Up in the Newdale soiled hills of our potholed northwest are some wonderful places.
St. Lazare near old Fort Ellice, Shoal Lake, Riding Mountain, Minnedosa, and on and on. Some of the roads that run north and south of the good ol’ Yellowhead are worth exploring. This past week, while travelling on Highway 16, I turned north to see the vistas. There is even a town called Vista that I past by on my journey. A sign near the Rossburn Hotel caught my attention, and convinced me to continue down the road for another 10 minutes or so. What I found was the lovely Rossman Lake Golf and Country Club.
“Country club” is tacked on to a lot of golf course names, but here, it is apropos. As you drive in, you pass along a community that has made a true club out in the wild country that lies in Treaty 2 territory. There are playgrounds, beaches, boat launches, tennis courts, cottages and RV parks. You’ll see most of this as the golf course road takes you right through it to the end.
Photo by Ryan Desjarlais
Hole 1 at the Rossman Lake Golf and Country Club is wide open, down slope, huge green, no water, no sand; these all add up to a nice way to start a match.
The course is very well maintained. The fairways have first, seconnd, and third cuts, and the greens are tournament ready. Flowers and landscaping are all very well maintained and plentiful. There are lots of elevation changes and these are featured into each hole in strategic ways. If you are not prepared to walk up and down all the hills, not to worry. They have a modern fleet of golf cars available for rent. The clubhouse is very spacious and could easily host a small event. It even looks over the ninth green, and behind that, Rossman Lake.
Hole 1 is very inviting. Wide open, down slope, huge green, no water, no sand; these all add up to a nice way to start a match. Hole 2 is a month from a golf calendar! A 160 yard par three with a lovely fountain feature right in front of the tee box. Unless you have a severe draw or slice, this shouldn’t pose too much trouble for the average player.
Hole 3, another par 3, is where the course starts playing with your mind a bit. The green is blind from the tee due to the hill between the tee and green. This is odd, seeing as the hole is only 70 yards! If you take a quick stroll up the hill, you can see the depressed small, shallow, wide green, guarded in front and to the right by two huge sand traps! No point trying to just roll your tee shot to the green, as the “fairway” grass is purposely kept at rough lengths. I overshot the green, and I discovered I was not alone. While looking for my ball in the severe up-sloped bush behind the green, I found seven other balls. I just wished I could have found mine.
The signature hole for me would be hole 4. It is a beautifully laid out par 4 with landscaping, slopes, trees, and both an elevated tee and green. You need to shoot straight on this one. Going left will annoy some other golfers to be sure, and the highway on the right is OB. It also has three different experiences depending on your age group. The white markers are at the beginning of the hole, the reds are down in the valley in the middle of the hole, and the junior markers are up on the far side of the hole with a view to the green.
Hole 5 is a nice, wide open fairway, but the green is blind from the tee. Wait to hear the bell before you tee off. Hole 6 makes you narrow up your tee shot, but don’t overplay your drive, as the green is a severe dogleg left, behind the brush at 230 yards. If you hit your drive over the ridge, your roll will be away from the dogleg.
The next two holes are long. Seven, despite being a par 3, requires a long tee to make the drive. A very tall and wide Poplar tree, dead center of the fairway, blocks any view of the green, and likely, any successful drive! Hole 8, the only par 5 on this set of links, is wide open, but all uphill. The green doesn’t provide much slope relief once you reach it, so land down-slope of the cup if you can. Indeed, the only flat ground on the eighth are the tee boxes.
Photo by Ryan Desjarlais
Hole 5 at the Rossman Lake Golf and Country Club is a nice, wide open fairway, but the green is blind from the tee.
Coming home on the ninth , one finds a fairway sloped downward left to right. Playing the left is fine until you get to the green. The left slopes into a large sand trap, which is just left of a green that slopes off towards the lake. Backspin on your green flop shot here will prevent unnecessary ticks on the scorecard.
The course is a bit out there, but there are plenty of towns with hotels nearby, and there are cottage and RV rentals available. Spending a weekend here would be a relaxing experience, I’m sure. To book golf, call the clubhouse at 204-859-2391.
Ryan Desjarlais
Out on the Back Nine
Ryan Desjarlais is a high school physics teacher looking to shed some light on rural golf. This summer, he’ll feature a different rural course each week.
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