Northern BC Golf

Want to play the Peace River area of Northern BC? It all starts in Prince George. You had better fill the tank there because the next 4 hours will blow your mind with its beauty, but also shake you just a little due to its lack of facilities. From Prince George to the town of Chetwynd (the end of the mountainous Pine Pass) is a 4-hour ride. Along the way you will pass an exit for the small forestry town of Mackenzie. This microdot-sized town is about 40 minutes off the highway and about 2 hours north of Prince George. Besides having all the facilities you will ever need they have a great 9-hole golf course called the Mackenzie Golf Club.

I did not get time to play it this year but I did three years before and I highly recommend players heading through the area stop and play. There is a sign on the first tee warning that bears inhabit this course. For a kid from the city I think this is so-o-o cool. Besides that there is a fully stocked clubhouse, range, cart and club rentals and 9 holes of golf that will have you reworking your holiday plans so you can play it on the way back. But for most Chetwynd is the first real roadside opportunity you have to play golf.

In Chetwynd you will find the Natural Springs Golf Club. Nine holes, full length, all the usual suspects (range, food, etc) and a tougher 9 holes you may not see for a while. At 366 yards, downhill, you may think the 1st hole is a piece of cake just waiting for you to devour. Ha I say! I doubt you'll get any where close to the green in regulation. The hole is a sharp dogleg left, has red stakes on both sides, water on the right and left of the green and with the traditional summer time wind blowing hard up the fairway this is a brute. By far the prettiest hole on the course is the 500-yard par 5 ninth. Downhill then uphill and a dogleg right are the basics. Then you have a fairway that banks right like a NASCAR curve and slopes hard to the lake that follows the fairway and cuts up in front of the green. It's a great test of golf.

Next up is the 45-minute drive of Chetwynd to Tumbler Ridge. Tumbler was built as a coal town in the 1980's and it was a typical frontier kind of town. A quick boom period followed by near disaster as the coal deals fell through. Throughout the late 1980's and well into the 1990's Tumbler hovered on the edge of being a vibrant town to being a ghost town. Then somebody stumbled upon fossilized dinosaur footprints. Then some fossilized eggs, and then even more footprints and eggs. From there Tumbler rose like a Phoenix. Shucking the ashes of a burnt out coal mine this little spot of heaven resurrected itself as an eco tourist town.

Today people come to explore Tumbler, which has built a reputation as an eco holiday resort and wilderness get away. The Tumbler Ridge course is a full-length full service 9-hole dream and it is to golf what Sinatra is to music. The mountains are so close you feel you have to steer around them just to get from tee to green. And the setting is so beautiful that many come to Tumbler just to sit on the edge of the golf course and paint.

After playing both Natural Springs and Tumbler Ridge make the time to play Moberly Lake & District Golf Club. You may want to play Tumbler first then return back to Chetwynd where you can play the Natural Springs course then drive 40 minutes north to Moberly Lake.

At first Moberly looks like an executive golf course with killer views. But really is a full-length solid test of golf, with killer views. The first hole is a short drivable par 4, 300 yards long dead straight but banked hard from left to right. The second is a semi tough 160-yard par 3, which is well guarded by bunkers. Then the fun starts. Standing on the tee box of the 495 par 5 third hole I swore I heard somebody yell, "Gentlemen, start your engines." The hole rips down hill hard and fast. It doglegs right with a fairway that has more banking on it than any Indy track would dare to use. I made par here and when I picked up my ball I swore I could feel a sense of relief sweep over me.

About one hour away from Moberly is Dawson Creek (Mile 0 on the Alaskan Highway). I always found that Dawson makes for the perfect base camp while in the Peace area. Last time through I stayed at the George Dawson Inn and loved every moment of it. It was once the newest jewel in the north BC crown and now it has aged but in a way that gives it an almost "Empress Hotel" elegance feel. The George (as locals call it) is less than 10 minutes away from the Dawson Creek G&CC as well as Farmington Fairways and about 35 minutes south of Ft St John. The George Dawson Inn can be viewed at georgedawsoninn.bc.ca