After a couple of waggles, I coil back, hoist the club high above my head, and make a violent swing-like lunge at the ball. Poetry in motion? I think not. Jerky gibberish might be a more apt descriptor. Nonetheless, I strike the sweet spot and my ball hangs in the thin mountain air for a long, long time. I admire this. That is, until my ball airmails the green and lands in Never Never Land way, way, way past the target. An overachievement, of sorts. In the true sense of the word, it’s something every golfer who tees it up in the Kimberley and Cranbrook region will experience.
It’s no secret. Just west of Calgary are numerous golf courses – destinations, actually – that showcase the mountain golf genre better than, well, basically anywhere else on a globe you can point to. And, certainly, each of these places – Canmore, Banff, and the Invermere area immediately come to mind – has plenty of merit. But from the lens I’m looking through, for value, variety, quality and quantity, there is another destination that is truly tough to top. Kimberley and Cranbrook.
Thanks to seven outstanding mountain golf courses, the one-two punch of Kimberley (an old mining town gone mad for golf) and Cranbrook (the largest city in the Kootenay Rockies) make an ideal destination to hunker down and hoist a few balls into pine-scented air. Tip: The ball flies further in the mountains.
With a historic stone mission building anchoring this stately property, St. Eugene is a tucked-away resort that has a peaceful, off-the-beaten-path vibe.
My recent swing-fling to the area started at the polished St. Eugene Mission Golf Resort & Casino. With the historic stone mission building (now a luxurious boutique hotel) anchoring this stately property, St. Eugene is a tucked-away resort that has a peaceful, off-the-beaten-path vibe. And St. Eugene, with its stunning mountain course in a picture-perfect valley, is a course you don’t want to miss.
Also, even non-golfers – thanks to the quality of the dining, the spacious outdoor pool area, the Casino of the Rockies, and the excellent Ktunaxa Interpretive Centre (it features historical photographs, cultural artifacts, and contemporary Indigenous art) – will love the experience at St. Eugene.
Shadow Mountain near St. Eugene is a tough course with rolling sandy hills flecked with lodgepole pine.
Located just 10 minutes west of St. Eugene, and also along the picturesque banks of the St. Mary River, is Shadow Mountain. And, trust me, you don’t want to be misjudging your distances on this course! Shadow Mountain is one of the toughest golf courses I’ve ever seen. (And I’ve seen a few. Nearly a thousand, actually.) However, the stunning terrain – rolling sandy hills flecked with lodgepole pine – and the many spectacular holes here make it one of the best golf experiences in Western Canada. Put it this way, blasting it over greens will never be so much fun!
Wildstone boasts, perhaps, the most scenic driving range in Canada. (You hit balls right at Fisher Peak, the signature mountain in the area.)
While a round at the mature, tree-lined layout at the Cranbrook Golf Club is never a bad call, Wildstone, a Gary Player-designed gem that’s situated on a beautiful bench above Cranbrook, should be incorporated in your itinerary. Besides the gorgeous bunkering, Wildstone boasts, perhaps, the most scenic driving range in Canada. (You hit balls right at Fisher Peak, the signature mountain in the area). If turf conditions are a big factor in your thinking, know that Wildstone is always in impeccable shape.
The championship course at Kimberley’s Bootleg Gap, which also has a cool 9-hole executive course, has two distinct sections.
Just up the road in the mountain town of Kimberley are three more spectacular mountain courses, each with plenty of merit and unique charms. For example, the championship course at Bootleg Gap, which also has a cool 9-hole executive course, has two distinct sections. Roughly half of the holes are below the ridge along the river, and the other half meander through the forest on top of the ridge. The result is a fantastic golf experience that highlights the natural beauty of the area as well as course architect Les Furber’s penchant for tiered greens, dramatic mounding, and generous bunkering.
Trickle Creek Golf Resort is a rollercoaster layout with eye-popping elevation changes and a significant “wow” factor, such as hole No.17.
Furber’s workmanship is also on display at the Trickle Creek Golf Resort, which sits at the base of Northstar Mountain and the tree-lined ski runs that funnel down the slopes. Perfectly situated just a five-iron down the road is the Trickle Creek Lodge. This classy timber-framed lodge offers one- and two-bedroom suites that are a perfect home base for your foursome. In terms of the golf course, not surprisingly, Trickle Creek is a rollercoaster layout with eye-popping elevation changes and a significant “wow” factor. For example, the par-3 11th, which plunges down the hill to a bunker-guarded green, is a signature hole in the area.
A new “bonus” hole – dubbed “The Perch” – at Purcell Golf might be the best new golf hole built in Western Canada in the past 30 years.
However, as good as that hole is, a brand new “bonus” hole – dubbed “The Perch” – at Purcell Golf might be the best new golf hole built in Western Canada in the past 30 years. (Purcell Golf, formerly the Kimberley Golf Club, is a 100-year-old relic of a course situated just south of Kimberley in Marysville.)
This little jewel of a par-3, which isn’t part of the regular routing, is played, optionally, as a “bonus” after playing the 11th. However, it should NOT be skipped! It’s a spectacular 130-yard hole that requires a precise short-iron shot over a ravine to a green suspended on an aerie bluff that juts out into the valley. It’s phenomenal. Pure gold. Just don’t hit it long.
