Vernon Golf and Country Club

A casual stroll with a few golf shots for flavour

This full-length par-72 course only measures in at 6597 yards from the back tees (of four sets), and as such is more of a relaxing walk through the manicured grounds, with some golf shots along the way, than it is an endurance trial of mind and body like some courses. But that’s not to say your score will reflect that fact if you get too relaxed. Straight, short and under control is the name of the game here.

Starting with a slight dogleg left (sorry slicers, you’re going to have a rough go of it today) with Vernon Creek running down the right-hand side, a well placed mid-iron should do the trick and get you into a good position to start your round. Tall trees cut off the inside of the corner, so unless you’re moving the ball hard right-to-left, you’ll have a difficult time getting around it and holding the fairway on the far side—and you’re probably not going over them.

The second hole has you dealing with trouble right, too, as you’ve got out-of-bounds running the length of the hole on that side (thanks to the train tracks that run through the middle of the course but for some reason don’t feel out of place). It’s a straightforward par 5, but it’s not terribly wide (kind of a running theme on this course), and anything off to either side will make getting there in regulation difficult. Notice the driving range just off the fairway to your left? Don’t be there, either. Take your par—if you can manage it—and cross the tracks to the meat of the course, where holes 3 to 15 weave around the side of the hill.

The highlight of this middle section of the course is Hole 9. Perched high on the hill, looking down over the valley below, you also look down on a fairway stretching away before you perpendicular to the rest of the course, and know if you get ahold of one, you might just drive this green. Go for it, too, because there’s plenty of room for a miss—finally.

As you get back across the railroad tracks to the Inside 5, as they call it, you meet up with the most difficult hole on the course, in my opinion (despite the scorecard having it all the way down at 11th hardest). The 16th is a dogleg left with out-of-bounds on both sides of the fairway, an uphill tee shot to a blind landing area and a giant tree positioned in the middle of the fairway, making this one a doozy. For me, it also makes 17 and 18 seem like a nice way to wind down on your way back to the clubhouse, despite the 18th green being ridiculously well-protected both by bunkers and the main water feature on the course.

If there’s a negative thing to say about this track, it’s the length of the practice range and that you’re hitting off mats. The fact that you can’t hit woods (because you’ll hit through it and onto the first fairway) kind of reflects the course itself. But as I said, you want to be short and in control to properly position yourself around this track, not bombing it and hoping it stays on line.

Overall, just gear down, keep the driver in the bag, keep it between the trees, and you’ll enjoy your time out at Vernon GCC. Just consider it a stroll through a park with a few iron shots here and there, and you’ll be happy with the resulting card.

Even if you’re not thrilled with the numbers you had to write down (likely because you didn’t keep it straight), you just had a nice day in a nice park, hopefully with some people you like. Any day you can say that is a good day.