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

Week 15

It's Old Home Week on PEI and that means that the place is overrun by tourists and Islands who live away for most of the year coming home to spend quality time with their families.  It is also the time for the Fair or Exhibition or Provincial or whatever you like to call it, which culminates with the Gold Cup and Saucer Parade on Friday and the Race on Saturday (the finale of the now 10-day long extravaganza).  But wait, I'm getting ahead of myself.

This Saturday's offering, at the beginning of Old Home Week, was Fox Meadow.  It is the closest to Charlottetown of the 20 golf courses on the Green Card and thus subject to quite a lot of pressure for tee-off times due to lots of tournaments, quite a few members and the ease with which people can decide in the morning that they'll take some time off in the afternoon and take in 9 or 18 holes, at a whim.  We were in luck to get a 8:39 a.m. tee off time on a sunny prediction (this summer, that means a lot) Saturday.  We arrived early so had a chance to warm up on the putting green and the driving range.  As always, met in the parking lot by a friendly attendant and the golf cart to transport you and your clubs to the clubhouse.  The course is located in Stratford and the Canadian Golf Academy is located immediately adjacent to the putting green - it can't get any closer!  It also sits in a large residential subdivision which has grown up around the course over the last decade, plus.  The clubhouse area is attractive with all kinds of plantings and the restaurant and bar are run by the Delta Hotel, so it's all very nicely done.

Fox Meadow is aptly named - watch out for the numerous and wily foxes on this course, particularly on holes 2, 11 and 6.  These guys are well "trained" and will position themselves near the green and wait while your group sends in their approach shots.  The first ball to fall in their "catch" zone will be picked up and trotted off to the fox den in the bushes.  Depending on how quickly you play or how many in your group, these foxes can make off with two or three of your balls.  The best advice is to have one of your group go ahead of the shots to keep the fox at bay and then quickly return to play his/her shot.  Or, if you don't mind losing your ball (play an older or found ball) and take the preferred "I lost it to a fox" lie!!

We were lucky enough to play this week's round with a great friend of mine, Margie, who was visiting us "from away" - it is, after all, Old Home Week!  She is an avid golfer and enjoyed the scenery and variety of the course, if not her best score of the season.  Fox Meadow is a great course for those who want to be able to have a chance on every hole.  With broad fairways and sometimes playable rough, it is a forgiving but challenging course.  Its signature hole, the seventh, is a short par 3 which plays to an almost-Island green with a fountain playing in the large pond which surrounds it.  You can go for it, with the possibility of disaster, or play it safe and go for the steep hillside to the right of the green and play for the bounce to the green.  I did the latter and was rewarded with a par.

Despite the weather forecast, there were a surprising number of quite threatening grey clouds, but nothing wet came of them and by the time we finished our round, the sun was again in full display and the day was about as perfect as they get in PEI in August.

The cart girl on her second or third pass had a customer in our group so stopped beside us at Hole 15.  No sooner had she stopped her cart than two kits appeared out of the woods and came right up to the cart and to us.  When one of us opened up a sandwich container, one came within 4 feet of us.  The cart girl indicated that some of the attendants (not her!) feed the foxes, so they have been trained to beg.  Please folks, don't feed the wildlife, despite how "cute" they look!  These guys will quickly become pests and will then need to be dealt with.

All in all, a great day, a great course and great company - what could be better?  See you next week, Jane

Week 14

This week - Eagles Glenn.  Don't be intimidated by the audio tour from its website, this course is very playable - challenging, yes; intimidating, no.  The fact that Saturday morning was, as predicted, very sunny with the promise of heat to come, but cool and dewy to start out, with barely a breath of wind, made it the ideal morning for a golf game.  We had a tee off time of 8:40 but arrived at 8 a.m. so that we could take advantage of the magnificent practice facilities that this course in the heart of Cavendish offers.  The putting green was wonderful, the driving range is good, we were ready to take on the (as the website told us) constant grassy mounds, fescue infested rough and challenging greens of Eagles Glenn.

We started out a little shaky, but we discovered that when your drive or second shots were only slightly off the perfect location on the fairway, the mounds and bumps tended to roll you back onto the "sweet" spots of the course.  It also helped me get much more mileage out of my shots.  Now, if you found the deep rough or a white sand bunker, that was a different story all together!  On the front nine, much of the deep fescue seemed to have been trimmed back and that helped our confidence and allowed us to get out of some places that we otherwise weren't going to be able to find the ball, let alone play it where it lies.  The course is a delight - the tee boxes (all five of them) were level and well-cared-for, the fairways are like broadloom and the greens (even when wet with dew) were very quick and predictable.  There are some lovely floral plantings on almost every hole which are very nice and the course and the views to surrounding countryside are very picturesque.  The only note which I would make is that the water hazards seem oddly out of character with the rest of the course.  They are invariably bare of any vegetation and have a very unfinished quality to them.  To be a superb addition to the golf courses of PEI, the owners need to do something to perk up these water hazards.

Despite the name, we didn't actually see any eagles - however there were at least six ospreys on the super-long par 5 Hole No. 8 that were circling as my husband made his approach shot to the green.  The "audience" hushed as his third shot dropped within 10 feet of the pin!  There were also a couple of families of Canada Geese on Hole No. 18 and its three ponds.   Otherwise, what we noticed as much as anything was how quiet the course is.  The holes have good seperation from each other and the trees lining the holes kept down any noise from off the course - at least until near the end of the back nine when all of a sudden there were the squeals of happy riders on the Sandspit ferris wheel.  It was a little reminder that we weren't actually off the beaten path, but rather in the heart of Cavendish.  It's easy to forget that though when you are playing this lovely course.

I would like to recommend that the score card include a little map of the lay out of the course, as it was a little confusing sometimes finding which way to go to the next hole.  Despite the topography, it is a good course to walk!  A healthy "two thumbs up" for this Graham Cooke designed nine-year old course.

Looking forward to next week, but a little fearful that it will be hard to find a more perfect day or a better course than this one, Jane

Week 13

There has got to be a rule that you can't be booking next week's tee off time without having posted the blog from last week's course, right?  So - oops - here I go.  Where has the time gone?  In true Island fashion, once August hits, the summer speeds up like crazy.  Every person that you ever knew is planning a trip to PEI or coming home and simply must get together with you.  As well, all those "must see and do's" this summer are piling up and there is an urgency to get them all done before the summer weather fades.  This year, the summer weather needs to fade (away from rain and overcast and into some more sunshine and clear skies)!

This past week's foray was continuing on with the past week's theme - what was optimistically promised on the Environment Canada website didn't quite materialize.  We had booked a tee off time at Eagles View 9-hole course in Murray River, so we headed off early to get there in plenty of time for a bit of a warm up and to see the sun burn off the fog.  Instead what we were met with was a fine mist which turned a little heavier as we set off to play.  No real warm up (other than a little pitch and putt on the putting green - there is no range) and with umbrella and rain jackets, we did our warm up on the course with the opening nine.  A bit too much like jack-in-the-box (off again, on again with the rain jacket) as the weather worsened, then got better, and all the while the mosquitos were swarming!

This course was built at a time when federal and/or provincial money was readily available and it is evident in the large flat tee boxes and beautiful soft cushiony greens, which despite the rain and dew seem to play fast!  But the real money seems to have gone on building the 330+ yard long, 12 foot wide wooden bridge across the pond between the second and third holes.  When you're walking (and we do like to walk these courses), this adds the equivalent of a par-5 hole both going and coming back (between holes 7 and 8) on each of the rounds!  Add in some topography (getting from the bridge to the Hole 3 tee box would make a mountain goat weep - how would a cart manage this going up or going down?) - this is a real workout for 18 holes!

The highlight for us in the wildlife area was the spotting of a 2 1/2 foot long garter snake just as we exited the bridge - just goes to show you that golf courses seem to be havens for all sorts of wildlife.  There were birds and bullfrogs too - I'm sure I heard a bullfrog laugh as my tee shot on Hole 3 went "splash" right into his favourite pond!

Despite being pretty tired and pretty wet and bedraggled after 9, we persevered and played the second nine, and we're glad we did.  We both played better, the weather seemed to improve somewhat (it still misted on and off a couple of times) and there were more other golfers out enjoying the elements!  The highlights for me in a golfing sense were clearing the "bullfrog" pond on Hole 3 (the second time around) and landing within six feet of the pin on Hole 7.  This hole should be the signature hole (if it isn't) on this course.  It's a short par 3 from an elevated tee box with the stunning bridge evident in the background and achingly beautiful surroundings.

Caroline in the clubhouse was great, the clubhouse has a great little restaurant and bar upstairs (we've eaten here before), although we had to scoot away in time to take in the final tour of the Garden Club gardens for 2011.  Like I said, it's August in PEI and there is just too much good stuff to do in one month!!

See you next week, we're hoping for better weather, Jane