We golfed today! Finally! We hadn’t golfed since mid October in Fort Erie. We were seeing pictures on Facebook that the weather had been so warm at home that everyone was out golfing while were stuck in a snow storm in Swift Current, Saskatchewan! So we were really looking forward to our golf outing today with Norm and Jo at Olympic View Golf Club.
Olympic View is about a 15 minute drive through mostly windy, hilly country roads from Pedder Bay RV Park. We arrived around noon for a 1:10pm tee time. As soon as we pulled in, Norm and Jo were pulling in right beside us.
Thank goodness Jerry the Jeep has a great trunk capacity as you can see we are carrying around my bike as well as our golf clubs!
I had one more gift certificate for the BC Golf Group which had been given to me as a retirement gift, so that nicely paid for our round today. We knew we wouldn’t get the full 18 holes in because the sun was going to set today at 4:15pm, but it was still fun to be out for as many holes as we could finish.
The practise facility was first rate with mats on the driving range, a huge chipping green, with 2 big bunkers and 2 practise putting greens. We spent quite a bit of time warming up and figuring out what layers would work best in the +8C temperatures. The sun was trying to come out and when it did, the Goretex rain jacket was not required.
Brothers Richard and Norm on the first tee at Olympic View Golf Club.
I was able to lose the jacket for the front nine...but not the hat....
We quickly determined that although they showed 4 sets of tees, the most forward tees were not in play, so Jo and I played from the Yellow tees, which for the very wet conditions, were long enough! From the yellows it was 5,384, 72.4 course rating and 128 slope rating. That was tough enough for only my third time out playing 9 holes golf since I broke my femur in June!
We had some visitors on the first tee and they had no fear either!
A female deer and her fawn were very close to the club house and walked right by the first tee when Richard and Norm were teeing off!
The course really does live up to its billing as a top rated public golf course in Canada. We were glad we had a cart though, as some of the holes were very hilly from tee to green! Just over the trees you could catch glimpses of the Olympic Mountains in Washington State.
2nd hole from the yellow tee deck.
Coming in on 18...quite the uphill finishing hole! Kind of reminds me of 18 at Whirlpool In Niagara Falls with the elevated green.
Richard swinging away...
On a very hilly course Jo did great pushing her rickshaw cart.
Next to the 8th hole was a beautiful, rocky waterfall. It was a tricky positional hole, but so nice to cross over the bridge to the green to see this waterfall!
Norm did great walking too and carrying his new lightweight bag. We were all very glad we had our new waterproof golf boots on today. Jo, Richard and me were so happy we had bought the golf boots the other day in the pro shop as none of us had wet or cold feet and the course had a lot of wet areas on it.
We finished 9 holes after 2 hours and 10 minutes and figured we wouldn’t get the back nine in, but why not see how far we could get while we still had some daylight left?
We were able to finish the 13th hole. A trick double dog leg par 5...I thought this sign on the tee deck of 13 was hilarious. I’ve been golfing for 27 years and I’ve never seen a sign like this on the beginning of a hole! I was happy to par the hole too with a long one putt!
Scores didn’t matter today so I won’t even tell you what we all shot and somehow the scorecard didn’t come home with us!
We decided that the protocols in the club house were good with contact tracing, temperature guns on all of us before entering and well spaced out tables....so we stayed after golf for a quick appetizer and some drinks.
Olympic View has a beautiful clubhouse and it was very tastefully decorated for Christmas! We were happy for the warmth of the fire too in the background.
We were glad for our short drive home to put the furnace on in Newman! I have a nice mug of hot apple cider I’m nursing with Richard opting for something a bit stronger, while we listen to Christmas carols, and warming up after a chilly day of winter golf in B.C. Somehow I think I can handle golf at sub 10C which is normally my cut off for when I will or won’t golf back home. The 8C here is somehow a damp cold and with a bit of sun, is actually quite tolerable for golf.
We leave here on Tuesday so tomorrow is our “go to town” day for a bit of Victoria Christmas shopping and hopefully see my boy again!
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