Atlantide a nice early-season treat for golfers

It's a long drive down through Ile Perrot to get to Atlantide Golf Club, located on the island's southern tip, but it is a trip very much worth making. The Duffer's Guide crew, made up of The Chronicle/Cites Nouvelles publisher Denis Therrien, The Chronicle/Cites Nouvelles advertising consultant Francois Dupont, and me.

We arrived at the course and immediately went to work making golf look very difficult indeed (Hey, there's a reason this is called the The Duffer's Guide and not the Experts' Guide), highlighted by my nine – nine! – swings and misses on the first tee of the year. For whatever reason I swung and missed. Then I missed again. And again. And again.

It was horrible.

Obviously, though, it could only get better from there, and it did, mostly because we were playing a Vegas/best-ball format. Denis' towering drive on the par-4 second hole and Francois' great approach shot helped immensely and as a group, we were already starting to feel better about things, and frankly, so was I.

It's actually hard to stay in a bad mood at Atlantide, because the physical beauty of some of the holes bordering the Lake St. Louis shoreline are so staggering that you just can't help but become more serene. The par-3 fourth hole is gorgeous, with tee boxes sitting kitty-corner to the green with a large water hazard to the left of the green, while just a little further, the par-3 seventh hole overlooks the water that it was hard for me to really appreciate my tee shot, which brought us to within 15 yards of the hole, but the expression 'drive for show, putt for dough,' was never more in evidence as the lot of us three-putted the green to card a disappointing four on the hole. On the next hole, the 312-yard par-4 eighth, we teamed up to card our first – but far from our last – par of the day. Denis' tee shot was long enough to put us 100 yards out in the rough (be warned; a great deal of Atlantide's rough isn't really rough but hills, and if you're on a downslope trying to get the ball in the air, well, good luck to you).

After a break following 9, Francois started nailing his long irons (even though his clubs seemingly date back to the silent-movie era. I mean, his woods were actually made of wood. Incredible.) and allowing us, in the best-ball format, clear looks at the green because every shot he hit stayed in the middle of the fairway, while Denis became more and more comfortable with his driver as the day dragged on. His 275-yard bomb right down the middle of the fairway on the 450-yard par-5 15th hole was the most impressive drive of the day – if not the most impressive shot, period.

The nice weather and fun golf continued right through the 445-yard par-5 18th hole, which, with the clubhouse looming in the background and a large lagoon on the left makes it the most physically beautiful hole on the Atlantide course (The club boasts two 18-hole courses, Atlantide and Don-Quichotte), competing with the par-3 sixth hole on Don-Quichotte as the nicest hole on either course.

I capped a day that started badly and ended beautifully with a twisting, breaking 25-yard putt to save par on 18 – a great way to end a perfect day.

Atlantide Golf Club is located at 2201 Don-Quichotte Blvd. in Notre Dame de l'Ile Perrot and can be reached by phone at 514-425-2000. Visit them online at www.golfatlantide.com