Manoir Richelieu, by Strong (NLE 2007?)

[ian]

I have been doing research for an article on courses that no longer exist (NLE). Manoir Richelieu will cease to exist come 2007. A golf writer today told me he has seen the plans and the course will undergo a major redevelopment that will eliminate all of the original holes once and for all.

I hope someone has been there recently enough to know how much of the original course is left, because changes have been made over the years. But come 2007, it will be gone for good.


The course was a very prominant and imporatant course to Canadian Golf. From Golf in Canada, A History " But Strong's masterpiece in Canada is the Manoir Richelieu hotel course at Murray Bay......."

Strong wrote "The scenery surrounding the Manoir Richelieu Golf course at Murray Bay is the most impressive setting for a links of which I have knowledge. The chief task I faced, was to build this natural beauty into every possible feature of the play. No designer could have more varied or lavish material to work with."


The following is all taken from the Canadian Steamship publication about the course at Murray Bay, Quebec called Manoir Richelieu, designed by Herbert Strong. The publication is called Golf in the World's Oldest Mountains by Thomas Uzzell.
What bothers me most, was how easy it would have been to restore this course.


The first hole at Manoir Richelieu and the first page of the booklet on the holes. Note the plan to go with the image. There is both for every hole.



The second page has a typical elevation and written description



The famous downhill par five 2nd hole with plan and image



The text and elevation. From here I will just highlight a few things, but I think you get the idea.



The 3rd green



The famous 7th with the huge hill to possibly carry.



The 9th



The 11th green



The uphill 16th famous from many photos



The facinating short 18th with the two knolls in front of the green (like Cleopatra at Jasper.



I'm sure the plan is to modernize and have a "championship" length 27 holes; but I doubt any of Strong's charm will be duplicated. Another loss for the game.

[Jeff_Mingay]

Ian, my friend: who's renovating the course?

My guess is, Graham Cooke?

[Robert Thompson]

Give that man a dollar.

[Matt Kardash]

Ian,
I was at the course early last summer. When I was there, we could only play 8 of the old holes and 10 of the new ones that I beleive Graham Cooke's firm produced.

We couldn't play the other old holes because they were being renovated. It was my understanding that this year they were going to renovate the rest of the eighteen and have a 27 hole facility with 18 old holes and 9 new ones.

The views on the 9 new holes are some of the greatest on earth for sure. Too bad that design of those holes are beyond cookie cutter.

The new driving range is hands down the wildest on earth. It is set at least 500 feet on the top of semi cliff which goes almost straight down into the saint lawrence river(which is so wide it looks like an ocean). The driving range is so shallow that they don't let you hit any woods, even with the 50 mph wind that blows straight in your face.

The 8 old holes i got to play weren't very scenic at all compared to the new ones, but they sure did play better (even though they were in dire need of a renovation)

[ian]

Matt,

The golf writer I talked to today said that he had seen the plans for renovation and this would be essentially a new 27 hole Graham Cooke course.

While your note of "old holes" and "new holes" gives me hope, I'm not confident. Could it be possible that the "old holes" are just holes on the original location?

Did you take photos of the course by the way?

[Matt Kardash]

Ian,
Well the old holes I played were old. I mean, I couldn't tell you if they were exactly what herbert strong designed, but they were surely old. The fairways were still very very crinkly, you could twist an ankle if weren't careful.

The holes I played were all at the bottom of the hill, and didn't have much elevation change going for them. I didn't play any of those real hilly holes like in your pics. But I did see one hilly hole near the clubhouse, and it looked like it was being renovated. The greens are still very wild too.

Nope, no pics. sorry

[Matt Kardash]

And Ian, maybe by the time Graham is done with those old holes they will look so much like his style that the course will be deemed a cooke course. Maybe that's what that golf writer was talking about. I didn't see any of the holes post renovation, so I wouldnt know how it turned out. The 8 old holes I got to play hadn't been touched yet. They were supposed to go under the knife this summer.

[henrye]

Ian, why don't you give Cooke a call.  Find out what he's doing and why.  Maybe all the plans are complete, maybe not.  I'm sure he would be happy to take a call from you.  If you share what you know, I don't see how it could hurt.