“Until then it was fairly quiet,” says Jordan Ray, director of golf at Arbutus Ridge. “There were a number of good courses but it was an island to which people from Vancouver and other parts of Canada retired. So we had a lot of retirees out playing but not that many visitors. Bear Mountain sparked a lot of interest from traveling golfers and helped Vancouver Island become a popular golfing destination.”
No kidding. GOLF magazine has said the island represents one of the continent’s “best golfing values.” Alberta Golfer said it has “some of the most magnificent golf vacation packages imaginable.”
“The diversity of the golf courses, fishing and numerous other outdoor activities make Vancouver Island an incredible playground for any visitor,” said Golf Living. The Globe and Mail put it simply: “Victoria and Vancouver Island offer superb golf and so much more.”
You have to ask how one course could have had so great an impact on the island’s golfing fortunes, but really there’s only one response: “Have you seen Bear Mountain?”
The 7,212-yard, thrill-a-minute layout, set in the foothills of 1,375-foot Mount Finlayson, is as fun and exciting a golf course as most golfers will ever play. When it opened on Aug. 1, 2003, it was the first new venue the island had seen in 12 years, and it had an immediate impact.
“Ever since it opened, we have averaged over 40,000 rounds a year,” says director of golf Steve MacPherson. Coupled with the economic boom British Columbia enjoyed at the start of the century, it was only natural, MacPherson adds, that other developers would try to emulate what had happened at Bear Mountain.
There are currently eight courses in construction or at the developmental stage on Vancouver Island (and outlying islands), most of them big-money affairs not dissimilar to Bear Mountain, which itself is opening its second course – the Valley, designed by Jack’s son Steve – officially this summer, though it will actually be open for play beginning in April. ?Among the planned courses are the potentially world-class Wyndandsea in Ucluelet on the island’s west coast (another Jack Nicklaus project), Cable Bay near Nanaimo, Raven Ridge and Sage Hills in the Comox Valley, and the Greg Norman-designed Cliffs at Maple Bay. Sadly, the faltering economy has slowed progress at most of them, and doubts remain over whether some will ever be completed.
Not to worry, however. The 140-mile stretch of the island’s east coast between Victoria and Campbell River is chock-full of golf worthy of whichever route for travel you choose (see sidebar). Eleven courses between the two points make up the Vancouver Island Golf Trail, which offers a number of attractive stay-and-play packages on its web site, golfvancouverisland.ca.