Canada’s Top 10 Golf Destinations

Westworld Magazine - April 2005
Ian Cruickshank

Fore eh! All rise for the playing of our national obsession.

O Canada, we stand on guard for tee.  Golf keep our land glorious and free.

Canadian homeboy Stanley Thompson was an architectural genius, and an intrepid one.  In a career spanning the first half of the 20th century, this cigar-chomping, whiskey-drinking founding father of modern golf-course design wandered the Canadian outback armed only with a sketchpad as he plotted where to build his next award-winning holes.  And there would be plenty of them.  More than 50 top-rated courses, in fact, scattered from Canada’s West Coast to the bright lights of Buenos Aires, Argentina.  A prodigious legacy by any estimate, one that includes mountain masterpieces at both Banff and Jasper, where Thompson miraculously mirrored the surrounding peaks with his Group of Seven-styled bunkers and greens.  Still, even the ever-original Thompson couldn’t have helped me with the wildlife hazard I faced during a recent round at Banff Springs. 

After smacking an unusually straight drive down the 7th fairway, I glanced up at my swing buddies to gauge the effect – and spotted a bull elk posed stiff-legged between me and the ball.  Big as a Land Rover, our new hoofed caddy was a walking billboard for Rocky Mountain wildlife, with a massive antler rack skewed like an old-fashioned TV antennae.  I cooed politely, hinting how I’d like to play through.  Big boy just kept on chomping.  We eyed each other.  We even did a little country and western two-step.  And when the behemoth of the backwoods snorted and lowered his rack, I fled…to the safety of the golf cart and the hysterical laughter of my so-called pals.

Canada is a golf-mad country.  By the close of 2005, more than five million Canadians will have teed it up on one of the 2,200 golf greens scattered between the Pacific and the Atlantic.  In fact, the Royal Canadian Golf Association claims we Canucks – per capita – are the most avid golfers in the world.  But even more to the point:  Some of the golf kingdom’s most stunning layouts are in-country, so there’s no need to cart one’s clubs abroad.

True, it’s tough to whittle those numbers down to a shortlist.  But somebody had to do it.  So according to this golf guru, here are the True North’s top 10 tee-off destinations.

#1 - Victoria, BC
Bear Mountain Golf & Country Club

While most NHLers have been plump out of luck this season in terms of on-ice action, the lockout has given players time to work on their other favourite game.  This is particularly true for current and former pros Mike Vernon, Gary Roberts, Len Barrie and Trevor Kidd, who invested in Bear Mountain on Vancouver Island, B.C.  Perched on the high ground about 20 minutes north of Victoria, the course was designed by Jack Nicklaus and son Steve in 2002.  It’s a stunning piece of property, all rocks and rivers, valleys, forest and mountain peaks.  And, helped along with a budget estimated at $1 million a hole, the Golden Bear has definitely stamped the landscape with his indelible paw print.  The highlight hole is actually the 19th, an extra par three that Nicklaus shoehorned into the summit.  The green seems to float above both the ocean and Victoria’s modest downtown skyline.  But beware – hit it short and the ball drops away into the abyss.  Bonus: Instead of traditional hot dogs and beer, Bear Mountain’s halfway house serves lobster sandwiches, washed down by shots of vodka.