Courses designed by Darrell Huxham in Canada

[Germain Pepin]

It was a surprise to discover this summer that the course designer of my semi-private course, the Club de golf Bellechasse (a small village at St-Damien, Quebec) was Darrell Huxham. Here are some pics of this course: http://www.golfbellechasse.com/fr/galerie-photos.html. I think that the course offers a good challenge and is interesting to play with some good holes.

Darrell Huxham has also designed, sole or as a member of a team, some others well-known courses in Quebec: at Mont Tremblant ( Le Maître (a Fred Couples signature course, Gene Bates and Graham Cooke) and Le Manitou), and the Fontainebleau, near Blainville. If my information is up-to-date, he is working now with Graham Cooke, in a new society Cooke & Huxman, located in Montreal.

Stanley Thompson is probably our most well-know architect in Canada here in GCA. But i think that some others architects has designed also great courses in Canada. It could be interesting to know them better.

[Matt Bosela]

He's worked quite a bit with Cooke - one of the better public courses in the Niagara Region in Ontario is LochNess Links (formerly known as Hunters Pointe), a very solid links-style course in Welland.  If I'm not mistaken, Darrell did most of the work out there.  There's a similar course up the escarpment in Hamilton called Willow Valley that they worked on as well.

Oh, and for clarification, I think it's Darrell Huxham.

[Germain Pepin]

Thanks for the clarification and for the information Matt, it is very appreciated.

Darrell has a great website for more information: http://www.huxhamgolfdesign.com/. The Loch Ness Links is effectively indicated there with all his other works and projects. According to this website, the company philosophy is the following:

"HGD believes that a golf course should not be imposed upon the land; it should flow with the natural beauty of the existing features.  If properly routed, a good site can require minimal earthmoving and shaping.  Often the existing features are so impressive that, to create an outstanding golf course, one need only adapt them slightly to allow for play."

[Yannick Pilon]

Bonjour Germain,

As you already noticed, Darrell left Graham Cooke & Assoc. Inc. in 2005 to create his own firm with his brother Warren.  As someone who has worked closely for many years with Darrell, I can say that  I would not necessarily qualify him as a minimalist, as your quote seem to suggest it at the beginning of the thread, but he has shown great flair in turning many featureless sites into decent golf courses by using lots of earthmoving.

Pour d'autres détails, ou simplement pour discuter d'architecture de golf, tu peux me rejoindre à l'adresse suivante: pilony@videotron.ca

Bienvenue sur GCA!

YP

[Brian_Ewen]

He's worked quite a bit with Cooke - one of the better public courses in the Niagara Region in Ontario is LochNess Links (formerly known as Hunters Pointe), a very solid links-style course in Welland. 

Loch Ness Links sounds so much better 

[Ronald Montesano]

My two cents...both Lochness Links (used to be called Hunters Pointe...sucky new name...worst of all time, come to think of it...a links by a lake?  Marketing morons) and Willow Valley are absolute joyrides.  Anyone who wants to play a bunch of new-age courses and blend them with some traditional layouts would have a blast between Buffalo and Toronto (and I don't mean the middle of Lake Ontario.)

[Yannick Pilon]

Matt,

Beleive it or not, LochNess Links is much better that the first few names they had in mind for the course:  The Welland Golf Club, or  better yet, St Andrews Terrace!!

I can gladly settle for LochNess Links, even if I liked Hunters Pointe much better!

YP

[Ronald Montesano]

The Billyards can run a golf club, but they cannot pick a name!!  Hunters Pointe/LNL is on the site of dredged material from the Welland Canal, the detour around Niagara Falls for Lake Erie-Lake Ontario shipping.  It was a bit like what Pete Dye did alongside Lake Michigan, except they didn't have to create the rumpled look; it was already there.  It was also the location for the golf scenes in the move about Jack Abramoff, called Casino Jack and starring Kevin Spacey.

[Germain Pepin]

Merci pour ta gentillesse Yannick!

As matter of fact, Darrell Huxham has confirmed me yesterday that he is not the architect of the Club de golf Bellechasse. I have learned that it is Marcel Notz. Sorry about that to all of you in GCA.

[Philippe Binette]

Il va presque falloir avoir un GCA.com en français.

Bienvenue Germain

[Germain Pepin]

Il va presque falloir avoir un GCA.com en français.

Bienvenue Germain

Merci Philippe, c'est gentil.

Nous sommes maintenant 4-5 du Québec, donc on pourrait presqu'avoir la majorité bientôt