The search for the best public course in Calgary.

I have been a Calgary club pro for 22 years. The question I get asked the most by visiting golfers is "where should I play if I don't know anyone." I never had a great answer. So I spent one summer finding one.

The mission.

I have given lessons at Pinebrook, run a junior program at Country Hills, and worked the bag room at the Calgary Golf and Country Club. I am 56. I am a six-handicap, slightly overweight, mostly bald golf pro who has spent essentially his entire career inside private clubs.

The question of "where should a non-member play in Calgary" is one I have evaded for two decades. I would say "Shaganappi" if pressed. I would say "Confederation if you don't get Shag." I knew, vaguely, that the City of Calgary ran four 18-hole courses and a couple of nine-holers. I had not played any of them, in any serious way, since the early 2000s.

So in May 2024 I made a decision: I was going to play every public course in Calgary, on weekends, with my brother-in-law Greg, who is a 14-handicap who works in oil-and-gas IT and has played every Calgary public course every year since he moved here in 2009. Greg agreed. He warned me: "You're going to find out the city's public-course system is actually pretty good." I told him I'd believe it when I played it.

The companion.

Greg is the best kind of golf companion: cheerful, slow-talking, mildly self-deprecating, doesn't lose his temper after a bad shot. He drove. He paid for the first round. He has the patience of a man who married my sister 18 years ago and has been patient ever since.

The plan, broken out: weekends from May to September. Every City of Calgary 18-hole, plus the major private-equivalent semi-publics, plus the par-3s. Twelve courses across 18 weekends. Greg's rules: "We play. We don't review. We just play. The stories come out the other side."

The trials.

What follows is a course-by-course summary, briefly, in the order we played them, with Greg's commentary because he's the one who's been playing them since 2009.

Round 1 — Shaganappi Point Course (City)

Sunday, May 5, 8:32 AM tee. Cool morning. The first-tee view from Shaganappi is one of the great public-course views in Western Canada — the downtown skyline, the river valley, the Bow. I had not played here since 2003. The course was better than I remembered. The greens were slow but rolled true. The 14th hole — par 4, dogleg right, with the river on the right — is, I will say it now, one of the prettiest holes within Calgary city limits at any price point.

Greens fee: $58 for an 18-hole walking round. I shot 79. Greg shot 89. We had coffee at the clubhouse afterwards and watched four other foursomes tee off behind us. Greg said: "Now you know."

Round 2 — Confederation Park (City)

Saturday, May 11. Confederation is the NW City course. Less iconic than Shaganappi. More walkable. The trees are mature. The course is shorter and tighter. I shot 76, the best round of the project. Greg shot 91 with a triple on the 17th. Greens fee: $52. Confederation is the sleeper of the city system — under-talked-about, consistently good.

Round 3 — Maple Ridge (City)

Sunday, May 19. Maple Ridge is in SE. The course wraps the river. It's the most beginner-friendly of the city set — wider fairways, fewer hazards, less penal. I shot 81. Greg shot 86 (his best round of the year, he claimed). Greens fee: $50. Worth playing if you have a kid learning. Worth playing without a kid learning, too.

Round 4 — McCall Lake (City)

Sunday, June 2. NE Calgary. Featured Greg's worst tantrum of the project (shoulda's about a buried lie in a fairway bunker on the 8th, broken 7-iron) and my best putt (a 22-foot break-in for birdie on 14). Greens fee: $50. Course condition, frankly, varies — when I played it the greens were uneven; Greg said it had been better in past years. Solid public option but not the city's best.

Round 5 — Lakeview (City)

Saturday, June 15. Lakeview is the City's nine-hole short course in SW. Walkable, kid-friendly, relaxed. Not a quest-defining course but a good evening-after-work nine. Greens fee: $32. I shot 36 (1-over). Greg shot 41.

Rounds 6-9 — the semi-privates and bigger publics.

Stewart Creek (Canmore — outside Calgary, technically, but a Calgary destination), Mickelson National (Calgary outskirts, public, premium), Heritage Pointe (south, private but reciprocal), Carnmoney (south, public), Wolf Creek (out of town, paired with road trip). These are the courses Calgary public golfers drive to. I won't review them in detail but the takeaway is: there is a tier of "drive 30-50 minutes from Calgary, pay $90-150" that competes with anything I've played at private clubs. Mickelson National was, frankly, better-conditioned than Pinebrook.

Rounds 10-12 — the par-3s and the indoor.

Springbank Links par-3 (sweet 9-hole executive, $35), Foothills par-3 (closer in, easier walk), and Topgolf and Top of the World for the indoor rounds. The par-3s are underrated. The indoor sim places are now fully part of Calgary golf — the leagues run year-round.

The arrival.

By the end of September, Greg and I had played twelve courses across eighteen weekends. The summer was the most fun I'd had as a golfer in twenty years. Some quest-summary takeaways for any visitor or Calgary non-member who asks me where to play:

If you have one round in Calgary: Shaganappi, on a weekday morning, walking. The downtown view from the back nine is the round. $58. Book seven days ahead at 6 AM.

If you have a weekend: Shaganappi Saturday, Maple Ridge Sunday morning. Total greens fees ~$108. You'll see two of Calgary's three river-corridor public courses.

If you have a week and a car: Mickelson National (premium-public, $135-150), Stewart Creek in Canmore ($150 with mountain views), and one City course of your choice. You'll see the high end and the people's-game and you won't need a member to do it.

If you live in Calgary and don't belong to a club: get the City season pass. Plays Shaganappi, Confederation, Maple Ridge, McCall, Lakeview unlimited. ~$2,300/year. Cheapest legitimate Calgary unlimited golf.

The City of Calgary public-course system is, by Western Canadian standards, an honest deal — and the secret of Calgary golf I've spent 22 years inside private clubs not telling people about.

The return.

I'm back at my private club this season, and it's a good club, and I'm not leaving. But the summer with Greg changed how I answer the visitor question. I now have a real answer. The answer is: Shaganappi, with a tee booked seven days out, walking, on a weekday morning when the chinook is breaking and the downtown skyline is visible across the back nine, for $58 you'd be hard-pressed to spend better in any city in this country.

If you have a Calgary golf round you want filed — public, private, par-3, indoor, the round you played with your dad, the round you played alone — file it on the wall. The wall keeps them. The next visitor on the next quest will need to know which course on which morning gave you the round you remember.