13 Great Canadian Golf Courses Under $100
Updated: Jul. 13, 2020
These hidden gems—one from each Canadian province—aren’t fancy or famous, but they’re all excellent options and you can play them for under $100 per person, assuming you bring your clubs and are willing to walk. As always, call ahead if you need to reserve rentals or carts.
Nanaimo Golf Club – Nanaimo, B.C.
Nanaimo is semi-private, with green fees set at $85 for non-members. That’s a steal for the year-round Vancouver Island course whose scenic layout is credited to A.V. Macan—a course designer who became a legend in the Pacific Northwest for his work on Victoria Golf Club and the California Golf Club of San Francisco.
The views are at their best on the back nine, peaking on the 13th hole. From the tee of this long par three, you can see clear across the Strait of Georgia.
Dinosaur Trail Golf and Country Club – Drumheller, Alberta
Dinosaur Trail is a tale of two courses—nine holes of parkland and nine among the jagged badlands of Drumheller. A green fee of $60 includes both, but let’s be honest—you’re really here to play among the fossil beds and towering hoodoos.
Conditions can be inconsistent, but visitors especially love the 12th hole, which plays 149 yards to a green tucked in an eroded gulley.
(Looking for fitness inspo? Check out the Canadian fitness experts to follow on Instagram now.)
Waskesiu Golf Club – Waskesiu Lake, Saskatchewan
Waskesiu tops out at $66, but think of it more like an entrance fee—the course lies within the birchy boundaries of Prince Albert National Park.
Designer Stanley Thompson’s quirky creation is known for its dramatic fairway contours, which lend the “Mae West” 8th hole its nickname, and for a lone black spruce that snagged thousands of drives in the first fairway over the decades. The original tree was cut down a few years ago but has since been replaced.
Clear Lake Golf Club – Wasagaming, Manitoba
Clear Lake is another national park course, in Riding Mountain National Park, north of Brandon. And it’s another steal, at $68.
The drop-shot 17th, from an elevated tee across a bushy slope and a creek to a tiny green, is a highlight. And there is also plenty of history here—Stanley Thompson designed the first nine in the late 1920s and the full course has now been open for 86 years.
(Here’s why you may want to walk the golf course instead of taking a cart.)
Sioux Lookout Golf and Country Club – Sioux Lookout, Ontario
At $20 for nine holes or $30 for 18, the former Ojibway Golf Club is a deeply hidden gem and a serious bargain. This is quintessentially Northwestern Ontario golf—forest, rock and a touch of muskeg.
Tee off here to tackle two distinctive par threes: the secluded 2nd, in a forested glade, and the semi-blind 8th, which climbs over a hill to an elusive target. And ask a local about the former oiled-sand “greens”, whose surfaces were converted to grass 30 years ago.
Club de Golf Mont-Orford – Magog, Quebec
It’s not Banff or Jasper, but Mont-Orford has a bit of that same alpine national park feel in Quebec’s picturesque Eastern Townships, at a decidedly flatland green fee of just $43.
The adjacent national park is known for its hiking and skiing, but the golf course also trades on Appalachian vistas. While the fall is especially pretty, craggy fairways and looming peaks are Mont-Orford’s game all season long.
(Check out our guide to a wellness week in Quebec.)
Fraser Edmunston Golf Club – Edmunston, New Brunswick
Fraser Edmunston offers a lot of trivia for $45. It’s the only golf course in New Brunswick’s northwestern panhandle region, it’s held two Canadian Amateur Championships and it’s associated with two-time Canadian Open winner and Hall of Famer Albert Murray, who remodelled the course in the 1940s.
The 4th begins a discrete parcel of holes that plays across a rail line and beside the Madawaska River. The club claims the par-four 7th, pinched by tracks and a tree-lined knoll, is the most difficult hole in New Brunswick.
Northumberland Links – Pugwash, Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia’s star courses (Highlands Links, Cabot Links, Fox Harb’r, Bell Bay) shine so brightly that Northumberland Links, and its $65 peak green fee, flies under the radar.
The four oceanside holes above the Northumberland Strait are the main draw. Enjoy a touch of whimsy at the par-three 4th, where an old lobster boat lies half-buried behind the green within yards of the waves.
Dundarave Golf Club – Cardigan, PEI
Dundarave is a highlight of PEI’s quiet east side, featuring red sand bunkers and a solid layout by designers Michael Hurdzan and Dana Fry for $89 or less.
It’s best known for the 8th, a par four that doglegs practically into the Brudenell River. But Dundarave also shines at the clever 16th, which might be drivable if you can navigate a nest of bunkers, and the soaring 17th, a long par three with broad views of several other holes.
Twin Rivers Golf Club – Port Blandford, Newfoundland
Salt water, fresh water, waterfalls—there are endless scenic ways to lose a ball at Twin Rivers, which hops across two salmon rivers and skirts an Atlantic inlet on the edge of Terra Nova National Park, all for a peak green fee of $60.
The golf is good, but it’s especially dramatic where Twin Rivers showcases Newfoundland’s rugged beauty. Four separate par threes play across water, including the dramatic 175-yard 18th.
(Learn about a super charming city in Newfoundland.)
Meadow Lakes Golf Club – Whitehorse, Yukon
Meadow Lakes has all the Yukon for a backdrop, but it fits snugly in a small hollow beside the Alaska Highway.
At $40 for nine holes, it won’t break your budget—but it will test your patience with a series of short holes that require precision, rather than power. The first two holes are tickly little par fours on the edge of a ridge, and nearly every subsequent hole is threatened by ponds and creeks.
Yellowknife Golf Club – Yellowknife, NWT
The Sand Valley of the north? Grass is in short supply at Yellowknife Golf Club—there’s a bit surrounding the artificial greens, but the fairways are pure dirt and most shots are hit from portable mats.
So what do Yellowknife golfers get for $43? Charm, endless summer sunlight and stellar views across Long Lake from the 11th and 12th holes.
(Yukon is also one of our picks for off-the-beaten path ski destinations.)
Many Pebbles Municipal Golf Course – Cambridge Bay, Nunavut
Nunavut has several rough and ready courses, but none boast the pedigree of Many Pebbles, which has been welcoming play under the midnight sun since 1955. Getting to Nunavut isn’t cheap, but if you find yourself in Cambridge Bay, a round of golf is absolutely free.
Guy Nicholson is editor and publisher of Catalogue 18, an annual collection of golf landscape art and photography.
Next, check out the best hikes in Canada.
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