BC GOLF VACATIONS
NEW GOLF COURSES, GOLF RESORTS AND GOLF PACKAGES
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Canadian golf course architect Doug Carrick has designed several award-winning golf courses, including Greywolf, Bigwin Island and Angus Glen. In 2010, his new Carrick Course opens at the Predator Ridge Golf Resort near Vernon BC.
The Carrick Course is a renovation of the existing Peregrine golf course, with nine new holes. Located on a rocky landscape beside Okanagan Lake, The Carrick Course offers spectacular views.
Okanagan golf
Many new golf properties in the Thompson Okanagan region of British Columbia combine wine and golf. The Rise and The Club at Tower Ranch, for example, include vineyards and their own private labels.
The lakeside resort town of Osoyoos, in the southern Okanagan Valley, offers five golf courses. Two courses are located at the Osoyoos Golf & Country Club. Oliver, 20 minutes north, has the First Nations' owned and operated Nk'Mip Canyon course and Fairview Mountain, a difficult and dramatic mountain course. The Sonora Dunes Golf Course, near Nk'Mip Cellars, is also challenging. Spirit Ridge Vineyard Resort has a spa.
Because summer temperatures in British Columbia's Osoyoos can reach mid-30 degrees Celsius (90 degrees Fahrenheit), golfers often play the links in the morning, when it's cool, and relax on the beach or go wine tasting during hot afternoons.
Golf trail
The Thompson Okanagan Golf Trail includes 14 of the best golf courses in this BC region, including the new Tobiano and Talking Rock, as well as established golf courses like Gallagher's Canyon, Salmon Arm and Osoyoos. With the opening of the new Tobiano, Talking Rock and Canoe Creek golf courses, Kamloops now has 11 championship-level courses. Because Kamloops has a population of only 85,000, it's easy for golfers to obtain tee times.
Tobiano is a Tom McBroom-designed course, with ravines and views of Kamloops Lake from holes on high cliffs above the water. Designed by Canadian golf course architects, Graham Cooke and Wayne Carlton, Talking Rock is located just east of Kamloops at Quaaout Resort near Little Shuswap Lake.
Canoe Creek Golf Course, in Salmon Arm, 45 minutes east of Kamloops in the Thompson Okanagan region, has scenic meadows, marshes and forests below Mount Ida. Canadian touring professional, Dave Barr, designed the 7,026 yard-course, from the championship tees (74.3 rating and 133 slope).
Canadian Rockies
Les Furber designed three golf courses in the Kootenays in southeast BC — The St. Eugene Mission Golf Resort, Trickle Creek Golf Resort and Bootleg Gap Golf. Furber, a Canadian golf course architect, studied under Robert Trent Jones Sr. and incorporated his style into the courses: beautiful white-sand bunkers, large rolling greens and holes aligned with mountain peaks.
The Les Furber Golf Trail includes two courses, designed by Furber in the early 1990s — the Springs Course, at Radium Resort, one hour north of Kimberley, and the Golden Golf Club, one hour north in Golden. Both golf courses hug the banks of massive rivers and pass through thick woods and hilly countryside.
Golf Resorts
Resorts of the Canadian Rockies have a Summer Sizzle! golf package, which includes one round of golf at Trickle Creek Golf Resort, Bootleg Gap and the Kimberley Golf Club, and two nights accommodation in a two-bedroom condo at Trickle Creek Lodge.
Located in the Kootenay Rockies, above Columbia Valley Wetlands and Lake Windermere, Eagle Ranch Golf Resort offers views of dry coulees, mountains, evergreen forests and eagles. The 6,646-yard golf course was designed by William G. Robinson.
High Country Properties offers golf packages with two nights accommodation in a deluxe vacation home, two rounds of golf with a cart, a $25 gift card and four passes to Radium hot pools.
Northview Golf and Country Club in Surrey
The 36-hole Northview Golf & Country Club is located in Surrey, just 30 minutes from Vancouver. Designed by Arnold Palmer, the challenging Ridge Course hosted the PGA Tour's Air Canada Championship in 1999, when Mike Weir became champion. The Canal Course has an open links-feel, and is equally challenging when golfers use the “Palmer tees.”
Whistler packages
Golfers can take the three-hour Whistler Mountaineer train ride from Vancouver to Whistler in restored, open-air heritage observation cars. Whistler has four championship golf courses designed by Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Robert Trent Jones Jr. and Bob Cupp.
Four Seasons Whistler transports golfers by helicopter to the top of nearby Mt. Currie to hit biodegradable golf balls off a glacier.
With the Four Seasons Elite Golf Program, golfers can play three of the best golf courses in Whistler, with a PGA pro — Nicklaus North, Chateau Whistler and Big Sky. The Four Seasons hotel offers a Golf Package with two nights accommodation, full breakfast daily and two rounds of golf.
Discount golf
Big Sky Golf and Country Club, in Pemberton, near Whistler, offers discount golf in spring and fall. The greens fee for twilight golf, after 3 pm, is only $39. On Wednesdays and Sundays, Big Sky has a Golf & Dine deal. For $49, golfers get a meal and a round of golf.
The Bob Cupp designed course at Big Sky Golf and Country Club appears on the SCOREGolf Top 100 Courses in Canada list.
Women's golf
The Golf Academy at Westwood Plateau, in Coquitlam, offers golf lessons for women with its Diva Program. Taught by C.P.G.A. Professional, Denise Whitworth, the women's golf school teaches The Foundation and The Fundamentals ih four weeks of golf instruction. Women golfers learn how to improve distance, prowess and golfing skills.
GolfBC owns nine of the best golf courses in British Columbia, including Nicklaus North in Whistler and Olympic View on Vancouver Island. Seven days a week, all year long, each GolfBC course offers selected tee times when junior golfers (under 16 years old) play for free when accompanied by a paying adult.
Fairmont Hot Springs
Located in Columbia Valley, the three resort courses at Fairmont Hot Springs — Mountainside, Riverside and Creekside, have new ownership (Ken Fowler Enterprises). A $1 billion renovation will overhaul the golf courses and add new hot pools, hotels, restaurants, waterslides and a village to Fairmont Hot Springs.
BC Golf: www.hellobc.com/golf
More golf in B.C.:
Learn to Golf Schools and Academies on Vancouver Island Golf Trail
British Columbia Offers Winter Golf and Theatre Packages
