This article is part of FT Globetrotter’s guide to Vancouver
Locals claim that there is no such thing as winter in Victoria, British Columbia’s island capital. Canadians picking ice off their eyelashes in the rest of the country might agree, but winters on the southern tip of Vancouver Island are nonetheless long and gloomy and wet.
Despite the dreary weather, there is winter golf. It’s not particularly pleasant but the diehards can still venture out on to the muddy fairways. Vancouver Island’s magnificent golf courses, however, come into their own in spring and summer. When I lived in the city, which is just a short hop on a seaplane or helicopter from downtown Vancouver on the mainland, I was unashamedly a fairweather golfer. But the interminable wait for golf in better weather is worth it, especially between May and deep into September, when the sun seems to shine daily out of a cloudless blue sky.
In August, I returned to Vancouver Island, officially to visit my in-laws but really to play my favourite courses. To make a token effort at objectivity, I asked two old golf chums, Jeff Bishop and Mike Martin, to help me compile a list of Victoria’s five most enjoyable golf courses.
Royal Colwood Golf Club
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Visitors: As a member’s guest. Non-members can also request to play in writing, subject to availability
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Visitor green fees (summer rates): C$165 ($121/£96)
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Golf-cart hire: CS$34 ($25/£20)
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Website; Directions
Victorians who appreciate a traditional country club head for Royal Colwood, which is regularly placed in the top 30 courses in Canada.
As befits its lofty status, Colwood is a private club but it is not impossible to find a member who will bring you along as their guest. Colwood also has reciprocal agreements with many of the clubs designated “Royal” scattered across the globe. Happily for me, Jeff is a long-standing member.
Unlike Cordova Bay, Colwood is a narrow layout with the fairways lined by giant Douglas firs and cedars. It is an unforgiving course for the wayward. But it is also a beautiful set-up with tricky greens and enough elevation to test quality players.
Picking a favourite hole sparked a fiery debate, but we settled on the par-four 17th. After staggering off the ludicrously narrow 16th, you pass an enormous 450-year-old fir and emerge from a canopy of trees to an elevated tee. Through a narrow gap in the foliage, you can glimpse a pristine fairway below. If you somehow land the ball safely on the short grass, your approach shot has to negotiate wide bunkers to make the green in two.
Such a searching examination demands a prize, and the splendid clubhouse, with picture windows offering incredible views, is a just reward. Even better for the visitor, all drinks and meals can discreetly be put on the member’s account.
Olympic View Golf Club
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Visitors: Yes
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Visitor green fees (summer rates): From CS$110 ($81/£64)
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Golf-cart hire: CS$25 ($18/£14.50) per seat
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Website; Directions
I have a soft spot for Olympic View, because on a balmy September afternoon 10 years ago I played the round of my life there. The fairways are tight and ringed with massive trees and enormous rocks, while the rapid changes in elevation often mean you are making shots into the unknown. But on those all too rare occasions when the golfing gods smile upon you, such obstacles are meaningless.
With the Olympic Mountains rising across the Strait of Juan de Fuca as a backdrop, I struck the ball long and straight and putted with deadly accuracy to shoot 75. Of course, I’ve never come close to matching that score since but, on those dark days when I’m slicing and hooking the ball dementedly and vow never to pick up a club again, I remember that glorious round and know I’ll be back for more punishment.
Olympic View is a terrific course. The holes carved into the forest and hills are all challenging in different ways but the most astonishing is the par-four 17th. If you find the middle of the fairway, you are confronted by an elevated green with a waterfall plunging 60 feet down a sheer rock wall behind the pin. You will find trouble if you hit your approach too long or too far left, which might take the shine off this beautiful hole.
An added bonus is the drinks cart that bounces across the course to revive flagging and frustrated golfers. After the round, soak up the views and local ales on the terrace that wraps around the clubhouse.
Victoria Golf Club
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Visitors: As a member’s guest
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Visitor green fees (summer rates): Contact for details
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Golf-cart hire: Contact for details
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Website; Directions
Victoria Golf Club is so snooty it even ignored an email from the august Financial Times enquiring about a round of golf on its manicured fairways. Naturally, I was reluctant to mention it on this exclusive list after that snub. But I was persuaded to include it by my fellow compilers and because, having played there in the past, it is indisputably the most spectacular golf course on the island, with jaw-dropping views.
Victoria is a private club, so butter up a member if you want to play a round here. It will be worth the effort. It is the oldest 18-hole golf course in “its original location” in Canada and the second oldest in North America — the oldest widely considered to be Oakhurst Links in West Virginia.
Its front nine has the most astonishing stretch of holes, which are strung along the Pacific Ocean. While waiting on the tee box on the par-three eighth, which is surrounded by water on three sides, I watched whales lazing in the strait. Other golfers have even seen the odd orca.
It’s a relief to step on to the eighth tee after surviving the par-four seventh. The Pacific runs along the length of the fairway, which slopes towards the water. Mount Baker looms above the pin across the strait but there is no time to enjoy the view. The green is a brute, with wicked slopes that seem determined to direct the ball off the putting surface. According to members, the great Ben Hogan once putted his ball out of bounds on the green.
The clubhouse is suitably swish, with patios for marvelling at the sunsets. Apparently the men’s locker room has a private lounge and card room — but I’ve never been admitted to that sanctum.
Highland Pacific Golf
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Visitors: Yes
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Visitor green fees (summer rates): From C$51 ($37.50/£30) for nine holes; from CS$95 ($70/£55) for 18
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Golf-cart hire: C$24 ($17.50/£14) per seat
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Website; Directions
If Victoria Golf Club is elitist, then Highland Pacific is charmingly down to earth. It puts on no airs and is an absolute delight.
Highland Pacific, which is the closest of the five courses to downtown Victoria, is laid out over hills that afford beautiful views of the city, mountains, sea and Thetis Lake park.
It can be a tough course and when the greenkeepers put the tees back, they put them way back, challenging even the longest hitters.
The course is fairly young, with the Pacific Nine opening in 2008 and the Highland Nine two years later. The layouts can be played separately or together, allowing city workers to sneak out for nine holes after escaping the office on a summer evening.
The Pacific Nine contains the most engaging hole, the par-five fourth. The back tee is almost surrounded by forest and you have to keep your drive left to avoid a vast rocky outcrop. For the adventurous attempting to reach the green in two, beware the water hazard and precipitous slope guarding the approach from the left. To the right is another huge rock. A par here should be gratefully accepted.
The course can be played year round and, in a moment of madness, we teed off in the middle of winter. It was teeth-clatteringly cold and it was growing dark by the time we putted out on the 18th, but we also felt like conquering heroes as we stumbled into the warm glow of the clubhouse bar.
Cordova Bay Golf Course
Cordova Bay looks and plays like a private members’ club, but it is open to the public for a fee. For just shy of a $100 you can squeeze on to the course and, although it is a touch crowded, it is probably the best option for a visitor to enjoy a high-quality round not far from Victoria’s city centre.
The course is laid out along the Pacific’s Haro Strait, but it is so well protected by big trees that you are barely aware of the ocean. It is also blessed with wide fairways, which is a boon for the erratic driver. Unfortunately, I was hitting the ball so crooked that I regularly ended up on the parallel fairway.
A woman in the four-ball ahead of us who had watched my play with mounting astonishment remarked drily to me: “You sure like getting your money’s worth. You play at least two fairways every hole.”
Despite that cutting comment, I did manage one straight drive. Unfortunately for me it was the fifth, which features a sharp dog-leg to the left and my ball ran out of fairway. For the more circumspect, the hole is a beauty and, if you’re high enough, you can see snow-covered Mount Baker in Washington State behind the pin. An added bonus is the wildlife, with deer, hawks and eagles seemingly appearing every time you look up or to the side.
Cordova is built on an old quarry, so the drainage is excellent and is a good option even during the wet winter.
The clubhouse is welcoming and, on a sunny evening, the terrace is jammed with families sampling, by Victoria standards, reasonably priced meals and west coast beers.
What’s your favourite golf course on Vancouver Island or further afield in British Columbia? Tell us in the comments below. And follow FT Globetrotter on Instagram at @FTGlobetrotter
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