Fair Play at the Fairmont Algonquin

You’ve gotta love a golf course that names each hole. It offers a nod to tradition, local history and a sense of pride.

Which is part of the good news at the Fairmont Algonquin Golf Course—affiliated with the hotel of the same name—in St. Andrews-by-the-Sea, New Brunswick, Canada.

The bad news is this: water hazards. I hate dealing with water hazards; even worse is being faced with them right off the first tee. The Algonquin not only does that, with water coming into play on the first and second holes, but on the back nine, it tosses the ocean into the mix. Well, the Bay of Fundy, anyway.

And, of course, playing oceanside means dealing with strong, often baffling winds. As my friend Phil says, "I’m wary of any place with ‘by-the-sea’ in its name."

Still, baffling bad news or not, you can’t fault the beauty of the Algonquin. It meanders for 6,908 yards from the back tees (with 73.7/134 rating/slope and a par of 72) through wetlands and skirts the bay in such a picturesque way that you almost want to apologize for your errant shots.

What’s more, it’s a certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary. So, not only can you feel good about your good play (when it happens), you can feel good about playing where environmental responsibility is on the front burner.

As would be implied by the Audubon certification and the affiliation with the Fairmont Hotels, this course is well tended, nearly perfectly manicured and welcomes you with a plush clubhouse. Yeah—all those natural areas present too many ball-losing opportunities for my taste. But, when I stood on the twelfth tee—a par-3 hole they call "Joe’s Point"—it was nearly impossible not to a)gawk; and b) rise to the challenge.

Hitting downhill off an elevated tee to a green that sits at least fifty feet lower and is surrounded by four bunkers and backed by the ocean is going to give a person pause. The hole’s name derives from the fact that circa-1934, a ferry ran to Maine from the water’s edge here. Now only golf balls run—and they’ll keep on running into the drink if you miscalculate.

Luckily for me, the swirling wind abated as I stepped up. I knocked a six iron right to the back edge of the green. Impressive! That I three-putted my par away hardly even upset me. What did upset me was being overly water shy on the par-5 thirteenth (a.k.a., "Captain Kidd"). It runs along the fairway’s right side, so I ripped one far left into the high fescue never to be seen again.

But the good news continued in the form of a beautiful up-and-down on 14 ("Navy Island"), an excellent sand save on 15 ("Tilley") and an excellent drive, iron, chip combination on 18, a.k.a., "McBroom"—named for Thomas McBroom who redesigned the course in 2000.

And a fine job he did, too. The course is challenging enough to annually host New Brunswick’s major amateur tournament, forgiving enough to let hackers like me have a good time, and strikingly beautiful enough to let all and sundry enjoy their success and not swell on their failures.