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
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