In one breath, renowned golf course architect Les Furber talks about slowing down; mentioning how his Canmore-based firm no longer travels the world seeking new business.

But in the next breath, he is regaling an interviewer about two new courses in Switzerland, another built for a Montana billionaire in Missoula, and yet another under way in Squamish B.C.

Slowing down, indeed.

The truth is that “messing with dirt” has always been his passion, and Furber can’t comprehend ever stopping.

Mike Sturk photo, Business Edge
Canmore-based golf course guru Les Furber predicts the game will eventually become more affordable with new developments.

“Let’s just say I don’t want to be doing it 15 hours a day, six days a week anymore,” says the 57-year-old native of Tisdale, Sask. “What we do is so satisfying, I don’t think I could ever walk away from it.”

One of Canada’s pre-eminent golf architects, Furber is responsible for the creation of 55 to 60 courses that bear his name as designer. He and his partner in Golf Design Services Inc., Jim Eremko, have also made renovations to another 45 courses worldwide, including the $4.5-million restoration to the Fairmont Banff Springs Golf Course in the late 1990s.

As a partner, Eremko has always preferred the background, quietly handling the administrative side of the company. It is Furber’s role to stand front and centre. “It is stimulating,” he says. “To take a raw piece of land, and though a lot of people are involved in the project, to know that you are the fearless leader who got up and said it could be done, and to lead the process to a certain extent. I find that satisfying.”

He is one of Canada’s most knowledgeable players in the golf industry, having gained wisdom and respect in a career that began 37 years ago when he and two young pals landed in sunny California for a holiday.

Fate led him to a golf course that was under construction. There, he joined the crew, drove big machines, and levelled the earth. It was the perfect fit for a prairie farm boy.

California was where Furber met the celebrated American designer Robert Trent Jones Sr., and for more than 15 years Furber learned from a master craftsman.

He travelled the world with Jones, building golf courses that included: Valderrama in Spain, a 45-hole resort for the King of Morocco, and 18 holes for the Aga Khan on the Island of Costa Smerald, Sardinia.

It was a “million dollars worth of experience,” and the foundation on which Furber relied in 1978 when he and his wife Lynda finally settled in Canmore, ready to hang out his own shingle.

Coincidentally, Furber’s final project with Trent Jones Sr. was to be the spectacular 36-hole Kananaskis Golf Club, just minutes down the road from his newfound mountain home.

Since those heady days, Furber has built dozens of championship courses.

In Alberta and B.C., players will recognize his award- winning work at the Links of GlenEagles, SilverTip, the Springs course at Radium Resort, Trickle Creek, Bootleg Gap and the St. Eugene Mission Golf Course. Furber considers his firm both talented and lucky. When he started in Canmore, there was little competition in Western Canada.

Only Bill Newis of Calgary, who has designed many area courses including Priddis Greens, Bearspaw and Redwood Meadows, was active.

Today, many are hustling for a share of the business, including Calgary’s Gary Browning – who built the nationally recognized Stewart Creek in Canmore and operates a thriving renovation business.

“There are people who have graduated from other firms, and from our company, who are out there getting work,” Furber says. “I think that’s why it’s slowed down a bit for us. But I wish them well.”

He explains that he wants to play more golf in the coming years. Sporting a single-digit handicap – “my short games needs work” – he says the company has made a decision not to try to stir up business in Asia, Europe and Africa “because it is time consuming, takes energy, and costs a lot of money.”

And while the growth of golf has flattened in the past couple of years, Furber sees a solid future ahead for golf course development.

He worries that golf has become too expensive, that $100-plus green fees are excessive, but he sees solutions.

“I think we’ll see more minimalism, that people will begin looking (at building) more economical courses.

“I think we’ll see smaller, executive courses, mid-length courses. We are involved in a couple of those. They can be played for $30. They’re Par 66, can be played in three hours and the quality of golf remains.”

Unlike Europe, where land can cost upwards of $100,000 an acre, or must be leased, Furber suggests there’s plenty of affordable land in Canada. “We just need to get further away from the big cities.”

As for his own future, he’d like to remain closer to his alpine home for work and pleasure.

This August, his Phantom Links design for American billionaire industrialist Dennis Washington opens in Missoula. Furber hopes it’s a springboard to more work in the Pacific Northwest.

“Otherwise, it’s pretty quiet,” he says.

But then he catches himself. This June, he begins construction on a new golf academy-style course in Davos, Switzerland.

There’s also an executive course under way in Squamish called Garibaldi Springs. And renovation work awaits on a course in Germany.

While many plans and working drawings can be sent by e-mail, “it still requires us to go over (to Europe) six or seven times a year,” says Furber.

While it sounds like a full schedule, it’s Furber’s idea of slowing down.