Kokanee Springs

Norman Woods, for many years an associate of Stanley Thompson, laid out the Kokanee Springs Golf Resort course in 1968. Set out as two returning nines, the 18-hole layout plays to a par of 71 over a distance of 6,601 yards, with fairways literally carved from dense forest at the foot of the Purcell Mountains. Accommodation lodges (comprising 8 suites and 56 rooms) sit on the hill above the 10th and 12th fairways.

There’s no shortage of feature holes here. On the front nine, both par threes at the 5th and 7th play to difficult, multi-tiered greens, while a creek runs diagonally across the front of the green at the left doglegging 9th, feeding in to a pond on the right hand side of the putting surface.

On the back nine, Willowbrook Creek protects the front of the green on the par four 15th before a long line of Lombardi trees and a small lake run along the left flank of the par five 17th fairway as it heads towards yet another three-tiered green.

The par four closing hole is a lot more treacherous than its stoke index of 14 might suggest, playing to a putting surface that’s flanked by sand with ponds to the front left and right of the home green. A modest yardage of less than 350 yards might suggest a late birdie opportunity but it’s a hole that’s fraught with danger.