His scores were 65, 64, 65, 64. Not bad scores with $24,000 on the line. You can check out the full press release from the Canadian Tour at http://www.cantour.com/leagues/newsletter.cfm?clientID=3776&leagueID=0&page=28700.

Eger’s win comes just two weeks after Graham DeLaet posted his first Canadian Tour win. This is all great news from the golfers who played under the Saskatchewan flag at one point in time.

The next tournament is the Canadian Tour Championship in Barrie, Ontario. Here’s hoping that the other Saskatchewan player on the tour, Lindsay Bernakevitch, can join in on the good run.

Since the Golf Channel has the contract to carry the first two rounds of just about every tournament, they have the coverage today.

Thanks to the Armchair Golf Blog for the info on the TV coverage!

The question that I ask is “How is the Score Golf Top 100 List compiled?” Here’s what I found out:

There are 87 panellists that comprise of a mixture of golf professionals, superintendents, journalists, and weekend duffers. They each have two years to submit their rankings of courses that they have played and think deserve to be ranked in the Top 100. They are not allowed to submit a course that they own shares, are a member, or otherwise affiliated to in any way. There are no architects on the panel and Score Golf Editor Bob Weeks also has no vote. July 30 was the deadline for ranking submissions.

The panellists are asked to rank courses based on nine areas that are each given a weighted value. The rubric breaks down like this:

Beauty – 15
Strategy – 15
Challenge – 15
Design – 15
Par 3’s – 5
Par 4’s – 5
Par 5’s – 5
Conditioning – 5
Fun – 20

Score golf then assigns a Top 100 historical value to each course and the rankings are compiled.

I don’t get too bent out of shape about the list like some people do, but it is fun to follow. I know what my favourite courses are and no list can change that. What I do like to do is go through the list and pick out the courses that I have played to see where they rank and try to find courses I haven’t played (or heard of) that I should think about getting to.

Here’s the courses I’ve played on the list and where they ranked:

11. Banff Springs Golf Club – The Thompson Course – Banff, AB – Stanley Thompson
15. Blackhawk Golf Club – Main Course – Spruce Grove, AB – Rod Whitman
20. Wolf Creek Golf Course – South/West – Ponoka, AB – Rod Whitman
27. Kananaskis Country Golf Course – Mount Kidd Course – Kananaskis, AB – Robert Trent Jones
30. Stewart Creek Golf Resort – Main Course – Canmore, AB – Gary Browning
37. Greywolf Golf Course – Main Course – Panorama, BC – Doug Carrick
40. Kananaskis Country Golf Course – Mount Lorette Course – Kananaskis, AB – Robert Trent Jones
44. Dakota Dunes Golf Links – Dakota Dunes Golf Course – Saskatoon, SK – Graham Cooke
70. Eagle Ranch Golf Course – Main Course – Invermere, BC – Bill Robinson
75. Royal Mayfair Golf and Country Club – Main Course – Stanley Thompson – Edmonton, AB
91. Links of GlenEagles Golf Course – Main Course – Cochrane, AB – Les Furber

Some of the sub-categories mentioned a few of the courses I’ve played as well. Of note were the Mount Kidd Course at Kananaskis ranking #5 for Top Public Course, Banff Springs ranking #3 for Top Resort Course, Stewart Creek ranking #2 for Best Conditioned Course, and Silvertip ranking as Stephen Ames’ second favourite golf course in Canada (full disclosure – I believe he’s sponsored by Silvertip so he has an obligation that way – even if it is a great golf course).

As you can tell from the list, most of my golf has been played in the west. There’s a few that I think could probably make the list, but the list is regionalized to an extent, which it probably should be. If Ontario has 800+ golf courses and the biggest population in Canada, the law of large numbers says that they should probably have the most courses on the list. Since Saskatchewan has a low population and small number of top calibre golf courses, they probably won’t have much representation on the list (I’ll have to come up with a Saskatchewan list later on this summer).

I think Robert Thompson of the National Post said it best in the TSN broadcast of the Score Top 100 List when he said (I’m paraphrasing) “Everyone has their favourite course, but that might be different from the best course”. In my view, as long as you enjoy the courses you play, that’s all that matters.

I also think that the more courses you play, the more you’ll find your personal list of best courses changes. As you can see above, I’ve played 11 courses on the Top 100 list. I’d like to think that I’ve played a ton of golf (albeit mostly in the west) and I’ve got my list of favourite courses but I’m willing to bet that my list would change if I got to play a few courses in Ontario, Quebec, and the Maritimes.

Above all, the Score Golf Top 100 Golf Course List is a great way to get the country talking about golf. It gives golf tourists a jumping off point to start their list of must visit courses. Along the way they may find a few that never made the list. And that’s good for the game.

If you missed the TSN broadcast, you can watch it at http://scoregolf.com/video/index.cfm?event=top-100-golf-courses-2008.

We had a 1:07 tee time, so after doing some shopping at Golf Town in Saskatoon we made our way to Dakota Dunes in plenty of time, arriving at around noon. We checked in and grabbed a bite to eat. Two green fees and a cart came to $149 – possibly the most you will pay anywhere in Saskatchewan – which is a treat to have access to such affordable, great golf courses. The pro shop staff seemed to have it together pretty well and were very friendly and helpful.

For lunch, $20 bought a turkey sandwich and onion rings for Katlyn and a bison burger with fries for me. Great lunch, definitely recommend the bison and the onion rings especially. The girl at the counter and the cook who brought our food out were extremely friendly as well.

Still with plenty of time, we headed down to the driving range to hit a few balls. Range balls were complimentary and waiting at the practice tee, as they should be at all upper end golf courses. Hats off to Dakota Dunes for providing practice balls with every green fee. They also have a large undulating practice green with a bunker adjacent to the range. Having everything right there is a nice feature.

The pro shop calls out the order on the tee from the loud speaker, so we headed up to the first tee when we heard our names. We were paired up with two locals from Saskatoon – John and Larry – who were a treat to play with and we met them on the practice putting green beside the first tee (another great idea in the layout).

In hindsight, a beef that I have is that there was no starter on the first tee. If your course has a tendency to get backed up, you need a starter at the first tee to lay out the ground rules and to make sure the groups go off at the right time. A poor pace of play begins right off the hop by pushing groups out one on top of the next. On a slow golf course, 10 minute tee time intervals should be used to make sure some air stays in the golf course. Sure you might lose a couple of tee times every day, but people won’t be as likely to be stuck waiting on every tee box. But I digress.

The golf course is immaculate. Tees, fairways, greens, even the rough, all in pristine condition. Probably the best conditioned golf course I have seen anywhere in the province for a long time, with the exception of the Riverside in Saskatoon. The designers have done a great job of meshing the wild prairie grass areas together with the maintained areas of the course. They use what they call “Blow-out Bunkers” – unmaintained sand traps or waste areas – as a great buffer area between some of the thick wild grass/bush and the fairway. The sand in all the bunkers is soft and fluffy making them very forgiving to play out off, which is good because they are littered throughout the course. Often the bunkers are bordered with thick wild grass, but other times they blend nicely into the fairway as if they were on a traditional links course across the pond. The rolling hills and dunes also provide for some magnificent vistas.

Between the four of us in the group we played three different sets of tees, but with five sets of tees, the course still had two more sets left untouched in our group. From the Black Tees, Dakota Dunes plays to a total of 7301 yards over the par 72 track. The sign on the first tee says that you need special permission to play the blacks, so I bit off 6815 yards from the Gold Tees. John and Larry played the 6310 Blue Tees, and Katlyn played the 5154 Red Tees. Length is never a big deal for me, so the distance wasn’t really an issue. The biggest challenge is consistently keeping it on the straight and narrow. But the biggest difference that I noticed between the Gold and Blue tees is that you are forced to hit a lot more blind shots from the Gold’s than the Blue’s. Playing it for the first time made it a bit tough to pick lines and envision the landing areas, but I imagine after a few times it would get quite a bit easier to trust where you’re hitting it.

My favourite hole of the day had to be the 376 yard par 4 13th at Dakota Dunes. It’s a 90 degree dogleg left with options. Long hitters can take a shot at the green by going over a valley of thick bush and prairie grass. The carry from the Gold Tees is probably around 280. Your other option is to lay up to about 120 yards and go at the green from there. I hit my best drive of the day at the green and came up about 20 yards short of the surface. It’s actually quite deceiving to see how much room is between the valley and the green (probably a good 80 yards) as it doesn’t look that way from the tee. Either way, it’s a really fun hole to play.

Now I have to touch on a couple negative aspects of our day. There was a five-some playing in front of us for the first few holes on the front nine. The course was backed up all the way around so it didn’t really affect the pace a whole bunch, but it still shouldn’t happen. On about #5 the “Course Host” told us that he split them up into a threesome and a twosome and the pace picked up a fraction. We were still 3 hours on the front nine.

After 3 hours on one nine, you work yourself into a slower routine. You take your time because you’re waiting at every shot anyway. On number 14 fairway, the Course Host approached us and said that he was pushing the two groups ahead of us pretty hard and that we needed to try to keep up. Smart move on his part if we were falling behind (which I didn’t notice we were) by saying that he pushed the groups ahead of us. This makes it seem like we’re not at fault (because no one wants to be thought of as the problem) but it gets us to pick up the pace at the same time. Ok, no big deal.

The following hole is a par 3. We get to the green and the course host is back and tells us that it’s getting to the point in the round where he might have to get us to pick up our balls and skip a hole if we don’t get back in position. Huh? We had two shots to pick up the pace from the last time he spoke to us? This threw off the whole day. All of a sudden we’re in a rush to catch up to a twosome and a threesome in front of us, who all of a sudden decided to race off once the people ahead of them got off the course. I’m sorry, but a foursome with a relative beginner lady and two older guys that aren’t that consistent are not going to be able to keep up to a twosome and a threesome with no one in front of them. And threatening to make a group skip a hole on #16, five hours into a round of golf is ridiculous. This guy went from having the smartest approach to the worst approach in about 10 minutes. The worst part is that we weren’t holding anyone up. I know that’s not supposed to matter because your job is to keep up to the group ahead, but in these circumstances, it did matter.

To cap it all off, it was 32 degrees outside and we were low on fluids. After the round we went up to the restaurant to get our water refilled (which they were kind enough to do for us after 9) and to buy a chocolate bar for the road. Apparently this is an extraordinary request because the new lady working the till was busy ringing in tabs from the day (or something like that) and just looked at us across the counter and said “I could be a while” when we wanted to buy something. Maybe it was because she thought we just wanted our water bottle filled, but that shouldn’t matter. Your job is to serve the patrons of the course. Anyway, we got out of there quietly before Katlyn could blow a gasket at this lady.

The guys washing carts were nice enough to provide us with some sample bottles of water to tide us over until we got back into Saskatoon. One of the guys chatted with us for a bit and asked us if it took us a while to play. We of course said yes, and in response he asked if it was around 5.5 hours. We said yes, that’s exactly how long it took. He responded by saying “Ya, that’s been our average around here lately”. Here I thought maybe the pace was bad because it was just a hot Saturday afternoon, but apparently it’s common place out there.

Before leaving we poked our heads into the new casino across the parking lot. We don’t really gamble, but wanted to see what it was like inside. Pretty extravagant for a casino out in the middle of nowhere. And it was pretty full too.

All in all it was a pretty good day, even if it was longer than intended. Hey, we didn’t have anything else to do anyway!

So to sum it all up:

Practice facilities: 9/10 – Free range balls and ample putting/chipping greens

Course condition: 9/10 – Immaculate, greens can be subject to noticeable footprints and spike marks because of the high traffic.

Staff: 7/10 – A few bad apples drag down the majority of the good ones.

Food: 7.5/10 – Everything was great, but there are limited choices and lacking facilities right now in the temporary space, so there’s room for improvement.

Pace of Play: 4/10 – Need to space out the tee times a bit more to avoid 5.5 hour rounds.

Difficulty: 8/10 – Five sets of tees make it reasonable for everyone, but challenging at the same time.

Overall Experience: 8/10

Be sure to check out all of our pictures from Dakota Dunes Golf Links.

Have an opinion of your time at Dakota Dunes Golf Links? Let us know in the comments!

LetsPlayGolf!

The $32,000 winners cheque changed that in a hurry.

DeLaet fired a 4-under 67 on Sunday to post -10 in the clubhouse. George Bradford made bogey on the last hole, setting up a three way playoff with UCLA grad Daniel Im.

In the playoff, Bradford found the rough and then the water, ending his chances of taking the title. Im laid up while DeLaet hit a 220 yard approach to the back fringe of the par 5 and got up and down for the win.

Graham DeLaet is a two-time Saskatchewan Amateur Champion. His next action will be next week in the Toronto area at the $125,000 Jane Rogers Championship of Mississauga.

We’ll be sure to take a ton of pictures to share with everyone when we get back.

Sunday is a toss up. Not sure where we’ll play or if we’ll play at all. We’re thinking about possibly teeing it up at the Willows, or possibly driving halfway back to Regina and getting a quick nine in at the Regional Park golf course at Outlook. We’ll see what happens.

Does anyone have any ideas about golf in Saskatoon? I’ve played Riverside, Willows, Saskatoon G&CC (private and public courses), and Holiday Park but not much else. There’s so many courses up there, it really is embarrassing when you compare it to Regina.

I’ll have a write up for you on the Dunes when we get back. Can’t wait!

Let’s Play Golf!

Preferred Ball: Titleist Pro V1

The Mizuno irons were an eBay purchase and I couldn’t be happier with them. They came an inch longer than standard, but luckily I was working at the Kananaskis Country Golf Course at the time so I cut them down and regripped them myself. The MP-30′s feel as good as a blade when you hit them well, but offer a bit of forgiveness on off centre hits.

Championship – 153
Back – 145
Middle – 120
Forward – 103

Rounding out the par 3’s at Deer Valley is the 16th. This hole was much more awe inspiring when the water was not overrun with algae, but it’s still a treat. Leave it short and you’re obviously in the water. Too long and you could run into trouble with the bunker behind the green.

#16 is a perfect hole to catch with your camera as it uses the water, the hill, and the brush to frame the green perfectly. Just forget about the water during your pre-shot routine and you’ll be fine.

Deer Valley #17 – Par 5

Championship – 515
Back – 505
Middle – 479
Forward – 431

Unlike the reachable par 5’s on the front, the back nine five pars are tough to get at. The slopes on the side of the green on number 17 make it undesirable to go at this green in two, so keep that in mind off the tee.

This par 5 presents a few options. The blue tee offers one of the most fun tee shots of the day with a significant drop in elevation. I usually take it over the right side, tempting the bushes below and ideally draw it back into the fairway just over the cart path. You can carry the trees on the right with a good hit, but beware the second set of bushes. The water and bunkers to the left are also in play for almost all players.

The second shot can be played short to a distance of 150-120 yards, or you can play more aggressively by hitting a long iron up the neck of the fairway just short of the green. Your shot into the green need to be extremely accurate. The edges of the green are severely sloped and will kick almost everything into the bush to the right, left, and back. Beware of the spine that runs up the middle of the green in multiple directions.

Deer Valley #18 – Par 4

Championship – 435
Back – 413
Middle – 392/377
Forward – 339

The home hole at Deer Valley has made a mess of many a good round. The water to the left challenges every shot on the hole, but there is plenty of room to the right. Big hitters can carry the bunker on the right and leave a good angle into any pin placement on the green. The tent is often a good spot to aim.

Handle the left Sunday pin on the peninsula by letting it feed off the slope in the middle of the green. Trying to fly the shot right at that pin is tough because the green narrows quite a bit there, and with the angle, if you hit the water you’re pretty much guaranteed to be hitting one from the exact same spot again.

Make your putt and head up to the club house (with construction on a new one rumoured to be starting in October 2008) for a cold one.

Hope you enjoyed the run through of the Deer Valley Golf Course in Deer Valley, Saskatchewan, Canada, just outside of Regina and Lumsden.

Let’s Play Golf!

The rest of the Deer Valley hole summaries can be found by clicking the links below:

Deer Valley Golf Course Holes #1-3
Deer Valley Golf Course Holes #4-6
Deer Valley Golf Course Holes #7-9
Deer Valley Golf Course Holes #10-12
Deer Valley Golf Course Holes #13-15