MT TREMBLANT GREAT GOLF AREA TO VISIT
“I think we are very comparable in price to any hotel you would stay at around the world. You also get the added value of a pedestrian village, both summer and winter. The gondola and beach club are free. In the winter there is a ice skating rink and fresh tracks program where you ski on the mountain first in fresh snow. It is the whole deal and you get a lot of value. We have lowered some prices on peak times to help get people to come,” said Lacasse. “We hear a lot of languages here with french for sure but you hear lots of different accents.I feel on vacation here all the time. Everything is to make you feel comfortable here.”
My hotel in Mt Tremblant was Ermitage Du Lac located right in the Mt Tremblant village. It was a great place to stay with beautiful rooms complete with fridge, stove, microwave, etc if you wanted to make some of your own meals. A nice breakfast is included during your stay.
Another unique feature of Mt Tremblant is their race track 6 kilometers away. There is a Ferrari Driving school there and they have different race events throughout the summer.
My first course to play at Mt Tremblant was La Geant. This course is right at the main entrance to Tremblant and proved to be a very picturesque setting. The Tom McBroom design offers very undulating terrain which provides a good challenge for golfers. They are investing in drainage here at the Le Geant. Last year $186,000 was spent on Hole number 2 itself. They want to be able to be open more often evenin wet conditions.
My day at Le Geant was on a Friday which would have 184 players on the course that day. The cost to play Le Geant is $79 during the week and on the weekend $99. Their season starts in May until late October according to Denis Marchand, a starter at the course. The summer can be warm at 30 celsius in the area and my day was sunny and warm. I really enjoyed the scenery at La Geant.
On Saturday it was an early 7:20 am tee off at Le Diable. This well known Quebec course was built in 1998 with architect Dan Fry. The first thing you will notice at Le Diable are waste bunkers. They are huge and make you more motivated to hit a ball on the fairway during your game. They do add a nice ambience to the course and are something I have not seen often. The fairways are more flat here than at Le Geant. The quality of the greens are the same at both Intrawest courses with bent grass. At Le Diable they are redoing all the sand traps with new sand and there are many traps. Le Diable is a great challenge for golfers. You have to get used to playing from large waste bunkers especially if you aren’t a straight hitter of the ball! I really enjoyed the scenery at Le
Diable as well. It is just a few minutes away from the Mt Tremblant main centre.
My last course at Mt Tremblant was La Bete at Gray Rocks. It was fun to play with Daniel Cordier, one of the owners. “We bought Grey Rocks 20 years ago and it was a large hotel with over 300 rooms, 22 tennis courts, a ski hill and one golf course at the time. La Belle. We built a second course La Bete around the same time that Le Diable was being developed. La Bete is located on 300 acres and the architect was Graham Cooke along with his partner,” said Daniel Cordier. “I like the property very much. We made sure that most of the tee shots ended up with an elevated tee which gives a certain feel for the golfer. I have played the course almost 850 times and what
I like the most and appreciate is there is not one hole that looks the same as another hole. I like being here in the spring and summer even though the fall is usually the best time on a golf courses. My wife and I spend 8 months of the year living in France where I live on a golf course. We are crazy about golf!”
During my time at La Bete the rate is $99 including the cart which is a good value. You can get twilite rates as well. In the fall it is beautiful with the leaves, the mountain and the lake. It is really worth to come here in the Fall according to Daniel Cordier.
It was fun visiting Mt Tremblant and playing some golf. This is definitely a world class resort and one you can get to easily for a nice vacation summer and winter.