Northwest by southeast?

The extended warm days this autumn inspired me to squeeze in a few more road trips before I need to break out the winter tires.

Having spent a great deal of time in the southwest of our province earlier this summer, I chose to explore the southeastern corner recently. Travelling along the Trans-Canada, I saw the sign for East Braintree and highway 308. I have never been down this path before, so I turned off. I recommend this drive!

About an hour into my journey, I was faced with a fork in the road; the junction of PTH 525 East. This road starts out as a provincial roadway, but about 10 kilometres in, it becomes a Minnesota state road! Yes, this is the famous Northwest Angle of the North Star State. There is not much here; a post office, a few fishing lodges, a restaurant, and a cute nine hole golf course!

If you are not familiar with the Northwest Angle, it is a part of Minnesota that is separated from the main state by the Lake of the Woods. North of this peninsula, across the inlet, lies Ontario. The west edge is Manitoba’s border. South and east lies the waters called Big and Little Traverse Bays of the aforementioned LOTW. Boats and snowmobiles, within their respective seasons, are the easiest way to get to this area. Getting there by car, however, is a one road option in the summer, and that road only goes through Canada.

If you are looking for the golf course, look no further than the official United States Post Office. This building shares its parking lot with the golf course clubhouse. The clubhouse was closed when I played, but there is signage describing the fees on the front door, and just to the right of the door is the cash box where you drop your greenbacks (prices are in USD, remember). If you want snacks or drinks, they are available at a couple of the lodges and restaurants nearby. There are carts available at the house just east of the parking lot, rented out by a lovely retired couple, but this course is short and flat. Walking it is not a problem at all.

When you get all set up on the first tee, you might notice a large sand trap close to the pin. That is not a sand trap; rather it is a sand green! The reality is grass greens are expensive to maintain, and sand greens are not. This golf course is a mom-and-pop operation. Since the town only has about 120 people, I find it impressive these folks operate any level of golf course for their fellow residents. It does make for a fun game, since bump and runs on such greens don’t really work, and you are forced to make nice up and down “plop” chip shots. Once you get out onto the first fairway, you will notice the greenery is a mix of grass, crab grass, weeds, and clover — just like my front yard! This actually made my game much more enjoyable, as the ball seemed to be floated above the ground due to the density and variety of the growth.

Hole 1 and hole 2 are wide open offerings. The first hole is a par 3, and the next is a par four. Once you get to the par 3, number 3, you finally run into some barriers. In this case, the roadway on the right is OB. Hole 4 has thick bush lining it on the right, but it is mostly open on the left. As you get close to the green, there is bush again on the left which narrows your play in towards the green.

Another aspect of this narrowing on 4 is the transition of the fairway grass. It changes from grass that I might call my back yard into actual golf fairway grass. Such grass needs lots of water. This hole, and hole 5, are on the shores of the inlet, so water is no issue at this point of the course. Even the greens on 4 and 5 are grass! Now, it’s still not the green cut most are used to, but the change is welcome. Both 4 and 5 have sand traps at 4 and 7 o’clock.

Hole five has a little pond with thick growth around it 100 metres (sorry, yards) off the tee, and once you clear that, the rest of the link is a huge semi-circular dogleg leading to the tightly tucked green on the left. Hole 6 plays fairly straight forward, but there is a curious strip of tall grass at 200 yards, but it poses no extra challenge to the hole. Seven is a nice short par 3, but it has two challenging sand traps, again at 4 and 7 o’clock. What makes these traps interesting is the grass growth between the traps and the green. It is about a foot high, and can cause frustration if you are near that part of the lip. Hole 8 if fairly wide, but when you look down the fairway from the tee, you see three greens! You are aiming for the middle one, by the way.

Coming home, you are faced with a tight, narrow fairway requiring four hits to score a par. If you hit errantly here, you will likely be going to the bag for another ball. If you over-hit the second shot, you might hit the post office. I don’t know if there is a penalty for hitting an official U.S. government building, but considering current U.S. leadership, I would highly recommend you lay up.

This is all on U.S. soil, despite it looking very much like Sprague, so remember you need your passport. Getting in is easy. You simply stop at a place called Jim’s corner, go into a booth, and tap your info into an iPad. Getting out seems more difficult. You can either try picking up the Canada phone on the outside of the aforementioned booth, but it was cutting out on everyone when I was there. Most people just called the 1-800 number for the Canadian Border Service, and that proved to be more successful for folks. If you do go, don’t forget to visit their tourist buoy, modelled on the buoy at the tip of Key West, Florida. The Minnesota version claims the extreme northwest part of the contiguous USA. Strange how I had to travel to the extreme southeast of the Manitoba to see it.