Set in the hills above beautiful Mara Lake in the summer playground of Shuswap Country, Hyde Mountain is the latest achievement of the masterful architect Les Furber. When you play a Furber course you know you can expect two things: 1) You are going to have to use every shot in the bag. 2) You can’t afford to take any tee shots lightly. Hyde Mountain is no exception to this rule. It winds its way through thick evergreen forest and across ravines to give golfers equal amounts of beauty and challenge.
A dramatic example of the Hyde Mountain experience is the fourth hole – a 483-yard par four from the back tees! While the yardage may seem ridiculous for a par four, once you step onto the tee you will understand why it has so much length. Nicknamed “Geronimo”, the tee box sits a majestic 200 feet above the fairway! A solid three wood is all that is needed to launch the ball into the wide blue yonder and have it settle impressively onto the fairway. With the elevation difference it is not uncommon for shots, even with fairway woods, to come to rest an incredible 300 yards from the tee! The unique thing about this hole though is the fact that its most appealing aspect, the elevation, is also its most dangerous enticement.
Golfers who take the shot too lightly are often tempted to blast away at the ball to find out exactly how far they can hit that high-compression ball. Even the slightest fade or draw, though, has plenty of time to amplify itself, so shots not hit dead solid can find themselves sailing not into the wild blue yonder but into the even wilder green woods – never to be seen again. If you do manage to resist the urge to knock some dimples off the ball with your driver, and find yourself in the fairway, you will be left with a mid to long iron to a green that is protected to the right and left, but wide open to a bump and run up the middle. Get a par on this memorable hole and you will have a great story to tell. Get a bogey or higher and you will have plenty of sympathetic people to bond with back at the Clubhouse.
With incredible views and four sets of tees to choose from, golfers off all levels will be able to enjoy all that Hyde Mountain has to offer. This year come golf one of the most “Scenic and Challenging Courses in the Shuswap”.
Review courtesy of www.britishcolumbia.com