[Adam_F_Collins]

What are the 10 best courses in Atlantic Canada?

(I know, it may be hard to come up with that many, but give it a shot if you can)

Highlands is a given.

[Yannick Pilon]

Here is my guess.... Not necessarily in that order, except for no 1, of course....

Highland Links
Fox Harb'r
Glen Arbour
The Lynx at Kingswood Park
The Algonquin
Bell Bay
Dundarave
Fox Creek
Royal Oaks
Crowbush
Ashburn Old(??)

Do I think they are all great? No.  But they would probably be crowd pleasers and tourism magnets....  Although , I have to admit, I don't know much about the older courses in that part of the country.

[Michael Robin]

I don't have a full top 10, but I spent 3 months in NS in 2000 and these were the courses I thought were great to worthwhile:

1. Highlands Links
2. Bell Bay
3. Glen Arbour
4. Ashburn-New
5. Granite Springs
6. Grandview
7. Chester

There was another course out past Dartmouth that I might have confused with Granite Springs that I thought was good too. One course that is a total waste of time and effort is Le Portage in Cheticamp.

[Robert Thompson]

Adam: Don't take this the wrong way, but I don't think there are 10.

1) HL
2) Dundarave
3) Crowbush
4) Bell Bay
5) Twin Rivers
5) Glen Arbour
7) Fox Harb'r
Northumberland Straits (the real sleeper of this group)
9) Truro

Nothing else really springs to mind -- though I've yet to see Algonquin.

[Adam_F_Collins]

Adam: Don't take this the wrong way, but I don't think there are 10.

1) HL
2) Dundarave
3) Crowbush
4) Bell Bay
5) Twin Rivers
5) Glen Arbour
7) Fox Harb'r
Northumberland Straits (the real sleeper of this group)
9) Truro

Nothing else really springs to mind -- though I've yet to see Algonquin.

There's no wrong way, Robert. I agree that it's a tough list to compile. Personally, I'd add Thompson's Digby Pines to the list. Perhaps more in New Brunswick, as well as Brudenell in PEI. I haven't played Green Gables...

I love Brightwood in Dartmouth, but it is very short and very blind - but I think it's a lot better than many give it credit for.

[Brad Tufts]

I've played Algonquin, its nice, looks quite a bit like the pics of Bell Bay and Fox Harb'r.  Graham Cooke did over the Ross 27 holes there, even though Ross was never on the property.  I had the chance to play a couple of holes with the head pro during my round, and I asked him why they would totally redesign a Ross course.  He said that there was no irrigation or good drainage, so the course was always rock hard or soaking wet, and there was no proof that Ross had ever seen it.  They took the entire property and made holes that would more accurately catch the hotel guests' eyes.  It is a stunner with a couple of holes along the rocky shore, including a par 3 that conjures thoughts of #7 at Pebble.

I saw some Ross drawings in the clubhouse, and since then have thought that it was unfortunate that they made the decision to change the course shortly before Ross restoration came into vogue.

[Robert Thompson]

Brad: There is pretty conclusive proof that Ross was on the property, but the course was a reno job even for him (the first course there started in the 1890s). Tom McBroom actually did the reno (not Cooke), which is actually a completely different course. The old course was very short and didn't use many ocean views, according to McBroom, and he was asked to significantly alter it, which is what he did.

Adam: Brightwood sounds intriguing. I don't think there's much in NB worth playing, though I've not seen the badly named "Lynx" at Kingswood Park. But how good can a course be when it is behind a shopping mall/amusement park?

I wasn't impressed by Brudenell. Average Robbie Robinson. Lots of doglegs. Green Gables is fine, but being blown up by Tom McBroom this summer... and Robbie blew it up before him.

[Tom Dunne]

But how good can a course be when it is behind a shopping mall/amusement park?

Sorry, Rob, I just can't resist....but the course behind this fun park isn't bad.



(Apologies for Atlantic Canada threadjack, too...)

[Robert Thompson]

Ok, you've got a point.

But the club is actually built behind the picture on this website -- http://bowling.mybusinessadmin.com

No kidding. And they called it "lynx." Cut me some slack here...

[Yannick Pilon]

Brad,

For the record, McBroom redesigned the Algonquin, not Graham Cooke.  Graham, however, did Glen Arbour, Fox Harb'r, Fox Creek, Kingswood and a few others in the maritimes....

Yannick

[Brad Tufts]

Damn, butchered that one didn't I.  I stand corrected.  I tend to get the two mixed up as they have both designed upscale publics in Atlantic Canada and the Northeast US.  But, I thought the course was pretty good, and supposedly next to the 18th tee is the oldest standing golf building in Canada, the old pro shop from the 1890s.  Didn't look much more than a weather-beaten shack to me, but it was still interesting.

[Ian Andrew]

Brad,

Ross visited the site and made recommendations for the course. The pro (at least I thought it was the pro) supervised all the work without Ross making a visit. The legacy is fairly clear in the Canadian Golfer.

I would love to pick on Tom for blowing this up, but I really can't, there was nothing there historically.

[Brad Tufts]

Ian,

Yeah that's what I gathered, either the Ross wasn't there anymore, or never was.  I have to go back there, as the course was totally fogged in while I was there, we could only see about 50 yds of ocean even though we were 20 feet from it!  The interesting part of seeing the new course was that the corridors of the old holes were still visable, and many of them did not follow the new holes.  It gave the course an eerie feeling (could have been the fog), punctuated by the former clubhouse, now abandoned, backing one of the early holes.

Oh, and keep up the good work on the blog, I've enjoyed reading it.  Maybe I will formulate an intelligent question one of these days...

-Brad

[ForkaB]

I've got an old photo of the clubhouse at St. Stephens Golf Club (NB).  Anybody know anything about it?  One of my Grannies grew up there.

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