Calgary's Blue Devil Sold — Gary Browning design will finally be completed

Architect Gary Browning

It is a case of the course that never opened — but now it appears Calgary’s Blue Devil will finally be finished and take green fees from the public.

Designed by Calgary’s noted architect Gary Browning, and funded by cable magnate JR Shaw, Blue Devil has had 13 holes completed and maintained for several years. But for some strange reason that even Browning found hard to articulate, the project was never completed. Odd, because the Shaw family would certainly have had the cash to finish and open the course, which was to have been private.

Well, the Calgary Herald is reporting the group that owns Links of GlenEagles and HeatherGlen, have purchased the course for an undisclosed price and are going to complete it with the intent to open it as a public facility:

The 18-hole layout, which has 13 holes ready for play since construction began on it in 2008, sits adjacent to Fish Creek Park and alongside Highway 22X directly south of McKenzie Meadows Golf Club.

“We are excited to add Blue Devil to our operation and look forward to resuming construction as soon as (Thursday) morning,” said Atkinson “Blue Devil will add another quality golfing option to the current operations at HeatherGlen and GlenEagles.”

Atkinson’s company also owns 18-hole GlenEagles at Cochrane and 27-hole HeatherGlen on Glenmore Trail east of the city. Both GlenEagles, a high-end offering ranked among the top 100 courses in Canada, and HeatherGlen are public play facilities.

Atkinson said Blue Devil also will be public, although the original developer had targeted it as a high-end, private country club offering.

“No question we’re going to make a few friends with what we’re going to charge here (Blue Devil),” Atkinson said.

Purchase price was not divulged for the 190-acre site.

One thing about the deal that strikes me as a possibility is whether Blue Devil will have the facilities to host a Canadian Open. Up until now it was always presumed there was no course in Calgary able to host the tournament — could this be the one?

The full Herald story is here.