Sometimes, life wrestles our dreams away from us. Keith Good can attest to that fact.
For most of his 53 years, Good has been part of the golden and green fabric of Yellowhead Grove Golf Course. And Yellowhead Grove, conversely, has been part of him. But now the relationship between Good and the picturesque piece of land is coming to an end.
Events beyond his control forced Good - owner of Yellowhead since 2001 - to sell the 28-acre property. The golf course is now closed and will eventually become the latest branch of Woody's RV World, an Alberta-based company that sells motorhomes, travel trailers and campers. Currently, Woody's is going through the rezoning process to turn what was recreational land into commercial.
Good, meanwhile, is moving some final belongings off the Yellowhead Grove site. When that's done, his last connection to the beloved chunk of golfing ground will be severed.
"They always say, 'Chase your dreams and you'll get there,'" he said. "And I did, and I got there. And to still have to say, 'I can't keep it,' it's tough."
Yellowhead Grove, located on the western outskirts of Prince George, was built by Good's stepfather, Lucien Bachand. In the mid-1970s, Bachand decided to turn part of his hobby farm into three golf holes for his own personal use. But, once he got started drawing up his plans, he realized he could squeeze nine holes into his available space, which was a little less than 10 acres. With help from a teenaged Good and family friend Maurice Dube, Bachand slowly gave the course its shape. Upon completion, each hole was a par 3 and some of them were no more than chip shots from tee to green.
Bachand's layout became known as Yellowhead Grove and welcomed its first players in 1979. At the time - truth be known - Good didn't have a very high opinion of golf.
"I'd never golfed before," he said. "I wouldn't even watch golf on TV - I thought it was a very boring sport to watch. I used to race dirt bikes at that age, motocross. But once he opened (the course) and I tried it, I got the bug."
And that bug proved to be unshakable. As the years went along and Yellowhead Grove matured and expanded by way of Bachand's land purchases, Good often told his step-dad he wanted to become more involved in the course's operations. Ultimately, Good wanted to be owner one day.
Bachand, however, wasn't about to just hand over control.
"Dad had said he hoped his boys would take an interest, but money is money," said Good. "I had a mapping company that I sold the majority of my shares to a company in town here and so I finally had the money to approach my father and buy him out."
So from 2001 until the end of last golfing season, Good was owner of Yellowhead Grove.
During Good's tenure, Bachand told him multiple times he should sell so he could be free of the course's headaches, most of them related to its location. But Good always refused to let the course go.
"My father, the year that he passed away (2006), he was constantly on me to sell the golf course - 'Sell it, sell it, get rid of it.' And I was like, 'No! No! I fought all my life to get it. Why would I get rid of it?'"
Offers did come along, but Good turned them down. Instead of selling, he built on the work Bachand had done before him. Bachand always took pride in keeping Yellowhead Grove immaculately maintained and Good did his best to keep up those standards. At the same time, he tried to put his own stamp on the course. He even introduced a $10,000 hole-in-one contest (on No. 5, which played 151 yards) on Men's Day and Ladies' Day.
Bachand usually had a hard time accepting any changes made to the course by his boy but Good recalls one particular year when some praise came his way.
"I remember him saying once that the course had never been as busy or looked as good as one of the years I had it," Good said. "I don't really agree. It was just one of the years where Mother Nature and everything kind of clicked."
For Good, working at Yellowhead Grove really wasn't work at all. He loved almost everything about it, even though 16-hour days were required during golfing season.
But, in the fairy tale setting that existed within Yellowhead's fences, the reality of the outside world finally caught up with him.
Specifically, the outside world took the form of houses near the course that - despite all the protective netting Good could install - were regularly sprayed by errant golf balls.
"I had neighbours sic lawyers on me, costing me tens of thousands of dollars," he said.
The outside world also took the form of an increasingly busy Highway 16, which often "came into play" on holes that were close by.
As well, it took the form of insurance issues, including the possibility of not being able to get insurance at all because of the risk factors.
For Good, all these things piled up. Then there's the fact that the number of people golfing is on the decline, and the fact Prince George has more courses than at any other point in its history.
Yellowhead Grove's true death knell came last summer when a Department of Highways crew was out, putting ribbons on the property. Good then got word from a reliable source that plans were in the works to turn Highway 16 into a four-lane highway and that the expansion of the blacktop would be done on the Yellowhead side of the road.
"It was a high-priority job, so when and if money came available, land reclamation was going to happen," Good said. "And I heard numbers upward of 25 metres. I would have been compensated at whatever they thought 'fair market value' was. And of course you can hire a lawyer to fight it and you end up with whatever you end up with."
Land reclamation would have wiped out the third and fourth holes and required the relocation of the seventh green and the No. 8 tee box.
"I would have been down to a seven-hole golf course," Good said.
Late last golfing season, Good was approached by the folks from Woody's RV World, who had also shown previous interest in the land. Good said he wanted a subject-free offer and he got one.
"I left a week later for Mexico and I said, 'Oh my God, I just sold the golf course. I can't believe it,'" he said.
Good had hoped to one day pass Yellowhead Grove on to his kids but that won't happen now. And all the people who enjoyed its fairways and greens - including this writer - won't have the pleasure anymore.
The three families that live in the three houses on the former Yellowhead land will also be directly impacted. They are supposed to vacate the property by today.
It's true that nothing lasts forever, but this is a sad loss for all concerned, and for Prince George. Along the Highway 16 corridor - which has already seen so much recreational land turned into businesses and parking lots - it will be more green space gone.
Good held out for as long as he could. His consolation is that he remains general manager of the city-owned Pine Valley Golf Centre, a position he has held for eight years now. Of course, Pine Valley - across from Costco on Highway 16 - is also fighting for its very existence as it has endured unyielding pressure to have its land sold off to developers.
For Good though, Yellowhead Grove was his baby.
Without it, things will never be quite the same.
"The difficult part for me is going to be driving by there every day," said Good, who lives in Beaverly, to the west of the former course. "I will definitely be turning and looking the other way because I will not be able to watch that (redevelopment) happen."
