I found a pretty good deal for Turtle Creek Golf Club, located in Campbelville, Ontario, so I decided to give it a try. The course opened in 2008, but I had never played it. I read some favourable reviews shortly after it opened, but wasn't interested in playing a short course, which Turtle Creek most definitely is.
The club's website describes it as a 6,000 yard layout. That is stretching the truth considerably. From the back tees, the course measures a mere 5,678 yards. I never understood why courses lie about their length - it only sets new visitors up for disappointment.
Course designers clearly had little land to work with when they put this track together. Everything about it feels cramped. Besides the short holes, the course features narrow fairways and tiny greens. The front nine in particular feels like a mini-putt. A few of the tee boxes are dangerously close to the previous greens. On this day the course was pretty empty, so it wasn't a problem. The back nine is quite a bit better, featuring a surprising amount of water for such a tight property.
I started the round and was uncomfortable right off the bat. Hole #1 is a dog-leg par-5 measuring 468 yards. The problem is that you can't see the landing zone for your tee shot. Someone who has played the course before would know the proper line and distance, but a newcomer is left guessing. I guessed wrong and it set me up badly for the remainder of the hole. I tried a long carry over a pond fronting the green, but hit some rocks on the opposite bank and was forced to take my first of many penalty strokes on the day.
Over the next few holes, I struggled with the postage-stamp sized greens, resulting in a couple of triple-bogeys. Pitching and chipping from the vicinity of the greens, I had trouble just stopping the ball on the putting surface. It was like being short-sided, no matter where the flag was. There simply was never much green to work with. You really need to be a short game wizard to do well. On holes #5 and #6, I started getting used to this and converted a pair of up-and-downs for my only pars of the day.
Things got silly on hole #9, a respectable par-5 at 538 yards. The entire left side of the hole is out of bounds, where I promptly launched two balls off the tee. That's four strokes on my scorecard without even advancing the ball! You just can't expect to score well when stuff like that happens.
I started playing more consistently at this point, recording bogey on seven of the back nine holes. Hole #10 produced a triple-bogey, but I can't really beat myself up over it. In a greenside bunker after my first two shots, I hit a good looking sand shot. Unfortunately, the ball failed to hold the tiny green. My return chip also failed to hold and I was in the bunker once again. Sheesh!
Hole #13, perhaps the signature hole at Turtle Creek, was the other one that gave me problems. A par-5 at 473 yards, golfers must carry a pond with their tee shot to a hill on the other side. Long hitters may reach the crest of the hill, but most will end up with a blind second shot. I popped my tee shot way up, failing to even clear the pond. After adding a penalty stroke, my third shot came up just shy of the crest. My fourth shot was a layup to about the 130-yard zone. The last 130 yards of this hole is a narrow peninsula surrounded on all sides by water. In fact, my layup almost trickled into the water on the left side. I had a terrible lie and my next shot hit a big rock right in front of me. The ball ricocheted backwards and to the middle of the fairway, leaving 160 yards to the green. My sixth shot was an 8-iron
that I pushed into the water on the right side. After another penalty, I hit the green with my eighth shot. After three putts (insult to injury) I carded a score of eleven. Ouch!
Overall, I finished with a disgusting score of 108. I blame part of that on the fact that it was an unfamiliar, tight course. However, there's no denying that I also hit some bad shots. On a positive note, I hit a decent amount of good shots too, so it wasn't a complete loss.
Score: 108
Putts: 34
Fairways: 1
Greens: 0
Penalties: 7
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