Summary:   Value Rating = B

The Bear golf course, part of the Okanagan Golf Club in Kelowna, British Columbia, is a venue that offers a nice course to play but at a near premium price which affects its value rating.

It is a course that has a mix of forest holes with elevation changes and more wide open links style holes.  The Bear was in great shape the day we played.  It is a fun course to play and provides some forgiveness for the average recreational golfer while at the same time offering a relaxing round and a good challenge.  It has all the features I look for in terms of playability.

I have to say this is a memorable course, not only for its layout and the beautiful setting, but also because I shot my first hole in one on this course.  The par 3 4th hole was the spot – see a photo of this hole at the end of this review.

There are some great views of the surrounding Okanagan Valley from many spots on the course.  The great views add to the experience.  You can walk the course but I would recommend a cart – you will get a good workout if you walk.

We played the course in mid-May and it was in excellent shape.  We did get a slight green fee discount from the resort where we stayed during our golf trip to the Okanagan/Kelowna region.  Our discount rate was $105 (Canadian).  Regular rates are a bit higher – there are a number of websites where you can look at information on the Bear and the sister course, the Quail – check out www.golfbc.com/courses/bear as a starting point.

Read my review of The Quail – sister course to The Bear…..they are similar – www.lifepast50.ca/topic-list/golf/course_reviews/the-quail-okanagan.

Refer to my evaluation criteria – www.lifepast50.ca/topic-list/golf/reviewcriteria

Some Details:

We played The Bear on May 9, 2006 on a beautiful sunny spring day.  Although cool in the morning, we did have a frost delay for our early tee of time, things warmed up quickly once the sun rose higher in the sky.  We did enjoy temperatures in the mid 20′s C (mid 70′s F).

The course was in great shape and fully met our expectations after hearing many good things from friends about both courses at the Okanagan Golf Club.  Even though the price was higher than we typically like to pay for rounds on our golf trips, we did enjoy ourselves.

The Bear is located right beside the Kelowna airport and is easily accessible from anywhere in the Kelowna area.

The green fees included a cart and a bucket of balls at the range.  We did not take advantage of the driving range.  The practice greens provided the same roll and feel as we would experience on the course and gave us a great start to our round.  The course facilities are excellent and the staff was very friendly.  We did enjoy a good conversation about the course and the Kelowna region with the starter due to the 20 minute frost delay.

As I noted in the summary section, the Bear offers a mix of mature forest holes and more wide open links style holes.  The more open links holes are on the back 9 and that is where water will come into play.  The front 9 has more elevation changes than the back 9.  The Bear offers some wide fairways so you can spray the ball around a bit.  Some of the fairway edges will help the ball roll back into the rough or fairway versus a bad hop into the trees or other trouble.  You do want to stay out of the wooded and rock areas.  In some spots, you can end up is some serious trouble if you overshoot the greens.

Some of the views are really spectacular.  Just wonderful vistas and it is always a pleasure to stand over a shot and admire the mountains and valley around you.  Having the tall pine trees in the forest adds to the scenic beauty of this area.  Check out some of my photo’s at the end of this article.

Having played both the Bear and the sister course, the Quail, the Bear is the easier of the two.  Both are very enjoyable and a good test of your golfing abilities.  For the most part the Bear as more gentle dog legs and wider fairways.  The Bear has bunkers but they didn’t really come into play for us on this day.  I’m not sure if it was due to the placement of the bunkers or the fact that we were all able to keep our shots out of trouble.

We played the white tees which matched up well with our scoring abilities.  The course offers tee blocks for all abilities.  I shot an 80 which is an indication of how well I was playing and the fact that I had an ace supported by a good number of pars.

The greens were in great shape, very consistent on the speed front, with some gentle slopes and undulations.

My Evaluation Details:

Scenery – beautiful views of the surrounding mountains and the Okanagan Valley.  You can’t beat the beautiful vistas you will see from many areas on this course.

Mix of holes – offers a nice mix of long and short holes with a challenging blend of holes.  The doglegs are gentle and there aren’t any real blind shots.

Consistency and condition – the course was in fabulous shape and offered consistent tee boxes, greens, fairways, rough and bunkers.  The consistency of all parts of the course was really good.

Character – There really wasn’t anything outstanding about the character of the course but with the scenic views and the playability, one can see why it is popular.  It does offer variation in that you have forest lined fairways on one part of the course and more open holes on another part of the course.  The elevation changes on the front 9 offer the most distinct features of the course.  The tall trees are beautiful.  The greens provided a nice blend of straight and subtle bends.  The ball rolled very consistently on the greens.

Golf Challenge – the course offers a comfortable golf outing……

• tee shots - You have a good view of all the fairways from the tees and you can spray the ball a bit a still be safe.  Of course wild looping hooks or slices will get you into deep trouble.
• fairway shots – Once in the fairway you will encounter good and flat lies on almost all your 2nd, 3rd and 4th shots.
• pin placements – The pin placements on the day we played were very fair.  A great mix of front, back, middle and side pin placements made you hit a variety of approach shots.
• putting – Putting was very consistent across all the greens and the greens were average speed.
• greens – We found the greens to be a bit on the hard side.  On high approach shots, the ball would roll a good number of feet before stopping.  Bump and run shots or lower flight approach shots from the fairway could run quite a distance.  The ball did roll across the greens very evenly and consistently as the greens were very smooth with hardly any bumps.
• a chance to recover – If you landed on the edges of the course, just slightly into the wooded areas, you could recover.  If you landed deep within some of these areas, you really had no shot due to a terrible lie or there were just too many obstructions (rocks, bushes, trees) in your way.  The rough was a very playable and didn’t cause any problems.

Other Observations:

If you only have the time to play one of the courses at the Okanagan Golf Club, I would recommend the Quail over the Bear.  I say this because I prefer more of a challenge and the Quail offers a slightly tougher layout with less forgiving fairways, more undulations and levels, and a few more bends.  Both are fun courses to play but my preference is the Quail.  Take them both in if you can.

As I was fortunate to get my 1st hole in one on the 4th hole, this course will always have a fond spot in my memory.  Using a 9 iron I hit a nice high tee shot that landed on the very front of the green.  The ball rolled to the pin in the middle of the green and fell into the hole.  My buddies had a better view of the ball disappearing into the hole than I did.  I was left wondering for a second or so where my ball had gone until they started jumping up and down and shouting “a hole in one”.  It was a first for all of us – first hole in one for me and the first my buddies had seen in person.

While near the 4th hole, we were able to watch the planes land at the Kelowna airport – you get great views of the planes from above as they land, something that you don’t get to see very often.

Other than the price, over $100 (Canadian), there isn’t anything bad to say about this course.

The photos below provide some great views of the course and surrounding valley area.  The first image is my hole in one hole – a nice 136 yard par 3 on the day we played – a full 9 iron shot for me.

The Bear - Okanagan - Hole #4

Typical View of the Forest Lined Holes

Typical View of the Links Style Holes

A View of the Okanagan Valley - Near the Tee on Hole #4

Another View of the Okanagan Valley

Lane Smith – reach me at Lane@lifepast50.ca