A Winner´s Fox Tale
By Robert Brehl
As an avid golfer, I had heard of the ultra exclusive Fox Harb'r Golf Resort & Spa in Nova Scotia.
After all, the giant American magazine Golf Digest had called it Canada's best new golf course in 2001 and, indeed, one of the best new courses in the world.
Fox Harb'r was built by Ron Joyce, the co-founder of the Tim Hortons donut empire. He still owns and operates it and is often around mingling with guests.
It's a place where the likes of Bill Clinton and champion golfers like Fred Couples and hockey legends like Bobby Orr and various zillionaires jet in to tee it up.
I never figured I would ever play it because it is so exclusive that if you have to ask the price of anything, you cannot afford to be there.
There is no question: I would have to be asking prices - that is, unless I got an all-inclusive package to visit Fox Harb'r at a charity auction.
Now, rich and famous I am not.
But for 36 hours - thanks to the Ultimate Jet Set Experience - seven buddies and I sure got to feel like we were.
We won the trip to Fox Harb'r at last year's gala dinner and auction.
This is the jet set package we won: transportation to and from the airport donated by Rosedale Livery, use of a private 8-seat Challenger jet donated by Bombardier and Joyce-owned Jetport Premium Aviation Services, and Fox Harb'r providing luxury accommodation, dinner and golf for eight people.
The retail value of the trip was more than $30,000. For example, it costs between $4,000 and $5,000 an hour to fly a Challenger jet. Our flight was about two hours each way.
Before the Ultimate Jet Set Experience last year, my friends and I agreed on a maximum bid for several of the packages on the auction block, but we really wanted Fox Harb'r.
Acting as proxy for the group, I lost out on all the other trips and Fox Harb'r was the last one up. I remember being in a battle with one other person in the room for the trip. All of a sudden, we hit my maximum bid.
And just as suddenly, the other bidder dropped out. Then the auctioneer said, "Going once, going twice, sold" and pointed at me.
I immediately gulped and felt the blood rush from my head. My last car didn't cost this much. What have I done, I thought.
Buyer's regret? You betcha. Instantly.
Putting on a brave face, I turned to my wife and said, "This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
She shook her head. "You seem to get these once-in-a-lifetime golf opportunities every year."
But this was different. This was not a simple golf trip to Carolina, Florida or even Scotland. This was our own $24 million private jet to an unbelievable resort and golf course for one night and a lifetime of memories.
"Besides," I sheepishly said to her, "the money is going to charity...a charity to help kids."
One of my friends on the Fox Harb'r trip is a divorce lawyer and we were going the same day as his wedding anniversary.
If he could get away with it, I figured my chances would be pretty good, too.
That morning at Hamilton airport, we pulled up to our Challenger jet, parked beside John Travolta's private jet.
We were greeted by Captain Ron Adair and our own personal flight attendant named Heidi. Adair and some ground workers tucked our luggage and golf clubs in the back of the jet.
No line ups at a terminal counter or security checks. A totally different way to travel than commercial flying.
On board, we buckled ourselves into big leather seats, stretched out, flew 600 miles per hour at 35,000 feet while munching on fresh fruit and Tim Horton's donuts and muffins.
During each flight, Captain Adair invited one of us up to watch the takeoff and landings from the jump seat behind the cockpit. What a thrill, even for 40-something curmudgeons like us.
A TV screen in the cabin tracked our flight going over Lake Ontario , through the U.S. Northeast, and finally over New Brunswick and towards Wallace, Nova Scotia on the south shore of the Northumberland Strait.
We landed beside the 10th hole and could see people putting on the green as we came down. Almost like a taxi stand, there were half a dozen planes parked waiting to take stockbrokers and captains of industry home.
We were greeted on the runway by Ron Joyce and other Fox Harb'r folks.
Over the next 36 hours, we were pampered, living the high life. The service was exceptional. For such an exclusive (and expensive) resort, there were no airs about any of the staff we encountered.
The golf course was terrific and the food was superb, from the gourmet dinner to the pub style lunch.
All the suites had king-sized beds, fully stocked bars, heated marble floors in the bathroom with whirlpools.
Beyond our package, we each bought two extra rounds of golf and played a 54-hole tournament on one of the most spectacular golf courses in Canada .
The Graham Cooke-designed course starts out by taking golfers into parkland forests and then brings them out to play the back nine of links golf along the Northumberland Strait. From the 16th tee, one gets a breathtaking view of rugged cliffs fronting the ocean and Prince Edward Island across the Strait.
The greens were the fastest and truest any of us had ever played and the collection of par threes were the most varied and difficult I had found on one golf course.
After dining on lobster, racks of lamb and more (which was included in our package), we returned to our rooms overlooking the 10th green and sipped Lagavulin scotch. Before long, a midnight chipping and putting contest broke out with the roar of the surf behind us and a sky full of stars above.
In the end, we spent about $25,000 for the trip (about $3,000 each) when you add the things not included in the package like wine and beer, extra meals, and extra rounds of golf.
For me, that's a ton of money for an overnight golf trip.
But I don't look at it that way. From a middle-class perspective, it was a glimpse into a world unknown, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see how the elite rich live, even if it was for only 36 hours.
Writer Damon Runyon once said if you rub up against money long enough, some of it may rub off on you. Clearly 36 hours wasn't long enough for me, but it sure beat 15 minutes of fame.
Robert Brehl is a media relations consultant who lives in Port Credit, Ontario and can be reached at bob@abc2.ca