A quick round at the beach

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/07/2025 (298 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It is going to happen this summer whether you want it to or not: you are out at the beaches and you get a blah weather day. Maybe it’s a little cooler than you want, so water activities are out. Maybe it’s too windy, so a picnic is out. Maybe the skies are overcast, but no rain is in the forecast. What can you do on a day like this? Well, you could stay inside and put together that 15,000 piece puzzle of the pyramids, or — and just hear me out — you could go golfing!

Fortunately, there’s a little nine hole offering near one of Manitoba’s oldest beach communities — the Victoria Beach Golf Club.

To get to the course, follow Highway 59 north, right to the very end (if you continue on PTH 504 you are going the wrong way). Now, for those who are not familiar with Victoria Beach, das auto ist verboten in the cottage area. To get to the golf course, you can choose one of two methods. The first, and easiest, is to park your vehicle at the gates parkade, then request the local taxi service to come pick you up at your car. They will take you and your clubs into the golf course. The second method, for those who don’t mind lugging clubs along a bush trail, is to park at their beautiful new curling rink and look for a trail head west-northwest of the parking lot. This trail is just under a kilometre, and leads directly to the clubhouse.

This course is located on the top of old growth hillside. The holes are literally carved out of a forest of grand pines and birchwood. The smells of parkland flora is always lovely, but this area has a unique bouquet with the winds coming off the lake and river that both share the name Winnipeg. The traverse between holes is like walking through little nature trails. The trees here are tall and thick, so unlike prairie golf courses, playing here on a windy day is no problem. In fact, a bit of a breeze keeps the odd mosquito away.

If you are hydrophobic, relax; there are no water hazards on this course. This is a walker’s course if I ever saw one. It is completely flat, which I did not expect considering the drive up. There are sand traps, but they are for the most part older, shallow, and hard packed. Hitting out of them shouldn’t cause too many folks any problems. This is also a great course for teaching the game. The play here is relatively straight forward, and there are very few challenge features that would turn off a potential new player.

This course is over 100 years old, and according to the starter, the hole layout has changed very little. All the fairways are fairly wide, so you shouldn’t have to worry too much about off-centre shots. However, if you do fire one off into the forest, consider it gone. The growth is very dense. Many of the greens are small, so you’ll need your flop wedge more than usual to get the ball to stick. There are also many raised crescent shaped ridges backing many of the greens. You’d think hitting into them is like a backstop, and your ball will roll back onto the green. I suppose that would be true, if the grass isn’t purposely kept at a second rough cut length. If you get into that cabbage, the grassy slope will spoil your day. Fairways are mostly open, with only three serving up any purposeful challenges, which include a tree right in front of the green on a par 3, a rock garden in the centre of a par four just about the distance of an average driver, and a large sand trap mid fairway on the final hole.

There are a few extra points you should know before you go on your visit. First, there are riding carts, but there are not many. If you bring a bus load, somebody’s going to lose rock-paper-scissors. Second, the clubhouse has a couple of tables on the deck, but no inside tables nor any food service. The clubhouse has soft drinks and snacks, but there is no liquor service here. There is a putting green, but if you want to hit a bucket to warm up, there is only a single tee driving net. Summer is a busy time here, so make sure you call ahead to shore up a tee time at 204-756-2435.