Bowen Island Golf Club

Bowen Island Golf Club is a nine-hole public course at Cowan Point, on the southeast side of Bowen Island in Howe Sound, British Columbia. The island is a municipality of its own, reached by a short BC Ferries crossing from Horseshoe Bay in West Vancouver. The course is a par 35 of 3,003 yards from the blue tees, designed by Russ Olson of Sechelt, and it is run by the Bowen Island Golf Association, a volunteer-led body, on leased land. The club now trades as Bowen Golf; its website is bowengolf.com and its address is 810 Beach Drive, Bowen Island.

It is a young course by Canadian standards, carved, in the club’s words, from West Coast rainforest in the 2000s, and it is better known than its size suggests: Canadian Golf Magazine named it one of the country’s must-play nine-hole courses, a distinction British Columbia Golf reported in 2014, and Tourism Bowen Island adds that it was voted one of Canada’s hidden gem courses in 2014 and one of the top 25 nine-hole courses in the country in 2020.

Which club is this?

Search engines regularly mix this course up with two others. Bow Island Golf Club is in Alberta and has nothing to do with Bowen Island. Bowen Golf Club is a seaside course in Bowen, Queensland, on the Whitsunday coast of Australia. If a scorecard in metres or a listing in Alberta turns up, it belongs to one of those. This page is about the course on Bowen Island, British Columbia.

History: a community course at Cowan Point

The land has a long private history. According to Bowen Island Properties, the developer of Cowan Point, George H. Cowan had bought more than 1,000 acres in the southeast of the island by 1917, built eight cottages to rent to friends and farmed a dozen acres; until a road reached Snug Cove, supplies and mail came in through a government dock at Seymour Bay. The Cowan and Rogers families held the property for almost three quarters of a century, and several development proposals came and went without being built.

In the 1990s most of the land was sold to a developer who went into receivership in 1998. Rather than auction the estate, the main lender ran a public planning process, and in 1999 Bowen Island Properties acquired close to 500 acres. Rezoning took about four years, slowed by the island’s transition from the Islands Trust to a municipality, and the first subdivision, registered about two years later, created the golf course parcel along with most of the residential lots. Environmental covenants were registered at the same time to protect creeks, raptor trees and wetlands.

The Bowen Island Golf Association secured a lease on that parcel, which the developer’s history says belongs to the Seymour Bay Foundation. The club’s account stresses that the course was a community project: volunteers picked rocks, cleared gorse and ran fundraisers, and local builders gave time and materials, according to a Bowen Island Undercurrent article published in May 2026 for the club’s 20th anniversary. The same article dates the first tee shot to 13 May 2006.

The opening year is not consistent between sources. The developer’s history says the course opened for play in 2005, with a perimeter trail around it completed in 2006. The club’s About page describes it as established in 2005, while its anniversary banner reads “Est. 2006” and it is celebrating 20 years in 2026. Directories add further dates: GolfPass gives 2003 and GolfN 2005. We follow the 2006 first tee-off reported by the Undercurrent and the club’s anniversary, and treat 2005 as the year the course was completed.

The designer is also misattributed in some places. The club, Tourism Bowen Island and Pacific Yachting all credit Russ Olson, and GolfPass names his firm, Olson Beatty Hnatiuk; one directory, GolfN, credits Arthur Hills, which no other source supports, and we discount it.

The facility has grown since. In 2014, British Columbia Golf described a 175-yard driving range and a seasonal restaurant called The Cup Cutter. A 2024 PGA of Canada job posting from the association says a new short-game area, The Acre, and an indoor practice building, the TK Performance Centre, opened in September 2023. The restaurant now operates as The Shed Eatery. The club is also a First Tee facility for juniors, and its director of golf, Colin Lavers, was named the PGA of BC’s Coach of the Year in 2020, according to the club’s team page.

What it asks of you

The club’s card has three sets of tees on every hole: 3,003 yards from the blues, 2,827 from the whites and 2,428 from the reds, par 35. That par comes from two par 5s (the 2nd and 7th), three par 3s (the 4th, 6th and 8th) and four par 4s. Played twice for 18 holes, the course comes to 6,006 yards and par 70 from the blues.

The numbers understate the effort. Every source that describes the ground speaks of significant elevation change: Pacific Yachting, in 2024, writes of rolling, evergreen-lined fairways and multi-level greens, and The Golf Park, a golf travel site, describes greens with steep mounding and two to four distinct zones for pin positions. Ravines cross several holes, penalty areas line others, and the routing threads through forest, with short walks through rainforest between some greens and tees. The course rewards local knowledge more than length: several holes offer a choice between attacking and laying up, and both par 5s can be reached in two by a long hitter willing to carry a ravine.

We found no reliable course rating or slope. GolfPass shows a rating of 34.6 and a slope of 130 for the blue tees over nine holes, but on the same page lists 30.0 and 100 for both the white and red tees, and a separate set of 18-hole figures that do not match. The club does not publish ratings on its website, so we give none; members get a Golf Canada handicap account through the club, and the pro shop can give you the current figures.

The course, hole by hole

Hole descriptions follow the club’s own course guide; yardages are blue, white and red, with the stroke index.

Holes 1 to 3

The 1st, a par 4 of 394 yards (361, 337) and stroke index 2, climbs all the way from tee to green. There is a penalty area up the left and plenty of room to the right. The club describes the green in three zones, front left, front right and back, which sets the pattern for the rest of the round: putting from the wrong section is where shots go.

The 2nd is the longest hole, a par 5 of 510 yards (505, 374), stroke index 5. The tee shot has to carry a ravine with penalty areas on both sides; from there the choice is to go for the green in two or lay up to around 100 yards. The green is small and raised, with a bunker short left.

The 3rd, a par 4 of 378 yards (357, 324), gives the most generous landing area on the front of the card. Its green is in two levels, an accessible front and a small, steep back tier, so the approach depends on where the flag is.

Holes 4 to 6

The 4th is a par 3 of 179 yards (167, 139) that the club calls often the toughest hole on the course. A bunker guards the left, and a ridge across the middle of the green sends anything struck slightly too firm running off the back.

The 5th, a par 4 of 379 yards (350, 274), asks for a drive across a ravine and through a gap in the trees. The green slopes hard from right to left and falls away steeply on the left side, so the approach should favour the right.

The 6th is the shortest hole, a par 3 of 125 yards (116, 106), stroke index 9 and, in the club’s words, the most scoreable. It plays uphill to a heavily sloped green; shots missing to the right often feed back onto the putting surface.

Holes 7 to 9

The 7th, a par 5 of 478 yards (449, 394), is stroke index 1. It starts from the highest point on the course with a downhill tee shot; going for the green in two means carrying a ravine to a small, undulating target. The club presents it as a chance of eagle or birdie, yet it is also the hardest hole on the card.

The 8th is the longest par 3, 191 yards (169, 156), stroke index 3, played with a mid to long iron to one of the largest greens on the course. There is a bunker on the right and a penalty area to the left and beyond the green.

The 9th, a par 4 of 369 yards (353, 324), is the club’s signature hole. It plays downhill over a rise towards Howe Sound, which Pacific Yachting calls the most beautiful view on the course. A penalty area runs the whole left side and the landing zone narrows about 100 to 130 yards from the green, which is guarded by a creek, a bunker and a pond and split by a ridge into front and back halves.

Card totals: par 35; blue 3,003 yards, white 2,827, red 2,428. Stroke index runs 2, 5, 6, 8, 7, 9, 1, 3, 4 from the 1st to the 9th. An older North Shore News review gave the course as 3,075 yards; we follow the current club card.

What golfers say

Public reviews of Bowen Island Golf Club are few, and most are short. The material we read is a 2022 visit report on The Golf Park, the 2024 Pacific Yachting feature, the 2014 British Columbia Golf note, Tourism Bowen Island’s listing and the aggregated ratings shown on Wanderlog, which reports a Google average of 4.7 out of 5 from 75 reviews, and on Mindtrip; Tripadvisor carries only three reviews. Several of those reviews deal with the restaurant as much as the golf. The points below summarise what recurs. They are other people’s opinions, not ours; nobody from Panxis has played the course, and we quote no reviewer.

What comes up in its favour

• The setting: rainforest, rolling ground and views over Howe Sound and Seymour Bay towards the North Shore mountains, with the 9th named most often.
• The design, which reviewers find more interesting than they expected from a nine-hole course: risk and reward tee shots, reachable par 5s and greens that reward knowing where to miss.
• Condition, particularly fast, well-kept greens.
• A quiet pace. Tee times are spaced 15 minutes apart (12 in peak season, according to the membership page), and visitors report rarely seeing another group.
• The atmosphere: dogs on leash are allowed on the course, there is no dress code, staff are described as friendly, and the food at the clubhouse restaurant, the Friday pizza in particular, gets warm mentions.
• Nine holes as a format suits a day trip from Vancouver: a full round that leaves time for the ferry and the village at Snug Cove.

What comes up against

• It is a hilly walk. The 1st climbs from the start, and reviewers who walked describe it as a somewhat demanding walk, though a manageable one.
• Getting there takes planning. The ferry does not take reservations, and the course is about 15 minutes’ drive from the terminal, which the club recommends driving rather than cycling.
• The trouble is real: ravines and penalty areas on most holes and tiered greens make it a harder par 35 than the yardage suggests for higher handicappers.
• Only nine holes; an 18-hole round means playing the same course twice.
• One non-golfer’s review complains that a golf-only path near the course was not clearly signed.
• The sample of detailed reviews is small, so these themes rest on fewer voices than for a large mainland course.

Playing as a visitor

The course is public. The club’s FAQ says visitors can play all year, subject to tee time availability, and recommends booking online in advance, especially in summer; members can book 14 days ahead and have member-only tee times on weekend mornings. Tee times are booked through the club’s online booking system or by telephone on 604-947-4653 (604-947-GOLF). The contact page says the course is open Tuesday to Sunday with variable hours and closed on Mondays for maintenance, so check before you travel.

There is no formal dress code. Rental clubs are available, free for juniors aged 14 and under, and players under 18 play free with a paying adult, according to the club. Pacific Yachting lists push carts and power carts for hire as well as clubs; the club’s own pages mention power carts only in passing, so book one in advance if you need it. Each hole has three sets of tees, and the club’s motto is “Golf for Everyone”.

The practice facilities are unusually complete for a nine-hole club. The Acre has four covered, heated driving bays with Foresight launch monitors, a TrackMan simulator room with more than 100 courses including Bowen itself, a putting green of 9,000 sq ft and a short-game area with two bunkers; the putting and short-game areas are free to players with a tee time. Non-members can book the bays five days ahead. The hours on the club’s Acre page and its contact page differ, so confirm them by phone. PGA professionals give private and group lessons, adult programmes run on the Operation 36 system, and juniors aged 5 to 18 can join First Tee programmes.

The Shed Eatery, beside the pro shop, overlooks Seymour Bay and serves brunch, dinner and a weekly pizza night, with an outdoor patio where dogs are welcome. The contact page lists it as closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Getting there and when to go

BC Ferries sails from Horseshoe Bay in West Vancouver to Snug Cove on Bowen Island; the club gives the crossing as about 20 minutes, with sailings roughly hourly from early morning to late evening, and no reservations for foot passengers or vehicles. Tourism Bowen Island puts the whole trip at about an hour from downtown Vancouver. From Snug Cove the course is about 15 minutes by car, at the south end of the island. A large free car park sits outside the pro shop and The Shed; for The Acre, the club points to a smaller lot off Cowan Point Drive, behind the 9th tee and beside the 1st green, with a signed walk across the road. Bowen eBikes, next to the ferry landing, rents e-bikes and a street-legal low-speed vehicle; the club warns that the ride takes about an hour each way and the return includes a steep hill.

Arriving by boat is possible. The club rents a buoy in Seymour Bay for the day, for boats up to 40 feet, reserved by phone or email; you need a dinghy to reach shore. Pacific Yachting also suggests mooring at the marinas in Snug Cove and asking the pro shop or marina staff about a ride.

The course is open all year, but the club closes it for a few days of aeration in late September (28 to 30 September in 2026), and shortened tee intervals mark the busy summer season. Summer is when the club advises booking furthest ahead, and the club’s FAQ notes that the views change with the seasons. The club’s annual Halloween tournament is scheduled for 31 October 2026.

Green fees

Rates are set by the club: see the club’s website for current prices.

How this page was made

The factual frame comes from public sources read in October 2026: OpenStreetMap for the location and the nine-hole outline; the club’s website for the scorecard, hole descriptions, designer, tee sets, visitor rules, opening hours, The Acre, The Shed, memberships, directions, parking and boat access, and its team page for the association’s board and staff; Bowen Island Properties’ history of Cowan Point for the land, the subdivision, the Seymour Bay Foundation and the 2005 opening; Tourism Bowen Island for the address, the awards and travel times; British Columbia Golf (2014) for the Canadian Golf Magazine recognition and the earlier facilities; Pacific Yachting (2024) for the course description, carts and mooring; a 2024 PGA of Canada job posting for the 2023 opening of The Acre; The Golf Park (2022), Wanderlog and Mindtrip for visitor impressions; GolfPass and GolfN for the alternative dates, designer and ratings that we did not retain. The Bowen Island Undercurrent’s anniversary article of May 2026 and the North Shore News review could not be opened in full; the first tee-off date and the volunteer story come from the Undercurrent’s published extract, and the 3,075-yard figure from the North Shore News’s extract.

Where sources disagree, we say so. The opening is dated 2005 by the developer and the club’s About page, 2006 by the club’s anniversary banner and the Undercurrent, 2003 by GolfPass. The designer is Russ Olson in every source except GolfN, which names Arthur Hills. The length is 3,003 yards on the club card and 3,075 in an older North Shore News review. Course rating and slope on GolfPass are internally inconsistent and are not used. The Acre’s hours differ between two pages of the club’s site.

The opinion section summarises reviews and descriptions read in October 2026. We report recurring themes rather than individual voices and reproduce no quotations from reviewers. Nobody from Panxis has played or visited this course, and this page is no substitute for a round.

The club has not paid for this page, has not seen it before publication and has no say over its content. This page contains no commercial link and earns us no commission. If you know the course and something here is wrong or out of date, write to us and we will correct it.

Other courses nearby

Closest to this one in our Canadian directory:

• Burnaby Mountain Golf Course — 32 km
• Eighteen Pastures — 71 km
• Fraserglen Golf Course — 89 km
• Bear Mountain — 96 km