Architect: Renovated by Wade Horrocks in 2019
Back tee*: 376 yards / 345 metres
Joe Average tee*: 301 yards / 275 metres
Green fee: CDN$45 twilight rate
How she looks
*Distances taken from club website or, if unavailable there, from Swingu
Any golf architect looking for meaningful feedback on a hole he's created could do a lot worse than to install a GoPro camera behind the tee and film golfers' body language as they tee off.
If they ponder what's in front of them before addressing the ball, you succeeded. If they swing away on autopilot, you failed.
And that's what I like about the 7th at McCall Lake. All the options stop you in your tracks.
For brevity's sake, let's take one of them out of the equation and assume there isn't a stiff breeze ripping across that hefty body of open water (or, even worse, towards it).
The boomers among you can toy with the idea of going for the green from one of the forward tees but laying up isn't without its choices.
The short line on the left involves flirting with the water, while staying right brings two bunkers into play.
If you like your chances of avoiding both water and sand and landing your drive beyond the traps, you'll pretty much take the water out of play for your approach but your drive must now negotiate a much narrower landing area.
Meanwhile, the ultra-conservatives can land their tee shots short of the bunkers on the right but there's now nowhere to hide with a tricky approach shot. And if you over-compensate in your anxiety to avoid the lake, there's a bunker awaiting you behind the green.
Even the greenkeeper has momentous choices to make. You'll notice that this becomes a very different hole when the pin is on the narrow left side of the green rather than the broader right.
Yes, there's a lot going on here. And I love it.
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