Book Review by Jeffrey Reed
The Great New Golf Courses of Canada
Author: John Gordon

During the last 15 years, there has been an explosion of quality golf layouts come to fruition in this country. This is certainly true here in the London area, where courses including the Thomas McBroom-designed FireRock GC, and the Doug Carrick-designed RiverBend GC have opened in recent years.

Golf’s man-of-all-media, John Gordon, has written a quality book simply entitled, The Great New Golf Courses of Canada. Knowing John, I was sure he would get right to the point in the introduction to his new book, and he has. He writes about a long-time golf partner who quipped, “It’s not so much where you play, it’s with whom you play,” to which John answered, “And if you can play a great layout with a good friend, there are few better experiences in this life.”

Gordon hit that one right on the screws, and with his literary skills – and wonderful photos by renown golf photojournalists, Doug and Gordie Ball – Gordon offers golf fanatics the next best thing to a cross-country tour of Canada’s great new courses. Boasting 250 colour photos over 240 pages, The Great New Golf Courses of Canada was a pleasure to leaf through on a cold fall day in southwestern Ontario which postponed what could prove to be my last round of golf this season.

Gordon tees up some of the best Canadian courses built since 1990, offering six pages for each course, including a digital aerial map and yardage chart. Listed in alphabetical order, the courses come alive in Gordon’s new book. You’ll travel from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from The Algonquin (McBroom) at St. Andrews By-The-Sea, N.B., to Bear Mountain G&CC (Jack Nicklaus) in Victoria, B.C.

The Great New Golf Courses of Canada includes no less than 14 Ontario-based courses: Bigwin Island GC, Norway Point (Carrick); Eagles Nest GC, Maple (Carrick); Georgian Bay Club, Collingwood (Jason Straka); Glencairn GC, Halton Hills (McBroom); Grandview GC, Huntsville (Mark O’Meara); King’s Riding GC, Aurora (McBroom); The Lake Joseph Club, Port Carling (McBroom); Legends On The Niagara, Niagara Falls (Carrick-McBroom); Magna GC, Aurora (Carrick); Osprey Valley Resorts, Alton (Carrick); Rattlesnake Point GC, Milton (McBroom); The Rock, Minett (Nick Faldo); Rocky Crest GC, Mactier (McBroom); and Taboo, Gravenhurst (Ron Garl).

In total, Gordon takes us from tee to green at 34 new Canadian clubs. He writes of his seventh golf book, it is “not a ranking, because that is a deeply flawed and irreparable concept.” Rather, The Great New Golf Courses of Canada is “a sampling, a smorgasbord of golf pleasures.”

I agree. Gordon’s latest book pleases the palate with a cornucopia of course descriptions, and photos from the Ball brothers which help the courses come alive. 

The bookstore edition of The Great New Golf Courses of Canada ($29.95) is accompanied by a special run of hard covers with eight different dust jackets for ClubLink Corporation – the eight jackets featuring eight separate courses and their logos, and available to ClubLink members.

John Gordon was my first golf magazine editor, at SCOREGolf in 1991. Fifteen years later, I was able to spend some time chatting with John at London Hunt and Country Club during the 2006 CN Canadian Women’s Open. He has always scored an ace with me, thanks to his humble manner – despite his status as a leading golf journalist – and 15 years later his new book also gets a thumbs up. It’s a great gift for the golfer on your Christmas list. 

Now, if I can only find a way to jump into those photos when Old Man Winter shuts down the local courses. 

The Great New Golf Courses of Canada
by John Gordon
Photography by Doug and Gordie Ball
Warwick Publishing
ISBN 1-894622-56-1
$29.95