PHOTOS: Cabot Revelstoke deciding golf rates, mosquito management ahead of July 2027 opening
Published 1:00 pm Friday, September 18, 2026
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Tahlon Sweenie is hardly phased when a black bear sow and cub emerge onto the distant golf green.
After 15 years running golf operations for Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge Golf Course, he’s more accustomed to seeing elk and grizzlies on the fairway.
Just weeks into his new job as golf operations director for Cabot Revelstoke, with the course set to open July 2, 2027, Sweenie met with Black Press Media to discuss where things stand.
The rolling 18-hole course at the base of Revelstoke Mountain Resort spans about 32 hectares, with the longest hole stretching some 512 metres. Fourteen holes were seeded by Wednesday, Sept. 16, growing a mix of Kentucky bluegrass, fescue and bentgrass.
While Revelstoke is known for its long snowy winters, “I’m not worried about opening conditions,” Sweenie said. The inland temperate rainforest provides ideal conditions for growing this grass, he said.
To minimize impacts on local environment, ecosystems, wildlife and water quality, Cabot Revelstoke is working to become GEO Certified under the GEO Foundation of Sustainable Golf and also achieve Signature Sanctuary Certification under Audubon International, Sweenie noted.
READ: Revelstoke resort expecting big growth on par with Cabot golf developments
What fertilizers and herbicides a golf course may use comes down to federal regulations, Audubon International CEO Ken Benoit said.
But developers must take steps such as creating a natural resource management plan and submitting environmental impact and water quality test results every year. Audubon International staff will inspect the site up to three times in its early development stages, then revisit every three years to determine whether the course should retain its certification.
“One of our first looks is the physical setting of the golf course itself, how it’s sited within its broader ecological community, what natural resources are present and what potential liabilities exist,” Benoit told Black Press Media in a statement. “A course located near a sensitive watershed, wetland or wildlife corridor faces a very different set of considerations than one situated in a more developed area, and our guidance reflects that.”
He said the “vast majority” of golf courses enrolled in this program will achieve certification, but especially important is how they manage water features, runoff, drainage and protection of nearby water bodies from fertilizers and chemicals. The height that the grass is mowed can help slow and filter runoff, and erosion along water bodies should be mitigated, Benoit said, while Audubon International will also consider wildlife and pollinator habitat, native plants and waste management.
Mosquitoes were noticeable around the first hole late Wednesday morning. Sweenie didn’t have a clear-cut management plan for the bugs, but mentioned them being equally prominent at Fairmont Jasper, yet not dissuading golfers.
“A lot of it is managing the expectation,” he said, mentioning there’s little that can be done except routinely cutting the grass. “You’re not going to get rid of (the mosquitoes). It’s impossible.”
Besides larvicide treatment carried out by the Columbia Shuswap Regional District, insect control is tightly regulated for golf courses and other solutions will need to be considered for future buggy summers, Revelstoke Golf Club general manager Dean Jackson said.
READ: 155-room lodge, $7.6M units unveiled for luxury Revelstoke golf course
Next week, Cabot Revelstoke will host its executives and other delegates for an exclusive soft launch of the course.
Green fees are being finalized for regular, junior, local and hotel rates this September and October.
“It will be strictly green fee only,” Sweenie said, clarifying Cabot Revelstoke won’t sell memberships or require players to rent carts.
He shared that the regular rate will fall between the $350 per round charged at Fairmont Jasper and $500 charged at Fairmont Banff Springs Golf Course. But for Revelstoke’s local rate, “it’s obviously something Cabot took very seriously.”
A unique element of this course will be a caddy program that local golfers can apply for, with discounted green fees included. It’s one of the few courses in Western Canada to have such a program, according to Sweenie.
“If you’re feeling priced out, the caddy program might be a good option for you,” he suggested.
Reservations for tee times will open in about six weeks, Sweenie said. That’s also around when Cabot Revelstoke will begin recruiting caddies.
“We do expect the tee sheets to be quite full,” he added.
New kid on the block
On the other side of town in Columbia Park, the Revelstoke Golf Club doesn’t plan to change its green fees out of competition.
“We’re keeping the prices low for our community members,” Jackson told Black Press Media.
Cabot charges high rates for its luxury service and “new-shiny-car kind of aura” with wider fairways and bigger greens, while Revelstoke’s community golf course charges $99 for 18 holes, $76 for member guests and locals, $66 for after 4 p.m., and $0 for children 18 and under.
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As a 102-year-old course, Revelstoke Golf Club also takes pride in its old-growth trees and riverside landscaping that a younger course can’t rival.
“Our greens are some of the best in the Okanagan-Kootenays,” Jackson said.
It’s also a major local employer, hiring up to 60 staff at peak times. Most are youth, and some have worked there for a decade.
Still, Jackson said the club is in good contact with Cabot Revelstoke and looking into shuttle services and easier bookings between the two courses. Revelstoke Golf Club has also supplied flags, tee boxes and rental clubs for Cabot Revelstoke’s setup and promotion.
“The partnership’s important,” he emphasized. “The main message is that we’re excited for them to come on and excited to work with them.”
At the still-under-construction Cabot Revelstoke Mountain Lodge, Sweenie said guests can expect occupancy by next spring and summer — potentially even this winter. Prices for five different room types are also yet to be released, but he said the 155 units will start being marketed later this September.
The development will feature a spa, café, restaurant-bar, event hall and other amenities. Sweenie noted there won’t be commercial space for other businesses to rent, but below-and above-ground parking will provide spaces for roughly 250 vehicles.
The focus will be Cabot Revelstoke’s summer pro shop on the ground floor, which in winter will be handed over to Selkirk Tangiers Heli Skiing for its operations. They’ll use two helipads next to the lodge for landing and staging backcountry trips.
“Super excited to see what that looks like,” Sweenie said, though adding that guests are expected to arrive by private jet and charter bus, not by helicopter.
READ: New Tourism Revelstoke exec strives for year-round destination with emphasis on working community
Closer to the course, the empty gravel parking area will be turned into more resort accommodations, he explained. A staging area and putting green will also be added for golfers heading from the new lodge to the first tee.
It will take about four hours and 20 minutes to play the course, with tee times staggered every 12 minutes for the first season. An incoming fleet of 72 golf carts will have technology that tracks players’ completion time.
For comparison, a round of 18 at Revelstoke Golf Club takes about four hours and 15 minutes, staggered at nine-minute intervals.
A longstanding Cabot tradition has been offering guests cookies at the first hole. This time, a local business will be selected to bake Cabot Revelstoke’s signature treat for opening day next summer.
For a winter-leaning town, Sweenie expects the course will do wonders for Revelstoke. Coming from Jasper, “I’m not used to being in a hospitality town where the low season’s the summer.”
“What that’ll do is make Revelstoke a golf destination,” Jackson said, explaining how the presence of multiple courses entices golfers to stay longer and play them all. That includes the 12-hole par-3 course Cabot Revelstoke has also been approved to build across Nichol Road from Mackenzie Village, which Jackson said will be a good option for new golfers or players who only have a couple of hours.
Before Cabot Revelstoke, Sweenie said a world-class mountain golf course hadn’t been built since Silvertip Resort and Greywolf Golf Course opened in 1998 and 1999, respectively. He said this is now one of the most-anticipated developments in the golf world since Cabot launched its course in Cape Breton, N.S., in 2016.
“To build a golf course that rivals Jasper, that rivals Banff, is a very large task,” he said. “But first and foremost, it’s a very unique setting.”
That said, Sweenie thought hard about what the ideal Cabot Revelstoke golfer would be.
“You can always have the land,” he reasoned. It’s about having “a guest that appreciates the significance of where they’re playing.”