Most Americans have heard of Prince Edward Island, Canada, but they just haven’t. Most Canadians know where this small province is located, but it has never been there. On the one hand golfers in Canada, on the other hand, think of Pei, on the east coast of Brunswick New Brunswick in the Strumberland Strait, as a good place for golf where the rivals of the burning place are the best in the country. The island setting has always offered the perfect country for Golf: sandy beach soil and rolling hills that reach heights of over 400 meters and everything in between. The warm coastal climate allows for good golfing weather nine months of the year.
I first came to Pei, in 1972 as a young man, when the only access to the island was by boat (now a bridge). I brought my clubs and heard about the great golf at Brudenell River Golf Course, which had just opened. Since then, not much has changed in the bucolic pei, but from the golfer’s point of view, there has been an explosion of golf equipment. There are now 28 amazing courses on the island! Why? Because as one youth worker pointed out, “in the winter, we have hockey and we have curling. In the summer, we need something to hit.” For the island’s archers, that translates to 15 excellent 18 courses and 9 excellent-sized boss hits.
Everywhere, there is a multitude of places to stay, ranging from high-end hotels, chic boutiques, all kinds of motels you can think of and sharp b & bs. We have a small motorhome, so we took advantage of Pei’s arrangement of excellent state parks, spread across the island, bordering the beach and being timeless. It doesn’t matter where you choose to stay, the island is so small that if you stay in it, anywhere in Pei is an hour or less away.
Famous for potatoes (McDonald’s buys most of the crop because they grow big potatoes and put those long things in little red bowls), the world-famous seafood that will be on pei is delicious. I don’t know how many pounds of littleneck stealer clams, mussels and raw oysters I’ve eaten or cracked lobsters, but each one was better than the last. I can still feel the melted butter down my chin!
But let’s get back to golf. We worked our way from the northwest part of the island to the east. With courses available almost everywhere, the visitor should do something good to make the most of the PEI experience. Most golfers, especially those here for the first time, choose “three threes” as they should play. Under the banner of “Pei’s Perst”, Perexinestgolf.comand operated by the Pei Provincial Government, Links at Crowbush Cove, and side by side Brudenell River GC and The box Studies are getting a lot of attention.
Crowbush, set on the north coast of the open Atlantic Ocean, is nothing short of amazing. After Hurricane Fiona of 2022 hit the island and took out most of its trees, the drought of 2025 baked the roads, leaving the course playing like real links, hard and fast. Designed by Canadian Thomas McBroom, Crowbush offers one big hole after another, often crossing fresh and saltwater pools and beams. The craziest hole is the par 17, extending 135 yards but playing from 97 for most of us. Simple, right? Plan in and atop of the sweaside, the shot from the high Tee should pass the valley and you get the full height of the experience “often while the wind blows sideways. Finding and holding the green is the green itself.
DundaRave, with its spike of Pei Red Seand Bunkers, and the Brudenell river, by comparing the white sand, is more forgiving and is part of the main Roadd chief, which offers all the tourists who are tourists. My favorite holes were Dundarave’s 8th, a short Par 4 offering as you want to risk it, requiring a drive across a deep creek and over a red or short fairway to the green towards the Brudenell River. Number 5 at Brudenell, nicknamed “Ink Pot”, is a short but clever par 3 over the lake to a green set on a steep hill. It is usually better to use the slopes of the fields and play carom with a shot from the putt.
But if you only play those three, you’ll be missing out on some of the best courses Canada has to offer. Graham Cooke, another amazing Canadian designer, created Andersons Creek and Eagle Glenn The courses, both in the interior of the archipelago and feature excellent elevation changes, many forests with domesticated grains and superb bunkering from the native red sand. Avondale GC It is one of the oldest courses in Pei, with the first nine completed in 1968, followed by the second in 1971. It’s back to the original Avondale hole. Glasgow hills gc offers a start-up ride among the highest altitudes on the island, while Green Gible GC (next to Anne of Green Gible The house) takes you to gedler lush for a ride using vans in north pei. Mill River GC, Located in the north-east of the island, it is another beautiful track, originally designed by Robbie Robinson in 1970, with many renovations by Graham Cooke a quarter later.
If you have something short in mind, especially taking care of families or in small games, Pei doesn’t miss a beat. We started our journey at St. Felix GC To the northwest, a full length 9-hole course designed by Graham Cooke while working at Mint River. Red Sands GCdesigned by Alan Whitehead in 2000, a very short fun ride, listed as PO 32, but with full length holes going up or down, and playing longer than 2400 meters. You can imagine the bright red sand in its strategic bunkers.
There are many more 18 and 9 hole courses scattered around the island that I am yet to enjoy. Prince Edward Island is already calling me back for a great round of golf and the best seafood.
