Shuswap golf courses: every 18-hole layout within an hour of Sicamous

Every course within an hour

The Shuswap is not a golf destination in the way the Okanagan an hour south is, and the honest count reflects that: two eighteen-hole championship courses in Salmon Arm, one at Blind Bay, one at Sicamous, a nine-hole executive course in Sicamous itself, and a multi-course club on the Salmon Arm side. That is the whole set within an hour’s drive of Mara Lake. What the region lacks in volume it makes up in variety — a links-flat parkland, two hillside routings and a genuinely long championship layout are all inside forty minutes of each other.

Dashes are fields that could not be confirmed from more than one source. Yardages are from the longest rated tee.

Two hillsides by the same architect

The pairing worth planning a trip around is Mara Hills and the Champions Course at Salmon Arm. Both are Les Furber designs, both are cut into slopes rather than laid across flat ground, and they are half an hour apart. Playing them back to back is the clearest way to see what a Furber routing does with a hillside — the Champions is longer at 6,738 yards and runs through mature fir, cedar and pine; Mara Hills is shorter at 6,701 but carries far more vertical drop and a lake underneath it.

If you only have time for one and you want the views, it is the Sicamous course. If you want the better test of a full set of clubs on a conventional parkland, it is the Champions. The Furber page covers what the two have in common with his other work across British Columbia.

The longest and the shortest

Shuswap National in Salmon Arm is the longest course in the region at 7,026 yards, par 72, and the only one that gets near championship length. It was known as Canoe Creek before the rename, and the water — creeks, marshes and constructed features — is the defining characteristic rather than elevation.

At the other end, Eagle River in Sicamous is a nine-hole executive course of six par 4s and three par 3s, playing to par 66 over 4,879 yards for a full round. It sits on the Trans-Canada east of town beside the river it is named for, and it is the obvious answer for a quick round, a family group of mixed ability, or a wet afternoon when nobody wants to commit to eighteen on a hillside.

Shuswap Lake Golf Course at Blind Bay, twenty minutes west of Salmon Arm just off the highway, is the flattest and most straightforwardly enjoyable of the eighteen-hole set at 6,468 yards. Like Mara Hills, it now runs under the GolfNorth group.

Planning a multi-round trip

BC golf packages covering this region have been sold for years, usually built around Salmon Arm as the base because it has the most accommodation. Basing yourself in Sicamous instead works if the lake is part of the trip — you are thirty minutes from the Salmon Arm courses and five from your own first tee, at the cost of a smaller choice of places to sleep and eat.

It is worth being clear about where the Shuswap sits in British Columbia golfing terms: this is not the Okanagan. Anyone whose plan is really about Kelowna golf courses — Gallagher’s Canyon, or Predator Ridge an hour north of them — is looking at a different trip with more courses and higher green fees. BC golf of this kind offers fewer layouts, shorter drives between them, and a lake most Okanagan resorts cannot match. Both are good weeks; they are not the same week.

A sensible four-round week: Mara Hills, the Champions, Shuswap National and Shuswap Lake, in whatever order the tee sheets allow, with Eagle River as the wet-weather substitute. That covers both Furber hillsides, the longest layout and the flattest, and never asks for more than about forty minutes in the car. The stay and play page covers accommodation near the Sicamous end.

Questions about golf in the Shuswap

How many golf courses are in the Shuswap?

Within about an hour of Sicamous: four eighteen-hole championship courses (Mara Hills, Salmon Arm Champions, Shuswap National and Shuswap Lake), a second course at the Salmon Arm club, a multi-course club at Club Shuswap, and a nine-hole executive course at Eagle River in Sicamous.

Which is the longest course in the region?

Shuswap National in Salmon Arm at 7,026 yards, par 72. It was formerly called Canoe Creek. Mara Hills is second at 6,701 yards, though it plays to a higher slope because of the elevation change.

Is there a course in Sicamous itself?

Two. Mara Hills, the eighteen-hole hillside course above Mara Lake that opened as Hyde Mountain, and Eagle River Golf & Country Club, a nine-hole executive course on the highway east of town.

Which courses share an architect with Hyde Mountain?

Within the region, the Champions Course at Salmon Arm Golf Club — also a Les Furber design, also built into a hillside, and half an hour west. Furber has more than fifty courses across western Canada, including Predator Ridge near Vernon, about an hour and a quarter south.

When does the Shuswap golf season run?

Roughly April to October, set by conditions rather than dates. Hillside courses like Mara Hills usually open a little later and close a little earlier than the flatter valley-bottom layouts around Salmon Arm.