Having a keen eye to decipher natural cues is key to scoring well on this challenging Howard Watson design and it goes well beyond checking out foliage before making club selection decisions. When you’re on the dance floor you must always be cognizant of where you are in relation to Mt. Saint-Anne but don’t forget about the drink either. Green reading 101 tells us that putts break away from mountains and towards any body of water but when both factors enter the equation it can exacerbate the ease of green reading literacy. “When you putt away from the mountain it can be fast and sometimes you misread greens,” explains head pro Christine Côté who joins me for my round.
Après golf, get your downhill mountain biking ya-yas out by hurtling down Mt. Sainte-Anne on a two wheeled steed. No bike? No problem. There’s an onsite rental shop that’ll kit you out with everything you need including heavy duty protective gear. Then ride the gondola up to the summit, strap on the GoPro to preserve the high-speed descent for posterity and if you decide to chicken out at the last minute you can always soak up the stellar view for awhile and then bail and ride the gondola back down. For a more tranquil descent Aerostyle Paragliding school offers tandem flights seven days a week. And if you’d rather experience spectacular vertical drops as a spectator rather than an active participant, be sure to scope out Montmorency Falls which at 83-meters high has even the mighty Niagara topped in the height department.
Next move the festivities down to Old Quebec so you can stay where you play by checking into the iconic Château Frontenac for the city portion of your vacation. With candles on every bistro table, charming 17th architecture at every glance, and horse drawn carriages gently clopping through elegant centuries old cobblestone rues, not to mention an ebullient joie de vivre wafting off the top of every mug of café au lait that is poured, Quebec City does brisk honeymoon trade. But the city where lovers can clamber along ramparts hand in hand and steal kisses under postern arches can also hit the right note for golfers looking for romance and the tee. If you feel the need to work on your swing take a nine iron along on a picnic on the Plains of Abraham, the 240 acre parkland tract that serves as the lungs of the city, and plop a tee in the ground (sans ball of course) and practice your stroke between bites of croissant and poutine.