PGA of Canada

S COREGolf magazine ranks the Victoria Golf Club 28th on its list of the top-100 courses in Canada. Golf Digest has VGC 14th on its ranking of Canada's best courses. At just over 6,000 total yards on its scorecard, how can VGC be so highly-acclaimed? LOCATION Take a look at a list of the world's best courses and you'll see—location is everything. Canada has more than 200,000 kms of coast- line but only a handful of courses in our country are laid-out ad-jacent to the sea. Victoria is one, and its unique seaside setting cer- tainly has a lot to do with its acclaimed status. Playing holes seven through ten—out on "The Point", atop cliffs overlooking the Strait of Juan de Fuca—is tough to beat on a clear summer day. The seaside holes at VGC get more attention, but the inland stretch— holes 1 and 2 then 11th thru 18th—also possesses an inherent beauty unique to British Columbia, featuring inter-esting terrain, rock outcrops, and handsome stands of Garry oak trees. And yet, there's more. ROUTING These days you need at least 200 acres to develop an 18-hole course. Remarkably, Vernon Macan's early 1920s layout at VGC makes brilliant use of an oddly-shaped plot of about 80 acres that's bisected by a major thoroughfare — heavily travelled Beach Drive. Macan's solutions to routing challenges at VGC results in consecutive par 3s on both nines; walks across adjacent fairways to get to the 11th and 18th tees; and, a blind tee shot followed by a blind approach at the par 4 sixth. But, not only has this arrangement worked for nearly a century, Macan's routing creates an incredibly varied collection of interesting holes. In fact, the aforementioned oddities lend to VGC's distinctiveness. VGC doesn't play as short either. It's frequently windy — in 1962, Macan wrote: "Victoria's greatest asset is its immense variety and its wind"— and there's just enough elevation change throughout the property to make uphill holes like the 3rd, 9th, 10th, 12th and 18th play longer than the scorecard suggests. GREENS Routing is paramount, but the greens are nearly as important. VGC's greens are outstanding. They run the gamut perfectly, presenting an ideal variety of siz-es and shapes, contour and slope. For example, at the par-5 1st, the green is 125 feet deep and quite narrow, laying on a single plane tilted toward approach golfers. At the par 3 14th, the green is wider than it is deep and tips away from the tee. The incredible 3rd green climbs a ridge in three tiers sep- arated by beautiful contours while the adjacent 11th sits on grade, look-ing great in its relative simplicity. The sixth seems relatively flat, followed by the heaving 7th, down on "The Point"—one of the most artful greens ever created. And so on. Some the greens at VGC are attributable to Macan, others date back to the club's establish-ment in the early 1890s. Only two—at the 12th and 16th—have been touched since the 1950s when Macan ceased working at continuing to improving the course. HAZARDS Uniquely beautiful and appropriately intimidating hazards make golf dramatic. VGC has a bunch of hazards fitting this description. There's the ocean, of course; although, wa-ter only comes into play at the 5th and 7th holes, par 4s that parallel the sea. Gorse, broom and rugged rock outcrops can also wreak havoc on wayward shots, particu- larly on the seaside holes. But, aside from "its wind", its bunkers have the most effect on golfers at Victoria. Like the greens, the bunkers run the gamut. From sprawling sandy areas to deep pots, VGC's bunkers present a uniquely rugged aesthetic and genuinely serve as meaningful hazards that enhance the interest and challenge of the course, as well as its distinctiveness. DISTINCTIVENESS VGC's stunning location, intelligent routing, artful greens and dramatic hazards conspire to create one of Canada's most distinctive golf courses. And, that's the only common characteris-tic shared by the world's truly great courses — they're all distinct. When you're at Pine Valley, Cypress Point, St. Andrews or Pebble Beach, you quickly realize you couldn't be anywhere else. It's the same at the Victoria Golf Club. You can't be anywhere else.

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