COLOURFUL PHRASES TO BE FOUND AT COTTONWOOD
June 22nd, 2010 | Posted by 
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While the city counts mosquitoes, I’m counting mulligans. What better place to rack ‘em up than a course with ‘wood’ in its name.
A short drive from the city and located on the edge of Sandilands Provincial Forest lies Cottonwood Golf Course. Sporting the slogan ‘the natural place to play’, Cottonwood’s tranquil untamed setting provides golfers with a course best played boldly – and carefully. The ‘boldly’ is required for shooting over marshes and waterholes, through drainage areas, around trees, and down doglegs. The ‘carefully’ is for shooting over marshes and waterholes, through drainage areas, around trees, and down doglegs.
While Cottonwood has fairly wide fairways and enough room for a few blunders along the way, you’ll benefit by playing it safe and keeping it out of the very tough rough.
This is where mulligans come in. Good old mulligans. For the recreational golfer, they are often a part of the game. There’s no shame in mulligans, as they help keep spirits up during a bad round. So does the beer cart, but that’s the topic of some other blog.
My first Cottonwood mulligan came on hole 5, a 120-yard par 3 from the front tees. After playing scary hole 4, which is a tricky dogleg-left over a big marsh, hole 5 didn’t seem so bad. But as soon as you let your guard down, you’ll release a ‘worm-burner’ or an ‘angel-reaper’ – both of which are colourful phrases courtesy of Cottonwood member Beaver Bob (nicknamed for his volunteer work removing fallen trees from the course).
In this case, my tee shot was a ‘weed-whacker,’ which headed straight for the reeds, decapitated a few, and disappeared in the murky marsh. There was only one thing I could do in that situation. Mulligan!
Hole 6 brought my first wow-I-actually-know-how-to-golf feeling on the 394-yard par 5, when I scored a par. I then bogeyed the second par 5 at hole 8, which was 515 yards with sharp dogleg right. For the record, I love bogeys, and will take them any chance I get. Once again, I felt like I knew what I was doing. Alas, it’s a feeling that tends to be short lived.
My second mulligan came at hole 15, a 440-yard par 5 where my ball never made it past the rough in front of the tee box. (DOH!) Let’s call this one the ‘snake-smacker’. The third and final mulligan (okay, I used three, but who’s counting??) was on hole 18 , a beautiful 231-yard par 4 over water, with tee box right beside the Trans-Canada Highway. I like to call this one the ‘fish-slayer’.
Love my snazzy new golf shoes!
At the end of the day, it ended up being a lovely round of golf at Cottonwood, and lovely visit afterwards at the newly renovated Lookout Bar & Grill. I was happy to have shot a couple of pars, gained experience shooting over, around and through all kinds of terrain, and practicing my mulligans. Plus Beaver Bob got a few more colourful names to add to his repertoire.
Not counting the ones we can’t print here.
COTTONWOOD GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB
St. Anne, Manitoba
27-hole course & driving range
Blue course: 2622 yards from white / 2407 yards from red
Red course: 2646 yards from white / 2520 yards from red
White course: 2773 yards from white / 2513 yards from red
www.golfcottonwood.ca
204-422-5540
While Cottonwood is not a horrendous course, it isn’t one of the best courses in the province by any means. I’m surprised that it was rated 5 out of 5.