Winter Golf - Camisle in Burlington

Golf in Canada on January 1st
Yes, it is possible and it happened to me. BigZ and I actually played 9 holes yesterday at Camisle Golf Club in Burlington, Ontario. It was fun, great weather but it was nae golf.

It was a rainy day (no, it is not a Pizzaville commercial) or so it seemed. Lots of fog, but what is more important warm - around 0C or 32F for our American friends. BigZ and I play Burlington area a lot, especially Indian Wells, where we have an open challenge with the Spikoman - whoever breaks 80 there gets a free round of his choice at one of the better courses in area - for me that is Osprey Valley, Heathlands, for Spikoman it is Willow Valley and for BigZ it is Lionhead. There are some rumours that Spikoman did it past year but until I see it with my own eyes I won't believe it - I mean I saw him shoot about a gazillion at Saw-whet. A very nice course to me in that area was Lowville where I shot 82 at the opening of the season last year - wouldn't you know it, Spikoman had missed his 3 foot putt for 79 on the 18th there on that day. A great value course on the same stretch of Guelph Line is Crosswinds Golf - it is lengthy, something like 7300 yards from the Blacks but it has generous fairways - bomber's delight.

Anyhow, it was a foggy day (there was no rain after all) and we got to Camisle in no time, most likely because it was January 1st and there was no one on the highway, duh. We took off on Dundas exit from 407 and then turned 300 m further down the road to Guelph Line North and got there, all in all, within 45 minutes from the centre of North York. The entrance seemed very interesting with Stonehenge like structures made out of some serious boulders (couple of meters tall at least) and some other Inukshuks. At first we went to the 18 hole pro shop but since it was a road less travelled, we quickly figured out that this was not where the golf is being played so we reversed to the main proshop and club house. There is a main clubhouse and many smaller, interesting huts that form a village type of environment with the frozen ponds and bridges around - quite nice. Within the proshop there was an open fire wood stove burning and I must admit the smell of the hardwood smoke and the warm reception have started to give me a cozy feeling about the place. We picked up the scorecard and headed to what we thought was the first tee (this was confirmed by golfers finishing of the 9th) full of anticipation.

The weather was soo balmy that my 4 layers of clothing were more than adequate without a winter coat. Double socks helped as well as the tuque - standard issue. So, off to the first tee, clubbag less the woods as we deemed that they would not be needed. The balls of choice for the day were freshly bought (Boxing week sale at Golf-town) Noodle Ice in their pink, orange, yellow and lime colour variety.

This is the first time that we played in the winter and we did not know what to expect. The first view of the first tee was, how shall I put it, somewhat of a disappointment. I mean, the pictures on the web site were obviously taken on a sunny day probably closer to March when there was not that much snow on the ground. The tee itself is a golf range mat - understandably. The fairway is probably a 10 yard wide track of cleared snow - you might see a blade of grass here and there. The green is a circular cleared section that has a quite a bit of ice on it - either on purpose or because the greens hold water differently - with a flag in the middle on a wooden box-like cross structure that allows the ball to go through the middle of it.

Anyhow, the first hole is a par 3 and despite the bulk from the layers I managed to hit it long and right - not my common miss. BigZ hit it short and right. From there we played our balls as they lay in snow - we figured it should play like sand and we were not mistaken. My sand/snow shot landed on the icey green and to my chagrin did not roll to the hole - the snow covering the ice simply kills any roll. So, the way to play the white greens is to hit the ball within 2 yards of your target, nothing less will do. Our simple chip from the icey green hit the flags box structure and we called out our pars knowing full well that we have no clue if we counted the shots right - which brings me to main issue with winter golf, scoring.

There is no purpose of keeping score in winter golf - you can hit the fairway and the ball can hit a patch of ice and jump into the incredibly penal snow rough. A perfectly struck shot can therefore disappear into the snow and what do you do now? Count lost ball? And if you find the ball what do you do? Play it where it lies? On at least 4 or 5 holes I had the dilemma but as any honest to goodness golfer would do I searched for the balls, found them in more cases than not, played the ball as it lies and made in my counting boggies. That is until the 7th when BigZ and I simply decided that this was not fun with by now 5 yard wide fairways and started doing lateral drops from where the ball was found. The scoring issue is very much evidenced also in the green area. Lets say that the winter rules apply - you hit the green and add two strokes under a generous assumption that you would have two putted the green if the conditions were better. You really don't have a way to save a par since it is nearly impossible to hole the putt - mainly because you can't putt so you have to wedge a shot so that it stays in the box which is not a small feat. So, forget about the scoring in winter golf - try to enjoy the fact that you are playing golf when you should not, where you should not.

The rest of the holes up to 8th and 9th were same combination of searching for balls in the snow, not finding what would normally be good shots, (for example I hit the green on par 3 6th but who knows where the ball bounced too) and not being sure what to do around and on the greens. 8th and 9th were even more desperate where we have hit pretty good tee shots that landed just outside the 5 yard fairway clearings and then we decided to just drop lateraly to hit again relatively good shots that were difficult to find around the greens and we simply gave up on trying to treat this as golf. Quoting a saying from the Bruce Edwards Story book - as they say in Scotland - if it is nae rain, and it is nae wind, it is nae golf. Well, if it nae green, and it is nae grass, it is nae golf as well.

Winter golf is not a good way to practice - you can't really practice driving, the hitting surface is not even similar to grass, you can't practice distance control and you for sure can't practice the short game or any finesse shots. One positive in the experience as far as golf is concerned is that you can see your divots clearly - I do this in my backyard as well. You can tell if you are coming properly from the inside.

So, it is nae golf but it does not mean that it is nae fun. It was a great balmy day with my bro on course - it would have been greater if the rest of our families were with us. I think that the kids would have more fun in winter golf than in the real thing.

To finish off the day we drove by Spikomans place to say hi and have him drool at the possibility of playing golf in the winter. Then we rolled off to the Oakville range to take out some rage on the range balls. The same problems persist in my swing as usual and it was not a great hitting day, with the usual pattern of 3-4 power fades followed by the double cross to extreme left and a weak push cut here and there. So what, it is more like golf and I like it. Yes, I like all those crappy shots that we hit on the range while overanalyzing the swings. And while we know that we are not golf pros it does not mean that we can't be serious about the game and try to be the best golfers that we can be. Even in the winter, even on the snow course, even if it is nae rrrreall golf we are the real golfers.