MINDEMOYA—It will be the first true island green on the three Manitoulin golf courses.
“The new island green (number eight at Brookwood Brae Golf Course in Mindemoya) will be good and help in maintenance of the green and will be something people will definitely be talking about,” stated John Seabrook, course superintendent. “Island greens are pretty rare.”
“I’m very happy with it,” stated Mr. Seabrook, although he acknowledged, “We haven’t even opened up the new green and I’ve already had a group railing about it.”
The new island green will definitely be reachable for golfers of all skill levels. “We built three new additional tee boxes for the hole,” said Mr. Seabrook. “I made one to the left and its short, it won’t even be 100 yards from the hole. We will still have the two old tee boxes and on top of the hill. So, there will be five tee boxes on that hole, and we have made them so that there will be a lot of different angles and distances.”
“The main reason I wanted to have the island green is that I’ve fought the water there all my life working on the course,” said Mr. Seabrook. “The course is barely above lake levels and in the spring when the water is high, there wa∆s nowhere else for the water to go in the past. I look forward to not having to work in puddles on the hole. And the work that was done this year was the fourth time we’ve built up the green. My dad (Jack Seabrook) built the original green at the river, and in 1996 I made the green higher.”
The green will be surrounded on all sides by water and in a shape that Mr. Seabrook said looks like a lily pad. “There will be a ridge in the middle, so depending where you are on the green you will have to putt over a bump,” he said. There will be a little ‘beach’ in front of the green and a sand trap. “It is going to be so cool.”
The cart trail to the green will be on the left, and there will be two land bridges at the front and the back of the green. The former green has been relocated to an area in front of the club house to be used as a practice green and the soil taken from the old green will be used as moguls (big bumps) to provide a barrier between the seventh and eighth hole fairways.
The island green “will really define the eighth hole,” said Mr. Seabrook who said the new green will be open by July 1.
