Links at Crowbush Cove - Prince Edward Island - Canada

Crowbush is far and above the best course on PEI. It is a true challenge, with fabulous undulating fairways, fair & true greens, amazing ocean views, and a mix of holes that makes for a really enjoyable day.

A course like this in the States would have greens fees of $250-350 US, but you can play this at peak time for about $125 CAD. It should be the centerpiece of your PEI Golf Trip, and I would recommend playing it twice while you're there, because it only gets better each time you play it.

Crowbush Cove is in a truly beautiful location. The conditioning of the course is very good. And the staff is very pleasant. But, that is where the accolades stop. From a design aspect, this course is almost a total fail. It is located on the ocean, and being a relatively windy location, the design takes none of this into account. Off the tee it is very target-orientated, to very small landing locations, heavily confined by excessive fairway bunkering and abrupt sensitive habitat areas. The approaches are to very small, very undulating, very protected greens. There are no options but hit a very small target area on each green. And, again, excessive bunkering surrounds most greens. And 17 of the 18 pins were tucked, something I noticed before the round looking at the tee sheet that was handed to me. You are going in with mid irons, often into the wind, trying to hit postage stamps all day long. And that is assuming you slotted your tee shot into a fairly. I played with two high teen handicappers. The first par between the two of them was on the 15th hole after one of them had chipped in. And, then finally on the 17th they both parred it by hitting greens in regulations. And, I only counted three double bogeys between them. The rest of the round was triples, quads, and “others.” Both, if they were counting strokes, would have shot well north of 150. There were no run-up options, no bailout options, no way to play the ball along the ground. Even in calm conditions, the round would be an extremely tough examination from beginning to end. With even a less than moderate breeze, the only options is deciding whether to play, or not. I would have to assume that for most visitors (these appears to be a big part of their business) would be one-and-done. Too bad, because the play is gorgeous.

With a blank canvas and the first opportunity to say something about Crowbush, what can I say without sounding gushing? In truth, probably not very much... Crowbush is a spectacular course with many truly great holes but perhaps a weaker close than most which keeps the course a little lower in the rankings than it could be. With panoramic views from every corner of the course, Crowbush is set in some seriously pretty location but it’s supremely challenging and thoroughly enjoyable. I‘ve played Crowbush each year since it opened about 10 years ago and although the green fee is higher the course has gone on from strength to strength. Be prepared for the mosquitoes which do have a nasty bite at certain times and settle for a long 5 hour round in high season… there are too many ooh ahh opportunities here to distract golfers and slow up play.