Canada’s 5 (5!) Properly Mowed/Pruned Golf Courses
On a recent Instagram post about Capilano, I mentioned that there are, more or less, 5 properly mowed and pruned golf courses in Canada. In truth, I sort of made that comment in the heat of moment, without properly going over the country to see whether it was factual. Well, upon further inspection and consultation, 5 is, in fact, the right number. Now there are a few others that are close-ish to being worthy of inclusion in this list; however, these 5 stand out as being particularly good examples of maintenance. 5 out of approximately 2400 golf courses in Canada…
Cabot Links/Cabot Cliffs: Nothing much to be explained here. Yet I will say that one of my primary (and few) complaints about Cabot Links, in particular, is the unplayability of the out-of-play-areas; in my eyes, a true links golf course should be, essentially, playable from end-to-end of the property (at least where there’s grass).
Toronto Golf Club: Canada’s most exemplary club is, unsurprisingly, leading the way here, too. A ton of much needed tree removal has been done over the last few years, opening up vistas across the property, improving both the turf and the visual impact of the golf course. There are still clusters of trees to clear, especially near the clubhouse, but it’s trending in the right direction.
Blackhawk: It has often been claimed that Rod Whitman captured the spirit of Stanley Thompson’s artistry more forcefully here than anywhere else in Canada; now if only the stewards of the Toronto Terror’s many works could keep theirs as well and lovingly as they do at Blackhawk.
Sagebrush: One of the key, and most underrated, elements in architecture is matching the scope of the work of hand and machine to that of the setting. Grandiose settings require grandiose architecture, so that it doesn’t become overwhelmed and thus feel feeble amidst the landscape, and Rod Whitman, like Thompson did at Banff and Jasper, certainly did so beautifully here.
I’m curious as to the authors thought on why this isn’t the case more, is it budget or ignorance?
I think of course like wolf creek does it not make the list due to budget? And places mentioned like Banff, jasper, capilano, westmount what is missing to make them additions to your list?
Good question. As to the why I think it’s probably more so a problem of ignorance rather than budget. I’m not an expert but some of the stuff courses could do to improve the mowing lines, for example, are not financially burdensome.
Wolf Creek and Laval Blue were both close to being included. If you want to include them, fine. The point of the article was still to highlight just how few Canadian golf courses are properly maintained, so whether that’s 0.0022% or 0.0025% of them, the point still stands