Stunning Setting Comes With Challenges
December 28th, 2010 07:19 AM
People who know me understand that I eat, breathe and sweat the game of golf. But it hasn’t always been that way.
Growing up, I hated golf. I hated caddying for my father and I hated missing All Star Wrestling on television just so he could watch some guy named Arnold Palmer. I was a young and thought golf was for old men. I eventually fell in love with golf but not until I was in my late teens.
That’s when I started to go hack the ball around at Gleneagles in West Vancouver. And it wasn’t because I had a new- found interest in the game. It was because of the setting Gleneagles offered.
I would wait until I heard the afternoon foghorns before heading to the course. Teeing off in the sunshine only to finish in a pea soup fog, with foghorns and ferry horns echoing around me, put me at ease.
Gleneagles is a beautiful rolling almost-seaside course. The first hole is a short 417-yard par five. A drive of about 220 yards will clear the creek that cuts across the fairway leaving a short iron in. But for popcorn hitters like me it is a lay up tee shot followed by a mid iron second shot and a wedge hoping for a one-putt birdie. And the second hole is a long par three that has Marine Drive all down the right hand side -- talk about intimidating!
The third hole is called Cardiac Hill, and sadly enough it is named well. At 296 yards it would seem to be a short hole but you are hitting straight up a hill -- make that a mountain -- to a hidden green. Often your second shot will be a short iron to a blind green, and all the while you’ll be standing on your head to hit it. Once, a locally famous wrestler (who will go unnamed) drove from the back tees into the left-hand greenside bunker. Actually his shot would have gone into the trees long of the green had it missed the bunker. He apologized for hitting into us, but after he took three stabs to get the ball out of the sand and over the green, his apology seemed out of place.
The fourth is a classic par five. It measures less than 500 yards and it’s a hard dogleg right with the first 200 yards straight down hill. Routinely it is played with a 200-yard straight tee shot, then an iron or fairway wood up short of the bunkers and away from the water on the left, and a wedge on. Big hitters can cut the corner of the dogleg with a high long faded tee shot, but for every 25 people who try it, 24 have to tee it up again and tell their friends “I’m two hitting three.”
A player’s tip:
To play this delight well you’ll need a high, long, controlled fade. The first, fourth, seventh and ninth holes all set up for that shape of shot. Gleneagles is five minutes from the cozy village of Horseshoe Bay. After your round go grab some of the world’s best fish and chips at Troll’s Restaurant and then walk across the street to the park. Here you can enjoy your meal. If you’re like me you’ll end up closing your eyes and just listening to the ocean and the occasional blast of a ferry’s horn.
Tom Cattermole is a freelance golf writer
cattermole@telus.net
Copyright North Shore Magazine Issue Feb - Mar 07
Growing up, I hated golf. I hated caddying for my father and I hated missing All Star Wrestling on television just so he could watch some guy named Arnold Palmer. I was a young and thought golf was for old men. I eventually fell in love with golf but not until I was in my late teens.
That’s when I started to go hack the ball around at Gleneagles in West Vancouver. And it wasn’t because I had a new- found interest in the game. It was because of the setting Gleneagles offered.
I would wait until I heard the afternoon foghorns before heading to the course. Teeing off in the sunshine only to finish in a pea soup fog, with foghorns and ferry horns echoing around me, put me at ease.
Gleneagles is a beautiful rolling almost-seaside course. The first hole is a short 417-yard par five. A drive of about 220 yards will clear the creek that cuts across the fairway leaving a short iron in. But for popcorn hitters like me it is a lay up tee shot followed by a mid iron second shot and a wedge hoping for a one-putt birdie. And the second hole is a long par three that has Marine Drive all down the right hand side -- talk about intimidating!
The third hole is called Cardiac Hill, and sadly enough it is named well. At 296 yards it would seem to be a short hole but you are hitting straight up a hill -- make that a mountain -- to a hidden green. Often your second shot will be a short iron to a blind green, and all the while you’ll be standing on your head to hit it. Once, a locally famous wrestler (who will go unnamed) drove from the back tees into the left-hand greenside bunker. Actually his shot would have gone into the trees long of the green had it missed the bunker. He apologized for hitting into us, but after he took three stabs to get the ball out of the sand and over the green, his apology seemed out of place.
The fourth is a classic par five. It measures less than 500 yards and it’s a hard dogleg right with the first 200 yards straight down hill. Routinely it is played with a 200-yard straight tee shot, then an iron or fairway wood up short of the bunkers and away from the water on the left, and a wedge on. Big hitters can cut the corner of the dogleg with a high long faded tee shot, but for every 25 people who try it, 24 have to tee it up again and tell their friends “I’m two hitting three.”
A player’s tip:
To play this delight well you’ll need a high, long, controlled fade. The first, fourth, seventh and ninth holes all set up for that shape of shot. Gleneagles is five minutes from the cozy village of Horseshoe Bay. After your round go grab some of the world’s best fish and chips at Troll’s Restaurant and then walk across the street to the park. Here you can enjoy your meal. If you’re like me you’ll end up closing your eyes and just listening to the ocean and the occasional blast of a ferry’s horn.
Tom Cattermole is a freelance golf writer
cattermole@telus.net
Copyright North Shore Magazine Issue Feb - Mar 07
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