Dunes at Kamloops

In the early 1990s, architect Graham Cooke had already fashioned a couple of provincially ranked courses in British Columbia (at Crown Isle and Harvest Club) before his Dunes at Kamloops layout debuted here in 1997. Set out on a sandy soiled terrace that was once the riverbed of the North Thompson River, the course extends to just under 7,000 yards from the tips, playing to a standard par of 72.

Residential units impact on the opening five holes, where large sandy waste areas adjacent to the fairways form natural hazards, then the course opens out across a largely flat property with the outward half concluding at the 384-yard 9th, which doglegs right around a small lake. On the back nine, the routing eventually leads to the river, where the greens at the par five 16th and par four 17th lie close to the water’s edge, which is screened from the course by trees and shrubs.

Overall, the fairways are rather open and forgiving, allowing the driver to be used whenever it’s deemed necessary. A few contours were obviously forced on the landscape during construction but the shaping has been done in such a way that the resulting mounds and knolls look pretty natural and largely in keeping with their surroundings.