Best Course in Ottawa

[john8888]

https://na01.safelinks.protection.ou...%3D&reserved=0

[john8888]

Interesting view?

[The Enigma]

I have played all but 3, and tend to agree with the negative reviews.
(The 3 I haven't played... I can't afford, or have friends at Camelot, Hunt Club or Royal Ottawa)

Two courses that have improved quality (but I question cost increases), Pineview and Edgewood.

Pricing is the biggest barrier to increasing the numbers of new golfers... unless there is a pandemic!

And when the operators start seeing the same decreases as before 2020 I wonder if they will see the light (not holding my breath).

[eez]

Wow ... Champlain in the top 25. Lost my respect based on that ranking. Whoever made this list drove 1 1/4 hours to Montebello, but Renfrew, Perth, Oaks of Cobden, Prescott, Mississippi are WAAAAAYYY better courses than Champlain and within the 75 minute drive limit. I'm sure there are others I haven't played.

[jeffc]

Hilarious. Montebello while a solid track, has been a disaster from a conditioning perspective for a long time. No way you can rate it as #1 and besides it’s not even remotely close to Ottawa. And he can’t even take 2 minutes to look up the two nines along Hawthorne at the meadows which are south and west, not south and north. Embarrassing. No mention of any courses in the valley.

[spackler]

Hilarious. Montebello while a solid track, has been a disaster from a conditioning perspective for a long time. No way you can rate it as #1 and besides it’s not even remotely close to Ottawa. And he can’t even take 2 minutes to look up the two nines along Hawthorne at the meadows which are south and west, not south and north. Embarrassing. No mention of any courses in the valley.

I don't know if there are more than two main guys associated with that blog, but they clearly have a thing for Montebello. I get it, the bones are there, but it has been completely neglected and it's tough to rate something in the present on it's potential (with nothing planned), or on it's history.

Aside from that, I think the point is that beyond the top few courses, everything else around here is meh. In that vein, does it really matter which 9s elevate Meadows to 20th spot on a mediocre list?

[jeffc]

Perhaps. But if you can’t take 2 minutes to figure out which two 9’s those are then it just comes off as bush league and hard to take seriously. He hacks apart eagle creek (and rates it below Hylands) partly due to conditions but I’m not sure I’ve played a worse course condition wise than Montebello in the past 5 years.

[leftylucas]

Agree with all you guys, this ranking system is not good.

[The Enigma]

While I tend to agree with the negative reviews.
The rankings are questionable and leaves out many local courses... say within 30, 45mins of the city center.

But it is nice to see some criticism... that is rare in the golf industry

[Kak]

Nation in the same category with Champlain and Tecumseh..... hmmmm

[BogeyGolf]

Wow ... Champlain in the top 25. Lost my respect based on that ranking. Whoever made this list drove 1 1/4 hours to Montebello, but Renfrew, Perth, Oaks of Cobden, Prescott, Mississippi are WAAAAAYYY better courses than Champlain and within the 75 minute drive limit. I'm sure there are others I haven't played.

I agree, Renfrew is better Champlain, or Tecumseh, I prefer to play Hawkesbury over Montebello (silly 1st hole to start)

[dbleber]

The Hunt is the best course around. Montebello was in almost unplayable shape when we played it 2 years ago and I heard last year it was even worse. It’s foreign owned and up for sale, so I doubt there will be any improvement this season.

[justdoit]

Whitetail and Dragonfly in my opinion are tops

[Gofish2]

I have played all but 3, and tend to agree with the negative reviews.
(The 3 I haven't played... I can't afford, or have friends at Camelot, Hunt Club or Royal Ottawa)

Two courses that have improved quality (but I question cost increases), Pineview and Edgewood.

Pricing is the biggest barrier to increasing the numbers of new golfers... unless there is a pandemic!

And when the operators start seeing the same decreases as before 2020 I wonder if they will see the light (not holding my breath).

Good points but the courses are under the same inflation pressures as everyone else so it is cut costs or raise prices.

[Johnyc]

That list has to be a joke. Hunt isn’t in the same category as Montebello. It isn’t even close. There are arguments to be made with some other names when you consider the course relative to price but if you are setting cost to play aside the top 5 are Hunt, Royal, Camelot, Rideau View and Rivermead. Falls off after that (sorry EC, I don’t know what happened there).

And golf is still packed. Lots of people “working” from home and still plenty of discretionary money floating around. I bet we see a different story in 2-3 years but for now there are still lengthy waiting lists despite dues and initiation fees going UP!

[goochy]

It is a blog dedicated to Golf course architecture...not conditions or price or service, hence its title "Beyond The Contour". It is actually an interesting blog if you take the time to explore it.
Their argument (which I agree with) is why are there no really great golf courses in the Ottawa region (from a great design perspective). Hunt Club is a good course and a great club but it isn't a gem of design. The best we have in the city for sure but compared to other areas of the country, yet alone the world, it is pretty unremarkable. It has strayed a long long way from the original Willie Park vision.
Montebello is in dreadful shape and it is heart breaking because it is a Stanley Thompson course...a virtuoso of golf course design.
With all due respect to those who love their course (myself included) you don't have to travel too far to realise we are lucky in how many courses we have here in the Ottawa region but we don't have any I would put in the top 50 in Canada or the top 300 in the world...and that is a shame I think.

[john8888]

great points

[Gofish2]

The writer seems to hate trees.

[Gofish2]

Played Champlain for the first time in 25 years and pleasantly surprised. Twenty minute drive from Sandy Hill area of Ottawa. Fairways and greens in good shape and 3 1/4 hrs to walk and seeing a coyote carrying a skunk in her mouth was worth the $40 green fee.

[Johnyc]

It is a blog dedicated to Golf course architecture...not conditions or price or service, hence its title "Beyond The Contour". It is actually an interesting blog if you take the time to explore it.
Their argument (which I agree with) is why are there no really great golf courses in the Ottawa region (from a great design perspective). Hunt Club is a good course and a great club but it isn't a gem of design. The best we have in the city for sure but compared to other areas of the country, yet alone the world, it is pretty unremarkable. It has strayed a long long way from the original Willie Park vision.
Montebello is in dreadful shape and it is heart breaking because it is a Stanley Thompson course...a virtuoso of golf course design.
With all due respect to those who love their course (myself included) you don't have to travel too far to realise we are lucky in how many courses we have here in the Ottawa region but we don't have any I would put in the top 50 in Canada or the top 300 in the world...and that is a shame I think.

I golfed with Alex, who is also a score golf rater when he was in town a few weeks back to evaluate Royal, Rivermead and Hunt. Oddly enough it was his first time playing Hunt so was curious to see the beyond the contour rankings without boots on the ground. Nice guy and definitely sees the course through a different lens.

I do agree that Hunt doesn’t have many memorable holes. It also becomes a splitting hairs exercise when you start to compare Weston, Hunt, Royal, etc. I have always tried to group courses together - resort, private, etc. Super hard to compare Toronto golf with Muskoka Bay or Banff. It’s a conversation starter, anything but definitive. In terms of condition Algonquin was about the same as Manderly but its routing and views on the back nine are extraordinarily so seeing them take a big jump isn’t shocking consider the value the ranking system places on fun vs condition. Also it’s so subjective - I agree with Laval blue taking a big jump forward but disagree with Cat being range bound in the 95-100 grouping