High Plains Drifter

At Tobiano’s 6th hole, water, sand and gorse are equally happy to
grab your tee shot.

IN THE NEAR FUTURE , an entrepreneur from B.C or an executive from Alberta will purchase Lot 18, flanking the fairway of the 16th hole. He or she will build a tasteful yet luxurious retreat and, after much hemming and hawing, perhaps decide to put a round table in the dining area off the kitchen to help facilitate sparkling dinner-party chatter.

That’s the future. Right now, that space is occupied by my massively wayward tee shot at Tobiano, which sits on the barren, baked earth of the high desert just outside Kamloops, terracing down to the calm shores of the 29-kilometre-long Kamloops Lake. This is just one of a handful ofnew courses in the area that are drawing golfers from around the globe.

Tobiano
Opened in 2007 and designed by rising Canadian star Thomas McBroom, Tobiano (877-373-2218, tobianogolf.com) has had a lightning-rod effect on the local golf scene. Long accustomed to living in the shadows of the showier Okanagan courses to the south, Kamloops was a place where a small cadre of dedicated golfers could enjoy some great courses in a relaxed, unhurried environment. But Tobiano has opened up the area to a much larger group of golf tourists-the kind who don’t sleep well unless they can play every hot new track. This one was decreed the best new course in Canada in 2008 by both Golf Digest and Score magazines. For me, the strokes pile up and the course continues to punish my wayward shots. At 7,110 yards from the blacks (inexplicably dubbed the "Iron" tees), the course requires drives more reliable than mine to ensure a reasonable approach to the green. But as the hot wind blows up the canyon, my attempts to land the ball on anything resembling grass are repeatedly thwarted. The few times I do hit a clean shot, angled fairways (the inevitable result of building your course on the side of a mountain) kick my ball into the rough and beyond.

Yet the views and the pure, well-engineered design of the holes keep a smile on my face. If all goes according to plan, many of the fairways will soon be lined with homes, and an equestrian centre and a marina will also follow. For now, the landscape still has a beautiful, spare quality that reminds me of Neil Armstrong’s quick round on the moon.

Talking Rock
East of Kamloops in lake country, the Little Shuswap band has opened Talking Rock (1663 Little Shuswap Rd., Chase, B.C., 877-663-4303, talkingrock.ca). If Tobiano is a rugged brute, Talking Rock is a serene, relaxed beauty. Designed by Graham Cooke and Wayne Carleton but routed by Western Canadian stalwart Les Furber (whose resumé includes Canmore’s Silvertip, Vernon’s Predator Ridge and Kimberley’s Trickle Creek), this tract swaps Tobiano’s spare vistas for a pleasant meander through trees.

The course opens up with an unheard-of four doglegs on the first five holes, which would be magical if they all went in the same direction as my snap hook. (They don’t.) Some might say it lacks the drama of high desert golf, but Talking Rock more than makes up for it with its playability. The early take on Tobiano from golf writers was that it’s marvellous to play once, but its difficulty makes repeat performances unlikely. And while that’s not entirely fair, no one would say the same of Talking Rock. It’s on the lake and the course design is so low-key it doesn’t even feature the water until the final two holes. The best compliment you can pay the track is that it feels like your home course the first time you play.

The Dunes
I weave through North Kamloops to take on the Dunes (652 Dunes Dr., 888-881-GOLF, golfthedunes.com), another Graham Cooke course (he also designed the nearby course at the Sun Peaks Resort). This is also designed in a modified links style. Like Tobiano, it has grand plans to line the fairways with homes. But for the time being, they’re largely home-free-though I’m not, with my wonky drives. Still, the course is nothing if not fair, and the links design enables any golfer not embarrassed at playing off adjoining fairways to scramble to a respectable round. The one knock on the Dunes is perhaps endemic of what the future holds for golf in Kamloops: its $70 green fees pale in comparison to the cost of Tobiano ($130), but are still higher than they should be for a course with a pro shop in a trailer (a proper clubhouse opens this year). In the scheme of things, I guess it’s still a good deal for those used to paying much more for the privilege of a great round.

Sagebrush
One hour south of Kamloops, just past the famed Douglas Lake Ranch, sits a course unlike any other. Sagebrush (877-350-9555, sagebrushclub.com) is the brainchild of former PGA tour pro Richard Zokol, who designed the course with criminally unheralded Alberta designer Rod Whitman (Ponoka’s Wolf Creek and Edmonton’s Blackhawk) and agronomist Armen Suny. At first blush the layout seems akin to Tobiano’s-it’s in the high desert overlooking a body of water (Nicola Lake in this case)-but closer examination reveals a different hand at work. It’s whispered that for every 10 tonnes of dirt McBroom moved to create Tobiano, the Sagebrush team moved only one. The result is a masterpiece of minimalist design: finding the perfect patch of earth and letting the holes rise up from it is all the rage in golf design. Sagebrush has a shot at being one of the great courses in the West, and on the day I was there only four other golfers were on the entire course. There’s even a stocked fly-fishing pond off the 13th.

But here’s the rub: it’s not only private, you have to be invited to be a member. It sounds daunting, but as Zokol and his team are nothing if not gentlemen, here’s our advice: call well in advance, politely inquire if you might play the course, express your respect for the game and its traditions…and pray. Your perseverance will be amply rewarded.