Mars Sandhills Golf Course

Manitoba's Interlake region sits on the ancient lakebed of glacial Lake Agassiz, and the flat, open prairie that defines so much of the province gives way here — around the village of Libau, roughly 45 minutes northeast of Winnipeg — to something unexpectedly textured. The "sandhills" in this course's name is the real thing: a patch of sandy, rolling terrain that stands apart from the surrounding agricultural flatlands and gives the layout a character you simply don't find at most Manitoba tracks.

Mars Sandhills is a community-rooted rural course, the kind of place where local members have kept the game alive in a small-town setting for decades. Courses built on sandy soil in the northern prairies tend to drain well and offer firm, fast conditions that reward ground-game thinking — a style of golf that suits the region's often-breezy open skies.

For Winnipeg golfers looking to get off the city's more familiar circuits, the Interlake sandhills offer a genuine change of scenery and a refreshingly unpretentious day on the course.