Le Diable Review

Where its sister course beats you up with terrain, Le Diable does it with geometry. Hurdzan and Fry cleared broad corridors through the pines and then defended them with the course's signature: sprawling waste bunkers of red sand that flank and cross the fairways like dry riverbeds. The corridors look generous from the tee and are not, because the angles matter enormously; the wrong half of the fairway leaves you staring at a green defended by red sand and false fronts.

At over 7,000 yards from the back deck it is the strongest driving test in the Laurentians, yet the forward tees keep it honest for a resort crowd. Conditioning is dependable resort-grade, quick greens and tidy surrounds, and the walk is gentler than the mountain setting suggests. Like everything at Tremblant you pay resort prices for it, which is the only thing between the experience and a higher grade. Play it in late September when the fescue is gold and the crowds are gone.