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7/31/2019 Golf Week Article 2012
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/golf-week-article-2012 1/442 Golfweek • August 24, 2012 • www.golfweek.com
THE GOLF LIFE
PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND GAINS
A REPUTATION FOR ITS GOLF, CUIS
SCENERY AND, UM . . . MOONSHINE
THE SECRET
IS OUT
P H
O T O S C O U R T E S Y
O F G O L F P E I
7/31/2019 Golf Week Article 2012
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/golf-week-article-2012 2/4Golfweek • August 24, 2012 • www.golfweek.com 43
By Martin Kaufmann
Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island
For 15 years, Prince Edward Island
has been connected to the New Brunswick
mainland by the Confederation Bridge,
an architectural marvel spanning eight
miles of the Northumberland Strait, making
it the world’s longest bridge over ice-covered
waters.
The bridge’s existence, however, is still
something of a sore point among some
lifelong Prince Edward Island residents,
who believe it makes their little haven in
the Gulf of St. Lawrence a bit too accessible
to mainlanders.
Islanders always have had a healthy
appreciation for their independence. Way
back in 1864, they hosted the Charlottetown
Conference, which would lay the groundworkfor Canadian unification in 1867. But when
that time came, the good people of Prince
Edward said, in effect: Thanks, but
no thanks. Islanders opted to remain free
agents while they weighed other offers,
even entertaining a brief, now-unthinkable
courtship with the United States. It wasn’t
until six years later, in 1873, that the
“Birthplace of Confederation” actually cast
its lot with the other Canadian provinces.
These days that same provincial pride is
evident from the moment visitors come off
of the bridge at Borden-Carleton. One of thefirst things they’re likely to notice is how
well the Islanders maintain their land. Now
understand, it wouldn’t be quite accurate
to say residents of Prince Edward have
well-maintained lawns. No, the lawns of
Prince Edward are perfect. We’re talking mile
upon mile of pristinely manicured greenery
that would make the superintendent of
Augusta National blush.
Ken Mill, who has spent nearly his entire
life on Prince Edward, said visitors often
comment on that when they visit his
business in Rollo Bay, Prince Edward, P44 >>>
The Gulf of St. Lawrence
provides the backdrop for
The Links at Crowbush Cove.
Charlottetown Harbor
7/31/2019 Golf Week Article 2012
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THE GOLF LIFE
on the island’s
northeast coast. (Did we mention that
Mill’s business is moonshining? We’ll
come back to that.) Mill said it all boils
down to the civic pride that seems
to be passed from one generation
to the next.
He and other Islanders occasionally
share stories about old-timers who
grew up on PEI and never left, not
even for a day. Shoot, why would they?
They have easy access to the quaintcapital city and rolling farm land,
relatively tolerable winters and
beautiful beaches. If Islanders need
a fix of Tim Hortons (think Canada’s
Starbucks) it’s never far away. Same,
too, for Cows ice cream (think
Canada’s Ben & Jerry’s), which was
founded here and still hand-produces
400 buckets of Gooey Mooey, Wowie
Cowie and 30 other artery-clogging
flavors at its tiny factory on Capital
Drive in Charlottetown. In an
adjacent room, two Cows stafferschurn out 1,500 T-shirts daily, with
wacky graphics about “Mootube”
and “Angry Herds.”
And what Islanders lack – this
summer the local newspaper reported
the classic nonstory: Costco had no
plans to open a PEI store – they’re
often just as happy to do without.
The local pride that’s so evident
translates into a welcoming
environment for tourists, perhaps
because Islanders know they have
a pretty good thing going, and they
like to show it off.In Charlottetown, the harbor-side
capital, the atmosphere is festive
on summer nights. Along Victoria
Row, you might find a jazz quintet
entertaining diners in open-air
restaurants such as Castello’s and
Fishbones. A few blocks down the
hill, bands play nightly on an outdoor
stage at Peake’s Quay, a touristy bar
overlooking the marina and, more
importantly, a Cows store. Prince
Edward Island National Park on the
North Shore is home to a stunning
25-mile sliver of beach that benefitsfrom the gulf’s unusually warm
waters. Due west, in Cavendish, visitors
arrive by the busload at Green Gables
Heritage Place to celebrate Lucy Maud
Montgomery’s novel “Anne of Green
Gables,” which itself was a celebration
of island life.
The museum that honors Montgom-
ery’s legacy also provides the target line
for the tee shot on No. 11 at the adjacent
Green Gables Golf Club. Golf has
become one of PEI’s top attractions.
This pastoral island, only the 23rd-largest in Canada, has more than
30 courses for its 142,000 residents
and tourists. Some of the
layouts are mom-and-
pops – farmland roughly
reshaped into golf holes.
But most of the courses
are the real deal, includ-
ing Green Gables. It
was designed in 1939 by
Canadian icon Stanley
Thompson and updated
in recent years by Thomas
McBroom, another pro-lific Canadian designer.
The area around
Cavendish also is home
to three of the island’s
must-plays: Glasgow Hills, a Les
Furber design, and two Graham Cooke
courses, Eagles Glenn and Andersons
Creek, where the mussels are free and
plentiful. Andersons Creek gives away
15,000 pounds of mussels annually.
That’s one of the benefits of living
on an island where seafood is so
plentiful that lobster – lobster! –
used to be regarded as peasant food.The Links at Crowbush Cove,
on the northeast side of the island,
generally is regarded as the best course
on Prince Edward. It’s one of four
provincial courses, the others being
Mill River on the west side and Dunda-
rave and Brudenell River, which form a
36-hole facility on the southeast coast.
At No. 23 on the list of Golfweek’s
Best Modern Courses in Canada,
Crowbush Cove seems underrated.
There’s a lot here to like, starting with
the conditioning. On No. 1, I passed acrew of three workers repairing divots.
(Your tax dollars at work, Islanders!)
Starting on No. 5, there is
a tremendous stretch of
holes that culminates on
the par-3 eighth, played
to the sound of the surf
crashing just beyond the
dunes to the right. The
11th is pure eye candy –
52 steps up a staircase to a
tee providing a panoramic
view of the gulf. Coming
up 18, you’re met withdisparate sensations
– crows cawling in the
woods off to the right
and a calming view of
the gulf to your left.
Locals seem to favor Brudenell
River over its sister course, which
is a bit of a head-scratcher. Brudenell
is a pleasant, unpretentious, lightly
bunkered and highly walkable
parkland layout with some nice
views of the namesake river.
Dundarave, however, is a completely
If you go. . .
Golf Prince Edward Island is a nonprofit
group that promotes the island and
assists in booking golf vacations.
>> golfpei.ca; 866-465-3734
Strait Lightning is
PEI’s legal moonshine.
No. 7 at Eagles Glenn
<<< Prince Edward, P43
C O U R T
E S Y M Y R I A D V I E W
7/31/2019 Golf Week Article 2012
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different experience, a Michael
Hurdzan-Dana Fry production known
island-wide for its difficulty. Some
locals speak of it in hushed terms,
as if to suggest that something far
more lethal than a few bogeys awaits
anyone who dares to make the drive to
Georgetown to play there. No question,
Dundarave is a handful, but there are
some scoring opportunities, such as
the par-3 fifth and the near-drivable,
par-4 16th. The short, par-4 eighth
might be the coolest hole on theisland, owing to the fact that it has
more options than a fully loaded
Mercedes.
As good as PEI’s golf is – and
at times, it borders on sublime –
Islanders always have been better at
the post-round bonding. It seems the
folks on Prince Edward Island grasped
the idea of a 19th hole long before
there was such a thing.
According to local lore, early
unification talks in the 1860s were
helped along by “the goodness of our
champagne.” George Coles,
leader of the island’s Liberal
Opposition, would come to
be known as the Father of
Canadian Confederation in
part because his thriving
brewery was said to havenursed along talks during
the 1864 Charlottetown Conference.
So it’s somewhat strange to learn
that island elders so eagerly embraced
the temperance movement. In 1901,
Prince Edward became the first
province to institute Prohibition, and
then was the last to repeal it, in 1948.
Even then, Islanders had to have a
note from their doctors if they needed
a nip. Spirits weren’t readily available
at retail until the 1960s.
For years, Islanders responded with
sophisticated rum-running operationson the North Shore and by producing
their own home-brewed spirits.
“Every family on Prince Edward
Island at some time had made
moonshine,” said the aforementioned
Mill, co-founder of The Myriad View
Artisan Distillery.
Mill was speaking in the past tense,
though moonshining remains some-
thing of an open secret on Prince
Edward. Myriad View’s small retail
shop, located in a red cottage on a
lovely bluff overlooking the strait, is
nicknamed “the moonshine confes-
sional,” where locals share stories of
brewing their secret spirits. Mill said
one elderly man recalled putting mash
in a steel garbage can and covering it
with manure, which warmed the mash
to help it ferment and also dissuadedliquor inspectors from investigating.
Mill’s business partner, Dr. Paul
Berrow, a family practitioner, knew
nothing of this history before
moving to PEI from Manitoba. At social
gatherings, Mill said, Berrow inevitably
would be asked, “Hey Doc, do you want
a drink of ’shine?” That got Berrow
to wondering: Why can’t we do this
legally? He and Mill, an otherwise
upstanding “lifeboat man” in the
Coast Guard, found a legal loophole to
produce and distribute moonshine, and
by 2007 they were selling their StraitShine, and later their Strait Lightning,
which checks in at a breathalyzer-
busting 75 percent alcohol/volume.
Those signature products pique visitors’
curiosity, but Mill and Berrow also
produce more conventional spirits –
rum, whiskey, gin and vodka – that are
flavorful adaptations of local recipes.
All of this might seem odd to
visitors, particularly international
travelers. But it’s perfectly in keeping
with the island’s independent
and industrious spirit. m
Golfweek • August 24, 2012 • www.golfweek.com 45
After strolling Dundarave’s fairways (above) in Georgetown, one can enjoy
the restaurants and entertainment along Victoria Row in Charlottetown (left).
No. 8 at Dundarave
P H O T O S C O U R T E S Y
O F G O L F P E I