From China to the Caribbean, and Canada to California, I’ve been lucky enough to play golf at some great courses around the world. Here are some of my fave memories. Not necessarily the best courses (although some are spectacular, but some of the most memorable moments.
MAUI MUNICIPAL COURSE, WAIEHU, MAUI
The Maui municipal golf course in Waiehu. JIM BYERS PHOTO
The course at Waeihu, just a few minutes from the Maui airport, isn’t Kapalua, home of the season-opening tournament on the PGA Tour Schedule, It isn’t Wailea, with its deep green, perfect fairways and golden sand bunkers and Ritz Carlton-worthy clubhouse. But it’s a remarkable deal, and it’s a great place to “talk story” with the locals.
There are also three holes directly fronting the Pacific Ocean, which is more than you can say for just about any golf course on Maui. Sure, it’s a bit rough in spots, but the views of the coastline are terrific, and you can’t beat the price; $65 USD weekdays for non-residents and $85 on weekends.
One of my favourite stories about the course is from back when I was around 17 or 18 years old. My Dad and I and a buddy pulled in and went to the clubhouse to pay. My Dad said, “Three adults, please.” The guy behind the counter shook his head. “No, bruddah. You mean one adults and two youths.” “No, they’re adults.” my Dad replied. “No,” the clubhouse guy responded with a firm tone. “They’re youths. They pay the youth rate.”
You gotta love a course like that.
CABOT LINKS AND CABOT CLIFFS
Cabot Cliffs golf course, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.
Cabot Links set the standard a few years ago, opening as Canada’s first true links course in the village of Inverness on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia.
It’s a gobsmackingly gorgeous layout that runs along the Gulf of St. Lawrence, with pot bunkers and rolling hills and nasty rough and fairways that let you run the ball for miles. The course is immaculate, but the weather is delightfully unpredictable. You might fire a five-iron at the flag one day, and then switch to a pitching wedge the next, depending on conditions.
Cabot Cliffs also is part of Cabot Cape Breton and sits on a bluff overlooking the gulf and is even more dramatic. It’s been rated one of the top ten golf courses in the world, and that’s saying something.
They also have a par-three, 10-hole course called The Nest, which is perfect for beginners or kids. Or those of us with handicaps we’d rather not talk about.
The Cabot folks, led by Toronto resident Ben Cowan-Dewar, recently opened a spectacular course on the rugged north shore of Saint Lucia, called Point Hardy. They also bought Castle Stuart in Scotland and are building a new course there with the help of renowned architect Tom Doak. The complex has been named Cabot Highlands. They’re also building a mountain course in Revelstoke B.C., which is slated to open in 2025. And they’re totally redoing World Woods Golf in Florida (about an hour north of Tampa) and will re-open in January with three courses under the name Cabot Citrus Farms.
PEBBLE BEACH, CALIFORNIA
The 18th hole at famed Pebble Beach Golf Links in California. Evan Schiller Photo
I was fortunate to take some of my golf friends for a round at Pebble Beach a few years ago. When we got back, one of my grateful buddies sent me an email.
“Thanks for the trip to paradise,” he said.
You can feel the ghosts as you walk through the pro shop, checking the cardigan sweaters and high-priced souvenirs with the Pebble Beach Golf Links logos. There are a couple of holes that aren’t so dramatic, but it’s mostly magnificent, with dreamy views of the California coastline and immaculate conditions.
This is a place of golfing legends and movie stars and history, the place where Tiger Woods put on one of his dominating performances of all time and where Tom Watson reached for the stars on No. 17 with one of the greatest pressure shots of all time.
The U.S. Women’s Open is being played there this week, and seeing it on TV is bringing back some great memories.
Playing the sixth hole, it’s almost impossible not to be impressed about Tiger’s shot from the thick grass next to the fairway bunker in his record-setting U.S. Open win in 2000, a ridiculous iron shot that carried up the massive hill and nestled some 10 feet from the pin. This is the same hole where rock star Glenn Frey of the Eagles told me to stick a video camera up my nether regions when I trained my lens on him too long during a pro-am practice round. But that’s another story.
MISSION HILLS, CHINA
A golf course at the Mission Hills complex in China.
This is a complex that you have to see to believe. And you still don’t believe it.
It currently has 11 championship courses and an 18-hole par three course. Each was designed by a different golf architect or player, including top names such as Pete Dye and Greg Norman. They’re all terrific.
The owners of the 12-course complex, located about a half hour from Hong Kong in mainland China, proudly bill Mission Hills as the largest golf centre in the world. There are 3,000 young women who serve as caddies on the courses every day. The three clubhouse staging areas where they all get ready to roll in the morning look like the cab stand outside YVR; a veritable sea of pale golf carts filled with chattering young caddies in their bright red and yellow uniforms and beekeeper-style helmets.
One of my favourite memories was when we stepped onto the first tee of one of the courses and I sliced a ball in the general direction of a palatial, fairway-side home. I asked my caddy what she thought. She rubbed her chin and replied, “Dangerous.”
WATERTON LAKES, ALBERTA
Waterton Lakes Golf Course in Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta, Canada. JIM BYERS PHOTO
Jasper and Banff, not to mention Canmore, get a fair bit of ink in Alberta golf stories. But I loved Waterton Lakes when I played there a few summers ago.
It wasn’t in the best condition when I played it, but a Canadian golf group called Lobb + Partners has been hired to make renovations. You can’t beat the setting, with wide skies, glittering lakes, and towering, jagged mountains all around.
The course dates back to 1922 when the original nine holes were opened. They expanded to 18 holes in 1935. Legendary golf architect Stanley Thompson helped with improvements later on, so you know the layout is first rate.
It’s fairly cheap ($59) and super-casual. When I stopped in I was told the only rules about clothing were no muscle shirts and “no visible butt cracks.”
Waterton Lakes National Park is a gem that’s roughly two and-a-half hours south of Calgary.
TPC SAWGRASS, FLORIDA
The island green at TPC Sawgrass golf course in Florida.
Just about every golf fan worth his weight in niblicks knows about the island green at the 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass in northeast Florida. It’s a brilliant hole, with a small green surrounded by water on roughly 347.14 degrees. For the pros, it’s nerve-wracking. For an amateur, it’s outright terror.
I played maybe ten years ago with my Dad. I somehow hit my ball high in the air and onto the green, where it trickled into the rough and stayed dry. I bogeyed the hole after chipping on and two-putting on treacherous greens that looked like they’d been given a bikini wax, as Gary McCord once said about a particularly tricky green at Augusta National.
My Dad wasn’t so lucky. His first ball skidded into the water, short and left of the green. He teed up another. Same thing. Then a third. Maybe a fourth. All in the same patch of water. As he walked to the next hole he looked at me and said, “The definition of stupidity is hitting the same shot four times in a row and expecting a different result.”
The 17th hole hogs the headlines, but the rest of the course is equally impressive. And just as difficult.
GREEN MONKEY, BARBADOS
The Green Monkey golf course at Sandy Lane Resort, Barbados.
The Green Monkey is a fabulous golf course that’s associated with the posh Sandy Lane resort, one of the best on the island. This is where Tiger Woods, who you may have heard of, got married to Elin Nordegren. It didn’t end well, but the wedding was spectacular.
The course sits on a gentle slope on the west coast of the island, north of the capital of Bridgetown, and is carved out of an old limestone quarry. There are great elevation changes for an island that’s not very mountainous, as well as tough greens.
If you don’t see real green monkeys frolicking in the trees, you’ll at least find one in the fairway trap on the par-three 16th hole; a giant grass monkey resting in the sand. Every hole on the course, designed by Tom Fazio, offers lovely views of the Caribbean.
KIRRIE GLEN, MUSKOKA, ONTARIO
Kirrie Glen Golf Course in Muskoka, Ontario.
There are fancier courses in the Muskoka region of Ontario, including Muskoka Woods, Taboo and Rocky Crest. But few offer the value of Kirrie Glen, a lovingly kept nine-hole affair with nice elevation changes and beautiful landscaping.
Folks with cottages on Lake Muskoka can dock their boat across the street from the clubhouse and traipse across the road with their clubs.
There are a few challenging holes on this 2,830-yard layout, but this is really a place to take the kids or to have a blast with your golf buddies.
There’s a nice patio with good food and friendly servers.
The cost? Just $44 plus HST for nine holes, $70 plus HST for 18 holes. It’s tough to beat that kind of value in this part of Ontario.
KAURI CLIFFS, NEW ZEALAND
A great view at Kauri Cliffs Golf Course, New Zealand. JIM BYERS PHOTO
This is a golf course that doesn’t whack you over the head. There are no fancy gates with guards out front, and you’re miles from any big cities. When I was there, the only marker I saw was a plain wooden gate that looked like it was stolen from a small farm in Ireland, or perhaps the movie set of Hobbiton from Lord of the Rings. But then you drive out and see the course in all its glory.
Kauri Cliffs sits high on a bluff overlooking the deep blue waters of Matauri Bay. The course is in stupendous shape, and the views are gob-smackingly beautiful, with a wide bay dotted with a series of pretty islands and distant, chalky cliffs.
Designer David Harman treated the natural terrain with respect, folding his course over hills and through valleys instead of ramrodding a few acres of earth like some “I know best” design types might feel obliged to do. A top-notch course in one heckuva beautiful country.
PACIFIC GROVE GOLF LINKS, CALIFORNIA
Pacific Grove Golf Links, California.
This course, just a few minutes west of downtown Monterey, is an even better value than the Maui Municipal course.
Pacific Grove Golf Links sits at a corner of the fabled Monterey Peninsula, just a few minutes west of Cannery Row and downtown Monterey’s shops and hotels.
The first nine holes are inland. They’re fine, and fairly challenging. But you only get glimpses of the ocean.
The back nine offers views of the crashing, brilliant waves of the Pacific Ocean at every turn. Built like a traditional links course, you’ll definitely feel as if you’re hugging the coast of Scotland or Ireland as you navigate the final holes, with views of the Point Pinos lighthouse and the waves crashing against the craggy rocks.
It’s just $62 Monday to Thursday and $78 Friday to Sunday. For those 17 and under, it’s just $20 Monday to Thursday and $25 Friday to Sunday. An incredible bargain.
OTHER COURSES I LOVE: NEW YORK, HAWAI’I, GEORGIA AND THE CARIBBEAN
The Manele golf course at the Four Seasons Lana’i in Hawai’i. JIM BYERS PHOTO
The Manele course on the Hawaiian island of Lana’i is a sensational layout with several holes on the Pacific Ocean. There’s also a free inland course on the island that’s well maintained and lots of fun … I love the Four Seasons Nevis golf layout, a design from Robert Trent Jones. Jr. … It’s a beast to play, but Bethpage Black is a municipal course outside of New York City that has hosted the U.S. Open men’s tourney … I love Waterton Lakes for value, but for design, playability and views you can’t beat the Fairmont Banff Springs course in Alberta … In Ontario, Muskoka Bay, Rocky Crest and Cobble Beach Golf Links are all terrific … Another great value are the four public courses on Jekyll Island, Georgia … It’s not always in the best of shape, but I grew up playing Redwood Canyon (formerly Willow Park Golf Course) in Castro Valley, California. It’s a pretty course tucked into the East Bay hills, and always brings back great memories. It’s also the last place we ever had a group photo taken of my Mom and Dad and my sister and I. Thanks again for the camera work, Mark.
