I've always associated golf getaways with migrations south to the sunshine of Palm Springs or Arizona. Enter Bear Mountain Golf and Country Club in Victoria, B.C. This Nicklaus-designed course and Westin Resort has transformed Vancouver Island's golf status from convenient option to mandatory destination. And when you consider Kenmore Air offers the easiest flying experience this side of a lease jet, there's no reason not to wing it north. You'll be teeing off just two hours after departing Lake Union on a flight that rivals any scenic tour in North America.

Victoria itself is working hard to bottle some of Vancouver's au courant cool, as bistros like Temple and Brasserie L'Ecole offer dining options beyond bangers and mash. There are even hints of nightlife as Victoria's new Save- On-Foods Memorial Centre features headliners like Bob Dylan, Hilary Duff and Incubus. Of course, this city of 80,000 also remains a quaint Anglophile environment of bone china, garden tours and afternoon tea.

The only tee that interests me this trip, however, is the one I'll poke into the ground 54 times. I've arrived in British Columbia's capital to disappear for a couple of days among the lush grasses at three of the island's  40-plus golf courses, which include some of the best in Canada.

Thirty minutes after we enter Inner Harbour, including just three minutes at customs (a dockside shack containing the friendliest officer I've met in years), I arrive at Olympic View Golf Club, one of Golf BC's 11 jewels in the province. As I discover Douglas fir needlestrewn paths leading to sequestered greens, I wish I'd stowed my tent in my golf bag. This afternoon, the deer-to-golfer ratio is easily 4-to- 1. Traversing the course, past the limestone outcroppings and through the heirloom apple orchard, I encounter two waterfalls and numerous streams and ponds. The trolls lurk as well; forest play means foraging among the conifer roots for errant tee shots.

Multiple holes at Olympic View warrant "signature hole" status. But the 17th, a 417-yard trek drawn narrow as a ballerina's waist, leading to an elevated green framed by a 60-foot natural waterfall, takes my breath away. A second waterfall guards the No. 1-rated 420-yard eighth hole, which demands accurate positioning and plenty of brawn. I particularly enjoy the 169-yard 11th, a shot deep into the woods to a three-tiered green. I play the arboreal back nine solo, except for my gallery of rabbits and mule deer. Still, the distant crack of ball against bark indicates I am not entirely alone.

The Bear Mountain development is just 20 minutes east on Route 14. The $3 billion project's CEO and president is local Len Barrie, a former NHL journeyman who invited some of his teammates, including all-stars Mike Vernon, Ray Whitney, Joe Nieuwendyk and Rob Niedermayer, to invest in what many predicted would be a swift plunge through the financial cracks.

But Barrie scored last, just as he did when the venerable Royal Colwood Golf Club expelled him for chopping down trees at his greenside home. "I'll build my own course," he boasted. He's certainly made good on his pledge.

Barrie says his business philosophy remains simple: "I played my best when surrounded by the best players. I do the same here. From our dishwashers to director of golf Todd Mahovlich, these people are exceptional." Art Aylesworth, CEO of Carmanah Technologies, a $60 million solar energy company based in Victoria, says he is more impressed each time he visits. "You get the same feeling at the Bear that you experience at Whistler or Vail, that this destination is well-thoughtout, well-staffed and well-financed," he says. Though Barrie didn't have to look far for investors, extending investment invitations to former teammates was not as easy a decision as, say, throwing in sticks at center ice for a game of pickup.