Myself, Nathan and Brett went up to Whistler on Saturday morning for our round at Nicklaus North, leaving Vancouver in the pouring rain. Thankfully it wasn’t actually raining when we arrived and it remained dry for the whole round, which was a relief as I didn’t want to get soaked.

Playing at a Jack Nicklaus signature course is a whole different ball game (pardon the pun) from what we’re used to. You pull of to the door and someone gets your clubs out of the boot, takes them out back and sets up a cart for you. If you want to hit a few warm-up balls, you’re driven down to the range, where there’s balls waiting for you, then picked up in time to start your round. At the first tee, two ladies hand you divot repairers, a yardage book and explain today’s pin placements, and when you’re finished your round, a guy takes your clubs off to be cleaned while you retire to the bar! I could get used to this ;-)

Seeing as how Brett can actually play golf, we made him play off the championship tees, whereas myself and Nath played off the whites as usual. I stepped up an fired my first shot out of bounds left, then my tee shot of the second went in to water, but I settled down a bit after that and turned at 50, which is about normal for me. Nath got off to a great start, parring the first three holes, and of course Brett was in a different league.

I fared a bit better on the back nine, hitting some nice shots, but I still managed to find any water available from the tee box! My chipping was pretty good, as was my putting, so that saved me. I came back in 49, to give me a total of 99, which is the first time I’ve beaten 100, though with 6 penalties there’s plenty of room for improvement. After turning in 44, Nath had a shocker on the back 9, finishing in 103, and Brett was on course for par before dropping a shot on the final hole, to record a two-over 73! In the end, he managed to beat us by almost 30 shots, despite playing almost 1000 extra yards. I guess that’s why he’s a PGA Pro and we’re weekend hackers.

The verdict? It’s a nice course, and the setting is spectacular, nestled below Whistler and Blackcomb, fringed by Green Lake. It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. The fairways are reasonably generous, but if you miss them by much your ball is gone and you’re a shot down. Also, the bunkers are deeper than I’m used to, and, with wet, heavy sand at this time of year, it was hard to get the ball out on occasion. Finally, one or two of the par 3s were long, particularly the 17th at 188yds, though I did hit a nice tee shot which landed in the greenside bunker. Had it landed about 3 yards right it would almost certainly have bounced on to the green and ended up with a decent chance at a birdie, so it was about 3 yards from being awesome.

At $165 for a round it’s a bit steep for regular play, but well worth a one off visit. Although Brett’s far too modest to claim that he’s anything special, for me, getting a chance to play with a pro and see up close how it’s supposed to be done was a treat too, so it was a good day all ’round.