2026 · Retirees Masters, week 2 leader
Serge Pasquali
4-shot lead at 142 net through two of two counted rounds.
Loading
Retirees Club
The Birchbank Retirees Club has played every Thursday morning along the Columbia for years. A two-hour reserved tee block, a monthly shotgun and brunch, prizes for the regulars and a real bulletin board on the Pro Shop wall. Membership is open to any retired or semi-retired player. A Birchbank Golf Course membership is not required.
Pro Shop · 250-693-2255 · 8 AM to dusk · 7 days
Plays
Thursdays
April 1 to October 31, weather permitting
Eligibility
Retired
Birchbank membership not required
Reporting
Since 2022
The club blog, posted weekly through the season
Format
Mixed
Walk or ride, all handicaps, no skill floor
What it actually is
The Retirees Club is a small institution. It runs the same way most weeks, which is exactly the point.
You arrive between half an hour and an hour before your tee time. The Pro Shop pours coffee, the bulletin board has the day's draw, you find your name and the three players you're out with. Mixed handicaps, mostly. Some weeks you know everyone in the field, some weeks you meet someone new from Castlegar or the Slocan.
The reserved block runs roughly two hours. Walking or carting, both are normal. The course is the same Roy Stone routing everyone else plays, no separate “senior” tee deck or special rules. People play the tees that suit them and post their own scores.
Once a month, the Thursday becomes a shotgun start with a brunch and a small prize ceremony in the Bistro afterward. That is when the field is at its full size and the room is loud in a good way. On the other Thursdays it is quieter, more about the round and the conversation on the back nine.
By July you will know the regulars. By August you will know which one of them is having a year. The blog at birchbankretireesclub.blogspot.com keeps a running record of everything that matters. It has been posting since 2022 and reads exactly like the group does at brunch.
Who it's for
The eligibility line is short. Retired or semi-retired, willing to play on Thursdays, willing to be civil over coffee. That is the whole list.
If you're newly retired and looking for a weekly anchor
You're who this is for.
Most members joined in their first year of retirement and stayed. The Thursday becomes the day on the calendar everything else arranges itself around.
If you're semi-retired and your week is your own on Thursdays
Same welcome.
You don't have to be fully out of work. If Thursday mornings are yours and you want a regular round you don't have to organize, this is the group.
If you're a snowbird here for part of the season
Email ahead. We'll get you on the board.
Visiting retirees are part of the group. A short note to birchbankretirees@gmail.com a week before you arrive is all it takes to be in the Thursday rotation while you're here.
No handicap requirement. No skill test. Walking or riding, both normal. Mixed-handicap groupings most weeks. The only thing the club asks is that you sign up by the deadline so the draw can be posted in time.
The weekly tee block
The reserved block is two hours wide. It moves earlier through the spring and early summer to keep the field on the course before the heat of the day, then walks back as the season turns. Posted month by month at the Pro Shop.
| April | 9:30 to 11:30 AM |
| May | 9:00 to 11:00 AM |
| June | 8:30 to 10:30 AM |
| July & August | 8:00 to 10:00 AM |
| September & October | Posted weekly, daylight dependent |
On a rainy Thursday: if the course is open and conditions are playable, the block runs. If Birchbank closes for weather, the week is cancelled and we pick up the next Thursday.
Once a month
One Thursday a month the format changes. Everyone tees off at the same time on different holes, plays the round, comes in for brunch on the Bistro patio, and the prizes are handed out. The field is bigger, the room is louder, and the leaderboard is real. The Retirees Masters runs in April, the PGA Month later in the season; the Pro Shop posts the schedule for the rest at the start of each year.
2026 · Retirees Masters, week 2 leader
Serge Pasquali
4-shot lead at 142 net through two of two counted rounds.
2025 · PGA Month champion
Mike Vlanich
Best two net rounds across the month.
2025 · Retirees Masters champion
Alex Birukow
Defending the title coming into 2026.
All of the above is reported, week by week, on the club blog. If you want to know what the Thursday actually feels like before you email, read three or four posts at birchbankretireesclub.blogspot.com. That will tell you more than this page ever could.
After the round
The Bistro is part of the Retirees Club, not an afterthought. The covered patio looks down the eighteenth toward the river. On a tournament Thursday it is the room where the prize ceremony happens; on a regular Thursday it is where the four of you recap a round you all played differently.
The kitchen runs through the season. On tournament days the club arranges a set brunch as part of the entry fee. On regular Thursdays you order at the counter the way you would any other day. The Bistro keeps the same hours as the Pro Shop while the course is open.
If you joined for the golf and stayed for the people, you would not be the first.
About the BistroAnnual dues
The Retirees Club sets its own annual dues, separate from any Birchbank green fee or membership. The 2026 blog opened the season with an early-bird rate posted before the spring deadline and a higher rate after May 1. For the current number, the fastest route is the email below; the Pro Shop can also tell you over the counter.
First step
Email birchbankretirees@gmail.com
Tell them you're thinking about joining for the season. They'll quote the current dues, tell you what's in them (prize fund for weekly events, contribution to the tournament budget), and put your name on the bulletin board for the next Thursday.
Email the clubOr by phone
Call the Pro Shop, 250-693-2255
Eight in the morning to dusk, seven days a week through the season. They handle Retirees Club sign-ups at the counter and can route you to the right person if the question is more involved.
250-693-2255What the dues fund: the prize purse for the weekly draws and the monthly tournaments. Tournament-day brunch and per-event entry are posted separately on the blog before each event.
How to sign up for a Thursday
The Retirees Club still uses a paper sign-up sheet, on the Retirees Bulletin Board inside the Pro Shop. It is one of the good things about the place. Here is how the week runs.
Thursday morning to Sunday morning
The sheet goes up.
After the current Thursday wraps, the sign-up sheet for the following week goes on the Retirees Bulletin Board. Put your name down any time between then and Sunday morning.
Sunday morning onward
Pro Shop takes over.
Once the bulletin-board window closes, the Pro Shop handles late additions. Call 250-693-2255 or stop by the counter; they'll fit you in if there's room in the block.
Wednesday or Thursday morning
Draw goes up.
The pairings and tee times are posted before the day. Show up half an hour early, find your name, get a coffee. The first group goes out on time.
For visitors and snowbirds
Most clubs gate their league play behind a full course membership. Birchbank does not. If you spend part of the summer in the West Kootenays, you can join the Retirees Club for the season without joining Birchbank itself. We mention it twice on this page because it is genuinely the thing visiting retirees are most surprised to hear.
Joining for a partial season. Email birchbankretirees@gmail.com before you arrive. Tell them roughly when you're in town. The club can quote a partial-season arrangement or, if you're only in for two or three Thursdays, set you up as a guest.
Dropping in for one Thursday. Call the Pro Shop the week before, ask for a spot in the Retirees block on Thursday, and pay the day green fee at the counter when you arrive. No paperwork beyond that.
Bringing a spouse or friend who isn't in the club. Members can sign in a guest. Same green fee, same warm welcome. This is how a lot of people first try the Thursday before joining the next spring.
Reach the club
No web form, no inbox black hole. The email goes to the club organizer, the Pro Shop is staffed through the season, the blog is the public record.
birchbankretirees@gmail.com
The fastest path for joining, partial-season questions, or anything that needs a written reply. Usually answered within a day or two through the season.
Open in your mail appPhone
250-693-2255
The Pro Shop. They handle Retirees Club sign-ups, late additions to the Thursday block, weather questions, and the guest arrangements above.
Call 250-693-2255Blog
birchbankretireesclub
The public record of the season. Weekly recaps, leaderboards, tournament instructions and the occasional headline that would not pass a copy desk. Worth reading before you join.
Read the blogFrequently asked
Eight answers. If yours isn't here, the email below is the right one to ask.
Email the clubNo. The Retirees Club is its own membership. Anyone who has retired or semi-retired is welcome to join, whether or not you carry a Birchbank Golf Course card. This is the unusual part of the deal. Most courses gate league play behind a full membership; Birchbank does not.
No. The Thursday block is open to anyone in the club, mixed handicaps, no skill floor. If you want to enter the monthly shotgun for prizes, the format uses your posted handicap; the Pro Shop will help you set one up at scg.golfcanada.ca if you don't already have one.
Both are fine. The course is walkable in the Birchbank sense (a few real climbs, mostly fair), and plenty of members walk into their seventies. Power carts are available at the Pro Shop at the day rate, or by seasonal lease.
The Retirees Club sets its own annual dues separate from any Birchbank green fee or membership. The 2026 blog mentions an early-bird rate posted before the season, with the rate rising on May 1. For the current number, email birchbankretirees@gmail.com or call the Pro Shop at 250-693-2255. Do not take anything I write here as the official price; ask the club directly.
If conditions are playable, the block runs. If the course is closed for weather, the block is cancelled and the next Thursday picks up. Watch the blog or call the Pro Shop in the morning if the sky looks off.
Yes. Visiting retirees are genuinely welcome. The simplest path is to email the club at birchbankretirees@gmail.com a week or two before you arrive so you're on the bulletin board for sign-ups. If you only want to play a few times, the Pro Shop can put you in the Thursday block as a guest at the green-fee rate.
Yes. Members can sign in a guest for the Thursday block; the guest pays the day green fee at the Pro Shop. This is how a lot of new retirees first try the group before joining for the full season.
Standard golf, nothing precious. Soft spikes or sneakers, collared shirt, weather-appropriate. There is no dress drama. People show up looking like adults who came to play golf.
When you're ready
Two sentences is enough. Who you are, when you'd like to start. The reply will tell you the rest.
Pro Shop · 8 AM to dusk · 5500 Highway 22, Genelle BC
Keep reading
Seven tiers, the Single Full Play and the rest.
Where the Thursday brunch happens.
Hole by hole, history, conditions.
Pro Shop, office, and directions.