The Wilderness Club
OK if a picture is worth a thousand words then there you have it! And that shit above is a crap photographer with a crap iPhone 10 mind you! The Wilderness Club is absolutely one of the top ten golf courses for eye candy that I have ever played. Beyond the visuals, the holes are well laid out, the conditioning is excellent, it’s remote and if you put this at Bandon it would be a top 100 course. Yes, I don’t think the Golf Digest rankers ever actually made it to Eureka, Montana. They mailed it in because this is next to nowhere and absolutely ahead of some of the other top 100 courses that they’ve ranked ahead of it and that I’ve played.
First the course. Played here in the year of the Vid. Told my daughter that I would take her wherever she wanted for a weekend trip for her 21st birthday since it was such a shit bag year. She said either Glacier National Park or Hawaii. For a weekend! From the East Coast! Well I guess I shouldn’t write checks that my dad-dom can’t cash so off to Montana we went.
Flew into Kalispell, drove up here and played Wilderness first thing the next morning so I could sneak in a round and not miss the agenda that had been laid out for me. From Glacier National Park airport in Kalispell, Eureka is a one and a half hour ride out of the way from the airport, but since the course had some nice write-ups and I didn’t feel like trying to get on the private course near Whitefish, we made the ride.
We stayed at a cabin overlooking the 10th hole and grabbed eats once we got there. I got up for the second tee time the next morning. I spoke to the chef the night before and wouldn’t you know he was up and had a bloody made for me for the round in the morning!
One was a nice warm-up par four. For two I played through a foursome in front of me. So after embarrassing myself on the play-through (and I rarely do that) I jumped to three and that was a nice design with a waste area up the right side through the green. All well and good then Pa POW.
The course then went into the mountainy area and one of the most awesome golf experiences was now laid bare before me. OK honestly, I’m not being a drama queen but holy moose shit did this become one of the most unforgettable golf courses I’ve ever played. I’d love to say there was a signature hole from this point out but they all really could claim that title. My favorite was ten which, while short and downhill, you had to negotiate a tree in the fairway then cross a creek to the green. I hit a John the Baptist here. My drive got dunked in the water but I still shot par.
If you’re going to Glacier and want to sneak in a round of golf, this is a ride and a half away. I’m not sure what Iron Horse is like in Whitefish but if your pro can work it for you, try it out. If you want to give your pro a rest and want an unforgettable golf experience and don’t mind the ride, do the Wilderness Club trip.
To Glacier. Holy moose shit again. Do this once in your life. So we got up extra early and rode in from Whitefish. There was no one manning the entrance yet when we got there so while I tried to pay, we went in and paid nothing. Don’t be a skin flint and get up and in early to avoid paying, but get up early and head in so you can find parking. It fills up quick. Then we drove up Going-to-the-Sun Road, up, up and up until we got to Logan Pass. We hiked to hidden lake. Then hiked back, drove back down a little and hiked some more, rinse and repeat. In all, my Fit Bit was spinning like the Griswold’s electric meter on Christmas Eve. Over 50,000 steps in all but what a beautiful patch of earth. At one point a ram charged us from a couple hundred yards out and as I was ready to do who knows what, it took a last minute turn away. Other folks there saw bears so bring your bells and bear repellant – you will encounter wildlife.
We stayed at Kandahar off Whitefish and ate there for my daughter’s 21st. Do this – the wine pairing dinner would be awesome for NYC let alone Whitefish, MT. For my daughter’s first legal drink, we went to the Whitefish Summit and she had a crazy lobster. I don’t know, I had a Miller Lite. I included Glacier and Whitefish photos below.
Golf Scrapbook 