A golf weekend a couple of hours from home
Muskoka, the Eastern Townships, the Okanagan or Canmore. One round a day, booked direct, in September rather than July.
A golf trip does not have to mean a flight south. A weekend built around two or three courses within a couple of hours of home is cheaper, organized in an evening and, played properly, better golf than a package where nobody is speaking to anybody by Sunday.
Two rounds and a drive, not four rounds and exhaustion
The classic mistake is booking thirty-six holes a day for three days. By the second afternoon nobody is swinging properly and the golf stops being fun. Two rounds a day at most, with a long lunch between them, produces better scores and considerably better company.
Pick a cluster, not a headline course
The best weekends are built around three courses within half an hour of each other rather than one famous name and two hours of highway. Muskoka, Niagara, the Eastern Townships, the Okanagan and the area around Canmore all offer exactly that.
Book direct, midweek if you can
Green fees fall sharply between Sunday afternoon and Thursday, and the course is empty. If the group can take a Thursday and Friday in September, the same trip costs a good deal less and plays in the best conditions of the year. Where you must play a weekend, book the first tee times of the day.
The format decides whether it works
A weekend of medal play among mixed abilities is a weekend of slow, silent golf. Play Stableford, a scramble on the first afternoon and a match on the last morning, with a small prize and a running total. The format matters more to the mood of a golf weekend than the courses do.
What to actually pack
- Two gloves and two pairs of shoes, because one of each will get wet.
- Twice the balls you think you need, and a permanent marker.
- Rain gear and a warm layer regardless of the forecast, especially in September.
- Bug spray, tees and a spare set of spikes, which nobody ever has.
Where to look
Within a few hours of most Canadian cities there is a cluster worth a weekend: Muskoka and Prince Edward County out of Toronto, the Eastern Townships and Mont-Tremblant out of Montreal, the Okanagan out of Vancouver, Canmore and Kananaskis out of Calgary. Cape Breton and Prince Edward Island are the two clusters worth the longer drive, and both are largely public. Rates vary enormously with season and time of day, and only the course’s own page is reliable.
The weekend that works
- Three courses within half an hour of each other.
- One round a day, two at most, booked direct and early.
- Stableford or match play, never medal.
- September rather than July, and Thursday rather than Saturday.
The trip people remember is rarely the most expensive one. It is the one where the golf finished before everybody was tired of it.
