The days are growing longer and the sun is shining brighter, causing a palpable restlessness in law offices across Ontario. The ski boots and snowmobiles have been stored for another season, marking the glorious return of golf to our fair-weather province.
While the GTA’s concrete jungle spans far and wide, there are wonderful patches of fairway to be found if you just know where to look. Here are three of my favourite courses within an hour’s drive (or less) from downtown Toronto:
You can’t get a much better location than this gem. Just a 20-minute subway ride from Union Station, Don Valley Golf Course is the life of the urban golf party. A public course in the truest sense of the word (owned and operated by the City of Toronto’s Parks & Recreation department), this Howard Watson-designed course transformed a sketchy marshland in the shadow of Highway 401 into a true mid-town oasis.
My early-season round came on a cold wet April day but after the interminable dreariness of winter, I wasn’t about to give up a chance to finally swing a club. The course weaves through stands of mature trees hop-scotching back and forth over the winding Don River that snakes across many of the holes. While there was a fair bit of ground under repair at this early point in the season, I was delighted by regular elevation changes and some very challenging doglegs.
The most you’ll ever pay is a shockingly reasonable $63 (and often much less with early season, weekday and other discounts). So take your pick: a handful of post-work cocktails or five hours of unbridled golf goodness.
Many so-called “executive” golf courses are poorly executed 9- or 18-hole travesties hacked out of land that developers couldn’t use for anything else. Turnberry turns that reputation on its head, demonstrating what a perfect experience a proper executive course can be.
From the understated but elegant clubhouse right through to a full 18-hole course, Turnberry clearly owes much to its big brother, Maple’s Eagles Nest (click here to read my review). The course consists of 16 challenging par 3’s book-ended by par 4’s on #1 and #18. Located in Brampton, you can start your morning “in court” or “at a meeting” and still be at your desk, changed out of your conspicuous golf cleats before lunch. It plays end-to-end in a leisurely 3.5 hours and what a treat those hours are, featuring a prime-time rate of only $39.75.
While on the course, you’ll be treated to undulating fairways trimmed with unrelenting fescue and devilishly tricky greens. The berms of fescue rise so high that, on many holes, there is a zen-like sense of privacy as you can neither see nor hear other foursomes on the course. This magical reverie is sadly broken at times when you arrive at holes like #6 where the otherwise attractive layout is marred by a horizon featuring a wallowing Lowe’s hardware store. All is forgiven though on #16 as you struggle with an exacting tee shot over water.
Just within spitting distance of Toronto-proper lies a course that has only improved with age. I remember Richmond Hill as a bit of a duffer’s cow pasture over a decade ago but the course has undertaken major renovations and updates, including dramatic visual improvements to its many water and sand hazards. Brand new GPS-outfitted power carts or top-of-the-line pull carts are now available and the finishing touches on a new revitalized clubhouse are nearly complete.
Power hitters may find little need to break out the driver on most holes but narrow woods-lined fairways, well-placed traps and the occasional pond ensure that this walk in the park is no walk-in-the-park. Richmond Hill almost plays as two different courses; the first 10 holes criss-cross each other over even terrain but as soon as you arrive at #11, the elevated tee shot takes you down into a deep valley in the shade of mature trees along a burbling creek with the course continuing through the lowlands before climbing back up to the clubhouse on the par-5 18th.
At $90 for a prime-time rate, Richmond Hill can come off a touch pricey for a course of its relative simplicity and length (it plays only 6004 yards from the tips), however, signing up for a the free “Elite” card earns you an instant 10% savings all season long.
GTA courses not exotic enough for you? Stay tuned to this column for the Crime Traveller’s experiences across the storied courses of Scotland later this summer, and get a sneak-preview of what’s to come by following him on Twitter @CrimeTraveller.
Edward Prutschi is a Toronto-based criminal defence lawyer. Follow Ed’s criminal law commentary (@prutschi) on Twitter, read his Crime Traveller blog or email ed@thecrimetraveller.com.