Week 21

Give thanks - it's Thanksgiving weekend and what a weekend weather-wise it is!  We set an all-time temperature high for 9 October at 25 C!  And, we were on our last Green Card course of Mill River.  We started this adventure "up West" (as the locals say) at St. Felix and we are finishing it up West at Mill River.  Two very different courses.  Mill River, like Brudenell two weeks ago, is one of the five owned by the Provincial Government and it is an old style course, but such a beautiful place.  It also has a hotel, pool, tennis courts, restaurant, etc. so it's a complete destination for tourists.

We arrived about an hour before tee-off time and enjoyed ourselves on their fine practice facilities - sand trap chipping area, driving range and putting green, before meeting up with Mathieu and Marie-Helene from Dieppe, NB who would be our playing partners.  It didn't take too many holes to realize that these young people were good golfers!  Ah, to be young and so fluid and flexible!  Both were regularly putting for par, or better.  But, because golf is such a curse, they too had holes that they wished that they could do over.

Having previewed the overhead tour on the website, we knew that the course was not going to be overly long, but many of the holes were strong dog-legs so that judgment of your distances by club selection was rewarded and then we got to the greens.  Many of the greens are undulating, strongly sloping or multi-tiered making for some very hairy putting.  In fact, there were many times that mutterings were heard about "trick putting" and "like a mini-putt hole" as the third putt went down the hill again!  As well, there is a lot of water around the course, lining fairways or needing to be crossed, so that can make the holes more challenging too.  The fact that it had poured rain for two days earlier in the week ensured that all water hazards were full and some areas still spongy.  Hole No. 5 "the lookout" is a pretty hole but can trap the unwary.  Hole No. 7 "hunters spring" is just plain nasty - there is water (a series of ponds, streams down the middle of the "fairway") and then a very elevated green which slopes dramatically from back to front, so - yes, despite your lovely approach shot dropping within 10 feet of the pin, your ball has miraculously rolled down and off the green and you need to approach all over again.  All but one of our group were in this pickle!  And, please, let's not talk about the clusters of white sand bunkers!

The fairways are relatively broad and the woods in many locations are fairly open so that finding an errant ball isn't too difficult and I felt pretty good about only losing one ball into the water.  I seem to have a special affinity for water on a golf course - in other words, if there's water in front of me, I can usually find it with my ball!

Despite the challenges of this course, nothing could detract from the magnificent weather, the charming couple that we were paired with and the pretty decent results (if you discount for the trick putting!) that we enjoyed.  It's enough to make you want to come back.

Although we have finished our Green Cards, we hope not to have finished our golf for this year.  What we like best is to play 9-holes within a two-hour window and not to be restricted to only certain hours of the day; so if the weekend weather is crummy, then we can skip out for a short time late on Tuesday, if the weather is good.  We hope to get back to Country View and sample their new back nine.  As well, if time and weather permit, I suspect we'll be back at Fox Meadow to get another 9-holes in, perhaps on their back nine.

Once November arrives, it will be a long winter until golf returns next May.  So, hopefully you may be able to get away sometime during the winter to squeeze in a little golf somewhere warmer and drier!  If not, try to keep your shoulders limber and your legs strong through the winter, and we'll see you on the course(s) in 2012.  All the best, Jane

Week 20

The calendar may say late September, but the reality is - it's still very much golfing season!  Wow - Sunday set an all-time record high for the date (25 C on the 25th) and what a day it was:  sunny and beautiful.  Lots of other golfers thinking that Brudenell River Golf Course was the place to be to enjoy it all!

We had a tee off time of 9 a.m. and the dew was still present but you could tell that things were warming up.  We had a short session on the practice facility (a real treat) before being paired up with Joe, a retired businessman and farmer, and Dexter, a junior high student - both members!  It was great to be on a course that was designed to be walked and with two knowledgeable players who could give you tips on where to go after each green and how best to attack the next hole.  The pace was steady, despite the course being busy.

Brudenell is located on the Brudenell River and is a well established course of more than 40 years, with beautiful mature plantings.  It has mostly broad fairways and was in perfect condition for a game.  There are six each of par 3's, par 4's and par 5's, so it's a well balanced course too, with lots of interest for everyone.  It's hard to imagine how golf can get any better than this - beautiful, challenging and yet rewarding, all on a perfect fall day that felt more like summer.  As the website says, you should plan a vacation around this course - enjoy.

The visible wildlife were chipmunks, squirrels, crows, seagulls and lots of Canada geese.

Hope to play our last course, Mill River, in a couple of weeks when the fall colours will be at their height.  Until then, make the best of the fine fall days - I know that we are with 9 holes here and there!  Jane

Week 19

What a difference a couple of weeks can make at this time of year on PEI!  Last week, we weren't able to fit in a golf game on the weekend - several reasons: too much on the go (two hockey games, registration for Seniors College and high enough winds to make it interesting for kiteboarding) and it was really difficult to get a tee-off time at Brudenell (too many tournaments scheduled).  Who says that the tourist activity stops after Labour Day? We did try to book Brudenell for this weekend, but - once again, tournaments - so we have booked for next weekend (10 days in advance) for Brudenell, and booked this weekend at Glasgow Hills.

We like to walk our courses.  That said, we'd been told that Glasgow Hills was a definite for a power cart, because of those hills.  It was a beautiful sunny, dewy morning (heavy frost in the hollows on the drive to the course) and we told the pro shop and the starter (both commented on how few walkers they had) that we would try the front nine and see how it went.  We were paired with a delightful young couple from Rochester, NY, Todd and Kate with a cart.  They had decided on a spontaneous long weekend trip to PEI and this was to be their only golf game.  So, off we went.  The course is challenging with sloping fairways, lots of sandy sand traps and tricky greens, but the views are spectacular across the hills, over the river and even to the Gulf in a couple of places.  The scenery at this time of year is fabulous anyway (all those varying shades of green, gold and red soil), but with the panoramic view from the clubhouse, it really is breathtaking.  We all agreed that spending some time on the deck overlooking the range and putting practice green would be a worthwhile expenditure of spare time!!

In no time, we realized that Kate was an excellent golfer (putting for birdies on the first 3 holes!) and after Todd settled down, he too was a terrific shot maker.  Certainly, we all had our good holes and our not-so-good holes.  A little bit inconsistent but a beautiful day and delightful company.

In fairness, we had also been warned specifically about Hole 17 - that it started up high and dropped down before rising again to a raised green.  OK, seriously, this is a killer hole, especially when it comes at the end.  I don't think any of us played it very well and certainly hubby and I were ready to pack it in on the walking after 17!  But, we all rose to the challenge and 18 was a great hole to finish on. 

Course conditions were perfect - lush grass, bunkers that have real, white sand in them and water hazards that are beautifully incorporated into the course.  Flowers and plantings accented most holes.  The course is only 10 years old, but it is a real addition to the offerings on PEI.  It is a little too challenging for those of us who like to walk and for those unfamiliar with the course layout and several blind shots that are required.  (Special thanks to Kate for her reconnaisance on Hole 10 - it worked wonders!)  Todd was playing from the blues and although hubby doesn't prefer them, on several holes the blues and whites were at the same placement and it wasn't significantly longer on many others.

Wildlife spotted:  a couple of ducks, a raven and a flock of Canada geese who looked like they were practising their fall flight as they circled overhead and honked!  No foxes and no crows stealing balls or food out of the carts of the unsuspecting.

Hope to see you next week (at Brudenell), Jane

Week 18

Early September and the weather is summer-like (much more so than summer has been this year!).  We tried to book Brudenell for this Saturday, but they had a big tournament and 3:30 was the earliest tee-off, so off we went to the Links at Crowbush Cove.  We've only played here once before and walked it with Mike Weir and Vijay Singh when they were here with the Legends of Golf.  It is a spectacular course with a lovely clubhouse (although who builds a clubhouse with only a one-hole ladies bathroom in the basement?  It is also the site of another of the lovely Rodd Resort Hotels which has received good reviews, at least from our Alaskan friends!  The weather was perfect, even early in the morning, with a pleasant breeze, sunshine with warming tendencies and NO mosquitoes, which we had heard horror stories about here.

We were paired up with two members - both summer residents, Dave from Houston, TX and Tom from Toronto, ON.  Both are accomplished golfers (which should have twigged to this when they insisted on playing from the golds), but about as gruff and unfriendly as "fellow" golfers can get.  Dave was a purist walker, with a very small carry bag filled with old (and I do mean "old" clubs) complete with a very small hickory putter, blade irons and his driver was the only club in his bag younger than I am!  Tom was a drive cart operator and took a couple of holes to get his groove going, but he could be very precise.  They had played together before, although they didn't even seem particularly friendly with each other!

Precision is what is required on this course, as it is narrow and challenging with lots of water hazards and deep pocket bunkers all over the place and some tricky, fast greens.  We did "so-so" but lost some balls and I figured that I'd died and gone to heaven when I parred the 9th hole!  We made it as far as the tee-box on Hole 11, which is high up above the Gulf of St. Lawrence, with the most spectacular views of the sand dunes and the Gulf and inland across the rest of the course.  We stopped and took some photos and wished Tom and Dave good luck with the rest of the course.  When you've lost almost 10-12 balls between us, the course is beating you and the fun of golfing with the others had ceased about 6 holes earlier, there really isn't any point in continuing.  It was still a beautiful day and the deck needed painting anyway!  We did spend almost an hour on the practice facility which has a great putting green, chip and sand facility as well as an irons only range - it's great.

My recommendation to other, average golfers is leave this course to the skilled professionals and the wannabe pros and save yourselves some grief.

Hope to see you next week, the list is down to Brudenell, Glasgow Hills and Mill River (which we have left to last, so that the fall colours have as much chance to show themselves), Jane

Week 17

This was Dundarave (redux) as we used our rain checks from several weeks back and what a difference weather-wise!  It has been mainly sunny and warm and this Saturday was no different - in fact, it turned out to be a really hot day for the end of August on PEI.  We got there early and had lots of time to practice at the Brudenell course on the driving range, the chip/sand practice area and the putting green before setting off to meet our fellow golfers, John and Pat, from - of all places - Anchorage, Alaska.  Yup, and they've been to PEI before.  They were spending a week or so and were looking forward to eight rounds of golf (they had already played twice at Crowbush, once at Brudenell, and today was their Dundarave round).

Certainly, this time around, there was no difficulty with water in the sand traps, but many of the traps were clay-like and not the granular white sand that you might expect on a high-end course.  I think that this course is trying to appeal to the high-end tourist and with five tee boxes and challenging greens, lots of bunkers and many narrow fairways, it does deliver on the challenging side of the golf experience.  Judging by the number and quality of balls we found in the rough, people are spending lots of money on golf balls!  Also, if you are thinking of walking this course, don't.  It is far and away the longest course (between holes) that we have yet experienced in PEI - it's just crazy to contemplate walking it.  As it was, with a cart and a reasonable couple to move things along, it took us almost 5 1/2 hours to complete 18 holes!  There was a full complement of people on course, but because of the separation of holes one from another, we rarely saw others on the course, and were almost never held up by those ahead. 

The layout is convoluted, with holes from the Brudenell course being interwoven with those of the Dundarave course, and there really isn't any point in playing only 9, as it is at the furthest point from the clubhouse.  It was a beautiful day and John and Pat were great companion players, every other hole commenting on how much of a paradise PEI is!  So, we had a good time, but the course really is too much of a challenge for all but the best players to have fun.  As well, the greens are rock hard and, as a consequence, are very fast and it's very difficult to hit them and stick. 

My advice - leave this course to the professionals and the wanna-be pros.  See you next week, Jane

Week 16

The Divine Nine in Brudenell was our choice for this week's course.  This is a short course, only two par 4's and all the rest are par 3's.  Originally established as the Canadian Golf Academy (and thus the "Academy Nine"), it ceased to be that when the Academy moved to Stratford.  It is beside the two 18-hole courses of Brudenell and Dundarave, so it's a really dense concentration of golf all in one spot.  Because there is also the Rodd Brudenell hotel and cabins, a provincial campground, horse rides and the beautiful Brudenell River, it is a tourist mecca.  The Divine Nine is a forgotten little course, which has only one person in the "pro shop" who is answering the phone system for all the Golf PEI course reservations.  That person and whoever mans the three lawn mowers would appear to be the only personnel on site. 

This used to be a wonderful little course and a great place to practice, especially your short game.  There was a great driving range (one of the best on PEI) - and, in fact, it's still there and cut, with target flags out, but there is no possibility of buying a bucket of balls.  If you ask about a range, you are directed to the one at the Brudenell course.  There was a unique "island" practice putting surface, which is now gone, and the former pitch and sand practice facility is now "sort of" the putting practice surface.  A skunk had made quite a bit of damage to it on the morning that we played, as you'll see from the photo.  There are no ball washers, no garbage cans and certainly no cleat scrapers - which was a real shame, as the grass was sticking to our shoes something terrible!  However, the rickshaws were complimentary.

Each hole is marked with a signpost which tells you that you are on Hole No. 1, etc., and gives a name to the hole, but doesn't give you any indication of yardage.  You need to consult the score card for that.  It was very dewy, the morning that we played, and we could easily track our putts and our footprints.  The course was created with no expense spared and the fairways, tees and greens remain in pretty good shape, but the whole area is low and damp and this can sometimes give rise to horrible biting insect problems.  Because the previous several days had been warm and dry (was that summer?) and because we doused ourselves with bug spray, the little critters were not a problem for us.  This is a fun little course to play and gives you a picturesque place to practice your game, if that's what you're looking for.  It is not too challenging and can easily be done in 3 hours for 18 holes.

A good time was had by us, and we hope to see you next week for one of the more challenging and remaining courses,  Jane