Bylaws for a new golf club were first drafted in 1924 then the process of acquiring land took three years before the first formal meeting was held to establish the Gorge Vale Golf Club. A.V. Macan was engaged to set out a course within the 143 acres of “wooded wilderness” that had been secured and the new layout opened on 1st November 1930.
Today, the course extends to 6,820 yards from the back tees, playing to a par of 72, with holes arranged as two returning nines. At the start of the new millennium, Les Furber redesigned 16 greens to USGA specifications during a renovation project that added new tees, improved the drainage and upgraded fairway contouring.
The par four 12th hole, a tough uphill long par four, is one of the most unusual on Vancouver Island, bordered by the Veterans Cemetery in Esquimalt which has been an honoured final resting place for those serving at sea since 1868. Nowadays, more than 2,500 military personnel and their family members are buried at “God's Acre” – as this beautiful cemetery is commonly known.
