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
No comments:
Post a Comment