Andy Staples To Restore Travis & Alison’s Grand-Mere Over Five Years

Located in Shawinigan, Quebec, the Walter Travis and C.H. Alison designed Club de Golf Grand-Mere will receive upgrades from Andy Staples, including a historical document plan.

This website’s love for Grand-Mere has been well documented—namely, here, here, here, and here—and it will continue to grow alongside Andy Staples, who has been hired by the Rousseau family to put together a historical document plan, and polish the golf course. As part of the historical document plan, Staples will be documenting the past, as well as putting together a master plan looking ahead to the future. Things to address will be minor tree work, some mowing lines, a few lost bunkers, and green expansion, though very little has changed since C.H. Alison visited and expanded the course to eighteen holes in 1922. In total, the course is a representation of Walter Travis and C.H. Alison, who built 18 holes over an Albert Murray nine holes.

Walter Travis’ long-lost par 3, 9th will also be restored, allowing visitors to be able to play the eighteen hole course and the nine hole Walter Travis loop. The restored hole will act as the 19th hole on a property with eighteen great ones. The hole will bridge the current 11th (Travis’ 8th) to the current 18th green, crossing the canyon the par 4, 10th plays across.

Zachary Car and I wrote a piece for Golf Architecture Magazine detailing the past, present, and future of the club, which can be viewed here. Together, we will be along for the ride with Andy Staples for the restoration in a consulting & historical accuracy role.

Work has already begun and will happen over a five-year period, although our Beyond The Contour event in September at Grand-Mere will see no disturbance.