From L to R: Tim, Matt E (mr vinegar), Doyley, Mattias (MellowSwe), Ola (mrooola), Dale (coruler2), Dan G (pithydoctor), Brian (reebdoog), Matt G (staypuft), Jeff (smilinggoats), Dan B (catcherman) - Andre had left by this time
Day 0:
Andre and Tim picked me up at YVR and we headed up to Furry Creek to play a non-ryder round with Jeff, Mattias and Matt E. Tough course that required pinpoint accuracy - something I do not possess. Easily the course that we lost the most golf balls on all week. Tim almost aced the Par 3, 16th - one of 3 almost aces on the trip from the group that I'm aware of - came up about 8 inches short as his ball sat in a deep ball mark left by someone else. Very scenic course that is a bit quirky - overall a nice track but last my rankings of the courses we played.
We then drove another hour up to Whistler to get settled in and grab dinner. This is when Andre got news of his family emergency and had to pull the plug on the trip - we were all really bummed that he put so much work into setting it up and had to leave just as it was getting started.
First Hole at Furry Creek - 100+ foot drop
Day 1:
Teams were drafted:
Team Tim - Matt E, Dale, Brian, Ola, and Scott.
Team Jeff - Mattias, Dan G, Dan B, Matt G and Andre
Round 1 - Foursomes
... and matches were set up for our morning round at
Whistler Golf Club. Tim & I were up against Jeff solo. Tim had the odd holes and I had the evens in match play format. It didn't matter - Jeff would have beaten us straight up as a team. Course was in great shape and the weather was perfect for golf - about 19 C with partly cloudy conditions. Team Tim fell behind early - going down 2.5 to .5 in the morning matches. This was a very nice course but ranked #4 out of 5 for me. More of an indication of how nice the next few courses will be.
Funny moment from our group - on 17th par 3 - Jeff hits a nice looking tee shot, and as it lands on green he starts to pick up his tee. I notice ball still rolling towards hole, which gets Jeff's attention again. Then the group ahead (Staypuft, Ola were the two I remember most) started raising hands and running at the green. At this exact time the ball disappears behind a ridge on the green for us on teebox - which gives us the impression that it went in. Jeff does a running fist pump jump off the tee deck which then clued in the guys at the green that we thought it went in - they start waving their hands frantically saying it didn't go in, but finished about a foot away. Pretty funny stuff that happened all in the span of about 15 seconds.
Tim on #10 at Whistler Golf Club
Round 2 - 2 man vs 2 man scramble
Just a short drive (about 5 min) to
Nicklaus North where we had lunch and prepared to go into the afternoon matches - which was a 2 man vs 2 man scramble. After some Tim drama that ended well (lost/found wallet) we got to the first tee in good spirits. I was paired up with Dale against Dan G (pithy) and Mattias. I played way better than in my morning round and Dale was locked in as well. We had the lowest score on the day - outside of what Catcherman would have shot had we given him a partner ha! - winning our match 4&3 sitting 5-under at the time (we bogied a few coming in). Dale and I never had a bad shot at the same time - we were perfect partners that day. I even made my own birdie which had to be deflating to the other team - seeing as how I shot over 100 in the morning round haha! Course was in amazing shape - I had it ranked #2 out of 5. I know others had it #1. Was a treat to play. At the end of Day 1, Team Jeff leads 4.5 to 1.5.
Mellow and Pithydoctor trying to figure out how to keep up with the Dale/Doyley birdie machine
Nightlife
Since we played 2 rounds - we had just enough time to head out to village to eat a late dinner and called it a night pretty quickly after that.
Day 2:
We had to travel (30 min) to Pemberton, BC to play
Big Sky Golf Club. This was the sketchiest day for weather but we were pretty confident in getting 18 holes in - playing rain or shine. Turns out it wasn't as dire as we were led to believe - unfortunately the views of the big mountain were obscured by low clouds but we managed to get the round in without getting too wet. This one had me paired with Reebdoog as we took on Staypuft and Mellow in another 2 man vs 2 man scramble. We had fun with the scramble format the previous round and thought it'd be the best format for the expected wet weather. Unfortunate for Reeb and I, we weren't quite as synced as coruler and I the day before - and we managed to hit our fair share of trouble at the same time. We hung in as long as we could - even Tom Cochrane couldn't motivate me to make a 40 foot putt from off the green (I putt it through green into bunker) to keep the match going. We lost this one 3&1 but had a blast playing with this group.
In the other groups we gave Dan G (pithy) the task of going solo vs Tim and Mr Vinegar - unfortunately he wasn't able to overcome the handicap and lost 6&5. We wanted Catcherman to have a round with a partner (he's reaaaaly good) so we were able to pair him up with Jeff vs our stacked team of Coruler and mrooola - and Team Jeff still managed to take that match 4&2. So at the end of Day 2 Team Jeff was up 6.5 to 2.5 and just needed 1 point in the singles (we only had 5 matches) to seal the victory.
As for the course - I found it fairly flat but very well manicured and had a nice variety of holes. The big selling point is the backdrop - at 8,000 feet the mountain/scenery was just amazing to look at for a guy like myself that's never been around a mountain before. This course ranked #3 for me.
Big Sky was a fairly flat course with an amazing backdrop - even with the cloud cover - the rain made the waterfalls on the mountain visible from where we were
Nightlife
We got back in town and met up in lobby around 4:30 to head into village for dinner. After a drink at the Keg and a reading of one of the better fair play responses for the group, we headed to another place for our meal. That night we had an impromptu Jackbox party with most participating - Tim was preoccupied and missed out. Lots of laughs and a couple new Quiplash terms (Fruit Dicks aka Bananas & Swollen Seacows) were born into the world.
Day 3:
Final day of golf was going to be played at
Fairmont Chateau Whistler Golf Club. We had 4 singles matches and one 2 v 1 match (sorry catcherman!) ready to go. We got up to the practice facility a bit early to loosen up the swing and had a visitor drop by and say hi to all the guys.
From L to R: Doyley, HB_Keith, Tim, JeffKeith (HB_Keith) was on a family vacation that had him in Whistler at the same time as us so he stopped in to chat before we teed off. Even made a few left handed putts or two before he left. Back to the matches, I was up against Jeff trying to avenge my loss to him earlier. I didn't make a putt on the first two holes - I got in a bit of trouble and Jeff was up to an early 2-0 lead. I managed to get the 3rd hole after Jeff got into some trouble then won the closet to pin on #5 with a perfectly placed 9i from 144 (and 30 feet downhill) to about 15 feet. 2 putt par and it was game on. Controversy struck after I was ball hawking and had a cart full of balls - and unknowingly switched balls between holes. After crushing a drive the 4 of us (playing with Mellow/Reeb) came up to 6 or so balls in our landing area (for some reason this course had a lot of balls just lying around). I ended hitting the wrong ball into the trees - then realized my real drive was 30 yards further up on the fairway. So I then hit that one the rest of the hole and tied Jeff. He was gracious to not give me any penalty strokes even after I offered to take one for hitting wrong ball...which will come back to haunt him in the end.
Couple more instances of pure Doyley-luck came in the form of drives that should have been 50-75 yards into the trees but by the grace of the Whistler golf gods, were rejected back out, bouncing off rocks, and landing back on the fairway. I was two up for parts of the B9 when Jeff managed to tie it up going into the 18th. He hit his drive OB and also lost his next shot - so I just had to make sure to stay out of trouble to take the win 1up.
Tim also won closest to pin on 12 (I think) by almost getting another ace - I'd guess about a foot away this time.
At one point early on the B9 there was a chance Team Tim could win all the matches - so even though we were down heading into the day, it was still very close overall with just a few holes to go. The app (Vpar) we were using made it very easy to see the real time scores of all the groups and any time - it was a great addition to the trip. We finished the singles rounds split at 2.5 to 2.5 which gave Team Jeff the overall win at 9-5.
This course was my favourite of the bunch, coming in at #1 of the 5. It had all the views of the other courses along with some real nice elevation changes - as well as the 1up match win - which may be influencing my rankings a bit! The weather was perfect for golf and it was the perfect ending to a great week in Whistler.
This was my CTP shot on the 5th hole - landed it front left and it filtered all the way to the back right - pure luck, had no idea it would do that!Nightlife
Catcherman and Mellow had to leave for YVR to fly out - turns out both had early morning flights - Dan may have missed his Thursday night flight due to slow play ahead of us on the course and slow moving traffic! That left 9 of us to fend for ourselves for dinner and some grabbed pizza, others salad/wings and I hit up the grocery store for some solid Cannelloni that the front desk heated up in their microwave! Jeff was off on an excursion to photograph the sunsent from the summit of one of the mountains. Some more drinks and another round of Quiplash followed where Gold Ar Whistler was the best we could come up with (Tim can't type on his phone). Bonus points for anyone that can figure out what he was trying to say - needless to say, it still won the points! The trip was winding down.
Day 4:
Travel day for everyone. Staypuft took off early in the morning with a long drive back to Calgary. Team carpool (Reeb, Coruler and Pithy) were off next to the airport. Matt E and Ola tagged along with Tim, Jeff and I as we arranged to have lunch with Andre in Olympic Village. We traded stories and had a good time then it was off to the airport for me. Matt E began his drive back down to Seattle and Tim and Jeff went sightseeing before their redeye's home. Think Tim wins as the last to arrive home.
I started this adventure at 4:15am on Monday and got home at 4:45am on Saturday. Was some of the best times you can have on a golf course. Totally recommend you get in on the next one if you are able to.
Early favorite for next trip location is the Las Vegas area but nothing is set in stone just yet.