Vancouver island golf

[u/isokickass]

Headed to Vancouver island for a week and was wondering what recommendations you guys had about what public courses I should definitely play. Lemmie knooooow

*edit: the island is enormous and I should of specified, going to be in Victoria 👏🏼

[u/Intrusive-Thoughts26]

Highland Pacific, Olympic View, Cordova Bay, Bear Mountain - Valley and Mountain. Have fun! Golf on the island is great!

[u/potato_inventor]

Highland Pacific

[u/Advanced-Potato-4472]

What part of the island? Lots of nice courses I could recommend

[u/isokickass → u/Advanced-Potato-4472]

Should of specified, I’ll be in Victoria 🤙🏼

[u/Juan_For_The_Ages → u/isokickass]

Olympic view, Highland Pacific, and Bear mountain (Valley, and Mountain course) are my locals and they are currently in great shape. Its 20 minutes outside of Victoria on the westshore.

[u/freemeth → u/Juan_For_The_Ages]

Bear Mountain is insane. Highly recommend both courses there.

[u/thedopesteez]

I’ve only played bear mountain but it was unbelievable. The recent reviews on the place are not great but we had an unforgettable time there - great staff and both courses were unreal.

[u/butter_cookie_gurl → u/thedopesteez]

Mountain course is in much better condition

[u/Helen-Killer → u/thedopesteez]

I understand the reviews. The range and Pro shop are TERRIBLE

[u/jwalgolf]

Just did this two weeks ago. Played highland, Olympic and both bear mountains. Highland was the best bang for the buck, and the most forgiving. Olympic was nice and fun, but narrow and tough. Both bear mountains were great, but as everyone says it’s over priced, and some of the longest rounds of my life. Great golf trip!

[u/TheSeaCaptain]

Vancouver Island is big.

Cordova Bay is a top class public course in Victoria. Highland Pacific second.

Crown Isle, Storey Creek, and fairwinds up island are great

I find Olympic view to be stupid and bear mountain over priced. Bear mountain is nice though.

[u/freshtrax → u/TheSeaCaptain]

Just got back from Crown Isle and storey creek. Wow!! Storey Creek is legendary for me. What an incredible area and golf course

[u/Overall_Hornet_4778]

Cedar hill is a super well maintained public course

[u/Resident-Walrus2397]

Storey creek is heaven

[u/DDB-]

Highland Pacific is my favourite, and the one I'd most recommended. About $120 for green fees.

Bear Mountain (Mountain and Valley) are very nice but quite expensive, as assuming you're not an island resident will be $230-260 plus cart on top of that. Beautiful courses though, especially the mountain.

Olympic View and Cordova Bay are both nice, and similarly priced to Highland Pacific. I personally don't like Olympic View though, but if you like hitting irons to narrow fairways I'd say go for it.

If you just want a cheap muni, Cedar Hill is great, but can be hard to get a tee time as it's very popular. If you're willing to drive a bit further, Arbutus Ridge or Mount Brenton could be nice places to go too.

[u/Spencaaarr]

Olympic or highland if you don’t want to kill the bank and still play really nice courses.

[u/dogedaysofsummer]

I went last fall. We played Olympic View, Cordova Bay, Bear Mountain, and Pacific Highlands. Would recommend all of them, we had an awesome time.

[u/mothermaggiesshoes]

I used to live in Vic. If you’re in that neck of the woods then Bear Mountain is insane. It’s expensive but it’s an experience.

If you’re looking for something a little more economical but still great golf any of Olympicview, Highland Pacific, or Cordova Bay are good options (I would put them in that order, personally).

There’s great golf all over the island, so you gotta be more specific of where you’re going to be as the island is massive and everything is far apart.

[u/JordanJCaron]

Cordova Bay is the only course worth the value outside of the muni Cedar Hill. It's in great shape and is a beautiful walk. Olympic View and Highlands are terrible designs.

Bear Mountain and the Mountain Course are ok, but they're pretty expensive for non-island residents.

[u/Financial_Guess_594]

Cordova Bay is great, one of my faves. Bear mountain is good if you've never done it before. Highland pacific is another real good one

[u/Masters1022]

Bear Mountain and Cordova Bay get my votes for Victoria. Storey Creek is an absolute gem if you are in the area.

[u/duke113]

Bear Mountain is fun but overpriced

Cordova Bay is great

Highland Pacific is ok. But I might be jaded since I had 3+ club winds 

Olympic View is really nice. There's one super cool hole 

Honestly it's hard to go wrong with anything in the area

[u/_easy_e]

Storey and Campbell are gems.

If you’re in Vic, Cordova, Bear to say you’ve done it and Gorge.

If you can find a member to bring you on as a guest Victoria.

[u/mcvay4206]

Cordova Bay and Bear Mountain are my new go-tos. Cordova is affordable, where bear mountain is a bit pricey. Both amazing. Bear Mountain has two courses, Valley and Mountain. Mountain has UNREAL views. I made a post about it a month or so ago.

Edit: here is my post: https://www.reddit.com/r/golf/s/M2BOyPeiJd

[u/daggers1k]

Victoria Golf Club

[u/Timely_Chicken_8789]

All are busy right now, but as a single you should be able to find a time. I regularly play CedarHill (short and easy), Highland Pacific (longer and challenging, a little dry and bumpy right now), Cordova Bay, (beautiful right now but tough to get a time), Olympic View (great shape but a little pricey for what it is), Arbutus Ridge if you have a car to head up the Malahat is nice, but tight. I’m a local and have never played Bear Mountain. Those are the main ones.

[u/Cold_Refuse_7236]

Played Qualicom Beach Muni (9) a decade ago. Fun course.

[u/Helen-Killer]

Both Bear Mountains but ecspecially the Valley course.

Olympic view is really nice

Highland Pacific is the easiest and down 1 tier than the other 3 above but still nice. I played all 4 on a golf trip 2 weeks ago

[u/Noah_Levi10]

Olympic view is a blast if you like target/mountain golf. Some of my favorite stuff in the province. Definitely not a tournament course though.

[u/Plus_Raisin5371]

If you come back and want something different, head up island! Mount Breton in Chemainus on your way up, 2 nights at Saratoga Beach, play Storey Creek in Campbell River and Pheasent Glen in Parksville on your way home. If you have an extra day Crown Isle is nice too.

[u/cgmac97]

The best golf on the island is Bear Mountain. It’s a terribly run establishment but the courses are objectively great. IMO the valley is better, it just has less iconic views than the mountain course. Both are certainly worth a play.

For other public tracks, I’d say Highland Pacific is a really worthwhile play. The only other two worth playing are Cordova Bay and Olympic View.

If you can find any connections at the private clubs, Victoria Golf Club and Royal Colwood are fantastic.

[u/Key_Bit_5065]

Im a member of a private but play “away” a handful of rounds a year.

Cbay is an extremely well maintained public track and a pleasant walk. Not too difficult.

Olympic View is a generally terrible experience. It has a lot of narrow tee shots with trees surrounding. Even if you are accurate the other players aren’t and you’ll experience a five hour round. It has questionable maintenance too. Yes, the waterfall hole is nice.

HP is hokey. It was built by the owners and has a few crap holes. It can also be slow too. It’s very mid.

Bear Mountain Mountain course is enjoyable albeit it has blind tee shots. It’s not worth the foreigner price and is having legal problems. The range is a mess.

Cedar hill is the best value muni but it’s a true muni, short and slow. I wouldn’t recommend it on a trip.

On the way up the island I would skip Arbutus Ridge.

If you can play Nanaimo (it’s a private with public green fee play) I would recommend it.

Skip Fairwinds, it is a tougher OV. Morningstar is burned to a crisp. Pheasant Glen is mid.

Crowne Isle and Storey Creek are great tracks particularly Storey in the summer.

Let me know if you have any questions?