The Rise: High above Okanagan Lake in Vernon

Not for the faint of heart, but one of the most entertaining golf courses you’ll find anywhere in the central interior of B.C.

High above Okanagan Lake in Vernon, B.C. (and I mean high—it seems like you climb switchbacks forever to get to the course), you will find a true test of not only your golf skills, but also your mental fortitude and emotional restraint.

It’s one of the most entertaining golf courses anywhere in the central interior of B.C.—if you can keep your wits about you, keep your ego in check and understand your own limitations and those forced upon you by a golf course weaving around the side of a mountain.

Don’t be fooled by the clubhouse (which they really should put some money into), and the lack of anything resembling a practice facility (they have a big net you can hit into to warm up), the course itself is an amazing work of art that will test you and amaze you at the same time.

Designers Gene Bates and everyone’s favourite PGA (and now Champions Tour) professional Fred Couples have partnered up to design one of the true masterpieces of British Columbia golf.

How it plays

Don’t get lulled into complacency by the straightforward par-4 over a pond with an iron or hybrid to a generous landing area and a short iron or wedge into the first green, followed by the pretty but not very challenging downhill par-3 that open the round. This course is about to bring it as you make your way over and around the mountain.

The middle stretch is a killer, with the four hardest holes on the course coming between the 6th and the 12th holes. The scorecard has the 6th rated the most difficult, but I’ll give that award to the 11th. This dogleg (if you can call it that, as it turns probably 80 degrees) takes a hard left about 225 yards out from the white tees, with no way to make a second shot into the green if you don’t make the corner (which plays well further than the yardage, as the entire hole is dramatically uphill). Even if you do have a clear line into the green, you’re shooting at least three clubs more than the distance on your way into the green. There’s a backstop in case you can’t hold the green, but it’s no place to try to get up-and-down from.

The course also ends with a monster of a hole. At 590 yards from the tip (and even 570 from the blues), with an uphill teeshot over a gully to the first ridge—and cliffs lining either side of the fairway threatening to swallow anything off line—you’re on your way to a sweeping downhill stretch back to the clubhouse overlooking the city of Vernon and the edge of the lake. Make your way to Freddy’s Patio for one of the best flatbread pizzas I’ve ever had.

The long and short of it is that it’s a challenging course that will test you in many ways, but it’s entirely worth your time and effort. I’m betting you’ll even want to go around another time to prove you’re better than your scorecard says.

And you should, because you will be better now that you know what’s going on out there.