Just over two years ago my wife (fiance at the time) and I were on a road trip of Canada's east coast. Beautiful country I might add. Our trip started with a night in Montreal, then onto the Fundy National Park (where we got engaged that morning), to Shediac New Brunswick, and then to Prince Edward Island where the story beings.
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| Veiw from a tee box on the back nine. |
So, we are in PEI, apart from say Myrtle Beach, PEI is a golfer's paradise. You flip open the yellow pages. No, No, who am I kidding, the yellow pages of my generation is Google. So, if you Google 'golf + PEI' you are going to end up with thousands of hits. And if you try it right now, the first thing that comes up is "Canada's #1 Golf Destination". Which is completely true. The courses to chose from are some of the best the country has to offer, no doubt. Well, ever since the 1998 Export A Skins Game I have wanted to play the Links at Crowbush Cove. That event, practically put PEI on the golfing map and Crowbush was the most renowned at the time.
We booked a tee time, a mid-afternoon round. Taking advantage of the twilight rates. I can't quite remember the cost exactly, but it was somewhere around $200 for the two of us to play with cart, and rent clubs.
I believe my wife has the ability to be a fantastic golfer. She shows new improvements each time she's out. She can smash it. I mean she can hit her 5iron consistently right up the middle about 130yrds, not bad for a beginner. Well, like I said this was over two years ago, and she was just starting out. And like most beginners they think this game is easy, and want to hit it far.
So, the first hole at Crowbush is a par 4 pretty much straight away. Oh, I forgot to mention. Since we were teeing off in the prime season, we were paired with another couple. A very nice couple in their 40's from Red Deer, Alberta. I stress very nice! We hit the tee getting to know each other with small talk and the starter gives us the go ahead. I tee off first and hit a decent drive up the left hand side that ends up in the rough. The gentleman tees off hitting to the right and it trickles into the bush and we drive up to the ladies tee.
The ladies tees are elevated and there is a small marsh just in front. I can see my wife is slightly intimidated. And I can't blame her really. She's about to play a beautiful course, it is her 2 or 3rd time golfing ever, she's playing with two people she met just 3 minutes ago, clubs she's never used before and we can't afford, and there's water right in front of her. So she insists the lady go first. So, the lady tee's it up and sploooosh!! She plunks one in the water. I could see the sigh of relief in my wife's face. She knew her expectations had just been lowered. The lady quickly tees up another ball and catches it good and it clears the marsh easily and ends up in the middle of the fairway. My wife is up. With no hesitation she tees it up confidently. No practice swings, and bang! She chili-dips one of the end of the tee box that rolls down into the water. She looks back at me, and I can see she wants another ball so I toss her a pinnacle and tell her to take her time. With the pressure on now, sure enough the second one finds the water too. Not to mention the third one too. You can imagine what the other couple is thinking at this point, "This is going to be a long day".
I tell them to drive ahead up to their balls and my wife will tee off from the other side of the marsh. So, they take off and we head around to the other side of the marsh. I can see she is dejected. "Don't worry about it hunny, we aren't out here to break any records, just have some fun. Hit a few shots, pick your ball up, have a drink. Just enjoy yourself." Yes, she was dejected, but she is a very determined woman and I can see she mean business this time, as she grabs another pinnacle from the cart.
She tees it up just inside the fairway. She smoked it. It took off hot, about 20 feet off the ground screaming up the right hand side. Before I could get the words out of my mouth, it takes one hope and hits the man we are playing with high in the leg. Crap!!!! What do you do? What do you say? At this point everyone in the group is thinking, "This is going to be a long day!"
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| A birdie try on the back nine. |
Well, as it turns out. The man escaped unscathed. I played reasonably well. So, did my wife. She even made her first par on the 6th hole. We had a great time. The scenery is like no other place on earth. We both loved it, and the rest of our trip.
Cheers,
RP
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