Week 20

The calendar may say late September, but the reality is - it's still very much golfing season!  Wow - Sunday set an all-time record high for the date (25 C on the 25th) and what a day it was:  sunny and beautiful.  Lots of other golfers thinking that Brudenell River Golf Course was the place to be to enjoy it all!

We had a tee off time of 9 a.m. and the dew was still present but you could tell that things were warming up.  We had a short session on the practice facility (a real treat) before being paired up with Joe, a retired businessman and farmer, and Dexter, a junior high student - both members!  It was great to be on a course that was designed to be walked and with two knowledgeable players who could give you tips on where to go after each green and how best to attack the next hole.  The pace was steady, despite the course being busy.

Brudenell is located on the Brudenell River and is a well established course of more than 40 years, with beautiful mature plantings.  It has mostly broad fairways and was in perfect condition for a game.  There are six each of par 3's, par 4's and par 5's, so it's a well balanced course too, with lots of interest for everyone.  It's hard to imagine how golf can get any better than this - beautiful, challenging and yet rewarding, all on a perfect fall day that felt more like summer.  As the website says, you should plan a vacation around this course - enjoy.

The visible wildlife were chipmunks, squirrels, crows, seagulls and lots of Canada geese.

Hope to play our last course, Mill River, in a couple of weeks when the fall colours will be at their height.  Until then, make the best of the fine fall days - I know that we are with 9 holes here and there!  Jane

Week 19

What a difference a couple of weeks can make at this time of year on PEI!  Last week, we weren't able to fit in a golf game on the weekend - several reasons: too much on the go (two hockey games, registration for Seniors College and high enough winds to make it interesting for kiteboarding) and it was really difficult to get a tee-off time at Brudenell (too many tournaments scheduled).  Who says that the tourist activity stops after Labour Day? We did try to book Brudenell for this weekend, but - once again, tournaments - so we have booked for next weekend (10 days in advance) for Brudenell, and booked this weekend at Glasgow Hills.

We like to walk our courses.  That said, we'd been told that Glasgow Hills was a definite for a power cart, because of those hills.  It was a beautiful sunny, dewy morning (heavy frost in the hollows on the drive to the course) and we told the pro shop and the starter (both commented on how few walkers they had) that we would try the front nine and see how it went.  We were paired with a delightful young couple from Rochester, NY, Todd and Kate with a cart.  They had decided on a spontaneous long weekend trip to PEI and this was to be their only golf game.  So, off we went.  The course is challenging with sloping fairways, lots of sandy sand traps and tricky greens, but the views are spectacular across the hills, over the river and even to the Gulf in a couple of places.  The scenery at this time of year is fabulous anyway (all those varying shades of green, gold and red soil), but with the panoramic view from the clubhouse, it really is breathtaking.  We all agreed that spending some time on the deck overlooking the range and putting practice green would be a worthwhile expenditure of spare time!!

In no time, we realized that Kate was an excellent golfer (putting for birdies on the first 3 holes!) and after Todd settled down, he too was a terrific shot maker.  Certainly, we all had our good holes and our not-so-good holes.  A little bit inconsistent but a beautiful day and delightful company.

In fairness, we had also been warned specifically about Hole 17 - that it started up high and dropped down before rising again to a raised green.  OK, seriously, this is a killer hole, especially when it comes at the end.  I don't think any of us played it very well and certainly hubby and I were ready to pack it in on the walking after 17!  But, we all rose to the challenge and 18 was a great hole to finish on. 

Course conditions were perfect - lush grass, bunkers that have real, white sand in them and water hazards that are beautifully incorporated into the course.  Flowers and plantings accented most holes.  The course is only 10 years old, but it is a real addition to the offerings on PEI.  It is a little too challenging for those of us who like to walk and for those unfamiliar with the course layout and several blind shots that are required.  (Special thanks to Kate for her reconnaisance on Hole 10 - it worked wonders!)  Todd was playing from the blues and although hubby doesn't prefer them, on several holes the blues and whites were at the same placement and it wasn't significantly longer on many others.

Wildlife spotted:  a couple of ducks, a raven and a flock of Canada geese who looked like they were practising their fall flight as they circled overhead and honked!  No foxes and no crows stealing balls or food out of the carts of the unsuspecting.

Hope to see you next week (at Brudenell), Jane

Week 18

Early September and the weather is summer-like (much more so than summer has been this year!).  We tried to book Brudenell for this Saturday, but they had a big tournament and 3:30 was the earliest tee-off, so off we went to the Links at Crowbush Cove.  We've only played here once before and walked it with Mike Weir and Vijay Singh when they were here with the Legends of Golf.  It is a spectacular course with a lovely clubhouse (although who builds a clubhouse with only a one-hole ladies bathroom in the basement?  It is also the site of another of the lovely Rodd Resort Hotels which has received good reviews, at least from our Alaskan friends!  The weather was perfect, even early in the morning, with a pleasant breeze, sunshine with warming tendencies and NO mosquitoes, which we had heard horror stories about here.

We were paired up with two members - both summer residents, Dave from Houston, TX and Tom from Toronto, ON.  Both are accomplished golfers (which should have twigged to this when they insisted on playing from the golds), but about as gruff and unfriendly as "fellow" golfers can get.  Dave was a purist walker, with a very small carry bag filled with old (and I do mean "old" clubs) complete with a very small hickory putter, blade irons and his driver was the only club in his bag younger than I am!  Tom was a drive cart operator and took a couple of holes to get his groove going, but he could be very precise.  They had played together before, although they didn't even seem particularly friendly with each other!

Precision is what is required on this course, as it is narrow and challenging with lots of water hazards and deep pocket bunkers all over the place and some tricky, fast greens.  We did "so-so" but lost some balls and I figured that I'd died and gone to heaven when I parred the 9th hole!  We made it as far as the tee-box on Hole 11, which is high up above the Gulf of St. Lawrence, with the most spectacular views of the sand dunes and the Gulf and inland across the rest of the course.  We stopped and took some photos and wished Tom and Dave good luck with the rest of the course.  When you've lost almost 10-12 balls between us, the course is beating you and the fun of golfing with the others had ceased about 6 holes earlier, there really isn't any point in continuing.  It was still a beautiful day and the deck needed painting anyway!  We did spend almost an hour on the practice facility which has a great putting green, chip and sand facility as well as an irons only range - it's great.

My recommendation to other, average golfers is leave this course to the skilled professionals and the wannabe pros and save yourselves some grief.

Hope to see you next week, the list is down to Brudenell, Glasgow Hills and Mill River (which we have left to last, so that the fall colours have as much chance to show themselves), Jane