Summary:   Value Rating = B+

The Quail golf course, part of the Okanagan Golf Club in Kelowna, British Columbia, is a venue that offers a nice and challenging 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, undulating greens and links style holes.  The Quail was in great shape the day we played.  It is a fun course to play – tougher than the sister course at the same facility, The Bear.  It has all the features I look for in terms of playability.

The layout is very nice, including multi-tiered fairways, undulating greens and a beautiful setting – very memorable.

There are some great views of the surrounding area and 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/quail as a starting point.

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

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

Some Details:

We played The Quail on May 9, 2006 in the afternoon on a beautiful sunny spring day.  Temperatures were in the mid 20′s (Canadian) – mid 70′s for American readers.  If you read my review of the The Bear course you will find my description very similar because the courses have similar qualities.

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 – one of the reasons we wanted to play here.  Even though the price was higher than we typically like to pay for rounds on our golf trips, we did enjoy ourselves and the challenge.

The Quail 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 as we had just finished playing The Bear course, so there was no need to warm up – just grabbed a quick sandwich and we were on our way.  We didn’t use the practice greens before this round, again because we had just finished playing the sister course.

The course facilities are excellent and the staff was very friendly.

As noted in the summary section above, the Quail offers a mix of mature forest holes and links style holes.  The front 9, through mostly forested areas, requires you to play well placed tee shots.  Hitting a wayward shot on the front will most likely cost you a stroke or two.  The back 9 is easier than the front in that it is flatter and includes some more open links style holes.  Around most of this course you will feel nicely secluded as you wind your way around a mountain ridge on the facility grounds.

Unlike the Bear course, which provides more generous fairways, you will need to control your tee shots and long iron shots on the Quail’s par 5′s.  The Quail isn’t quite as forgiving as the Bear.  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.

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, trees 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 and the photo’s I’ve included from the Bear course in my other course review.  You will find the courses very similar in look and feel.

Both the Quail and the Bear are very enjoyable and a good test of your golfing abilities.  You will use all the clubs in your bag.

The greens on the Quail are more interesting because they have more levels and swales.  With the levels and swales on the greens, your putts will by trickier.

The Quail has bunkers but we didn’t end up in many of them.  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 sand trouble.

We played the silver tees which matched up well with our scoring abilities.  The course offers tee blocks for all abilities.  I shot an 90 which is an average round for me.  As this was my 2nd round for the day, I thought it was a good score.  A few less putts and I would have been nicely in the 80′s.  I had a great round on the Bear in the morning round (shot 80, including a hole in one).  I would say, based upon my golf game, that the Quail is 3 to 5 shots more difficult than the Bear.

The greens were in great shape, very consistent on the speed front.  As already described, more levels and swales make the putting very interesting.  Not many straight putts were had unless you were within a foot or two of the hole.

Carts were allowed on the fairways.

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 – In comparison to the Bear course, the Quail has more character due to the more secluded nature of the holes, especially on the front 9, the narrower fairways, and the multi-level greens.  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 provide great views.  The tall trees are beautiful (Ponderosa Pines, I was told).

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 do have to control your shots off the tee.
  
• fairway shots – Once in the fairway you will encounter a variety of lies – some flat and some will be slightly uphill or downhill due to the undulating fairways in places.
• 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.  With more undulating greens you do have to think about where you want to land the ball to give you a better chance at birdie (if you are lucky) or par.
  
• putting – Putting was very consistent across all the greens and the greens were average speed.  The downhill putts can get away from you.
  
• 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 I had to chose between the Quail or the Bear, if I only had time to play 18 holes, I would pick the Quail because it offers more of a challenge and more interesting holes.

The Quail’s dogleg holes have sharper (less gentle) angles than the Bear course.  This does mean a bit more target golf, in that you need to pick a landing area that gives you the best look at your next shot.  I did find that I had more uphill lies playing the Quail than on the Bear as well.

Number 6 is an interesting hole because it has a dogleg left and then, once you get near the green, a dogleg right as well as varying fairway levels on you tee shot – a memorable hole.  My favorite hole amongst all the holes on the Quail and the Bear.  I’ve included a photo below.

Number 18 is a challenge as well because of the dogleg and then the water.

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 area.

Typical View of the Tree Lined Fairways on the Quail

Quail - Hole # 6 - Elevated Tee, Multi-level Fairway

View of the Links Style Holes and Surrounding Area