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Featuring 14 golf resorts, 306 scenic holes, more than 100 wineries, and dozens of jaw-dropping vistas, this Kamloops-to-Osoyoos tour should be at the top of any self-respecting player's bucket list.

There's also the 2,000-plus hours of sunshine the region basks in each year, tops in all of Canada.

But perhaps the most inviting number -- particularly in light of the expected record-setting gas prices this summer -- is four.

As in four hours. That's the time it takes to take in the entire scope of the tour by car.

"The idea of a golf trail is nothing new, but it is around these parts," notes Thompson-Okanagan Tourism Association's Miles Proden, citing Alabama's legendary Robert Trent Jones Sr. Golf Trail as a template of sorts for the new B.C. Interior tour.

However, unlike that tour of 10 RTJ Sr.-designed layouts, where each course is at least an hour's drive from the next, the Thompson-Okanagan Golf Trail features championship courses linked together so that the longest drive between layouts is just 78 kilometres between Summerland and Osoyoos, the tour's terminus.

This means much less time behind the wheel burning fuel, and much more time behind the little white ball.

According to a recent Hotel Association of Canada poll, 22 per cent of respondents cited escalating gas prices as the reason they won't do much travelling this summer.

"People are still taking a holiday," notes association president Anthony Pollard.

"What they're doing, though, is going less distance."

This tour fits that bill like a well-shaped three-iron arcing through a canyon fairway.

In addition to being linked by a network of well-paved and maintained roadways, primarily the Trans-Canada and Highway 97, the 14 participating resorts are also linked via the Internet on a homepage that features real-time online tee-time bookings at all 14 courses. Golfers can book tee-times 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The website, togolfbc.com, also features weekly specials, course details and scorecards, vacation packages and helpful tourist information.

Just as diverse and distinct as the scenery from Kamloops to Osoyoos -- starting in snow-capped mountains down through lush and historic agricultural valleys and ending on ancient and arid desert plains -- is the range of layouts assembled along the route.

Each course designer -- including such notables as Jack Nicklaus, Fred Couples, Trent Jones Sr., Les Furber, Graham Cooke and Thomas McBroom -- has brought his own unique brush stroke to British Columbia's Interior palette.

Starting at the top of the trail in Kamloops through to Osoyoos at the south end near the U.S. border, here's a brief look at each treasure along this beautiful trail.

THE GOLF CLUB AT THE RISE

Fans of Freddy (Boom Boom) Couples should mark June 18 on their calendar, as the popular PGA player will be on hand for the grand opening of this Vernon-area 18-hole championship golf course. Couples and designer Gene Bates worked together on The Rise, and one look at the layout overlooking Okanagan Lake will tell you why the former Masters champion is proud to attach the Fred Couples Signature Course title to the Rise. The course plays between 7,000 and 5,100 yards.