Mostly Solid at Burlington Springs

For Toronto area golfers intent on playing in November and December (fingers crossed), accurate weather forecasts are as good as gold. But just in case the forecasts are wrong, I make an effort to find good golf values at this time of year. In my view, a round of golf in bad weather isn't worth top dollar, no matter what the course.

My search for value recently took me to Burlington Springs Golf & Country Club, a course I haven't played in at least a couple of years. Located in Burlington, Ontario, the layout is open and flat, with many of the fairways crossed by an obviously man-made creek. What the course lacks in drama, it makes up for in conditioning - fairways and greens were in excellent shape.

After struggling terribly with my short game on the second hole - the longest of the course at 495 yards - I settled into one of my best stretches of the year. Over the next ten holes, I played better than bogey golf. The stretch included a double bogey on the sixth hole, thanks to a trio of putts. Fortunately, this was offset by a couple of pars - one on the fifth hole (a par-5) and another on the twelfth hole (a par-3). I had an equally good run on the last four holes of the course, finishing respectively with par, bogey, bogey, and par.

The problem on this day was my performance on the thirteenth and fourteenth holes. At 488 yards, the thirteenth fairway flanks the eastern boundary of the golf course. Out of bounds is not really a problem, since there is plenty of room to bail out on the opposite side of the fairway. My drive landed in the fairway, but I wasted the next two shots by topping the ball. When I finally made good contact, I ended up behind a tree near the green.

It was more of the same on the fourteenth hole, where some topped balls amounted to wasted shots. I also stumbled with my chipping near the green. The final result was a score of nine, same as the previous hole. When everything was said and done, I had a great round, apart from three horrible holes.

Score: 97
Par: 72
Putts: 34
Fairways: 5
Greens: 2