The Great Golf Courses of Canada

C.S. Gray is Director of Information Services, Institute of Chartered
Accountants of Ontario.

In his introduction to this well-written and visually stunning
coffee-table book, Gordon says that his ultimate goal is to “offer
every reader a richly satisfying and stimulating experience
through . . . pictures and words.” This goal is achieved in
admirable fashion: the book contains individual essays (each with local
anecdotes), historical and architectural-design notes, and even playing
tips on 38 outstanding golf courses across Canada. Each essay is
enhanced by a series of breathtakingly memorable vistas captured by
Canadian photographer Michael French.

From the Victoria Golf Club on Canada’s west coast, Gordon takes his
readers on a reverential ramble through some of the country’s most
challenging (and prestigious) golf layouts—through the Rockies to the
Jasper Park Lodge course; across the Prairies to Manitoba’s St.
Charles Country Club; through Ontario (and such renowned courses as Glen
Abbey, Toronto, Beacon Hall, and the National) to Quebec’s Royal
Montreal (among others); and through New Brunswick’s public course at
Mataquac Provincial Park to Nova Scotia’s Highland Links course. The
journey ends at P.E.I.’s Brudenell River course.

A knowledgeable and skillful writer on golf, Gordon captures the
individual flavor, the unique history and special challenges of each
course, and provides interesting details about some of the courses’
distinguished members and great tournaments. For anyone who lacks the
time, golfing skills, or financial resources to visit or play these
great courses, the book is truly the next best thing.

It makes little sense to complain that the author succeeds in his
stated intention. At the same time, however, Gordon’s unabashedly
admiring work could have been even better had he included some social
commentary. In writing about some of the country’s most exclusive
courses—Toronto, Rosedale, London Hunt, St. Georges, and Royal
Montreal immediately come to mind—Gordon never mentions that some of
the recreational institutions he admires so much are the traditional and
highly exclusive preserve of the Canadian establishment. In many
cases—in the past, to be sure, but also, unfortunately, in the
present—this exclusivity can be based not just on wealth, but also on
anti-Semitism and anti-feminist attitudes that would not be tolerated in
a truly democratic society.

According to the book’s jacket, golf is “one of the fastest growing
leisure sports activities in Canada,” and Gordon notes in his
introduction that selecting only 38 of some 2000 golf courses in Canada
was both difficult and subjective. Yet, of the 16 courses described in
Ontario, only one—Glen Abbey—is open to the public. And with daily
green fees of $90, Glen Abbey’s average clientele is clearly not drawn
from blue-collar workers in the greater Toronto area.

Although never explicitly mentioned here, golf in Canada—as in the
rest of the world—is still very much divided along economic and class
lines. As a follow-up volume to this very impressive book, then, and as
a partial penance for making most of his readers drool over so many
courses, perhaps Gordon’s next work should focus on public
courses—the country’s best accessible layouts, where for $20 or $30
every person has an opportunity to participate in this challenging game.