challenging and picturesque. We’ll hear, ‘Wow, I lost six balls,’ but they might’ve found six, as well.”

Who knows? You might find a fossil, too.