Quilchena By The Lake Golf Club

Quilchena sits in the dry, open ranch country of the Nicola Valley, roughly halfway between Merritt and the town of Kamloops in British Columbia's Interior. This is cattle-and-sage landscape — big sky, brown hills, and the cold, clear water of Nicola Lake running alongside — a long way from the coastal resort circuit and all the better for it. The setting alone makes this course worth the detour.

The Nicola Valley is one of those corners of BC that golfers from Vancouver or the Lower Mainland tend to stumble onto by accident, usually while passing through on the Coquihalla or Highway 5A. Those who stop tend to come back. The climate here is drier and sunnier than the coast, the pace unhurried, and the landscape has a spare, ranching-country beauty that gives the round a character you won't manufacture on a manicured resort track.

At par 70, Quilchena By The Lake plays a shade shorter than a full championship test, which suits the setting — this is a course about the experience of being somewhere genuinely remote and unhurried, with Nicola Lake as your backdrop.