favourite golf club/course in Ontario?

[21pro]

self-explanatory...

what is your favourite golf club/course in Ontario?

...gonna get into the sport this year... taking lessons starting April 20th.
any ideas of the best places to go once I start golfing?

 

[chd]

Easy Course To Start On I Think Is
Blomington Downs
[bayview And Blomington Side Road}

 

[anselmo]

Magna has the best clubhouse, the best service, the best looking ladies working there ( all blondes just like Stronach likes them, LOL), definately best tee-off times available as membership is so low, but as far as a track goes, definately not the best IMO. There are better challenging and picturesque courses in the GTA such as Eagle's Nest, Copper Creek, and my personal favourite St. George's, to name a few.

However, one must look at the membership fees and annual dues to justify why Magna provides such a first class facility. WOW, that's a lot of golf to play.

 

[Coach]

Among pay as you play courses, the best IMHO is Osprey Valley Heathlands (the original). No frills clubhouse, but the course has few trees, lots of sand and
DEEP rough. Truly a challenge and my favourite to play. It is in Alton ON, SWof Orangeville and costs about 80 bucks. Caution, if you are a beginner play the front tees, check your ego at the door. Actually they recommend that unless you're a scratch golfer, do not play the back tees..only folls rush in!!
Welcome to the greatest game in the world!

 

[Kinghaven]

Bloomington Downs

CHD,

Lol.....I gotta agree. For the average working citizen, Bloomington Downs is the best value. Very nice course. Only problem I have is that they don't cut the fairways and greens as often as I would like. Hole #6 is a beauty. Never made birdie on that hole yet.

 

[chd]

Hole #6 Is That The Par 5
With The Narrow Shute Down Hill To The Green
Love That Hole

 

[galt]

IMO the best courses in the GTA and surrounding areas are as follows (at least for us east enders)

For the beginner golfer the following public courses offer some great golf and great service:

Deer Creek South, (Whitby)

Nice course for the upper beginner and intermediate golfer. Generally wide open with some challenging holes. Not a lot of water. Keep your ball in the fairway here and you're going to be in good shape

Glen Cedars (Scarborough)

Another course that is part of the Deer Creek Family. Right on the Pickering/Scarborough Townline just north of steeles. Not an easy course to find but once you do it's a great place for the upper beginner to intermediate to play.

More advanced public courses

Royal Ashburn (formerly Thunderbird) (located in ashburn just north of whitby)

In my mind the best course in the GTA for your golf dollar. One of the Q-School courses for Southern ON the course plays about 7200yds from the TIPS with a daunting 481yd par 4 15th hole. An extremely fair course but one that can punish you if you don't use proper course management and plan your shots. Get a course guide. It will tell you where to put the ball. I love this course (about $75/round includes cart and breakfast, lunch or dinner)

Deer Creek North (whitby)
An A class course with 3 different potential 9s you can get a varied round of golf each time you go. The Diamond 9 is long and very tight, the Ruby 9 is all about placement with VERY tough greens (especially the 8th hole) and the Black Pearl 9 will send your ball swimming. Not a course for the faint of heart and beginner golfers will become very frustrated here as well as piss everyone off behind them for slow play. (~$85/round includes cart)


Silver Lakes (Newmarket)

Really tight but an absolute gem. A bit of a hike to get there but great for the intermediate to good golfer

Other decent courses

Mill Run (Uxbridge)
Oakridge (just don't play in the fall because they let their greens go to hell in October)
Wooden Sticks (Uxbridge) is a fun novelty course to play. Owned by Gary Roberts, Joe Niewendyke and Adam Foote this course has 12 holes modeled after a number of signature holes from the greatest couses in the world including the island green at TPC Sawgrass, the Road Bunker Hole and 18th from St Andrews (they even have the stone bridge) along with a couple of holes from Augusta National. Not a place to play regularly but a lot of fun for a novelty and they treat their customer exceedingly well (~$120/round includes breakfast and lunch or lunch and dinner, a cart (with water and snacks))


Best Private Courses in the area IMHO are ranked as follows:

3. Magna
2. St George's
1. Devils Pulpit (easily the most challenging and beautiful course I have ever played here or in the US)

 

[Fatshaft]

I don't mind travelling a bit to play National Pines in Barrie.

 

[The Doctor]

While I enjoyed my visit to Magna last year, I would say that the whole "club experience" ranked higher than the actual golf course. Beacon Hall is very similar with the low number of members, no wait times and has an interesting set up with a parkland front 9 and a links style back. More interesting if you ask me. As far as private courses in the GTA go, I would have to say St. Georges is the best from a purely golfing perspective.

If you are looking for a great value Don Valley is one of the best along with Lakeview in Mississauga. Both are public and reasonable (around $45) Lakeview is well groomed and still challenging but not the same course that hosted the Canadian Open twice in the early part of the 1900's. Having grown up playing Don Valley in the '80s I took it for granted, however I have rediscovered it over the last couple of years and although it's not long and doesn't have all the amenities of your $100 a round courses, it is one of the nice settings in the city and can play tough enough from the Blues. Tee times are tough to get, but Don Valley is much easier to book than Lakeview.

 

[kooley]

I live in Mississauga but joined Rebel creek 2 years ago, nice course challenging and long. It's less than an hour from my area.

www.rebelcreek.ca

 

[Larry_Fyne]

Living in the Oakridges/Aurora area, we have a number of local courses that we play. We will also drive an hour to get to a course and rarely do we play the same course twice in a year.

Public Courses that I would reccommend in that area:
St Andrews Valley - Bayview/St. John Sideroad, Aurora
Pheasant Run - Warden north of Hwy 9 (filmed "Welcome to Mooseport" there)
Silver Lakes - between Bradford/Newmarket off of Yonge
Glen Eagle - just north of Bolton on Hwy 50
Nobleton Lakes - just north of Nobleton on Hwy 27

Other Public courses within an hour of the GTA
Cross Winds - Guelph Line between 407 and 401 (best value in my mind)
Willow Valley - Hamilton (not far from the Hamilton Hooters)
Tangle Creek - Barrie (just as far as National Pines and a better value)
Oakridge - Whitby

If you can, pick up yesterday's Star - it had it's annual golf magazine in it with lists/maps of courses.

 

[Stymie]

Glen Abbey
Blue Springs
National Pines

we are spoiled in the gta with so many choices within an hours drive

i did play a round today on a course
foregoing a round in bed with my fav

spring is definitely here

 

[spiff]

I was lucky enought to be able to play the National and have yet to see a better golf course in the GTA. St. Georges and Mississuaga are close but not as great. I've really taken to Copper Creek and Royal Ontario as regular stops....

 

[21pro]

wow... i'm impressed with the selection...

maybe we should schedule a 'terbite tour' or something... i wouldn't mind trying them all...

now, to learn how to swing a club!

 

[to-guy69]

We are lucky to be in Ontario where there are more golf courses here than the rest of Canada combined...

 

[train]

snacks))


Best Private Courses in the area IMHO are ranked as follows:

3. Magna
2. St George's
1. Devils Pulpit (easily the most challenging and beautiful course I have ever played here or in the US)

Agree with St Georges , but I don't think Magna is even in the top ten in Ontario in design . It is #1 in condition and facilities but the course is a resort style with mammoth fairways , relying on large bunkers and tricky greens for the challange .

I like Devil's paintbrush better than the Pulpit but both are good .

Beacon Hall is better than all of them except St Georges .

My top 5 :

1. St Georges
2. Beacon Hall
3. The National
4. Bigwin
5. Devil's Paintbrush

Best looking female staff and best food = Magna

 

[gordita]

I have to agree with Galt on the reviews of Deer Creek and Royal Ashburn.

Good values and well maintained.

Forget Wooden Sticks however---just an ordinary replica hole golf course with a few investors including a couple of NHL players---whoopee!

 

[Master Baiter]

Beacon Hall is my fav but that's a private course. For a beginner, Ballantrae (not to be confused with Maples of Ballantrae) has pretty wide fairways making it more forgiving to errant tee shots. Pheasant Run is probably considered my home course for now but I wouldn't recommend it for a beginner. The fairways are tree-lined and TIGHT and course management has to be up there! Don Valley is nice but it's a shot-maker's course. Tam O'Shanter in Scarborough is a good beginners course and pretty affordable.

Cardinal is fairly wide open as well and good for beginners. Rolling Hills in Stoufville is a great beginners course, esp the Classic course. Watson Glen also falls into a nice beginners course but can be challenging. Deer Creek south as someone pointed out is a good one too. Only think I don't like about Deer Creek North course is that all of the 3 9-hole courses end in a par3!! Who does that?! Parkview is a good entry level course too but they bumped up the rates last year and the course condition has gone down the tubes and not worth the rates they're charging.

WoodenSticks is a "been there done that" course. It's fun to play it at least once but that's as much as you'd want to play it considering the green fees! They do offer specials (at least in 2004) for those who never played it before and discount rates for booking a day ahead or even more if you book the day of if there are open tee times.

Osprey Valley Heathlands (links style) is an amazing course. If you're not on your game, you can get beat up pretty badly here and it's always windy on that course!

My favourite courses (in no particular order) would probably include:

Beacon Hall
Grey Silo (Waterloo)
Osprey Valley Heathlands (Alton)
Pheasant Run (Newmarket)
Forest City National (London)
Woodington Lakes (only downside is that they restrict cart access on some fairways)
SilverLakes (Newmarket)
St. Andrews Valley (Aurora)
Mill Run Championship (Uxbridge)
Nobleton Lakes (Nobelton... tight tough course)

Anywho, there's tons of great courses. Ontario is the Myrtle Beach of Canada!
It's a great sport that can really test your patience but all it takes is one great shot during a crappy round to make your day... even if it turns out to be a 20foot putt.

 

[Maddog]

Stick to the cheap places

21Pro - if you're just learning to play - go to the public courses. Don't waste your money A) by buying the most expensive clubs out there - it doesn't matter how good your clubs are - they're not going to hide the deficiencies in your swing. Get a starter set for the first couple of seasons - I wouldn't pay more than $400 - check out Golftown or DiMarco Golf - they have some good sales on now.
B) You can lose your ball on a $100 course just as easily as a $50 course. The only difference, you're out $50. Go the public courses such as Lakeview and Don Valley (if you can actually get a tee time). Humber Valley is a great little course as well - Albion/Islington area. Hunter's Glen or Glen Eagle on Hwy 50 are both good courses, moderately priced. Castlemore in Brampton is a good place to start. Also, Derrydale in Mississauga - Derry Rd/Hwy 10 is a good starter course. Remember, if you go to an expensive course, and you're shit, all you're going to do is piss off the golfers behind you. Etiquitte is everything on a golf course.

 

[marcus aurellis]

Fav Courses

I have always been partial to Woodington Lakes in Tottenham and the original Osprey Valley in Alton.

I found The National to be way overated (I guess I was expecting too much).

Wasn't keen on the 2 Lionhead courses in Mississauga either.

My top course worldwide was Royal Westmoreland in Barbados, absolutely stunning.

Marcus Aurellis