On the Links – 100 Years of Golf in Metis

No summer community in Quebec catering to the English-speaking population was complete without a golf course. Golf has been played in Metis since the last century. The Metis course began on the Macnider farm, where a few enthusiasts obtained permission to play through hayfields after they were mowed to whack their way towards a pole stuck at the requisite distance. The game took off. What else to do in a seaside resort where the sea was too bracing for most bathers to endure?

In their infancy, resort courses were often very basic, offering players wide open fairways and few trees. There was lots of rough and long grass to tangle golf balls. Golfers were rare and groundskeepers were scarce. The first holes of the Cascade golf course traversed the front yard of several cottages. The first tee was finally moved so that residents could live without the danger of golf balls careening through their dining room window.

The course took its present form in the 1940s. The only major alteration occurred when the highway by-pass bisected the course and required the construction of a viaduct to allow golfers and their carts to traverse the busy road in safety.

Golf is one of the few sports where men, women and children played alongside each other. This made it one of the popular leisure activities in Metis. It was sufficiently in demand to encourage the Astles to build a second golf course in 1919. It took its name from their Boule Rock Hotel. In 1960, a group of “sportifs” from Mont-Joli acquired the club from the Astles. The Boule Rock celebrated its centenary in 2019.