Course Review: St. George's Golf & Country Club

St. George's Golf & Country Club
Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada
Stanley Thompson - 1929

While in Toronto, I was also very fortunate to be able to take a brief, guided tour of St. George's Golf and Country Club, an exclusive private club located in Etobicoke, a municipality of Toronto.  The club was the brainchild of Sir Edward Beatty, then President of the Canadian Pacific Railway.  The club was originally named the Royal York Golf Club, after the Royal York Hotel, a CP-owned hotel in downtown Toronto.

The course is located in a dense, residential area, bounded by large, stately homes and by Islington Avenue to the west and Eglinton Avenue to the north. The course itself is perenially ranked as one of the top 3 golf courses in Canada and has spent much time as the # 1 course in Canada, as well as being ranked as one of the Top 100 courses in the world (it is currently #90 in Golf Magazine's rankings).

The club was designed by Canada's most famous golf course architect, Stanley Thompson, and opened for play in 1929.  Mr. Thompson is responsible for many of the top 10 courses in Canada, including Highland Links in Nova Scotia, and Banff Springs Golf Club and Jasper Park Golf Course in Alberta.  Stanley Thompson grew up caddying at the Toronto Golf Club and no doubt took some of the lessons learned from that Harry Colt great and put them into practice in his own work.

Routing of St. George's Golf & Country Club

The course was built largely in two main valleys, as you can see in the routing above.  The clubhouse is in the bottom of the picture and is actually on the other side of Islington Avenue from the course.  A tunnel runs underneath the road, taking golfers safely from the clubhouse to the golf course.

The beautiful, English-inspired clubhouse

Unlike many courses, Stanley Thompson chose to route many of the holes here through the valleys and swales instead of across them, as was largely done at Toronto Golf Club, for example.  Perhaps the par 5 ninth at TGC, which plays down a long, winding valley, inspired Thompson in this regard. 

Looking back down the winding fairway at the par 4 4th

The fantastic par 5 11th hole

The par 5 holes at St. George's are likely the best set that I have seen.  The 11th, pictured above, and the 15th, pictured below, share a valley and are separated by the triangular shaped driving range.  The holes are basically the antithesis of each other.  The 11th plays from an elevated tee out to the east, while the 15th plays back west toward the clubhouse and rises significantly to the green.

The winding par 5 15th hole

The 5 par 3's here are also good golf holes.  Unlike many of the longer holes, these tend to play across valleys and do a great job of connecting the different valleys on the property.  The third and sixth holes, for example, play parallel to each other across the same valley, allowing for a connection between the core of the course and the 4th and 5th holes.

The par 3 8th hole

Of the par 4's, this author's favorite was the par 4 14th hole.  From an elevated tee, the golfer can easily see the green in the distance, but the majority of the fairway is blind.  A stream runs along the right side of the hole before crossing in front of the green.  This is all unknown to the first-timer from the tee. 

The view from the tee on the par 4 14th...

...view of the green from the lower portion of the fairway

While shorter and less informative than my tour of Toronto Golf Club, I still tremendously enjoyed being able to experience this beautifully conditioned, fascinating, Stanley Thompson design.  If I took anything away from my visits to these two Toronto gems, it was that there is more than one way to successfully route a golf course on a hilly property.  I have no doubt that if Colt had designed St. George's, or had Thompson designed Toronto, the courses would have likely turned out dramatically different.  However, given these two architects' penchant for producing outstanding work, both courses would have likely turned out great, nonetheless.  I look forward to the day when I am able to make similar decisions on a piece of property and can only hope to be able to do it as beautifully.  Next up...Yeamans Hall Club!