Magna Golf Club

On saturday I had the chance to play one of the most private clubs in Ontario, Magna Golf Club. My sisters mother in law invited me out there to play with her sister and brother in law. I have to say, I'm extremely lucky to have gotten out there, it was an amazing day so I'll give you a recap.

Upon arriving you first have to check in with security who then directs you to the club house and calls ahead to let them know you are coming. As you pull up to the bag drop one guy opens the car door for you while another grabs your clubs. Your car is then valet to the parking lot as you are directed to your locker. Just a side note, the parking lot at this place is ridiculous. Something like 5 ferraris, 10 porches, maybe 6 or 7 of that top of the line mercedes, a hundred lexus'. I had my mothers STS and I was almost embarresed to have it in the parking lot.

Anyways, on to the locker room. The nicest I have ever seen. All the lockers are oak doors, with a digital keypad lock. Inside the locker room you can make yourself some toast, cereal, coffes, whatever, amazing facilities.

The club house in all was the most amazing I've ever seen. Hard to explain how nice it was. Beautiful patios looking over the 18th hole. Huge. Not sure what else to say.

After taking a quick walk around inside I headed out to the carts to grab my clubs and hit the range. "Good Morning Mr. Nepon" from the guys outside, "Your clubs are on this cart over here." First time I've been a guest somewhere and they treat you just like a member.

Everything at Magna is top notch. Even the golf carts had leather steering wheels, cooler full of bottled water, yardage guides, very nice divot tool given out (at our club this divot tool would cost you $15), 2 small towels for personal use and one extra that they wet and place on the back of the cart so you can clean your clubs and balls.

The range was just another added bonus for the day. Just like everything else, its gets better and better. Set up of the range was normal practice stations, with the little Nike golf bags filled with balls, some muskoka chairs to relax in, and and attendant to basically do everything for you. He would bring your clubs from the cart to the hitting area and back. Dumped some balls for me, and after you finish hitting a club he would come over and clean it for you. Also, every practice ball was a Nike 1 platinum ball. So sweet to actually warm up with real golf balls, and the best ones in the line of Nike balls. After I finished hitting a few balls, I headed to the practice green.

Last year at Oakmont I stepped on the green, dropped few balls, and watched as they rolled about 20 feet away from me. Almost the same thing happened here, except only about 8 feet roll. The green were absolutly perfect. I would estimate rolling around a 12 or 13. So i worked on my putting a for a little while and waited for the rest of my group to show up.

I had decided I would play the black tees even though everyone else was playing the forward tees. The 2 women played the most forward ones, and the other guy, Ralph, played the second up tees. Ralph was a good golfer, but last year was in a head on collision on the 401, so hasn't really gained back all his movement, but you can tell he can play, just needs to recover still. My tees were 7300 yards, 75.4/141. Before teeing off I thought aout playing up one tee, but couldn't resist playing the back tees. Turned out to be a great decision.

No hole by hole here, but the course was amazing. Played long but fair. If I wasn't hitting my driver well it would have been a nightmare, but luckly I figured it out the previous week and was bombing drives all day long. I'm pretty sure I didn't hit a 9, 8, 7 iron all day, and maybe 1 or 2 6 irons. Every hole was driver - 4/5 iron. I was on point all day with my irons so didn't find to much trouble. There was a lot of elevation changes out there. Seemed to be hitting to a raised green on every hole. The bunkers were enourmous and deep. I got into a few green side ones and you can't see the pin or green from the green side bunkers. Took quite the effort to raise the ball up enough to get on the green. The greens were absolutly perfect. Ones of those courses where you hit the putt and it goes exactly where you hit it. Rolled a few long birdie putts jus over the edge, unfortunatly, I didn't make any birdies on the day. Greens were so fast and so big that is was difficult to get close. I did have about 3 "easy" birdie putts I should have made, but just didn't convert. Fairways were perfectly manicured, the tee decks were perfectly flat, no divots, nothing out of place.

I ended up making 3 double bogeys to shot 85. Made a double on the 18th, bogey on the 17th, and bogey on the 15th. The course was long ad very tough, but I played better then I scored. I really felt I could have broke 80, but oh well. Still a great day.

I loved this course. Wish i could play everyday. I told Matt and Cal that this course was nicer then St. Georges, but that might be an over statement. The clubhouse and service absolutly was. The course was just behind it, to different to compare. St. Georges is old timer course, tight, mature, where as Magna is new, wide open fairways, huge greens. For locals you could campare St. Catharines golf club to Legends.

I'll be heading out to another top course in Canada soon enough. Ralph and his wife who played with happened to be members at Westmont in kitchener ONt. I had never heard of the course, apparently it's ranked in the top 15 in Canada. They have asked me to come out and play there soon, so I geuss I'll be adding to my top 100 list soon enough.

Phenominal day on a phenominal course. Really looking foward to getting back on the track.

Here is my top courses played list updated.

1. Oakmont (going to be tough to knock this one off the top spot)
2. St. Georges
3. Magna
4. Conservatory at the Ginn Resort
5. Heron Point


Oh ya, and I've never seen so many hot chicks working at a golf course. Even the grounds crew had 2 hot 20 year olds filling divots on the practice range. I told the kid on the range he's got the best job ever, I'd rather work there then go to club every saturday night.