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| Shots from the 5th - 265 to carry the bunkers - which he did |
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| Tee shot at the 9th |
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| Remi Racine's approach to the 9th |
The first shots were struck on the Blue Course on Sunday.
We all hit at least a couple of shots each with Mike and Grant
Waite hitting the vast majority. We were all curious to see where the ball was
landing and have a look at the progress of the golf course. I found I was more
interested in observing the group after hitting a few shots myself. I’ll get a
better opportunity to “test things out” late in October with the golf
superintendent Luc Ladocuer.
Mike was in town for the Mike Weir Foundation’s annual
fundraising tournament for the two local children’s hospital. This event is
played in a different Canadian community each year and has raised over 6
million since 2004. This year’s event was played on the Green Course and got
great reviews from the players and Mike. Next year the event will be at
Hamilton Golf & Country Club. It was a great evening.
It was fun to get the reactions to the holes from Grant
Waite, because Mike and I have certain ideas of how it “should” function,
whereas Grant was a set of fresh eyes for us and he simply told us what he saw.
He loved the green sites and thought the course would be fun to play,
particularly when they firm it up for an event. He was fascinated by the idea
of intentionally creating rhythms in the round. He and Mike talked about “how
they would play the course” which was fascinating since many decisions were
made to avoid the potential pitfalls knowing they could hit the longer approach
with confidence.
In the end what they talked about was far more interesting to
me as a designer than where the ball was ending up.
