L'Ile de Montreal (Ireland)

One of two 18-hole courses at the L’Ile de Montreal golf complex, the Ireland course is a very under rated track that its designer, Pat Ruddy, fashioned from the old city rubbish tip by trucking in lorry loads of sandy soil to form the undulating fairways.

With only three par fives on the card at holes 2, 5 and 14, it’s no real surprise to learn that par for the course is set at 71 – what is something of a surprise is the overall yardage for the layout; a testy 6,820 yards from the back tees, with seven of the eleven par four holes playing more than 400 yards in length.

Of course, with four sets of markers at every hole, golfers can choose the set of tees that best suits their ability so there’s no excuse for everybody not enjoying a taste of what it’s like to play an authentic links layouts in old Erin – and, doffing his golfing cap to old-fashioned links golf traditions, the architect routed each nine so that the 9th and 18th holes share the same large double green. Incidentally, there are also double greens at #10 and #14 and #11 and #15.

In Pat Ruddy’s book Holes in my Head: A Lifetime Dreaming Golf Holes, the author writes about how The Ireland course was built in this edited extract:

“I was gobsmacked when introduced to a huge city dump which had just been capped in the shape of a great dome. The site wasn’t readymade for golf but I could see how it could be transformed into a fine golf course. Once an image emerged, I spent a few nights sitting up in the hotel, working with topographical maps which the city had developed as the dump matured, dashing over and back to the all-night copying shops and on the fourth day I presented [developer] Denis Tancred with a proposed routing for his links course.

It got built as in those first drawings and became as lovely as I had imagined. The site already offered strong elevation changes from the flat plains running around the edges to the top of the dome. It looked a bit like a huge Christmas pudding sitting on a wide plate. Now, if we could find a way to add ‘sand hills’ on the plains and up on the sides of the dome and on top of it. Now, here I was looking at a site where there was no question of being allowed to dig to create shapes. The dump had been capped and must not be disturbed.

Surely there were developers keen to get rid of good dry fill and who might not alone deliver and shape but even pay for the privilege. So, for two years we guided the arrival of hundreds of trucks weekly with lovely material to be placed and shaped as I dictated. There were technical problems to be solved. The biggest was to restrain rain water in drains and lagoons to prevent fast run-offs which would contaminate neighbouring waterways and the nearby St. Lawrence River. The city coordinated on technical matters, such as gases and protecting against possible leachate.

The building of our faux dunes produced a beautiful golfscape and helped to guide the play and hide from view any city backgrounds we wished to hide and also deadened traffic noise from Autroute 40 as it exited Montreal. The game climbs up easy valleys in the dunes and offers a delightful range of downhill drives (and) there are three sets of double-greens to give Canada a taste of golf history. The bunkers are deeper by far than the average in North America and are the cause of much debate. It all looks very well and plays even better.”