Golf Course Review
I had a chance to participate in the Signature Golf/ JT Insurance/ CK Golf Solutions Club Pro Skins Game last week. The event is held monthly from April to a wind-up event in September by invitation only. The purpose of these events is to gather Golf Professionals from public golf course facilities, those working in the golf business but not at a golf course (me) or more or less everyone the committee (which I am part of) thinks would be interested and make a good addition to our discussions held after golf. Believe it or not being in the golf business does not mean we play a lot of golf. That is especially true for this group in particular who is largely responsible for the service delivery and financial performance of their golf facilities.
Swan-e-set Bay Resort
We hold these events monthly at golf courses around the Lower Mainland; this was the fourth in our six event series. Swan-e-set is a great piece of property with 36 holes (the Links and the Resort) designed by international golf star Lee Trevino. On this day we played the Links course. Our monthly skins game had a purse of $520.00. Doesn’t seem like a lot of money, but for our group the get together, interaction, sharing and networking through the day is why we play.
The Golf Course
The golf course at Swan-e-set Bay Resort was in summer form as you would expect, and comments by the players, myself included, stated that these were the best greens any of us had played this year. They were fast, true and gave you an opportunity to make every putt. Phenomenal! As for the rest of the golf course, the tee decks were very good, the fairway and roughs as well. The only knock for a hot summer day (after a week of heat) was how wet some areas were. Don’t get me wrong, the turf was very full and thick but almost ‘overly’ green or ‘overly’ watered for the time of year and considering our recent “hot” spell. Overall the player feedback was excellent and I believe everyone would recommend Swan-e-set for a game in the near future! You can visit the Swan-e-set website here and a big thank you to Dale Van Der Mark for being the title sponsor of our skins games this year.
This review is on the Resort Course. Very pretty golf course with very nice panoramic views of the mountains down some of the narrow rock hard fairways.
The course is one you have no choice but to play target golf. Leave the driver in the car unless you can guarantee you can hit the middle of the fairway every time. Rough is cut fairly short and slopes for the most part to the impossible shoulder high grass and blackberry bushes that grow right on the edge of the first cut rough. If the ball dribbles 10cm off into the grass or blackberry bushes drop another ball because the only way you will find that ball is to step on it.
If you are good enough to hit the fairway DO NOT try a pin seeking shot at the green. I have hit frozen greens in February that give more than these greens do. Cut short and rolled out to be extremely fast they are fun to play once you are on. They roll quite true. Chips and pitches that spin with the power to bite the green cannot get a grip here and they just bounce and roll away. The greens are huge so expect putts that roll and roll and roll like you just putted on a glass table top.
At 70 Canadian dollars this is not worth the money when the courses around Bellingham Washington are 90 minutes away, half the price, and open enough to find your ball if it drifts a bit.