As I stood on the first tee the words emerged on their own, unbidden, from the depths of distant memory: “Call me Ishmael.”
The opening sentence from Herman Melville’s Moby Dick was a fitting place to start when attempting to describe the experience of playing the Tobiano Golf Course just west of Kamloops.
Like the novel, this spectacular desert facility is a singular masterpiece, a whole far greater than the sum of its parts. Like the white whale, the Thomas McBroom-designed course is remote, a thing far away, bordering on legend. The mention of the name inspires wonder and fear. Like the narrator, Ishmael, you are only a minor player, just passing through, in an epic saga that goes back to the ancient beginnings of golf itself.
It started as a vision more than a decade ago: a golf course, a marina, and a real estate development. Then the economic carnage of 2008 happened and the world was a different place.
Thankfully, Tobiano has emerged better than before. The golf course, marina, and property development are separate entities with separate owners, no longer dependent on each other.
The new owners of the golf course love the game and understand the special nature of this incredible facility. They have invested in its maintenance and conditioning to the point where it has been ranked the number 1 public course in B.C. and number 10 of all courses in Canada by Score magazine.
A group of us had the privilege of playing there recently. I was joined by Steve Becker, who was hosting us at nearby Green Lake in the Cariboo, Dan Rothenbush, a fellow guest of Becker’s, and Les Gaspar, who was unable to join us at the lake but unwilling to pass up a chance to play Tobiano for the first time.
The golf course began at the clubhouse with its fully stocked pro shop, Black Iron restaurant, and genuinely friendly staff. There was a great patio, and the focus was on relaxing and enjoying yourself whether you are a golfer or not.
The outdoor range was complimentary with our booking and gave us a chance to loosen up as we prepared to take on the course, and prepare you must.
Tobiano is not a pastoral refuge, it is a battle ground. You need to be on your game and go in with a plan. It will test your skill, your patience, and your discipline. I realize that now.
With five tee boxes on each hole, Tobiano ranges in distance from 5,358 yards for the Sage tees to 7,367 yards from the Tour tees. Our choice of the Lake tees yielded a total distance of 6,109 yards and it was plenty.
The opening three holes (a long par 4, a short par 4, and the first of the par-3s) gave us a chance to get used to the terrain. The landscape rose and fell like long sea swells across ridges and ravines, arid stream beds and arroyos.
Fairways were spectacular: lush, close cropped and healthy to the point where putting from 40 yards out was an option. The closest I have come to playing on turf like that was at the old course in St. Andrew’s, and Tobiano might just be better.
The rough was well tended and short, grabby and unco-operative. Beyond the rough, the fescue and sage brush added a degree of difficulty that made you think long and hard on the tee. It was incredible.
Number 3, the first of the par-3s, introduced another of Tobiano’s challenges: carry. While only 117 yards from the Lake tees, it was all carry to the green and reasonably sized landing area. It was a fairly generous introduction to what got far stingier as our round progressed.
Playing with a cart was a must. If the heat wouldn’t have killed us, the hike may have. While the holes are generally close together, the range of tee boxes and rugged terrain rendered walking a bad idea.
Each cart came equipped with screens to provide helpful hints and GPS maps of where we were in relation to the pin and the group in front, which was helpful as there were a number of blind shots.
The further in we went, the more the challenges compounded. We couldn’t see the green from the fifth tee box and had to rely on an approximate line based on the map in the cart. The tee shot on Number 6 was across a ravine to a severe dogleg left fairway that sloped down toward the lake and the pin beyond sight.
Number 7, the second par-3, was over a deep gully to a wide, shallow green that sloped away from the pin in all directions.
For sheer terror, however, the prospect from the eighth tee box was unmatchable. Ranked most difficult hole with good reason, it was 545 yards from our benign Lake tee box.
A sprawling double dogleg, after you carried the 180 yards or so across a small canyon to the fairway, the surfaces sloped left to right toward the lake with strategically placed bunkers to the left and right of the landing area and putting surface, and a cliff on the right for those who tend to slice.
It was not our finest hour.
The front nine ended with a relatively gentle uphill par-4. The fairway meandered back and forth from left to right to a seriously well-protected putting surface. The biggest challenge was staunching the bleeding from the beating we gave ourselves on Number 8.
From the ninth green, the course rises westward to the highest point on the course at the 14th tee. A gentler nine holes than the front of the course, it was still a demanding stretch of play.
Ranked second most difficult hole, the 472-yard uphill par-5 13th includes a tee shot across a wide ravine to an elevated, dogleg-left fairway and a small green in the distance guarded by a quintuplet of bunkers. Still standing after the first 12 holes, our scores and humours began to improve.
Regardless of the level of challenge, this is above all a beautiful piece of the planet, a bright, emerald path in the middle of golden desert. It is hard to single out any one hole as Tobiano’s “signature hole,” but for me the one that comes closest is the 127-yard par-3 15th.
The green rises from the dry landscape with Kamloops Lake and the dry hills of the Tranquille Ecological Reserve in the distance. It is an outpost of carefully cultivated life in a harsh, uncompromising environment.
Putting out on the 18th green, we all shared a sense of accomplishment. This was more than just another round of golf. For Becker, it was the most enjoyable round of golf in his life, for Gaspar, it was the best course he had played in his life and he has played all over.
For each of us, it was something special in a way that was very hard to describe. We will all go back and play again.
We have excellent courses in B.C. and some of the best in the country are in the Lower Mainland and Sea-to-Sky corridor. This takes nothing away from them.
Tobiano is a world-class course. Granted, it is not for beginners, though playing from the forward Sage tees might make it almost manageable.
It is a triumph of design and a validation of the vision that first brought it to life in 2007. I believe that over time, as word spreads, it will become one of the most respected and sought-after golf destinations in Western Canada.
Saying “I played Tobiano” will mean something. It is only a little more than three hours from Vancouver. Spend some time preparing, then go.
