Dakota Dunes Golf Links

Situated on land at the heights of the South Saskatchewan River Valley basin, Dakota Dunes opened its doors to the golfing public in 2004, rapidly establishing itself as one of the best pay and play facilities in the whole country.

Whitecap Dakota First Nation Council, Muskeg Lake Cree Nation and the Lac La Ronge Indian Band had earlier formed a partnership to transform a landscape with only marginal agricultural opportunities into a top-flight golf facility and the new course was the result of this collaboration.

Laid out in two returning loops of nine amongst natural sand dune formations with fairways bounded by natural prairie grasses, Dakota Dunes has been said to “wind its way over a remote, isolated and, for golfers, exhilarating landscape. Some of the natural dunes are 20 to 25 feet high. Wildflowers are in abundance, prickly pear, purple cacti, native shrubs, waving fescue and emerald fairways contrast the wide-open expanses of Saskatchewan sky”.

Dakota Dunes was proud host of the Saskatchewan Open in 2008, a championship revived after 23 years by the Canadian Tour. New Zealand's Josh Geary won the event with a final score of 17 under par to overcome George Bradford of the United States by one shot.

Wayne Carleton, co-designer of Dakota Dunes Golf Links, kindly supplied the following article:

Dakota Dunes Golf Links is unlike anything in Canada, consisting of wind swept sand dunes formed as a flat delta where the Saskatchewan River flowed into Glacial Lake Saskatchewan some eleven thousand years ago then blown into dune formation by strong post-glacial winds.

The course rolls and tumbles over and around the sand dunes, giving each hole its own special character and feel. There were numerous natural holes to choose from but the 18 holes discovered are a true complement to this unique and wonderful property.

Great effort was made to limit disturbance to the high-stabilized dunes (which are some 20+ feet in elevation) and the older dunes complexes that form many of the “blow-out” bunkers on the course.

Dakota Dunes is a hidden gem that is quietly being discovered and a great reason to travel to the Canadian prairies!