The Bansal era.
Kuldeep Bansal purchased Delta Golf Course in 2015 and quickly started investing in upgrading the infrastructure and operations. Through ongoing investments, Delta Golf & Country Club now boasts the best greens at a public facility in all of BC, averaging over 11 on the Stimp meter daily. Annual renovations and improvements to the course and restaurant continue to make Delta Golf & Country Club the best value in all of Canada.
Mr. Bansal also brought night golf to Delta (a first in Canada) by installing lights on the Back 9 so golfers can enjoy the game in the late evening.
Five decades in Delta.
Mr. Lando takes over
Bought from the family of John Oliver, Premier of BC 1921–1927 — hidden by blackberry bushes over a forest of cedar stumps.
The course opens
Built in a record 64 days; fairways seeded in 2 hours by crop dusting airplane. 120 acres, 18 holes, par 69.
A faithful clientele
Wide-open fairways, immense greens, and a heritage barn clubhouse with "GOLF" on the roof.
Rebuilt & reopened
After land was expropriated for Highway 91, the course is rebuilt as a shot maker's course.
Rebuilt again
A lease expired; two holes are squeezed onto the existing lands.
Kuldeep Bansal
Major investment, the best public greens in BC and Canada's first night golf.
The Lando years.
Previous to Mr. Bansal, Mr. Lando purchased the property that is now known as Delta Golf Course from the family of John Oliver, Premier of British Columbia between 1921 and 1927. When Mr. Lando took over the property in 1971 a jungle of blackberry bushes mostly hid it. What he didn't know was that underneath the blackberries was a forest of cedar stumps as the Delta property was once a cedar swamp! In order to properly prepare the course for construction, stump burning continued for several winters.
Once the stumps were dealt with, the course was built in a record 64 days, and its fairways were seeded in 2 hours using a crop dusting airplane. The course opened in 1975 on 120 acres – 18 holes, par 69. By 1984 the course had improved considerably and had built a faithful clientele. Wide-open fairways and immense approachable greens characterized this course. The beautifully constructed barn on the Delta property (the inside of the hayloft looks like a Gothic cathedral) was turned into a clubhouse. The word GOLF spelled in black duroid shingles on the brown roof has become a landmark in the area. The barn has been declared a heritage site, and coincidentally is also the home of barn owls, an endangered species!
The bridge & the rebuild.
In the summer of 1984 the Department of Highways expropriated a large area of the Delta Golf Course land to build the Highway 91 approach to the Alex Fraser Bridge. Less energetic septuagenarians might have thrown in the towel, but not Mr. Lando. Although he had to rebuild almost the entire course, by 1985, the course was open again and ready for play. The new course had tighter fairways, bunkered greens and ample water, making it a shot maker's course rather than a "hitter's haven" as the earlier course had been. The Clubhouse Barn was now stranded on the south side of the freeway and a new clubhouse had to be developed from two school portables. However, Delta's problems were far from over. The new course layout required a piece of land to the east that was leased from a neighboring farmer. The property was resold and the new neighbor less accommodating. In 1993 the lease expired and a new agreement could not be reached with the new owner.
Living history on the 16th.
Again, the course had to be rebuilt in order to squeeze the two holes that had been on the leased land onto the existing Delta Golf Course lands. Though the entire ambiance of the course is different, one characteristic can still be found – the presence of the remnants of cedar stumps with birch trees growing out of them. This horticultural curiosity has delighted many Delta Golf Course visitors. A tall half-burnt cedar stump adjacent to the 16th fairway remains as a reminder to golfers of how a cedar swamp became a golf course. Delta Golf Course is situated on 62 acres.
Look for the half-burnt cedar stump beside the 16th fairway.