The Dunes was by far my favorite course ive played in MB out of all the top courses. It is cool that their membership allows a little bit of outside play. It was $250 to play.
Excellent practice facilities and the practice green right on the ocean was nice. It was firm and fast, i couldnt believe how firm it was playing. There is a lot of water but I would say its mostly avoidable of you choose to be conservative.
On their signature hole, The Waterloo it's impossible to take the water out. Its basically a banana shaped hole. Off the tee you can play a long iron to give yourself a larger landing area but you will have a forced carry over water 2nd shot if you want to use a 3wood. If you take on the risk of hitting driver you have a very narrow landing area where a miss right will be in the water. The reward is a much shorter forced carry but there is water all down the right side.
Im not sure how much excavation they did when building this course because there were a lot of bluffs and elevation changes. Greenside bunkers were deep and mean. I visited many of them and am proud I got them all out in one shot except for one. All the geeens are heavily guarded with bunkers. A fairway bunker usually comes in to play for your driver as well so being straight off the tee is crucial.
The green complexes are severe and elevated. Pretty much every hole had an area on the green that would repel balls off the green to a runoff area. I was expecting the greens to be a lot faster but Im sure they dont want to shave them down too much until tournament. Rough was deep and thick.
The only hole with an unobstructed ocean view is the par 3 10th hole. A few others play along a marsh.
Overall it is a good mix of long and short holes that put a wedge in my hand for my 2nd shot which is always nice. Par 3 distances were perfect. None of them were crazy long around 140-160 but heavily bunkered.
I look forward to hopefully playing here again in the future.
Thanks for your take on The Dunes, it is MB's Top Rated Course IMO, so many memorable holes, you just want to get back ASAP to try your game on it again.
On #13 Waterloo par 5, it's good to not be too conservative off the tee,
because a short tee shot has to carry more of the water.
A longer tee shot does have a more narrow fairway, but then there is
less water to carry and you can hit it further up the fairway.
Dunes is getting ready for the MB Classic, so firmness is expected,
unless it rains.
Thanks!
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Playing The Dunes is such a great experience!
Glad you had this opportunity!
Denis Gilbert
Quebec City, Canada
This is my bucket list course in MB. Never played there due to being in golf trips where price was important. Maybe one day.
Have played well over 80 in the area but never Dunes. I keep telling myself every Spring and Fall that this will be the time but I never pull the trigger due to sticker shock.
@brattenj It's definitely pricey, but now that prices have gone up so much on other courses in the area, it almost feels like a steal if you can get on it for $250 (although they charge much more than that at certain times).
A course like the Thistle is charging $200+ to play at rack rate, and while I like the Thistle, it's not even half as good as the Dunes.
''It's just golf, let's have fun''
Dunes is a great place, I remember playing there, played with some good people also. Hope you get back there soon.
Let the Big Dawg Bark!!!
