Have Golf Will Travel

A few months ago Judy and I decided it would be nice to see some of the parts of Canada we had not yet visited. We had spent the last 10 years making frequent visits to Florida, and had been to the UK three times. But in that time we had made only one serious "golfing holiday" to another part of Canada -- to Prince Edward Island and Cape Breton a number of years ago.


Our trip to Saskatchewan would be the first of a series of trips that would take us across Canada sampling golf courses and seeing the sites.

Follow up:

After a three hour flight from Toronto, we landed in Regina on Tuesday afternoon, picked up our rental car, and then headed the 125 km (75 mile) or so to our first destination: Harbor Golf Resort in a little place called Elbow.



An old church has been turned into a museum in Elbow.


Most of central Saskatchewan is dominated by the South Saskatchewan River, and Elbow was at one time an important crossing point located at an "elbow" in the river where it turned north towards Saskatoon. In the 1960s a major construction project flooded the river valley in this area creating what is called Lake Diefenbaker. The "lake" is about 30 miles long and stretches from the Gardiner Dam in the north to the Qu'Appelle Dam in the south.




The shore along Lake Diefenbaker at Elbow Saskatchewan


This project transformed the southern part of Saskatchewan. It provided an effective way of controlling spring floods. But even more important, it gave the area a plentiful source of water. Water for population centres, and water to irrigate the incredibly large and productive farms in the area.


In the process little towns like Elbow were also transformed. The river crossing that formerly existed here disappeared. And like many small towns in sparsely populated rural areas in North America, the town was reduced to a grain elevator, a school, a couple of churches, and a few stores to service the surrounding farms.


The Harbor Golf Resort


I found the Harbor Golf Resort by following the ads on a couple of "Golf Saskatchewan" web sites. As we made the two hour drive from Regina through mile after mile of people-less farms I wondered how a "resort" could survive in such an isolated, sparsely populated area. All of Saskatchewan has fewer than a million residents, and just about half of them are concentrated in the two major cities of Saskatoon (230,000) and Regina (200,000).


In urbanized, highly commercialized parts of Canada like southern Ontario, a "resort" is usually run by some mega-hotel chain like Delta or Fairmont, and is almost always an expensive place to stay -- especially if it has a golf course attached to it. Services are all designed to squeeze as much money as possible out of you before you leave.



Harbor Golf Clubhouse viewed from the yacht club


The Harbor Golf Resort is not that kind of place. It is a nice golf course with a serviceable pro shop and extremely pleasant, laid-back restaurant. The accommodation at the resort is provided in the attached RV park where you can rent one of several cabins. If you are lucky (like we were) you might get put in the three bedroom house trailer beside the driving range.


Apart from golf, there don't seem to be too many family oriented activities available right at the resort. There is a nice beach at the Gardiner Dam (about 20 miles away) along with a park and visitor pavilion that includes a very informative presentation of the creation of Lake Diefenbaker.





The Resort is also right next door to the Lake Diefenbaker Yacht Club. You can't touch but you are free to look.


The Golf Course


The golf course at Harbor Golf Resort is an 18 hole "parkland" course designed in 1988. It was a developmental project aimed at giving a large number of local young people and trades experience in the building and maintaining of a golf course.





The course is laid out on the bluffs above Lake Diefenbaker with about seven of the eighteen holes along the shore. A number of the holes take advantage of the dunes and "coulee" formations to create some interesting blind shots and carries. If you are playing from the back tees, be prepared for a 200 yard carry on the tee shot at #16. It is slightly up hill, and often into the wind. I got over once, by about two feet.












The course is thoroughly enjoyable. The greens are in beautiful shape and are left long so they play quite slow. I suspect this is what the regulars prefer. If I have one criticism it is that the course typifies the traditional parkland fixation with having everything lush and green and soft. This is what many golfers think they want. And it is how modern golf courses were being designed until about 10 years ago.