Week 8

It takes some juggling, but we did it - again - and that is we managed to pick the right day to go golfing this week.  And a busy week it was - what with Father's Day last Sunday and hubby's and daughter's birthdays in mid-week, it looked like a horrible (for golf) weather prediction for the weekend - again!  So, despite having earlier booked a Sunday afternoon tee-off time, we switched it at noon on Friday to Friday at 3:20 p.m. at Andersons Creek.  Very glad we did, as Sunday is - again - cool, damp and not very promising for golf.

Andersons Creek is a fairly new course, designed by Graham Cooke, and it shares the same general manager and sales and marketing manager as Green Gables.  However, Andersons Creek is more distant from the Cavendish area and hidden in the hills - the signage from the road makes it a bit easy to miss, unless you are really sharp on watching for the one sign (at least coming from Charlottetown, New Glasgow way).  It has a modest clubhouse, but a nice range area (although it is really a bit too close to the 18th fairway for comfort - for either the range hitters or those finishing up their rounds) and good putting and chipping greens.  A beautiful sunny afternoon, and we were paired up with Peter, a "just released for the summer" teacher who was an amiable partner on the course.  He'd walked most of the course previously, so he could give us a bit of a heads up on some of the holes, which was wonderful. 

The course was surprisingly hilly and combined with some sloping fairways, we managed to find trouble, despite landing in the centre of the fairway on some holes.  This makes it a more challenging course than Green Gables, although the closely cropped rough makes it a bit more forgiving than many courses, with lots of "rough" that's easier to play out of.  The sand traps are really sand and are beautiful to look at, but difficult to get out of.  Some of the fairway traps are described as "hidden" and the surprise of finding your ball in them, when you think you've hit well is disappointing.  The greens were a bit "chattery" as a result of the cut on the grass, I believe, and made for some unpredicable putting.  I think that can be the only explanation for my poor putting!  It will pay you in better play to read and view the hole descriptions on the score card booklet.

It was a wildly unpredicable game with hubby having 6 pars and birdies, as well as some disastrous holes and Peter, a self-confessed mediocre golfer, having a remarkably good round and I, having a consistently average round, with one par on the par 3, Hole No. 8.  It got quite cool at the start of the back nine, yet warmed up as we got into the wooded areas.  With the wind dropping, the black flies came out a bit, but not so badly that we ran screaming to the clubhouse.  We finished the round in 4 hours, but we passed on the complimentary mussels in the clubhouse (despite them being Confederation Cove - some of the best) as it was getting quite late and we were very tired by the end of our round.

Lots of birds in the woods to listen to, but no foxes (a bit of a surprise) or geese or other large wildlife to confirm that you are in the woods and not on the shore - although you do get a lovely view of the sand dunes at Cavendish from the driving range.  The grass is lush (a testament to our cool, damp early season), the plantings are surprisingly mature and the cutting pattern on at least one hole is a bull's eye!  If your target is a challenging, but mostly forgiving course, Andersons Creek may well be the one for you.

See you next week, Jane

Week 7

Woo hoo - a second in a row fine day for golf and a beautiful course to enjoy. Actually, it takes a sharp eye looking at the weather forecast and the flexibility to take off Friday afternoon, rather than taking your chances with an "iffy" weather forecast for Saturday to truly enjoy the golf on PEI this year! Earlier in the week, either Friday or Monday looked like the better chances for golfing this weekend - and how right that turned out. Glad we chose Friday because Monday's forecast is miserable now. A word to the wise - if tomorrow's weather looks good, pounce on it. And we did and booked a 2:30 tee off time on Friday at the PEI National Park's offering of Green Gables Golf Course. A beautiful course (Stanley Thompson designed it in 1939), recently extensively renovated (Thomas McBroom)- it was actually closed for a whole year - it is a lovely course with mostly forested holes, some spectacular views to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and a playable course which all golfers will enjoy.

Hubby and I were paired with John from Boston, who didn't even gloat about the Bruins beating the Canucks for the Stanley Cup, and Steve from Ottawa, who was camping with his wife and three girls, en route to relocating in Victoria. It was a perfect afternoon for golf, sunny and warm, but not too warm, and the course is protected from any wind that might be blowing, except on a few of the holes on the back nine where you get the Gulf views. And wildlife, did I mention the wildlife? - other than John and Steve, there were birds chirping on every hole, foxes on a couple of holes (I managed to get a photo of one on the 18th, stealing the ball from a golfer in the group behind us!) and a gaggle of Canada Geese on the 16th that seems to have taken up residence. The geese did allow us to play through and didn't steal anyone's ball!

Each of our group (other than yours truly) had a birdie or two, several pars and the course is pretty forgiving, with broad fairways and impeccable tee boxes and greens. The bunkers are also apparent and despite the heavy rains during the week, were mostly playable as sandtraps - unless you got buried in the very bottoms of them. I think that we all had really enjoyable rounds, despite the scores - an equal amount of great conditions and good camaraderie among the players. We were all walkers, despite a couple of long traverses - getting under the main road through Cavendish requires quite a walk, and the course is relatively long (6,064 yards from the whites) but with a beautiful day and friendly company, it was just a good time being had by all.

Of course, on the 11th, you get to see the Anne of Green Gables house (without paying the admission), from which the course takes its name, and it does look just like L.M. Montgomery would have envisioned it. As well, we spied some Lady Slippers (PEI's provincial flower) in bloom in the woods - all in all, a very wonderful tourist experience.

Green Gables in Cavendish is a lovely drive of about 30-35 minutes, either of two ways (Rustico or Hunter River) from Charlottetown. Because it was Friday and after 7 p.m. by the time we finished and got packed up, we stopped on our way home in North Rustico at Amanda's Diner to enjoy their special of the day - fish and chips - and they were really special. A great ending to a great day of golf on PEI.

Join us next week, Jane

Week 6

At last, we see the light - the sunlight that is.  Week 6 and finally, it's a sunny and warm day for golf, so off we trotted to Country View Golf Course in Fairview.  Just a short view from Charlottetown, you should leave at least 20 minutes to drive there, but it's well worth the drive.  This is one of our favourite courses in PEI.  It's family owned and Carl & Karen Currie are expanding it from the best 9-hole course to an 18-hole course in 2011.  They have some of the nicest plantings around, and one of the best practice facilities (driving range, putting green and bunker area) as well.  All of which will be in place, despite the expansion.  I'm attaching a photo of some of the many trees that will be planted on the new holes to show you the level of commitment that the Curries have to beautifying their course.  Their's is also a sprinklered course

The course is a forgiving one, usually broad open fairways and great greens, only a couple of real water hazards, so it all makes for a pretty pleasant outing.  You can imagine my "surprise" when on the short par 3 Hole No. 2, which is hidden from the clubhouse by dense woods around the green - just as my husband was attempting his par putt, the automatic sprinklers came on!  We got drenched - not a water hazard we had anticipated.  Carl had seen us leaving the green on Hole No. 1, so set the sprinklers to go on that green and then, he just "assumed" that we would continue play at about the same pace.  But, I was doubly punished for putting my drive into the woods.  With no one coming hot on our heels, we spent 5 minutes in the woods finding my ball (hurrah!), but it meant that we were delayed in leaving the green in our usual "timely" fashion.  Carl quickly got in his Club Car and caught up with us on the third tee to apologize profusely for giving us the shower.  So, despite the perfectly wonderful golf weather, we still managed to get wet on this weekend!

We dried out quickly in the sun and the breeze, so no real worries.  The breeze was enough to play a little with any high balls that we struck, but it certainly kept any flies away!  With few others on the course, we easily managed to complete the first nine in less than 2 hours.  We took at little break in the clubhouse and then got back on the course before the club members event at 3 p.m.  Despite a lot more people on the course, we still were able to complete the second nine in 2 hours, 15 minutes.  We even had a little time to go back to the driving range where my husband was able to diagnose my driver issues with only two drives!  Next week, I'm expecting great things from my driver.

This course has three par 3's, three par 4's and three par 5's so it's a well balanced golfing experience.  It's forgiving but can pack a challenge when you least expect it, too.  With some of the drier weather we have enjoyed over the past week, the fairways were giving that lovely bit of roll that makes for better drives and approach shots. 

It was a lovely day and once we'd returned home for a quick change, we were off again for a BBQ with some wintertime friends.  What a great day in Paradise (...PEI, I mean!)

See you next week, Jane

Week 5

Wow - we're already a quarter of the way through our Green Card mission for 2011 and this weekend, a first for the year, it's not really damp (or downright wet) under foot for golf - woo hoo!  We selected Belfast Highland Greens, a 9-hole course overlooking beautiful Orwell Bay for this weekend, as there were going to be some north winds predicted and that was a good decision.

Almost every hole on this course has an outstanding view to the bay which really is quite breathtaking.  I've attached a number of photos.  The scorecard does have a map with the layout of the course on it, however it doesn't do a great job of showing the relative sizes of the holes and, unforgiveably, does not show the two on-course water hazards - the "pond" on the fourth, immediately to the left front of the green and the "pond" on the left side of the fairway, about 100 yards short of the green on the sixth.  The course is quite a long, 9-holer, with four par 5's, only two par 4's and three par 3's.

The course can be surprisingly difficult.  There is no warm up range facility and you start out on arguably the toughest hole, a 469-yard par 5 with a narrow, steep gully at about the 200 + yard mark into which we both played on both attempts!  So, it's uphill from there and, in my case, from deep in the gully, a "blind" shot to get up to where I could see the green.  Fortunately, the next hole is the easiest par 3, so you regain some confidence, before facing the next two par 5's, back to back!  There was, especially this year because of a bumper crop of dandelions which had gone to seed, an unusual "hazard" to playing what in some places is a rather narrow fairway, with a broader second cut.  If you are playing a white ball, as my husband was, you could lose your ball extremely easily (and we did!) in the second cut in the dandelion dead heads.  I played a neon pink ball which was much easier to find.  I'll attach two photos and you be the judge - can you find the white ball in the second photo?  I think we actually lost three balls this way - but fortunately, we stumbled upon other unfortunate souls' balls that had also been lost, so we ended up two balls up on the day.

In many ways, it's a good idea to play the same nine over again, especially if you're not really familiar with the course, so that you can note what you played the first time and how successful (or not) that was and get a legitimate "do over" on the second round.  In "theory", this should improve your score on the second round, right?  Well, in my case, that didn't quite work out, but I did manage to make one par on the opening nine (Hole 5), and one par on the back nine (Hole 7), so I can't complain.  We even had some serious sunny breaks in the second nine, so we had to declare it a success.  With the dryer, slightly warmer weather, I was getting the roll that I need from my drives and fairway shots to get to the greens, especially on the longer holes!  The signature hole on this course has to be the ninth - a par 3, but a challenging one with your tee shot cutting across the red sandstone cliffs down to the bay - I did sacrifice one ball to the shore, then did what I should have done originally - played it safe and gone to the left, where my approach shot made it on to the two-tier green.  Hubby parred it both times, so we ended on a good note!

Not much "wildlife" - no foxes, like last week at Clyde River, where a fox "stalked" us on the eighth green and looked like he'd make off with our balls on the ninth green, before chasing down the foursome behind us!  We did see a chipmunk at Belfast and there were lots of song birds in the woods which made for a very cheery reception!  The cart girl was friendly and attentive, and the clubhouse staff were helpful, too!

The clubhouse has a nice area (inside) to relax and have a cold one, or a complimentary coffee on the day that we played, and enjoy the spectacular view over the course and across the bay.  A good time should be had by all!

See you next week, Jane