TO tell you the truth, I hadn't been happy with my golf game.
Recently, I arranged with friends for a round of golf at the Squamish Valley Golf Club, but with the way I had been playing it was almost a shame to spoil such a beautiful course with my game. My clubs were nice, fairly recent and very shiny. I generally think that in golf it's more about the operator than the equipment, but there have been so many innovations in club technology. Could it make a difference?
Few economic sectors spend as much on research and development as golf equipment manufacturers. Every year, new clubs with new features are introduced as the "latest and greatest" to a playing public eager to improve distance and accuracy for lower scores.
The approval for play of clubs with moveable weights and adjustable settings by the USGA and other golf governing bodies has led to an explosion of innovation and outside-the-box thinking by manufacturers eager to maintain and increase sales.
Club manufacturer Adams Golf has changed club design landscape again with the introduction of their Velocity Slot Technology. Open slots just behind the club face on the crown or sole of woods and irons theoretically produce more spring when the ball is struck, giving increased distance and accuracy. But does it work?
Taylormade seems to think so. Last year, they bought Adams Golf, partly to gain access to their patents and design technology.
On a recent trip to North Vancouver's Peak Golf, at the corner of Pemberton Avenue and Marine Drive, I noticed they offered demo clubs. I asked owner Roger Cosgrave if I could try something and he set me up with new Taylormade Rocketbladez irons and a Taylormade Rocketbladez Stage 2 3-wood, all with the newly acquired Velocity Slot Technology.
On the appointed morning, I was joined by friends Dan Rothenbush, Gary Kardynal and Ed Zoblotny. It was late April and the weather had been damp, but that morning was dry and the sun was labouring mightily to chase the clouds away.
If you have never played at Squamish, correcting that error should be at the top of your list. It is quietly, unassumingly one of the most spectacular courses in British Columbia.
OO.ready(function() { OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer', 'hlMHhhYjofQe5CXUAmHMUneH-euJ44ZL'); });Please enable Javascript to watch this video
Built in 1967, to a Gordon McKay design, the Squamish Valley Golf and Country Club is a community course in the best sense of the word. There's a real sense of community pride about the place and it's the hub for much of the area's recreation. As well as the 18-hole course, it's also the location for Squamish's curling and squash activity, but the golf course is the star of the show.
The Squamish Valley Golf Club is also a valuable community partner. Home to the annual Squamish Health Care Foundation's Charity Golf Classic, the club has helped raise more than $500,000 for local health care, and supports the Howe Sound Women's Shelter and the United Way, as well as local schools and sports organizations.
Competing in a marketplace that includes Big Sky in Pemberton, Nicklaus North, Chateau Whistler and Whistler, Furry Creek and Northlands, Squamish holds its own for four fundamental reasons: service, setting, course condition and value.
From a service perspective, Squamish is unpretentious, friendly and consistently excellent. The pro shop, restaurant and course staff are courteous and always happy to see you. It all combines to help create a relaxed and relaxing atmosphere.
While the setting is a happy accident of nature, it's not hard to think you've been transported to Austria's Eichenheim golf course at Kitzbuehel. Soaring snow capped peaks and ancient forests frame the valley and provide a stunning background to every view point.
Course condition is meticulously maintained and consistently superb. Drainage, always good, was improved again last year and grounds crews are constantly updating knowledge and skill sets to get the very most out of the greens and fairways.
The previous three factors all combine with a green fee structure that reaches a modest $69 per round on high season weekends (May 17-Sept. 16) to make it excellent value for your golf dollar. It's not difficult to pay much more and get much less. The course layout itself features design subtleties that give it character. There are no gimmicks but plenty of grief if you gamble and lose.
I was anxious to give the new clubs a try and we arrived in enough time to warm up at the club's outdoor practice range. A few early swings left me cautiously optimistic, but the real test would be on the course.
Our turn came soon enough. From the opening tee, the 539 yard par-5 first hole looks uncomplicated. What you don't see is that the fairway is a minefield of small furrows and ridges. Trees line the left and right and where your first shot ends up can dictate your score when you putt out.
I mentioned course condition earlier and that day it was more than up to snuff. Though it had been wet during the week, fairways were very well drained and you actually got some roll once your shot touched down.
The first green also gave some indication of what to expect on the putting surfaces. Greens were closely cropped and, for the time of year, ticklishly quick.
Armed with fresh intelligence, we pressed on.
The 3rd hole at Squamish is one of my favourites. At just 286 yards from the back tees, it's a hard dogleg left to a green obscured by a stand of evergreens and guarded by an enormous revetted bunker (the only one I know of in British Columbia).
The trick is laying up at about the 100-yard mark, a straight-away shot from the tee box, but there are old drainage channels that flank the landing area and once you're in trouble it can be very difficult getting out and the green-front bunker awaits.
The 6th hole is a 472-yard par-5 that absolutely dares you to go for it in two. Trees down the right side cut into the fairway near the landing area and a large evergreen obscures the putting surface.
If your tee shot gives you a peek at the hole, it's tempting, but there's a small lake running down the right side of the fairway that pushes its way directly in front of the green. Of the four of us, two were wet and two just barely escaped a watery grave.
Working our way around the front nine, incremental changes to the setting became apparent. There's a new split-rail cedar fence around the course that gives it an added touch of rural charm and a new log-cabin snack shack at the turn. Little things, perhaps, but they do add to the ambiance.
On the back nine, the prettiest hole on this very pretty course, is the 189-yard par-3 11th. There's water all the way down the left side that swings into the fairway and intrudes on your shot
calculations. The green is guarded left and right by bunkers and the snowy peaks of the Tantalus Mountain Range loom in the distance. As part of drainage improvements in 2012, the tee boxes on the 451-yard par-4 13th hole were rebuilt around the pond, and the old drainage shed removed and relocated well out of line of sight. It actually made a surprising difference and improved the experience of playing the hole.
More water awaited beside the 15th green and in front of the 149-yard par-3 16th. This new lake was added in 2009 and is settling in very nicely. Judging distance from the tee box can be a bit tricky, and last time we played here, three of our foursome made something of a splash.
The final two holes, the 489-yard par-5 17th and the 417-yard par-4 18th, are a great finishing tandem: broad and tree-lined, leading you back through the woods to the haven of the clubhouse.
The Squamish Valley Golf Course gives you a real sense of the vastness and quiet majesty of this province of ours and its consistently first-rate conditions make a round of golf there a memorable privilege. If it was as fast as that in April, watch out August. Oh, and my round with the new clubs? Best result for me in about five years. Maybe there's something to this technology stuff after all.
