Twin Rivers Runs Through It

Where Vikings have landed and made homes of, golf springs forth in the glorious form of the Twin Rivers course at Terra Nova Resort in Newfoundland, Canada.

- Benny Teo

At the mouth of the Northwest River, about a nine iron from the fourth green at Twin Rivers Golf Course, Atlantic salmon break the surface, their shiny bodies full out of the water. They are eager to fight the opposing current and move up the river to spawn. It is not an uncommon scene in the rivers of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada’s most easterly province.

This is a province, off the beaten path as they say, with an abundance of wildlife, whether in the ocean that surrounds Newfoundland, the island portion of this province, or in its rugged wilderness. The island is the 16th largest in the world at nearly 109,000 square kilometers. It has a small population of approximately 479,000 with English, Irish, French, and aboriginal origins.

Nearly 500 years before John Cabot landed on Newfoundland in 1497, Vikings came here and established a small village on its most northern tip. At L’Anse aux Meadows, there are the archeological remains of a Norse village discovered in 1960. In 1978, it became a UNESCO World Heritage site and today is the most famous site of a Norse or Viking village in North America.

But it seems reasonable to assume the Vikings felt at home here. The island has nearly 9,600 kilometres of rugged coastline with the occasional fjord and a vast wilderness interior that is home to moose, caribou, and countless other species of animals and birds like puffins and bald eagles. What you won’t find are groundhogs, raccoons, snakes, skunks, poisonous insects, or spiders.

What you will find, however, on the recreational side of things, is golf. You wouldn’t say that Newfoundland and Labrador would be a true golf destination, but it is a destination with some very good golf.