Newspaper Article on Terrace Bay's Golf Course

SPORTS

Chronicle-Journal/Times-News, SUNDAY, August 2,1992

D7

Lush Terrace Bay course a golfer's delight

CLAUDE LIMAN

Around the Links

In last week's column, I recommended that city golfers pack up their clubs and drive 110 kilometres to Nipigon/Red Rock to play the sporty, uncrowded North Shore Course. This week I am going to ask you to travel an additional 120 km, to Terrace Bay's wonderful Aguasabon.

A 460 km return trip may sound to you like too much driving for one day, although my slope rating team and I did it on Tuesday, July 21, thoroughly enjoying both our golf and the drive itself. The food at the clubhouse is great, and the place is licensed as well. (You could even stay over and try the other fine North Shore courses I'll be reviewing in weeks to come.)

Two members of my team, Art Kirk and Bob Kelley, had never played Aguasabon before. Both were astounded at the beauty and challenge of this unheralded course and wondered why they had neglected it till now. Even Bud Hughes and I, Aguasabon veterans, were amazed at its lush condition.

The course sits picturesquely on Lake Superior, at the base of the famous terraces that give this town its name. Holes 6 and 7 go right toward the lake and offer great views. Numbers 2 and 4 bring the Aguasabon River's wide, deep gorge into play.

The whole course is wooded, quiet, with no overhead wires or sound of traffic. The only local hazard is the infamous flock of geese that graze fairways 3 and 4, but even they and their slippery deposits were not in evidence on the bright, sunny day of our slope rating visit.

Hole number 1, at 490 yards, offers you a chance to begin with a birdie. Better get one on this par 5, for some very hard holes are coming!

A drive to the right on this dogleg left gives you a shot at the green. There's so much downhill and sidehill terrain on this hole, however, that players must ring a bell after their second shots to let the group on the tee know that the way is clear. This slanting terrain makes the second shot interesting.

The first green is very large, protected in front by traps, with steep mounds left, right, and at the rear. A large contour ridge also divides this green to make two putting a challenge.

The rest of Aguasabon's greens are very small. If you can hit them in regulation, you're doing quite well. Otherwise, haul out your chipping clubs and bear down.

Number 2 is a frightening little hole, 130 yards off a high cliff to a green the size of a bathtub perched on the edge of the Aguasabon gorge. Traps left and right and woods all around make it appear as if there were no safe place to land your ball other than on the unhittable green. In fact, there's plenty of room here, provided you avoid going long.

Number 3 is a fantastic par 4, one of the best in the district, 400 uphill yards to a blind target high on a hill below a formidable rock ledge. If you can get on or near this green in two shots, you've done some extraordinary playing. This is rated number 5 handicap hole, but I believe it should be number 1, for it is much harder than the two par 5's, currently rated lower.

Number 4 looks easy, a short par 4 of only 345 yards sandwiched between the difficult third and fifth. Trees on the right and the Aguasabon gorge all down the left will divert your attention from the generous fairway, however, and the short iron shot to a small, partially blind uphill green is testing. Don't be thinking back to number 3 or ahead to 5 while playing this deceptive hole.

Number 5 is another of Aguasabon's good par 4's, 415 yards over a hill to another small green. In fact, I would say that holes 3, 5, and 9 — all par 4's of over 400 yards — are the key to playing this course. Encountered twice in an 18-hole round, they give Aguasabon as strong a group of par 4 holes as any course in our region.

Number 6 is a fun par 5 of 500 gently downhill yards. The fairway is wide, as are all the fairways here, but the bush on both sides is impenetrable. If you do stray, you probably won't find your ball, but blueberries may be in season to console you.

Aguasobon Golf Course

Course Score card

By

CLAUDE LIMAN

Owned and operated by members.

Located on Beach Road, Terrace Bay. Phone 825-3844

■ Number of holes: Nine

■ Length: 3, 243 yards (white tees), 2,785 yards (red tees)

■ Par: 36 for men, 38 for women. Course is rated 69 for men (18 holes) and 71 for women.

■ Fees: $15 daily unlimited play, $9 after 6:30 p.m.

■ Season pass: $240 for adults, $140 for seniors, $100 for juniors, $45 for youth. Family memberships also available.

■ Club rental: none available - bring your own!

■ Facilities: Marvelous clubhouse (opened Aug. 1990), restaurant, lounge, showers, club storage. Juniors have own clubhouse and club storage facilities. Large practice green, huge range for shag balls (no range balls yet available).

■ Date opened: Aug., 1965. (designer unknown)

■ Course record: 66, by Kim Cowan.

■ Women's club: Twilight tourneys on Tuesdays

■ Men's club: Twilight tourneys on Wednesdays

■ Comments: Quiet, beautiful setting for golf on the shore of Lake Superior below town and scenic bluffs. Stern par 4 holes and frightening par 3's. A great test of golf, well worth the drive. One of our area's best 9 holes, which I could imagine playing four or five times a day.

The Great Lake twinkles in the distance at the end of this hole, with winds off it making these 550 yards even longer. The small green is tucked to the right a bit, guarded by a rock outcrop that can easily catch unwary second shots.

Number 7 is a terrific little par 4 of 308 yards, a well-designed dogleg right with out-of-bounds all along the right edge, a sand trap at the corner, another up at the green. The tee shot must be perfect, and then your second to a small green cut into a hillside must also be well played. Winds off the lake make judging distance difficult.

Number 8 is another frightening par 3. At 195 yards long, it requires a wood or long iron. The green is elevated, blind, with traps left, right, and long. The green is a mere sliver. The best strategy here is to use one club less than you need, hoping to bounce and roll up, as you certainly want to avoid going long. As on number 1 at North Shore, you will probably be chipping and one-putting for your par, and 4 is once again not a bad score.

Number 9, 410 yards straight uphill toward the elegant clubhouse, is another tough par 4. You'll likely need one extra club to get home.

Now put your ball in the blue trough on the first tee for your turn on the back nine. Should you need to wait, the clubhouse serves wine, beer, lunch, mixed drinks. On most weekdays, however, you can probably get right out. These are the advantages of golf along the scenic, uncrowded North Shore.

(Claude Liman, president of the Thunder Bay District Golf Association, is looking forward to playing the Hanley Memorial Golf Tournament in Terrace Bay, Aug. 22-23, a gala event this year to celebrate Aguasabon's 25th anniversary.)

Rodeos hurt animals, says Man. activist

Thomson News Service

WINNIPEG - Bucking broncos and calf wrestling won't be part of Western Canadian culture for much longer if James Pearson has his way.

The 24-year-old co-ordinator of the Manitoba Animal Rights Coalition would like to prevent the traditional Western rodeos from continuing what he considers to be the needless exploitation and suffering of cattle and horses.

"The rights of the animals are being infringed upon," said Pearson, while showing videos of recent rodeos in Selkirk and Brandon. "They have the right of privacy, they have the right of integrity of their bodies. They have the right not to suffer pain."

While the videos seem like almost routine rodeo footage to the casual observer, to Pearson they represent pain and terror to living beings.

"It's dominance and violence to particular animals that are helpless," he said.

"People don't know what these calves and steers go through." For instance, horses buck because a leather strap is tied tightly around their abdomens — the animals are bucking to try to remove the painful strap, he said.

"They invariably stop bucking when they take it off," Pearson said. "It has nothing to do with being ornery."

Ever wonder why those steers shoot out of the gate for the roping events? Pearson will tell you its because cowboys twist their tails; the creatures move so fast because they are in pain.

21.5 cm (h) x 35 cm (w)