A Duffer's Guide

When Cites Nouvelles reporter Phillippe Boisvert and I resumed our Duffer's Guide series last week at St. Lazare Golf Club out on Cites des Jeunes Boulevard, we were only hoping not to get rained on.

What a pleasant surprise, then, when we made it through our round with no sign of rain, only to arrive on the first tee and actually forget how to golf.

I don't know if that's all the way accurate, but the first hole at St. Lazare, a 323-yard par-4 with a narrow fairway and tricky green, can put you in a hole in a hurry if you can't stay out of the woods and keep the ball from rolling off the back of the professional-quality green.

In fact, that's what struck us most about playing the course: the landscaping. The quality of the greens, the density of the rough and the nicely manicured fairways are all top-notch. Just don't get yourself caught in the rough too often, because it's been a good year for grass growing.

We decided to play the nine-hole, 2,012-yard course twice, in order to see how much better we played the second time around.

With five par-3 holes and two par-4s, the 491-yard par-5 is easily the longest hole on the golf course, with a mammoth water hazard to the left of the tee box. My compatriots and I repeated our mantra of 'the water's not there, the water's not there,' but of course, it was, and I carded a 9 on the hole the first time around.

The par-3 holes help you speed along your round, but make no mistake; they're tricky. The 97-yard par-3 sixth hole is fraught with sand hazards around the green, and despite its relative shortness, you'd be best not to miss the green.

The par-4 seventh is another tricky hole, a mere 308 yards long but with a dogleg that puts the green around a corner made of another water hazard. The first time we played the hole, though, I saw my best shot of the day, a twisting, rolling 35-foot putt from the outer edge of the green to save par.

Phillippe struggled on the front nine, but improved considerably on the back nine. If not for a few disaster shots that put him in trouble, he would've been closer to par. Especially when you consider his beautiful save from a sand trap on 18 that could've been a lot worse than it was.

What St. Lazare brings to the table that others don't is the option of night golfing. The course is equipped with lights, and they offer tee times right up until 11 p.m.

Of course, with the heavy woods that surround some of the holes, you might want to wait for daylight – unless you want to go home with a much lighter bag than you arrived with.

St. Lazare has a great driving range and practice green on site for some pre-round warming up, and it's just a short jaunt minutes west of Ste. Anne de Bellevue.

For more information, call them at (450) 424-3687, or visit them online at www.golfst-lazare.ca.