Golf slap: lamenting the loss of cheap, on-island links

This was originally supposed to be a short primer on golfing in our fair city, with frugal beginners in mind, but as a lowly plebeian who’s been swinging away since puberty, I can’t help but feel that cheapy golf’s gradual decline in Montreal is denying a whole generation of ignoble youths the chance to learn the game. It all started with Fresh Meadows. The hackers’ delight above the tracks in Beaconsfield was where many a middle-class West Island runt took their first embarrassing swings, and although their clubhouse (in actuality, a trailer held up by cinder blocks) was lacking in basic amenities and garter snakes roamed the out-of-bounds areas, that unkempt nine-hole horror show was a $12 slice of paradise.

A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT: Meadowbrook Golf Club
A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT: Meadowbrook Golf Club

A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT: Meadowbrook Golf Club
Photo by Gilles Douaire

 

This was originally supposed to be a short primer on golfing in our fair city, with frugal beginners in mind, but as a lowly plebeian who’s been swinging away since puberty, I can’t help but feel that cheapy golf’s gradual decline in Montreal is denying a whole generation of ignoble youths the chance to learn the game.

It all started with Fresh Meadows. The hackers’ delight above the tracks in Beaconsfield was where many a middle-class West Island runt took their first embarrassing swings, and although their clubhouse (in actuality, a trailer held up by cinder blocks) was lacking in basic amenities and garter snakes roamed the out-of-bounds areas, that unkempt nine-hole horror show was a $12 slice of paradise.

Fresh Meadows is long gone; the once-lush, ragweed-infested green-and-yellowish space now replaced with residential developments. Where the snakes went we’ll perhaps never know, but after upgrading their Canadian Tire clubs to off-brand sets purchased at the annual Holiday Inn golf apparel clearance sale, stingy golfers began to slither off-island. There’s Golf Vaudreuil, which is the place to be when the hot summer sun points directly at the nearby piles of cow manure. U.F.O. in Laval isn’t too shabby, either. If you’re not of driving age (car, not club), though, getting to either is tough.

On the other hand, public courses Golf Dorval and Meadowbrook Golf Club remain on island, but who knows for how long? The former’s fate has long been uncertain, as the neighbouring Montréal-Trudeau airport owns the land and has already snatched back quite a bit of it for its own purposes, reducing the course from 36 to 18 Franken-holes. There’s nothing stopping the airport from grabbing the rest, and it could do so next year, when the deal leasing the land to Golf Dorval expires.

Meadowbrook is spread across Lachine and Côte St-Luc, and is listed in the City of Montreal’s 2002 Master Plan on urban development (number 4.19), meaning they’ll get to it once they’ve solved the eight million or so more pressing issues on their plate. There are a couple of factions competing for the lovely green space, including development firm Groupe Pacific, which wants to transform it into a high-density commercial/residential area with a speck-sized park, and les Amis de Meadowbrook, a group that would like to convert all 57 hectares into a park.

No one, it would seem, cares much about saving the golf course. Meadowbrook’s future is up in the air, but the outlook isn’t good, even if the city can’t figure out what to do with the high-traffic CP train tracks that cut through its centre in the event either plan goes through.

Granted, golf courses aren’t exactly the most environmentally friendly spots, but manicured fairway grass and pockets of trees are still preferable to 1,600 residential units packed along the west bank of the would-be-revitalized, and no doubt expanded, Little St-Pierre River, which runs through Meadowbrook. Golf courses are also home to animals and rare plant life, and provide temporary wetland for geese. So it won’t just be me, the youngsters and the cranky seniors bemoaning the loss of affordable local golf — Meadowbrook’s majestic foxes could be shit out of luck, too. ■

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