The 2024 Top 100 – SCOREGolf

Stanley Thompson’s best Canadian golf course is an oft-debated topic, but as was the case two
years ago, his masterpiece in the west end of Toronto ranks best on this list. St. George’s
dazzles golfers with its gorgeous rolling fairways and its excellent — and sometimes deceptive
— bunkering. The putting surfaces were softened in recent years to better cope with modern-
day green speeds.

Toronto Golf Club has improved dramatically over the last decade thanks to a Martin Hawtree
restoration of Harry Colt’s design and the continued tree removal done by the club since. Firm,
fast turf, excellent bunkering, wonderful green sites, and contrasting colours thanks to wispy,
golden fescue make it one of the most enjoyable experiences in Canada.

Hamilton Golf and Country Club showed beautifully during this year’s RBC Canadian Open with
the Martin Ebert-led restoration of Harry Colt’s masterpiece having opened up wonderful long
vistas previously marred by tree growth. The course’s much-needed bunker renovation is a
visual homerun and the collection areas around greens give players plenty of short-game
options.

Beacon Hall, north of Toronto, is one of those tale-of-two-nines courses, with its front side
winding through a wooded area and the back nine laid out over a piece of open, rolling
property. The collection of par 3s are very strong at Beacon Hall, with tricky shorties at eight
and 11 contrasted by an absolute beast in the heroic 16th, the course’s signature hole.

Gabi Best/Courtesy The Pulpit Club

Plenty of inland golf courses claim to be “links-like.” Many aren’t even close. The Paintbrush in
Caledon, Ont., is a definite exception. A dramatic property largely without trees, the layout is
marked by pot bunkers, blind shots, tall fescue, stone walls and massive, extreme green
complexes. The Paintbrush is a rollicking adventure.

Westmount is a classic parkland-style layout that should be mentioned more often when
Stanley Thompson’s best creations are discussed. Wonderfully conditioned, the Kitchener, Ont.,
course moves nicely along sublime land with no misses or poor holes. The par 3s all play
downhill while the collection of par 4s are varied and sublime.

Thomas McBroom made his mark creating dramatic courses in Ontario’s Muskoka region that
feature the exposed rocky outcroppings of the Canadian Shield. Oviinbyrd is his best effort
thanks to a more restrained approach. The course still requires some heroic shots — such as
the 14th and 15th holes — but overall it is very playable and pleasing.

A recent renovation saw Michael Hurdzan make changes to every hole on London Hunt and the
result has moved the course up to 16th. Some 800 trees were cleared, all bunkers were rebuilt,
and greens were made more accessible with the removal of forced-carry hazards. The property
near the Thames River is sublime.

Coppinwood is a pristine Tom Fazio-designed course with some of the purest — and at times
scariest — green complexes in the country. While the front nine is solid, the course really picks
up steam on the back nine, which features some awesome and strategic holes backdropped by
protected forestland.

The Pulpit starts with a bang thanks to its dramatic drop-shot opening hole featuring a double
fairway guarded by water. From there, the course plays mostly through a wooded terrain with
some linksy holes in the middle of the back nine. The seventh is one of the great short par 3s in
Canada.

The ultra-private Goodwood, near Stouffville, Ont., is a bold Tom Mackenzie-Martin Ebert
design on rolling land with excellent green sites, vivid bunkering, fescue-lined fairways and a
brief stretch of holes through woodlands. With some links characteristics and firm turf,
Goodwood is pure golf.

Known to locals as Union, the Stanley Thompson designed St. Thomas is a gorgeous course that
smartly utilizes the property’s many valleys. The front-nine par 4s are excellent while the
course’s many sloped greens keep golfers on their toes. The ninth is a classic Thompson long
par 3.

Weston’s strongest quality is the variety in its holes. The yardage and direction of every par 3 is
different, the 4s require smart decisions off the tee, and the 5s play both uphill and down. The
drop-shot second, with a rail trestle in the distance, is the Toronto course’s signature.

If there were a Top 100 subcategory for best flat golf course, Walter Travis’ Cherry Hill would be
a frontrunner. Brilliant greens, surrounding run-off areas and elegant bunkering take your
attention away from the property’s lack of elevation. Cherry Hill is a pure course one would
never tire of playing.

The late Bob Cupp is known in Canadian golf course architecture circles mostly for his work at
Beacon Hall. However, his creation farther north near Collinwood, Ont., is also excellent.
Demanding but fair, Mad River is a walkable course on excellent land with 18 solid holes.

Accessible only by ferry or float plane, Doug Carrick’s Bigwin Island is big and beautiful and
never too demanding. Wide fairways and large greens keep the round enjoyable, with the
stunning sixth and 18th holes the most memorable thanks to their Lake of Bays backdrop.

Donald Steel’s Redtail is largely known for being unknown. The ultra-exclusive club sometimes
hosts just a few a handful of golfers per day. As for the course, the minimalist design contains
fewer than 30 bunkers and some fantastic, yet small, greens. The downhill par-3 ninth is
particularly pretty.

The private Port Carling is not discussed as much as other Muskoka, Ontario, clubs such as
Muskoka Bay, Rocky Crest or even Oviinbyrd, but Thomas McBroom’s creation here is a strong
one with big elevation changes decorated by exposed rock, distinctive bunkering and neat
green sites.

Essex is another design that outshines the land on which it was built. On mostly flat terrain,
Donald Ross’s pushed up, though accessible and well-contoured, greens are the defining
characteristic of this course. So too is its excellent bunkering.

Originally laid out by Willie Park, Jr., the South and West nines at Ottawa Hunt were most
recently renovated by Michael Hurdzan. Before and after, the course’s quality is owed to its
subtle, yet rolling, sandy land. Host of two recent Canadian Women’s Opens, the Hunt was
beloved by all players.

Summit, a Stanley Thompson design reworked by Doug Carrick, was built on yet another
excellent city site for golf. Just north of Toronto proper, it climbs and drops and twists and turns
from start to finish, with its first and 18th holes fantastic bookmarks to an enjoyable round.

Burlington is a golf course that has received more and more love from our panellists in recent
years and rightly so. A tree removal program helped the Stanley Thompson design
tremendously, but the real genius here is in the course’s wonderful land and Stanley
Thompson’s classic contouring.

Both nines on the exceptional Walter J. Travis-designed Lookout Point begin with a bang —
downhill par 4s offering views of the Niagara Falls skyline in the distance. The rest of the course
is mostly flat but with fantastic fairway contouring. Small greens keep you on your toes.

Originally a collaboration between Stanley Thompson and George Cumming, Mississauga has
been reworked many times by many different architects. Played largely in a valley, winding
holes navigating the Credit River make for a challenging, yet peaceful, round. The club will host
the 2025 CPKC Women’s Open.

Overlooking the body of water for which it is named, Georgian Bay is largely the work of
architect Jason Straka. Straka designed the course with wide fairways, large greens and
dramatic, flashed-face bunkering both for eye-candy and to catch errant shots. Plunging holes
overlooking the bay are a highlight.

A Nicol Thompson design, Brantford has been revitalized by the firm of Whitman, Axland &
Cutten, which redid its bunkers and some greens on the heels of a much-needed tree removal
project. Above the Grand River, Brantford requires precision off the tee and creativity around
its greens.

North of Toronto, Maple Downs was designed by William F. Mitchell on an awesome piece of
billowing property. Hillside green sites with slick surfaces and fairways through valleys highlight
the course, which got a facelift from Ian Andrew in recent times.

At Donald Ross’s Rosedale, located in the heart of Toronto, golfers begin their round steps from
a hilltop pro shop and then traverse a classic routing through upper and lower valleys. A varied
and awesome collection of par 3s and the bunkerless 14th hole are the highlights of this
fantastic course.

A layout imagined by American Chick Evans and brought to life by Stanley Thompson, Cutten
Fields recently underwent a restoration by architect Jeff Mingay in collaboration with the club.
Bigger greens, smaller, elegant bunkers and the removal of many trees made the club’s name
change back to Fields appropriate.

Thomas McBroom’s Wildfire uses parts of the Canadian shield for aesthetic beauty and
secluded playing corridors. The course traverses through a variety of different landscapes, with
woodlands, marshlands and heathlands coming into play and McBroom mixes bold holes with
subtler efforts.

The lone remaining Canadian design of A.W. Tillinghast, Scarboro was built on a dramatic
property full of drops, twists and turns. The east-end Toronto layout has several great short par
4s and a unique finishing frame where golfers must hit across a road in front of the tee deck.

The opulent Magna is a big, bold, bunker-filled course by Doug Carrick that played host to the
best women golfers in the world at the 2019 CPKC Women’s Open. Conditioning is marvellous
but the architecture is good too, with Carrick’s par 5s here particularly well crafted.

Stanley Thompson’s 100-plus-year-old Muskoka Lakes is a short but charming course with some
wonderful par 3s and a number of exciting short par 4s. Its lovely setting and fine finishing hole
have helped it to a Top 100 position for the first time, and it debuts at No. 79.

Dundas Valley’s trademark is most definitely its difficult, yet ingenious, greens, which are
heavily influenced by the Niagara Escarpment the Stanley Thompson design fits into nicely. The
home course of Mackenzie Hughes, the property features a lot of movement from tee to green.

Thomas McBroom’s Deer Ridge in Kitchener, Ont., abuts the Grand River and is full of strong,
strategic holes that prelude one of the toughest finishing stretches anywhere. The downhill,
water-fronted-and-flanked par-3 16th is particularly strong.

Stanley Thompson was given some amazing parcels of land to work with and that was certainly
the case at Peterborough, Ont.’s Kawartha. The course moves brilliantly and its bunkering is
sensational. As he often does, Thompson gives and takes with his par-3 holes at this course.

The two nines that largely comprised the club’s composite course for the 2023 RBC Canadian
Open, Oakdale’s Homenuik and Knudson layouts complement one another. Stanley
Thompson’s Homenuik nine is hillier while Robbie Robinson’s Knudson nine is subtle. Ian
Andrew did yeoman’s work improving the overall layout.

Cataraqui, near Lake Ontario in south Kingston, is sometimes plagued by conditioning issues,
but its Stanley Thompson design is of high quality and the course has one of the best sets of par
3s in Canada. Like all Thompson courses, the bunkering here is fascinating.