matt.heitto

Eagles Landing’s sister course (if you will), Evergreen is also located in Dryden.  Not something I usually frequent, this par 32 is the location of my dad’s men’s league and I was fortunate enough to partake in the festivities.   Even as I described Eagles Landing as being pretty open and “simple”, this is one that takes it simple a bit further.

It’s something you would commonly refer to as a “pitch and putt” course.  Pitching with your driver of that is.  You’re able to bomb it off the tee without too much worry that trouble will rear it’s head.  However, I must admit, hitting your target isn’t all that easy.  One of the biggest challenges at this executive course is it’s greens.  Most of them are mounded (like a turtle shell) and sloping front to back or back to front (most of the time).   It also doesn’t help that they are quite small, somewhere in the 1200 sq feet range if we’re lucky.  It’s not often a matter of hitting the green, it’s where you hit the green.

That’s it in a nutshell and I think it serves its purpose quite well.  It’s a nice course to get started on, and in fact was the first course I ever played.   So, even though it holds some sentimental value, it’s not something I often get excited about visiting.  Maybe I should have referred it to as the red headed step-child of Eagles Landing?

One of the stops during my vacation, was to my old home course, Eagles Landing.  This is where I held a membership for a number of years as a junior and through my college years.   I can’t think of the number of rounds I must have put throughout the years, but it’s always been my home course.

The course itself would be considered very basic in the realm of Southern Ontario.  However, for a small town in the middle of nowhere, it does just fine.  A 9 hole course that can stretch to about 6700 yards has a pretty forgiving layout.  Holes 1-6 are quite wide open, minus the out of bounds that runs along the sides of some of the holes, but are largely out of play most of the time.

I feel the course, although simple, has a great variety of holes.  Each hole carries its unique flavour of bunkers, water , out of bounds and occasionally bush.  It has both short and long par 3’s, 4’s and 5’s that run primarily east and west, in and out of the prevailing westerly wind.  One thing that remains consistent is the size of the greens.  They are large and often are slower than average, with my visit no exception to this.  I would say it’s pretty easy to get some 60-80 ft putts if you’re not quite accurate.

I suppose one of the knocks has always been the quality of the course.  This year it seemed to be in great shape, but that shouldn’t be surprising considering the summer Canada has had.  The bunkers are often filled with rocks and you’re hoping you don’t damage your club instead of thinking about your follow through.

But all of that aside, one thing that was a pleasant surprise was some of the maturation that has occurred.  Having only been able to play once a year if I’m lucky, it’s nice to see how things once planted several years ago are starting to bloom and take affect.  The trees on holes 5 and 7 have started to take the short cuts away and might make people think a half second about making the big shot.

Hopefully I’ll get to play her again next year!

Last Saturday I had the pleasure of visiting the National Pines course, which is another ClubLink owned property. For the 2nd year in a row, I was able to play it the weekend before the Canadian Tour Championships. Having this luxury, I was able to experience some of the conditions the pros go through. This includes excessively long rough, harder and faster greens and overall just good conditions.

As much as I want to forget my front nine, which was one of the worst starts in a number of years. I certainly couldn’t forget the condition the course was in. Freshly off another evening/night of rain, underneath a cloudless sky with temperatures in the mid-20’s… I couldn’t ask for anything more.

One of the most difficult things I found about the course is your tee shot. What I’ve found is that most courses will impose a dogleg that starts around half way through a hole or further out. At National Pines, the dogleg often started at around the 1/4 mark of the hole. This means, not only you have to deal with imposing trees, you also have to take into consideration the far side of the fairway if you can’t shape your shot towards the dogleg.

Secondly, as I mentioned before, the rough was incredibly long and thick. This was especially the case around the green. Coupled with harder greens, the ball would often roll through the green and end up in the nasty stuff. Even though it would normally be a standard little chip, you had to use a higher lofted wedge to punch it out and try to land it softly. Not something that’s easily accomplished for the typical handicapper, and grew a little tiresome towards the end of the round.

Hopefully, I can get invited out next year around the same time… I can honestly say I would look forward to tackling this pristine course every year. Of course, the other way would be to join ClubLink, but that’s a different post all together.

Over my numerous rounds of golf over the years, I’ve been pretty close to sinking that elusive hole in one. I’ve been within inches quite a few times even on some short par 4’s. Saturday, during my round at Orchard Beach I rolled one up so close it was actually hanging on the edge. About a 1/4 of the ball was hanging off the back of the cup, I think the only thing preventing it from dropping was the wind that was pushing it the opposite way! It will have to wait another day!

As mentioned, I played a round recently at a 9 hole course named Orchard Beach, which is local to my home in Keswick. It reminds me a lot of my ex-home course in Dryden. A pretty casual course that’s a little on the simple side, yet possesses it’s unique challenges.

The course is put together pretty well with a real natural look as it rolls throughout some hills that sit above Lake Simcoe. It lacks a solid mixture of holes as it’s made up of average length par 4’s. Every hole has a unique risk associated to it ranging from OB, a pond or at minimum some fescue. It makes it difficult enough that you can’t grip it and rip it, but enough flexibility to take some short cuts without too much risk, which gives the course the “fun” factor. My only real complaint is the lacking of another true par 5.

I would have to say the 9th hole, a very short, down hill par 4, is a hidden gem when it comes to scenery. It faces the western shore of Lake Simcoe where you can witness some amazing sunsets. (I think I need to start bringing my camera out to these courses) I feel I could get used to playing this course on a regular basis.

Yesterday, I made my way out to the Pines of Georgina golf course up in Pefferlaw to play 9 quick holes. I’ve read somewhere that a magazine considered it one of the best hidden gem’s in Ontario. I would probably have to agree with that statement. For only $27 or $48 to walk 9 or 18 holes respectively during weekend primetime, it’s a pretty decent deal.

I’ll be the first to admit, it’s a pretty straight forward course, but it certainly doesn’t make it easy on you. The tight confines of holes 4, 5 and 6 put a big price on accuracy. Hole 4 has OB on the left and water hazard on the right. Not that it’s intimidating enough, you have to carry the ball 200 yards from the tips to hit over another water hazard.

Putting everything together with the price, the quality and the challenge; I feel POG is a worth a drive… to Pefferlaw!

For the record: I shot 42 with 2 doubles and 5 pars.