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
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