Through the years, curiosity has brought me more satisfaction than trouble, so when it strikes, I usually indulge it. Seeing Lorie Kane—born and raised on remote Prince Edward Island—rise to prominence on the LPGA Tour, I wondered how a girl from Canada’s smallest province developed into a player on the biggest stage in women’s golf.

Determined to find out, a friend and I caught a plane to Charlottetown, the capital of Prince Edward Island. Not that we had to fly: Formerly accessible only by plane or boat, PEI is connected to the New Brunswick mainland by an eight-mile bridge that opened three years ago. We soon discovered that the pace on PEI is in tune with the island’s three major industries: fishing, farming and tourism. You don’t rush any of these.

For about six months of every year, the maritime lifestyle and pastoral setting draw legions of visitors from the northeastern U.S. Many have been coming here for generations to stay at the colorful inns and bed-and-breakfasts near the beaches—and to play the surprisingly large number of superb seaside courses.

We had our choice of more than 20 layouts, including several that rank among Canada’s best, one fresh off the drawing board of acclaimed designer Michael Hurdzan and, of course, Lorie Kane’s home course. That’s a lot of quality golf concentrated on an island twice the size of Rhode Island, but populated by fewer residents (138,000) than Providence.

Over breakfast at Charlottetown’s Fairholm National Historic Inn, a restored mansion near the harbor, I asked the waitress if she had read Anne of Green Gables, written by islander Lucy Maud Montgomery. She blushed and admitted she had not. Locals apparently don’t share the rest of the world’s ongoing fascination with the 1900s children’s classic that put PEI on the map. The book is a favorite of Japanese youngsters, thousands of whom convince their families to make the pilgrimage to PEI.

Curiosity struck again. We briefly joined the international throng filing through the reconstructed farmhouse and barn at Green Gables in Prince Edward Island National Park. Truth be told, we were more interested in what lay beyond the farm’s garden gate: the 11th hole of Green Gables Golf Course, the first of six courses we had decided to play.

Green Gables is a 6,459-yard Stanley Thompson design built in 1939 and revamped in the ’80s. It’s a relatively open routing bordered by mature hardwoods. While the course simply doesn’t measure up to the newer venues, Green Gables has some memorable holes on the back nine, where the Lake of Shining Waters comes into play. The signature 16th hole is a lovely 181-yard par 3 that crosses a corner of the lake.

We stopped off at one of the many village halls offering a feast of fresh local lobster, then spent a balmy evening at the Charlottetown Driving Park, a harness racing track near the center of town. Horse racing is a family affair here, with grandfathers and teenagers competing in spindly-wheeled sulkies while the townsfolk cheer from the grandstand.

The next morning, a 25-minute drive took us past bucolic farms with buildings painted in bold Caribbean hues, and equally colorful fishing villages mirrored in quiet harbors. All commercial signs are small, uniform and black-and-white, so the view is unsullied.

On the windswept north coast we found what we’d been looking for: the Links at Crowbush Cove. In 1998, when Crowbush began appearing on various course rankings, the provincial government capitalized on the attention and began upgrading government-owned courses and encouraging private development of new ones. As a result of this effort, the island’s standing as a golf destination is now soaring.

Crowbush, a 1994 Thomas McBroom creation, looks as if it were scooped from the British Isles and set down on PEI. Eight holes skirt spectacular sand dunes and eight more feature some sort of water, usually in the form of salty marshes. Bordered by tall, brown native grasses, the fairways pitch and roll like frozen green waves, their surfaces pocked with deep, heavy-lipped pot bunkers.

On the tee of the par-3 6th hole, trees broke the wind off the ocean, but we could see the flag whipping on the narrow green 191 yards away. Marshland in front of the tee drains into a lake left of the green. Bunkers guard the right and rear of the putting surface. Aiming a full 20 yards to the right turned out to be the correct play.

The par-4 16th hole begins over water, then climbs to a small contoured green ringed by bunkers. Looking back from the green, you can see ocean stretching to the horizon.

After playing, we fortified ourselves with big buckets of steamed mussels—an island specialty—in the colonial-style clubhouse, then prepared to take on Dundarave, a course that rivals Crowbush for beauty and toughness. This new Michael Hurdzan-Dana Fry track lies next to the venerable Brudenell River Course (where Lorie Kane learned to play) at the Brudenell Golf Resort. Kane’s first coach, Anne Chouinard, heads the Dundarave Golf Academy.

Like Crowbush, Dundarave is a wild, natural beauty, with knee-high brown grasses and deep ravines. However, it has an unmatched feeling of isolation as it winds through thick woods along the riverside. Another natural touch is the indigenous red-tinted sand used in the bunkers. Despite its beauty, Dundarave is a bit severe, at least in comparison to typical resort golf. While the landing areas are wide, most fairways are minefields of deep bunkers.

The Brudenell River Course, a traditional layout with flatter fairways and more moderate bunkering, offers a sharp contrast to Dundarave. A longtime stop on the Canadian Tour, the 6,591-yard course hugs the river, features dense rough and is subject to frequent high winds. Swirling gusts are the norm on the 163-yard 5th hole—called “Ink Pot”—and the 10th hole (“Shimmering Waters”), a 143-yard beauty with water front and left.

Our PEI golf sampler also included a 30-year-old favorite of the Charlottetown crowd, as well as the island’s newest course, located just 10 minutes from town. The former, Stanhope Golf Club, zigzags 6,600 yards across a hillside overlooking scenic Covehead Bay. Wind off the water constantly buffets its unassuming, open fairways. Every approach shot and many putts are memorable and sometimes maddening, because the undulating cloverleaf greens are set in bowls created by steep greenside mounding.

Fox Meadow Golf and Country Club, designed by Rob Heaslip and playing to 6,836 yards, opened last spring. When we played it, the course was open and forgiving because the rough of clover and crown vetch had yet to mature. But the many crowned greens and constantly swirling winds make nearly every approach shot interesting.

During our visit, we stayed up the coast from the Brudenell River Course at the new Inn at Spry Point, which occupies an isolated spit of land. Our only regret was the brevity of our stay, as we found this small hotel to be the epitome of comfort, service and ambiance. In its candlelit dining room we lingered over entrees such as almond-crusted salmon with a creamy dill sauce and desserts made with fresh local blueberries.

People of Scottish descent make up the largest ethnic group on PEI, and it takes little curiosity to discover evidence of these roots. The island has an official dress tartan, a school for aspiring bagpipers, town names like New Glasgow—and a selection of golf courses that would make the Scottish forefathers proud