Sweetens Cove North in Montreal: Canada’s Most Tantalizing Golf Project

From a very young age, I realized that I never wanted to work in the golf industry. Of course, fate conspired as it does and here we are, at least somewhat involved. Luckily, I’ve had the chance to visit some cool places and experience some first class operations, which, as is human nature, is apt to give anyone the itch, the belief (or the delusion) that they can emulate it, if not do better if so tasked.  

In particular, despite featuring a handful of wonderful private clubs, the Montreal area’s complete lack of even somewhat quality public offerings has long befuddled me, especially if you can’t get into a car and drive north to Lachute or to Ile De Montreal GC on the very eastern tip of the island, out in the boonies beyond the Suncore gas refineries. Where does a public golfer, who lives in Cotes-Des-Neiges, for example, go to play somewhere half-decent? Otherwise, it is Canada’s best city, of course, replete with everything (and then some) that one would desire, without being totally leveled, to date at least, by the annonymizing and tranquilizing hands of modernity, as Toronto and Vancouver both have to varying extents, and without being nearly impossible to afford to live in, particularly for younger professionals. In short, Montreal still feels like its own distinct city, not a largely placeless one as those do.

That being said, however, when the Ireland course at Ile De Montreal GC is your best public option (and it’s a Doak 4, at most) within the city limits, you’re suffering, down bad. Yet there is one tantalizing possibility that is located literally right under Montrealers’ noses, besides perhaps its most recognizable artifact, at least in terms of sports: that being the Olympic Stadium. And that golf course is the Montreal Municipal Golf Club.

In 1967, a Montreal Municipal Golf Club, merely a few years after opening, hosted an ill-fated, effectively sportswashed Canadian Open won by Billy Casper. However, that version, an Albert Murray design, was closed during the preparations for the 1976 Olympics and then moved and shortened into whatever the golf course is currently. Frankly, I’ve never played it, and I probably never will. 

Yet, in 1970, a newspaper clipping stated that it was Canada’s busiest layout; fast-forward to today and its popularity, I believe, hasn’t completely vanquished. Its tee sheet, despite what appears to be the shabby quality of the course, still seems busy. 

So what would I do with it? Well, it’s no secret that golfers, here and everywhere, novice and seasoned, are yearning for smaller yet still interesting and accessible golf courses that are closer to the major urban centers: easier to get to; quicker to play; and easier to score on. The game has grown, incredibly so, amongst the demographic that desires and needs such courses, and, despite some skepticism, it hasn’t shrunk yet from its COVID-years high. 

As much as I am turned off, to a large extent, by the new “street”, “culty” angle that has infiltrated the Royal and Ancient Game, from golf courses, to baggy fashion, to the boorish behavior seen much more commonly around golf clubs now, I can’t deny that this evolution has been a net positive and can also grasp why it has evolved in this manner. Although, from a selfish perspective, I undoubtedly preferred how the sport was a decade ago, when I could get a tee time at the last minute on a weekend morning, when I didn’t hear music blaring from every cart, and when I could buy a wedge for under two hundred dollars, ultimately it was on its deathbed back then for a reason. It needed to change.

Although the keep-it-Canadian contingent will probably get angered by this, I would bulldoze the current MTl Muni golf course, raze most of the trees (if permits allow), and hire either Andy Staples to build another PGA Match Course or King/Collins to build a Sweetens Cove north in downtown Montreal. I’ve always adhered to the belief that one should hire the best, and they’ve produced the best examples of golf courses that fit, essentially to a tee, the mold of my vision. Of course I’m sure that others, such as Ian Andrew, Christine Fraser and Jeff Mingay, would do first-rate work, too, but it’s my hypothetical exercise, so let me dream! It’s never going to happen with me in charge anyways. There’d be no rough; you could play it with a just putter, if you so desired to, in about an hour; we’d have two hole locations on every green; we’d have music piping through the golf course; we’d have a great bar with good food and cocktails; and we’d fully work to curate a cult-following, from merch to social media to messaging, very much as Copetown Woods, here in Canada, has done, to great success, too. Of course, Montreal Muni is located both where there is ample parking nearby and close the metro line, as well, so accessibility from downtown — and the west end even — wouldn’t be an issue.

As a city, Montreal, especially its younger inhabitants, has always favored the cool, the quirky, and so that’s what we’d try to tap into here. The best golf clubs are extensions of their surrounding community, after all. Perhaps I’m naïve but, frankly, I really can’t see, if able to get past the planning stage, why it would fail after that. To me, this is a hanging curve on the outside of the plate; someone, or some few, far richer than me (like how the bill for Hanse’s The Park was footed), just needs to fork out the cash to make it happen. Just remember who planted the seed.