Don Valley Golf Course Review

Don Valley is the course Toronto golfers mean when they defend municipal golf. It sits in a deep ravine with the highway roaring somewhere above and out of sight, and the land does things the flat city courses cannot: tee shots from the top of the valley, approaches over the river, a par five that climbs back out with a green nobody holds on the first attempt. The design is old fashioned and the better for it.

Conditioning is where the city budget shows, with greens that run true but slowly and rough that is either absent or unmanageable depending on the month. The scenery, mature forest and the river and the sense of being somewhere else, is the best on any public course inside the city limits. It is busy and the pace is slow. For the green fee it is a genuine bargain and the round most residents should play before spending three times as much in the suburbs.