Dakota Dunes Golf Links, Saskatchewan

[Rockford35]

Alright, I'm back from Dakota Dunes. What a place. It's like a green carpet laid over bald ass prairie. The area that it's built on is a huge sand dune, a glacial deposit. So, it doesn't support tall trees, just short shrubs and grasses. Huge undulating fairways, not a level lie on the course. And the greens are just as bad. Huge, but for good reason. You can hit a ball that lands 4 feet from the pin only to roll just far enough to catch a bank and end up 45 feet from the hole.

An easy 9.5 out of ten on every aspect of the golf course from fairways and greens to cart girls.

I will say that I am disappointed in the pics that came out. It was very overcast to start, and then got sunny, then cloudy and dark and had my camera sucking anus in terms of what to focus on because of the blinding shy. But I digress....anyways, here's the pics and some brief commentary.


Hole #1. Sorry about the fuzzy image, but it's a tight little par 4 basically straight away. 339 yards from the Blues (they have Gold and Blacks too, but the Blacks play almost 7600 yards!)


Hole #1 waste bunker. This is what I mean by built on dunes. You just cut a hole in the turf, viola! a bunker! I walked, by the way....the weiners rode.


This is the green on #2. As you can see, big swails off the back there. There's about another 100 feet of green down there that i couldn't get in the pic.


Blind tee balls on alot of holes. This was the teebox angle for #4. If you squint, you can see the flag through the taller trees there. The target window is basically that small area on the left. Tough, tough hole. Must have 4 valleys in it's 434 yards. Sickening.


Par 3 #6. About 156, but played more like 200 dead into the wind today. I hit a 7 wood on the screws, and came up about 3 yards short.


#7 approach shots. The divot in the left hand corner there is one of maybe 4 on the whole course. I swear they must have a guy that picks up and fixes divots on every hole, everyday. The course was just like a carpet. Needless to say in this pic, I'm safely to the right of the green having just pushed my 5 wood and have a 20 yard shot left that has the flag at least 45 feet over my head. Got it close, made the putt.


The teeboxes were marked with these hand carved chunks of granite. They were just oustanding craftsmenship.


Here's a yardage marker for #14. These were also handmade. An outstanding touch that just added to the course.


Here's a pic of a green that I just had to take to show undulations. This green was enourmous. It extends to the left out of the pic for at least another 30 yards. Huge. But impossible to putt. You would need extensive practice on these greens to figure them out. They were receptive, yet fast, which is great.


This was #17, a par 3 about 175 playing downwind. I nailed a 7 iron to about 6 feet, missed the putt (lip out). We were all within 9 feet on this hole, come to think of it.



Fantastic course. I sincerely apologize for the pics, they don't do it justice. But I can safely say, this is once place I will be going back to enjoy many times.

Green fees are $36CDN, carts are $16 a person. Beers are 4 bucks. Beef jerky is $6.25, but worth it.

R35

Oh, I shot a blazing 85. But for my first time playing there and with all those crazy blind tee shots, not to mention the roller coaster greens, I'm happy with that!

[Silver]

Man...I wish we could transpose Sask courses/prices to Vancouver. We've got some decent courses, but not for a price like that.

[Slingblade61]

My God, Roqufort!

No wonder you have such a low handicap.....your courses are all flat and wide open, nothing at all like the narrow wooded courses I have to suffer through.


Nice pics though.

[Kilted Arab]

Great pics! I especially like that par 3...

[Rockford35]

Originally Posted by Slingblade61

My God, Roqufort!

No wonder you have such a low handicap.....your courses are all flat and wide open, nothing at all like the narrow wooded courses I have to suffer through.


Nice pics though.

It's a links course. The design is based off the same idea as what Scottish and Irish courses are. It's "one of one" in this province. And long too. I think I mentioned above that the tips play near 7600 yards and at an index of 76.4 with a par of 72....

Most other courses here are wide open, but many play tight fairways with 7 yards of rough and then 100 foot trees lining that. I'll try and take some better pics when I go to Duck Mountain Provincial Park in two weeks and play Madge Lake.

R35

[The master]

Originally Posted by Rockford35

I think I mentioned above that the tips play near 7600 yards and at an index of 76.4 with a par of 72....



R35

It looks good. But does the ind blow a lot, (to give you a true links feeling),because with no wind = easy golf course?

Also that is one length of a course. The longest they play on tour is shell houston open 7550 yards.

[DaveE]

Cool looking course. I can't believe the size of those greens, ours are about a quarter that size. If I ever get up there to play I want to go there. Maybe even I could manage a few GIRs with greens like that.

Of course I would imagine the number of potential three putts would be brutal.

[Rockford35]

There are ZERO trees on the course Master, and the elevation is a little higher than the surrounding areas, so it's windy 364 days out of 365 a year. And yesterday was one of those days.

The fairways were perfect. Absolutely astonishing how good they were. But the rough was BRUTAL. There was a first cut of about 2" for about 5 yards, and then it went to Oakmont style, at least 5" all around. And, if you were outside of that, it was all fescue and brush. Impossible to get the club on the ball 99% of the time. Consider yourself lucky if you can make half contact out of that stuff.

If any of you guys are around the area, it's about 20 minutes south of Saskatoon. The course takes about 4.5 hrs in a cart, longer than that walking. There are stretches of at least 250 yards between some greens and teeboxes, which is great because you hardly see anyone else on the course. But it's a bitch to walk. If it was hot, it would be killer with all the ups and downs, valleys and undulations.

R35

[Bravo]

That looks like a very classy course. If there are no trees in the area then the designer must come up with other elements to make it difficult. Certainly, stretching it out to 7600 yards will command attention.

I like the large greens - a great design element for a course that gets a lot of play. Even though they are large, I can see different zones in them where the pin can be moved. Hit the green - but miss the proper zone - and you have to have a great first putt to get down in two.

Also like the tee markers and hole markers - very nice. And you cannot beat the price - that is a bona fide bargain. We have only one course in our entire area that could compete on a value basis with that course...

[DaveE]

Originally Posted by Rockford35

There are ZERO trees on the course Master, and the elevation is a little higher than the surrounding areas, so it's windy 364 days out of 365 a year. And yesterday was one of those days.
R35

156 yd. 7 wood kinda says it all. Yikes.

[bdcrowe]

Originally Posted by DaveE

156 yd. 7 wood kinda says it all. Yikes.

Yah. Strong winds on your back must really help!

[Rockford35]

Ya, I flew a drive about 310 into a huge waste bunker. It was about 40 feet deep.

Oh, don't worry, I bladed the shot out of the bunker into the scrub behind the green and took a 7.

This course demands good tee shots. Being long is an asset if you can land it on a frisbee. If not, you're dead. This makes it tough because length is great and an asset, but it can get you into enourmous trouble in a heartbeat.

A true classic. Worth every minute of the 3 hour drive there and the 3 hour return.

R35

[ChrisR]

That is one nice golf course there. I wish I had a flat course to play no. All the courses here in Pittsburgh are all hills.
Great pics thanks.

[golfstud4416]

that has to be the best looking course i have ever seen in a picture......

[Rockford35]

Are you being funny?

My camera sucks, and it was very overcast that day. Fantastic course, by the way. It plays to a rating of 73 from the Blues (which there are two other teeboxes back from that) and I would be willing to bet the slope is near 125. Not your average day in the park!

I appreciate the kind words tho!

Cheers,

R35