Courses in Vernon, Armstrong help introduce golf to kids
Published 1:30 am Tuesday, July 7, 2026
Three North Okanagan golf courses are helping introduce the sport to kids.
Vernon Golf and Country Club and the Spallumcheen Golf and Country Club, both in Vernon, and Armstrong’s Overlander Golf and Events Centre, are among more than 70 courses in B.C. taking part in the 2026 Take a Kid to the Course week, which is on now until July 12.
More than 500 facilities nationally are opening their fairways to young golfers free of charge.
The program is simple: children play free this week when accompanied by a paying adult at any participating facility (conditions vary by course, so be sure to check the details).
There are also two contests running alongside the event.
One contest closed July 5, where a young participant had a chance to win a set of new junior clubs.
But a second contest runs through Take a Kid to the Course week itself: snap a photo on the course with your junior golfer and submit it to kidsgolffree.ca/contest for a shot at one of four premium junior club sets, courtesy of The Toro Company. Entries close July 13.
Take a Kid to the Course is run by the National Golf Course Owners Association Canada and has been connecting families to the game for 25 years, introducing 388,000 young Canadians to golf along the way.
For BC Golf, the initiative reflects something central to its passion: building clear pathways that make the sport accessible at every age, stage and ability.
“Programs like this create the kind of first experiences that turn curious kids into lifelong participants,” said British Columbia Golf. “That matters. When a parent, grandparent or mentor puts a club in a young person’s hands for the first time, they’re doing more than filling a tee sheet. They’re opening a door.”