The Riverside Country Club

Riverside was formed in 1912, when Saskatoon was barely a city and the golf club was among its first institutions. The Scotsman Bill Kinnear was invited to lay out eighteen holes on the bank of the South Saskatchewan River, on rolling ground that the prairie does not usually offer, and the course has been there ever since. It is the oldest club in the province still on its original site.

What it asks of you

Tree-lined fairways on ground that rolls toward the river valley, which puts a premium on the tee shot and gives the second half of the round its character. The trees were planted rather than found, as they were everywhere on the prairie, and a century of growth has made them the principal defence.

The last two holes are the reason people talk about this course. They use the natural fall to the river and the valley views, and they are widely held to be among the best closing holes in Canadian golf.

It is not long, and the prairie wind is the variable rather than the yardage. On a still evening a good player will score; on a windy afternoon the tree-lined corridors change from a frame to a hazard.

What players say about it

Guests play by member introduction and the review record is modest. The notes below summarise recurring themes across specialist golf sites, traveller review pages and player discussion threads. They are other people’s opinions, not ours: we have not played the course, and we do not name or quote individual reviewers.

What comes up in its favour

• Conditioning draws consistently strong marks, with the words pristine and impeccably maintained appearing across independent accounts.
• The closing two holes are singled out by almost everyone who writes about the course.
• The river valley views are treated as the club’s real asset in a province where scenery is scarce.
• The practice facilities, the restaurant and the staff are all well reviewed.

What comes up against

• The season is short. Saskatoon golf runs from roughly May to October and the edges are unreliable.
• The course is short by modern standards and will not stretch a strong player without wind.
• Access is closed, and the review record is thin as a result.
• The floodplain setting brings the usual risk: high water on the South Saskatchewan affects the low holes.

Getting there and when to go

The club is on the bank of the South Saskatchewan River in Saskatoon, ten minutes from downtown and around twenty from the airport.

The season runs from roughly May to October, with midsummer the most reliable and September often the most pleasant. Guest play is arranged through a member.

Green fees

Guest conditions and rates are set by the club and are not published. See the club’s own site.

How this page was made

The factual frame comes from public sources: OpenStreetMap for the location, Wikipedia and published coverage for the club’s history and the Kinnear layout, and the club’s own site for access. The opinion section summarises public reviews and guest accounts read in September 2026; we report recurring themes rather than individual voices, and we do not reproduce or attribute quotes.

We have not played this course, and nothing here is a substitute for that. The club has not paid for this page, has not seen it before publication and has no say in what it says. If you know the course and something here is wrong or out of date, write to us and we will correct it.