Jt78129

Nearing 20 years old this course is one of my favourites in the Vancouver area.
It is by no means a typical muni layout and takes real advantage of its mountain side setting to provide a serious test of golf.
The front nine features the serious elevation changes: #s 1, 3, 6 & 8 all play severely downhill off the tee, 4 & 7 severely up hill, 2, 5 & 9 are mostly flat overall but you need to get the ball in the right place to have a shot to the well defended greens.
The back is mostly flat with the exception of 10, 14, 16, which all play downhill and 18 which plays down off the tee and then severely up to the green.
A creek winds through the back and comes into play on the 3 par 5s on the back - again you need to be in the right place off the tee to carry the creek and have a shot at the greens.
There are a couple of aspects of the course that make you think the compromises were made in the design process:
- Notably the par 4 13th is a little short, it seems the municipality wanted to put a baseball field in where the tee should go. It is drivable for many players, although this is discouraged as it is blind. The holes defence is a severe dog leg to the left about 75 yards from the small but wickedly sloped green. Combined with the blind tee shot off the mountain and island green of the par 4 10th there is only one par 4 on the back over 320 yards in length, the 11th.
- The 12th is the only level par 3 on the course with both short holes on the front and the other two on the back all being severely downhill. I like downhill par 3s but this seems like a lack of imagination and /or the only way to jam 18 holes into the space available.
- I feel it also suffers from a lack of a driving range, probably because of that baseball field again.

With the exception of the lack of a range, none of these issues really detract from the experience, it is a mountain course after all. They are more things I have noticed in my time playing here.

Conditions at the course are generally excellent, even in the winter, as it is so well drained and they never use temporary greens.

Clearly Pete Dye and I disagree on a fundamental level about what makes golf fun.
When I heard links inspired I thought great, something other than resort style wall to wall green lushness.
This was definitely that.
What I did not expect was an unnecessarily unfair design that penalized you for hitting fairways and greens.
Too often shots would land in the middle of a fairway landing zone and run on the firm turf into a hazard. These were not wayward bombs with a driver but hybrids and irons.
Similarly the greens are tiny and in no way receptive to approaches as they are rock hard. Wedges and short irons into the middle of the green would be deflected and often find one of the myriad bunkers or other hazards surrounding the unnecessarily penal greens complexes.
The shot the small hard greens called for, a bump and run, was taken out of play by the hazards around the greens. The shot you are forced to play, the high lob, is too often punished by the concrete like surface. This leaves the hit and hope which is not my idea of fun golf.

On the plus side the place is beautiful, an amazing setting right up against the base of the mountains. The staff were excellent and so friendly (especially Bill the marshall who made fun of us for bothering to keep score as we passed him on the second hole). If it were a nicer layout I would definitely be back.

18 Hcp, played the combo white/silver tees. 69.9/126 6075 yards.