While the new Oak Bay G&CC occasionally dazzles, there's generally a subtlety about the Shawn Watters layout as it harmoniously weaves its way around the gently sloping land off the shores of Georgian Bay, just west of Port Severn. Which is why the view at the 15th hole hits you like Thor's hammer - a spectacular 164-yard, into-the-wind, all-carry par-3 to a green that sits upon a wall of granite, with layers of greenside bunkers framing the putting surface. Bordering the tee is a vast, windswept expanse of Oak Bay marshland, which separates the solitary tee box from the fortress-like green. "I saw aerial photographs of all the rock here, but you physically couldn't get near it because of all the wetlands surrounding it," Watters recalls of an early survey of the property. "But then I came here in the winter months and looked back and though, 'Wow!' The green, though, was actually the tee in the original plan. But I got a call from a biologist who said this was the most environmentally sensitive area on the entire site and that we would have to build a wall around the green. I was depressed. Then I though, 'Why not reverse the direction of three holes and make that green the tee instead?' "In hindsight, it ended up being a more cost-effective way to build the hole." And more spectacular.
This piece was featured in the Spring 2011 edition of Ontario Golf. To read online, click here.
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