Even Canadians living only a 90-minute ferry ride away from Vancouver Island have no clue about the incredibly diverse and wonderful natural playland that extends hundreds of miles beyond the city limits of Victoria.

Talk to Southern Californians, and it’s fairly surprising how many have visited British Columbia’s enchanting capital city, Victoria, at least once. Many are like me. Seattle and Vancouver had been the primary destination, but they were lured to take at least a day trip to Victoria, to stroll the narrow streets of this very British seaside city, to enjoy high tea at the ivy-covered Empress Hotel or take in the magnificent expanse of North America’s most beautiful backyard, the Butchart Gardens.

To me, Victoria was Vancouver Island. For all I knew, the island wasn’t much bigger than Catalina.

Then the golf reviews started rolling in. As a golf writer, I get dozens of notices a year about up-and-coming golf destinations, but those involving Vancouver Island truly intrigued me.

The word was that an entire master-planned community and resort, Bear Mountain, was being built near Victoria around a centerpiece of 36 holes designed by Jack Nicklaus, and that the Golden Bear has another course on line for the island’s west coast, at a $600 million resort next to Pacific Rim National Park.

Greg Norman, meanwhile, is shaping another piece of land on an east coast bluff some 40 miles north of Victoria.

West Coast? East Coast? Just exactly how big is this island? It’s the largest island off the North American West Coast, about 325 miles long, 90 miles wide. It’s big enough to have a newly established “golf trail” that includes 11 championship courses over a 155-mile stretch from Victoria to the prime fishing territory of Campbell River.

Nicklaus and Norman. Those are names that get a golfer’s attention, and as it turns out, the buzz about the new courses is beginning to bring more and more Canadian and American tourists to the island for its golf, which is amazingly diverse while being far more affordable than Scottsdale or Las Vegas. A six-night, six-round stay booked through Golf Vancouver Island (www.golfvancouverisland.ca) starts at $475 per person. You can’t get two rounds at some destinations for that. Most of the island’s courses are under $100 for individual bookings.

FLEDGLING DESTINATION
“Vancouver Island as a golf destination is just in its infancy,” Cory Betz tells me as we play a round at the gorgeous, tree-lined Morningstar Championship Golf Course, about a half-hour’s drive north from Nanaimo, where my wife, son and I arrived via ferry after three fabulous days in one of our favorite cities, Vancouver.

Betz is the personable head pro at Morningstar who came to the island four years ago to escape the harsh winters (think “Fargo”) in his native Saskatchewan.

“The state of golf is still growing here,” he says. “Vancouver Island has been good for the old country club courses — Victoria Golf Club is over 100 years old. But Vancouver Island is just getting into the golf resort market. We’ve got great golf now, but we’re just entering a period of big, world-class resorts.”

Most of the courses on the golf trail didn’t pop up yesterday. For the last couple of decades, in particular, courses have been developed to meet the demand of older Canadians who come to the island in retirement. It is said that for every resident who moves away from the island, two new baby boomers arrive, and a lot of them are playing golf.

Shielded by the coastal mountains, its water warmed by the Pacific Ocean’s California Current, the island has the most agreeable year-round weather in all of Canada. It gets about two-thirds the rain that Vancouver does, and golf is played there every month, although it averages a chilly 38 degrees in January. In fact, the ski-golf double can easily be accomplished on a winter day.

“The real sleeper,” Betz says, “is how good the summers are. I came for the winters, but the summers are spectacular.”

Basically, coastal temperatures don’t get much above 80, and you’re never more than about 45 miles from the ocean. What they have dense forest that runs to the coastline making for the kind of scenic golf we can only find in California at Pebble Beach.

On the fifth hole of our round at Morningstar, Betz proudly points to an enormous nest in a tree just off the fairway. Two bald eagle chicks were hatched there in the spring, and their heads are beginning to crest the top of the nest. Mom, the stark white feathers on her head so beautiful, shows up with food, and if there wasn’t more golf to be played, I could sit there for hours, taking pictures.

Those are the kind of experiences we just don’t get at home. Another comes at the Olympic View Golf Club, about a half-hour outside of Victoria. Perched high in a forest, the course offers a panorama of the snow-capped Olympic Mountains in Washington. Later, the feeling is more mountain meadow as the holes open up between the forest. There are a couple of breathtaking waterfalls.

The aptly named Fairwinds Golf Club is on the water in Nanoose Bay, just a few minutes from Parksville. It has plenty of challenging interior water holes, and after the golf, about a mile from the clubhouse, the family climbs into kayaks and we enjoy a challenging paddle up the rugged coastline.

Then there's Bear Mountain Resort. Built in the rugged foothills of Mount Finlayson, looking down upon Victoria’s skyline, Bear Mountain is the 1,300-acre dream project of former NHL star Len Barrie, who enlisted the funding of many other hockey players to develop Vancouver Island’s first master-planned community.

It is almost over-the-top in its execution, with 5,000 residences planned to go with the already open 156-room Westin Resort & Spa. There’s every reason to be believe this will be B.C.’s new Whistler.

Jack Nicklaus and his son, Steve, must have had a great time on the $21 million course design, because it moves wildly through the rocks and trees of the forest with huge elevation changes. It could have been overly tricked up, but most of the holes are exciting and playable. It is said they spent months blasting rocks out of one hole alone to get the contouring just right.

The other golf courses on the island aren’t fretting, because arriving with the rush to Bear Mountain will be golfers looking for other places to play.

“They’re elevating everybody,” said Betz, the golf pro.

IF YOU GO

Where to stay: Pacific Palisades Hotel, Vancouver; Quality Resort Bayside, Parksville; Hotel Grand Pacific, Victoria

Online: www.hellobc.com, www.tourismvancouver.com, www.vancouverisland.travel and www.tourismvictoria.com.