[Posted almost 2 years late, as this course wasn't listed back then!] After our wonderful time in Banff, the wife and I decided we really didn’t need to swing through Calgary, Alberta (“down on the f... Continue »

[Posted almost 2 years late, as this course wasn't listed back then!] After our wonderful time in Banff, the wife and I decided we really didn’t need to swing through Calgary, Alberta (“down on the flat”, as they say there), and so suddenly a day in the itinerary opened up. After posting my plans for this trip, I had been messaged a couple times by avid GKer 24hourgolf about stopping at a course in Eureka, Montana. Where the heck is Eureka, you might ask? It’s 6 miles south of the Canadian border – turns out that in Eureka there’s a pro-quality golf layout associated with a high-end 2nd/3rd home development in the middle of nowhere!! Eureka is about 80 miles north of Kalispell, MT, the nearest regional airport. We were having trouble with the resort’s website on this Wednesday evening, so we just showed up at the gate – fortunately, there’s a person there until midnight(!), so he called the GM and we were treated to some nice hospitality in getting a room and some food. (And a good thing, because there’s not a whole lot available in the Eureka area.) Turns out The Wilderness Clubis is rated the #1 course in the state of Montana! It was originally developed as a private club with 2nd/3rd homes and opened in 2007. Bad timing - the housing crisis hit, bankruptcy ensued, and new owners picked up the property cheap. Now they are moving the development toward more of a family resort model with stay/play options for golf. There are on-site accommodations for small and large golfer groups, and only some scattered (many of them large) homes, but there are also many “Sold” signs on the empty lots. The GM hooked me up with a less-than-rack rate for the room and unlimited golf, so I played on Thursday, 9/29/16 at 1120 am, joining a member from Calgary and his guest from Chicago. (The original developer was out of Calgary, and many of the owners are Canadian.) There’s an all-grass range that’s not large, and a large chipping green, incl. a practice bunker. The putting green was extremely fast, unfortunately indicative of the on-course greens – my first practice putt took an unexpected left turn and rolled off the green!!! Those of you who know my putting game can guess the eventual outcome! We played the Gold tees (6,550/71.4/125), but I probably should have moved up to Silver (6,119). They offer a yardage book, and many sprinklers are marked, but there’s no GPS. Weather was cool and mostly cloudy with no wind – the GM tells me that the location is in a warmer “island” of weather than much of the surrounding area, so was attractive for this type of development. The course was closing for the winter the following week. TWC is a Faldo design and in my opinion was designed and built for single-digit handicappers – I think that was the demographic they were hoping to lure from Canada and the U.S. There are many par-4s that are long DL left or right with hazards inside and outside the elbow, and play to well-defended greens. The course is in a lush and beautiful setting with primo conditions from tee to green. One of the most obvious attributes is the almost total Silence!! you play in there. The course has mainly large, rolling greens that are smooth and very fast. Most putts have more break than it initially looks like, especially near the front of the greens. And being in the wrong place on a green means a runoff into a collection area or a putt over a huge swale or nose. In my case, because of my innate putting disability (and that harrowing experience on the practice green), almost every putt was defensive, but I did manage to get through the round with only one 3-putt. Low-handicap par-4s play tough from any of the tees – these all have dogleg driving areas framed by trees/sand; and approaches to angled greens bracketed by slopes/sand/water. Even well-positioned drives are faced with long-iron approaches over threatening hazards – holes 14 through 16 are a brutal stretch (hcps 4, 8, and 2, respectively). Here's an example at the 16th (handicap 2): The tee shot is steeply downhill on the 434-yd par-4 to a fairway beyond a huge pine, with bunkers on the far side of the elbow to the right. The pine tree on the inside of the elbow is backed up by an enormous bunker – you can try to fly the bunker or cut the corner, but it’s hard to see the large POND left of that big trap. After the tee shot, from your nice lie in the middle of the fairway to the right of the tree, you only have about 180 yards(!) into a diagonal flat green with sand in front and humps/swales behind. Have fun!! On reflection, I think the 125 slope from the Gold tees is too low! There’s some repetition of holes as you go through: many of the par 4s are similarly laid out, as noted. The course uses a Red-White-Blue flag rotation – 3 of the par-5s were red flags. The par-3s are a good mix of length and difficulty. I definitely recommend the course for serious golfers if you are in the area, or as a buddy trip destination. There are supposed to be a number of other fun courses in the general area, as well.