Eaglepoint Golf Resort

Eaglepoint Golf Resort soars about others in Kamloops area

By Gord Montgomery, Senior Writer, Inside Golf

While there are a good number of wonderful golf courses in and around the Kamloops area none quite reach the heights of Eaglepoint Golf Resort. You see, this 18-hole Robert Hearslip layout is perched high above the city on the hills overlooking the area below. At the same time though, the scenery up here is nothing short of spectacular.

Situated at an elevation of almost 1,900 feet in the Barnhartvale Hills, this layout as compared to the city itself which sits at about 1,100 feet, makes you feel like you’re game will be heightened as much as this course when you step onto the first tee.

The layout features four different tees to start your adventures from, ranging in distances from 6,349 yards off the Championship box down to jut over 5,300 from the front deck. The course demands accuracy, some smart club selection, great decision making, and some lengthy tee shots, especially on two of its four par-3 tests, with the two longest of those being 190 yards and 196 yards from the Gold tees. What all that means is you need to be on your game \ to score well here.

General Manager Chris Kim noted that his course offers players a great chance to warm up prior to heading to the first tee, with a lengthy driving range with grass tees; a short game practice area including a bunker, a chipping area; and a putting green adjacent to the first tee.

“For most part the (bent grass) greens (on the course) play quick,” he noted. “For the most part the greens are a good size. I don’t think our course is the longest. I think where it is compared to other courses, those are a bit longer than ours but not by a lot.”

The main challenges throughout the course here lays in dealing with the elevation changes over the 18-holes. This course isn’t quite what it used to be when it was enclosed, and protected, by huge swaths of majestic fir trees. However, a pine beetle outbreak a few years back decimated that part of the facility. At the same time that damage allowed for some spectacular views of the rolling topography of this layout, as well as the area and the valley below. Where the trees once stood, golfers now find a shorter hazard, but likely as tough to manoeuvre out of, as fescue grasses have been planted to add challenge.

In all this is a course that soars above other in the area and is an interesting play where every club in your bag needs to be used to chase that elusive even-par score the end of the day.