A Duffer's Guide

Of course, local golfers already know the Golf Dorval story. The course, which is publicly owned and managed by the city of Dorval on land leased to them by Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport administrators, saw the airport administration take back half of the course in 2006 for expansion of the airport facilities. The 36-hole course was sliced in half and what was once two courses is now one.

It's sad, but that's life, right?

So, our weekly duffer's guide took us out to the wilds of the Dorval western industrial park, where Golf Dorval's remaining 18 holes awaited Cites Nouvelles reporter Phillippe Boisvert and I in our quest to get the ball flying in the right direction.

As is often the case with developing golfers, that's not always the case.

Phillippe started out decently on the par-4 1st hole, while I suffered through a tough drive and two subsequent fairway irons. On the 472 par-5 second, I hit a decent drive and was on the green in four, with a chance at par and a possible bogey.

For me, a six on a par-5 is awesome. So, naturally, my 50-foot putt ended up 10 feet short and left with the break and I hit three more putts trying to gauge the speed of the green. Score on the hole: 8. Not pretty.

My putter decided to be difficult for one more hole, and I carded a seven on the par-4, 352-yard third hole.

Then things started to look up for me.

On the par-4, 379-yard fourth hole, I hit a nice drive to the middle of the fairway and to the crook of the dogleg, setting up a decent three-iron to the rough around the green. I had some more trouble with a long putt, and I ended up with a 6 on the hole.

It must be noted that the greens at Golf Dorval are among the slowest we've played so far. You'll have to give those longer putts lots of weight and add a little something to the shorter ones. Even on a hot, sunny day, the greens were very slow and will cause lighter putters problems.

We followed that up with the 175-yard par-3, where we both hit nice drives on the green. I two-putted out for par, while Philippe managed a bogey on the hole.

Then, the monster: the 576-yard par-5 seventh hole, with a bunker on the left of the green and a drainage ditch just short, duffers have to make sure approach shots stay in the air and don't land short. The fairway is wide at the beginning of the hole and narrows considerably. Even though the hole is long, remember it's more important to hit the ball straight, not far.

The Golf Dorval terrain is in great shape, and even though you're not always sure where the next tee box is, with great fairways, tons of mature trees and enough holes left to please most golfers, Golf Dorval is just a three-wood away.

Located at 2000 Reverchon in Dorval, just off Sources Boulevard, Golf Dorval is open seven days a week and is completely public. For more information, visit their website at www.golfdorval.com or call them for a tee time at 514-633-GOLF.