19 of 70: Red Tail Landing Golf Club, Edmonton AB

Very friendly staff at 19th hole: J-M with Ashley

Its been a long winter and spring is finally here, a month late but who's counting. Brenda and I got our golf clubs out of storage and, on Saturday, we made our way to the Red Tail Landing neighbouring the Edmonton airport. Now, if you check the club's website and peruse the photo gallery, you will quickly notice that our pictures offer quite a different view.

You know you are in Alberta when you can still see some ice on the ponds along the fairway at the end of April and the grass is still brown and beaten down and you can find casual water on all the fairways. But we were out there playing, breathing some fresh air, fighting ferocious winds and having a ball. It was a gorgeous sunny day, a perfect day for a walk down the fairways. Not that we had any choice mind you. The fairways were so wet that the carts were restricted to the paved paths. Even riding we still managed over 10,000 steps on the pedometer. The Red Tail Landing is a long course, measuring 7322 yards from the back tees. Needless to say I was more than happy, on my first day out, to play the senior (forward) tees which still offered nearly 6,000 challenging yards, the equivalent distance to the middle tees on many courses.

I just couldn't resist this picture of a ball on the ice as captured by Brenda. Not one of ours but I could imagine the dilemma... Does it play as a lateral water hazard or as an unplayable lie? I know, I know... but a fun way to look at it anyway. We had an enjoyable practice round. It was somewhat slow due to the wet conditions and clocked at more than five hours. Hard to find any rhythm under those conditions but who cares.

I still managed to post a round in the mid nineties which was not bad for a first time out this spring. Brenda was driving well but couldn't find her putting stroke for a long while. She was however warming up at the end of the day shooting a par on 16 and a birdie on the par three 17th.  As mentioned earlier, and as evidenced by these pictures, there is plenty of water on this course and the grass is still quite brown.

Things will look very different come summer but the vastness of the Alberta blue sky will remain. The big  skies have been the delight of many Alberta artists and have been represented in many forms, whether calm or stormy, blue or dark. Always unmistakable! And we have missed them when living elsewhere. Come May and June, we will be enjoying them till past eleven at night. The sunsets are however equally enjoyable. À bientôt!

From the Red Tail Landing parking lot, April 21st.