What a busy day we had today!
We started off catching ANOTHER MOUSE in a trap in Newman! OMG! If you read yesterday’s blog you know how much I hate mice and to find another mouse in Newman is really freaking me out!!!!
Richard got up before me thankfully to find the creature and disposed of it before I even got up.
I was up early this morning too since I had a ZOOM call scheduled with our Niagara District Solheim Ladies golf captains at 8am PST. Usually we meet in person in the spring to arrange the season of golf for the 8 clubs that are members of Solheim. Last year we ended up on a Zoom call as well and instead of a competitive season, we had 4 fun events at 4 different clubs, once we knew that golf would be allowed when the courses opened in May of 2020. This year we are going to have another ‘fun’ season with no competitive golf but at 5 different clubs over May, June, July, August and September. It really is nice to have the camaraderie that comes with playing with women from different clubs across the Niagara District, and its fun playing somewhere other than our home course all the time. We’re trying to switch things up a bit this year and try to play mid week, instead of just on weekends, so we don’t take up precious weekend times for club members. Since the pandemic a lot of people have either taken up golf, or are playing a lot more, since golf is still a way to feel ‘normal’ outside seeing other people and enjoying some socialization. For that reason, clubs are having a difficult time allowing non members to play at their clubs, since the members have first priority at getting a tee time. It’s a good problem to have for golf clubs as they are making money, which is good for them!
After my Solheim Zoom call was finished Richard got out the vacuum and vacuumed Newman and I cleaned our bathrooms. We haven’t been home much, so it was good to get the cleaning out of the way this morning.
After we finished cleaning Newman, we jumped on another Zoom call with an old friend from Ontario.
We really enjoyed catching up, but we had to excuse ourselves from our call to head up to Campbell River, as we were playing Storey Creek at 12:24pm and we needed to get on the road to make our tee time with time to spare.
Heading up Hwy 19 towards Campbell River. The Comox Valley sign just outside of Courtenay, B.C. The weather didn’t look the best as we drove the 40 minutes to the golf course.
Looking down the cart path towards the first hole (right); and the 18th hole on the left. The skies were looking very grey when we teed off and we were worried we would not get the full 18 holes in today. The temperature was +8C, but there was a steady wind which made it feel quite a bit colder today. I played the entire round with my rain jacket over a vest and a down jacket and put my rain pants on part way through the round as I was cold.
I had a terrible first hole. Hitting a fairway bunker off the tee. I ended up finally hitting this shot onto the green. The deer in front of me was in my way initially and didn’t want to move. The deer and I got into a stare down until I finally shooed it away so I could hit my shot! The deer are very tame in Campbell River!
The first hole.
First hole Storey Creek.
Our playing partners today with Richard. Joe and Steve. Joe had his own HVAC business in Campbell River and Steve worked for PWC, IBM and then he was a consultant for Wardair and Canadian Airlines. Richard and Steve walked the golf course, so most of the time they talked about airlines and airplanes. Joe and I were both in carts and I enjoyed having him show me around the golf course, because he also hit from the forward tees like me. The forward tees or ‘Sockeye‘ tees today were 5411 with a slope rating of 126 and a course rating of 71.5. The white tees or ‘Coho’ tees were 125 slop with a course rating of 69.0. Clearly my tees were tougher despite the white tees being 5881 yards. I shot a 85 today with a chip in birdie on the 12th hole. On the back nine I was actually 1 under through the first 4 holes. Then I got a bit tired and well...a few double bogeys happened, and I shot a 42 back nine. Still my best score since I’ve been on the Island and I was pleased to shoot a good score at such a nice golf course. I’m definitely playing better and feel stronger with all the work I’ve been doing on my leg. I’m excited now to go back and play at golf course I know at home - our home course - Bridgewater Country Club. It will be a few weeks though before that happens...and a lot of driving between us and getting home!
Storey Creek has a very interesting history though and we were really happy we could finally play it today. Located 14 km south of Campbell River, the Les Furber designed course has grown to be an internationally renowned championship golf course. The golf course is carved out of the surrounding forest and is widely known as ‘a course in nature.‘ Each hole is wrapped in its own grove of tress - some old growth and second growth trees - giving way to a few forgiving par threes, and to some awe inspiring par fives. The stunning layout is the reason golfing aficionados eagerly make the trip to Storey Creek and subsequently praise the course. It has been voted the #1 public golf course in B.C. and has been awarded a prestigious 4.5 star ranking by Golf Digest. At Storey Creek, as we found today, its all about the tee shot and keeping the ball in play. The golf course was originally Crown Land which was given over to the members who own the golf course. The members made the golf course, volunteering equipment and their time to create this beautiful place. Eagles soar, wild deer wander and the occasional black bear ambles across the course, along with cougars and there are also beaver ponds and streams filled with salmon trout and water fowl. Today we saw lots of deer on the course, but thankfully no black bears or cougars!
This rock Joe and Steve said was left by a glacier.
The plaque to Victor McKay the vision behind the golf course, which was on the large glacier rock.
Quite a long par 4!
Richard teeing off on #15.
He had good form on this one!
The very tricky 17th hole. A par 3 with a rock wall in front of it. I hit the wall. So did Richard. It was not a good hole for either of us.
A nice memorial stone in the gardens near the club house.
We thoroughly enjoyed Storey Creek Golf Club. We would rank it the best course we played on the Island! Storey Creek has a stunning design and each hole felt like it was on its own, since we couldn’t see anyone in front of us, or behind us on the golf course. What a treat to play Storey Creek before we left the Island. And to play Storey Creek today with two very nice members, really made our day special. We would rank Crown Isle the second best course we’ve played because of the Championship feel to the course and the beautiful amenities, like the large practise facility and the amazing clubhouse and dining facility. I think we would rank. Qualicum Beach as our next favourite golf course since it drained so well all winter and being a 9 hole course, allowed us to do other things after golf. Pheasant Glen didn’t live up to the billing we were expecting from a Doug Carrick design, so we would rank it 4th I believe in terms of where we would want to play as a steady diet of golf on the Island.
Storey Creek really turned out to be a great ‘storybook ending’ to our golf journey on Vancouver Island this winter. We are sad we won’t be golfing now for awhile, but we’re pretty pooped from playing two 18-hole rounds - 2 days in a row and we’ve got weather coming tomorrow, so we will have time to relax and recover. Next week is going to be very busy getting in my last strength training class, hairdresser visit and getting Newman and Jerry prepared for the long journey home!
And let’s hope we don’t have any more MICE in our traps in the morning! I really don’t relish the thought of driving down the road next week wondering if a mouse is going to come out of no where and run across the very large dash in Newman!
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