golf week article 2012

7/31/2019 Golf Week Article 2012

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/golf-week-article-2012 1/442 Golfweek • August 24, 2012 • www.golfweek.com

THE GOLF LIFE

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND GAINS

A REPUTATION FOR ITS GOLF, CUIS

SCENERY AND, UM . . . MOONSHINE

THE SECRET

IS OUT

P H

O T O S C O U R T E S Y

O F G O L F P E I


http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/golf-week-article-2012 2/4Golfweek • August 24, 2012 • www.golfweek.com 43

By Martin Kaufmann

Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island

For 15 years, Prince Edward Island

has been connected to the New Brunswick

mainland by the Confederation Bridge,

an architectural marvel spanning eight

miles of the Northumberland Strait, making

it the world’s longest bridge over ice-covered

waters.

The bridge’s existence, however, is still

something of a sore point among some

lifelong Prince Edward Island residents,

who believe it makes their little haven in

the Gulf of St. Lawrence a bit too accessible

to mainlanders.

Islanders always have had a healthy

appreciation for their independence. Way

back in 1864, they hosted the Charlottetown

Conference, which would lay the groundworkfor Canadian unification in 1867. But when

that time came, the good people of Prince

Edward said, in effect: Thanks, but

no thanks. Islanders opted to remain free

agents while they weighed other offers,

even entertaining a brief, now-unthinkable

courtship with the United States. It wasn’t

until six years later, in 1873, that the

“Birthplace of Confederation” actually cast

its lot with the other Canadian provinces.

These days that same provincial pride is

evident from the moment visitors come off

of the bridge at Borden-Carleton. One of thefirst things they’re likely to notice is how

well the Islanders maintain their land. Now

understand, it wouldn’t be quite accurate

to say residents of Prince Edward have

well-maintained lawns. No, the lawns of

Prince Edward are perfect. We’re talking mile

upon mile of pristinely manicured greenery

that would make the superintendent of

Augusta National blush.

Ken Mill, who has spent nearly his entire

life on Prince Edward, said visitors often

comment on that when they visit his

business in Rollo Bay, Prince Edward, P44 >>>

The Gulf of St. Lawrence

provides the backdrop for

The Links at Crowbush Cove.

Charlottetown Harbor


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THE GOLF LIFE

on the island’s

northeast coast. (Did we mention that

Mill’s business is moonshining? We’ll

come back to that.) Mill said it all boils

down to the civic pride that seems

to be passed from one generation

to the next.

He and other Islanders occasionally

share stories about old-timers who

grew up on PEI and never left, not

even for a day. Shoot, why would they?

They have easy access to the quaintcapital city and rolling farm land,

relatively tolerable winters and

beautiful beaches. If Islanders need

a fix of Tim Hortons (think Canada’s

Starbucks) it’s never far away. Same,

too, for Cows ice cream (think

Canada’s Ben & Jerry’s), which was

founded here and still hand-produces

400 buckets of Gooey Mooey, Wowie

Cowie and 30 other artery-clogging

flavors at its tiny factory on Capital

Drive in Charlottetown. In an

adjacent room, two Cows stafferschurn out 1,500 T-shirts daily, with

wacky graphics about “Mootube”

and “Angry Herds.”

And what Islanders lack – this

summer the local newspaper reported

the classic nonstory: Costco had no

plans to open a PEI store – they’re

often just as happy to do without.

The local pride that’s so evident

translates into a welcoming

environment for tourists, perhaps

because Islanders know they have

a pretty good thing going, and they

like to show it off.In Charlottetown, the harbor-side

capital, the atmosphere is festive

on summer nights. Along Victoria

Row, you might find a jazz quintet

entertaining diners in open-air

restaurants such as Castello’s and

Fishbones. A few blocks down the

hill, bands play nightly on an outdoor

stage at Peake’s Quay, a touristy bar

overlooking the marina and, more

importantly, a Cows store. Prince

Edward Island National Park on the

North Shore is home to a stunning

25-mile sliver of beach that benefitsfrom the gulf’s unusually warm

waters. Due west, in Cavendish, visitors

arrive by the busload at Green Gables

Heritage Place to celebrate Lucy Maud

Montgomery’s novel “Anne of Green

Gables,” which itself was a celebration

of island life.

The museum that honors Montgom-

ery’s legacy also provides the target line

for the tee shot on No. 11 at the adjacent

Green Gables Golf Club. Golf has

become one of PEI’s top attractions.

This pastoral island, only the 23rd-largest in Canada, has more than

30 courses for its 142,000 residents

and tourists. Some of the

layouts are mom-and-

pops – farmland roughly

reshaped into golf holes.

But most of the courses

are the real deal, includ-

ing Green Gables. It

was designed in 1939 by

Canadian icon Stanley

Thompson and updated

in recent years by Thomas

McBroom, another pro-lific Canadian designer.

The area around

Cavendish also is home

to three of the island’s

must-plays: Glasgow Hills, a Les

Furber design, and two Graham Cooke

courses, Eagles Glenn and Andersons

Creek, where the mussels are free and

plentiful. Andersons Creek gives away

15,000 pounds of mussels annually.

That’s one of the benefits of living

on an island where seafood is so

plentiful that lobster – lobster! –

used to be regarded as peasant food.The Links at Crowbush Cove,

on the northeast side of the island,

generally is regarded as the best course

on Prince Edward. It’s one of four

provincial courses, the others being

Mill River on the west side and Dunda-

rave and Brudenell River, which form a

36-hole facility on the southeast coast.

At No. 23 on the list of Golfweek’s

Best Modern Courses in Canada,

Crowbush Cove seems underrated.

There’s a lot here to like, starting with

the conditioning. On No. 1, I passed acrew of three workers repairing divots.

(Your tax dollars at work, Islanders!)

Starting on No. 5, there is

a tremendous stretch of

holes that culminates on

the par-3 eighth, played

to the sound of the surf

crashing just beyond the

dunes to the right. The

11th is pure eye candy –

52 steps up a staircase to a

tee providing a panoramic

view of the gulf. Coming

up 18, you’re met withdisparate sensations

– crows cawling in the

woods off to the right

and a calming view of

the gulf to your left.

Locals seem to favor Brudenell

River over its sister course, which

is a bit of a head-scratcher. Brudenell

is a pleasant, unpretentious, lightly

bunkered and highly walkable

parkland layout with some nice

views of the namesake river.

Dundarave, however, is a completely

If you go. . .

Golf Prince Edward Island is a nonprofit

group that promotes the island and

assists in booking golf vacations.

>> golfpei.ca; 866-465-3734

Strait Lightning is

PEI’s legal moonshine.

No. 7 at Eagles Glenn

<<< Prince Edward, P43

C O U R T

E S Y M Y R I A D V I E W


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different experience, a Michael

Hurdzan-Dana Fry production known

island-wide for its difficulty. Some

locals speak of it in hushed terms,

as if to suggest that something far

more lethal than a few bogeys awaits

anyone who dares to make the drive to

Georgetown to play there. No question,

Dundarave is a handful, but there are

some scoring opportunities, such as

the par-3 fifth and the near-drivable,

par-4 16th. The short, par-4 eighth

might be the coolest hole on theisland, owing to the fact that it has

more options than a fully loaded

Mercedes.

As good as PEI’s golf is – and

at times, it borders on sublime –

Islanders always have been better at

the post-round bonding. It seems the

folks on Prince Edward Island grasped

the idea of a 19th hole long before

there was such a thing.

According to local lore, early

unification talks in the 1860s were

helped along by “the goodness of our

champagne.” George Coles,

leader of the island’s Liberal

Opposition, would come to

be known as the Father of

Canadian Confederation in

part because his thriving

brewery was said to havenursed along talks during

the 1864 Charlottetown Conference.

So it’s somewhat strange to learn

that island elders so eagerly embraced

the temperance movement. In 1901,

Prince Edward became the first

province to institute Prohibition, and

then was the last to repeal it, in 1948.

Even then, Islanders had to have a

note from their doctors if they needed

a nip. Spirits weren’t readily available

at retail until the 1960s.

For years, Islanders responded with

sophisticated rum-running operationson the North Shore and by producing

their own home-brewed spirits.

“Every family on Prince Edward

Island at some time had made

moonshine,” said the aforementioned

Mill, co-founder of The Myriad View

Artisan Distillery.

Mill was speaking in the past tense,

though moonshining remains some-

thing of an open secret on Prince

Edward. Myriad View’s small retail

shop, located in a red cottage on a

lovely bluff overlooking the strait, is

nicknamed “the moonshine confes-

sional,” where locals share stories of

brewing their secret spirits. Mill said

one elderly man recalled putting mash

in a steel garbage can and covering it

with manure, which warmed the mash

to help it ferment and also dissuadedliquor inspectors from investigating.

Mill’s business partner, Dr. Paul

Berrow, a family practitioner, knew

nothing of this history before

moving to PEI from Manitoba. At social

gatherings, Mill said, Berrow inevitably

would be asked, “Hey Doc, do you want

a drink of ’shine?” That got Berrow

to wondering: Why can’t we do this

legally? He and Mill, an otherwise

upstanding “lifeboat man” in the

Coast Guard, found a legal loophole to

produce and distribute moonshine, and

by 2007 they were selling their StraitShine, and later their Strait Lightning,

which checks in at a breathalyzer-

busting 75 percent alcohol/volume.

Those signature products pique visitors’

curiosity, but Mill and Berrow also

produce more conventional spirits –

rum, whiskey, gin and vodka – that are

flavorful adaptations of local recipes.

All of this might seem odd to

visitors, particularly international

travelers. But it’s perfectly in keeping

with the island’s independent

and industrious spirit. m

Golfweek • August 24, 2012 • www.golfweek.com 45

After strolling Dundarave’s fairways (above) in Georgetown, one can enjoy

the restaurants and entertainment along Victoria Row in Charlottetown (left).

No. 8 at Dundarave

P H O T O S C O U R T E S Y

O F G O L F P E I

golf week article 2012

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