Glen Abbey Golf Club Review

Glen Abbey is where Canadian golf's memories live, from Tiger Woods's bunker shot on the eighteenth to decades of Opens, and the course still delivers the experience those memories promise. Nicklaus routed the holes around a plateau with the valley holes, eleven through fifteen, dropping down to the creek for the best stretch on the property, and the finishing holes are built for a championship Sunday.

Conditioning is very good, as befits a course that has to be, with fast greens and fairways kept to a tournament standard. The scenery in the valley is lovely and on the plateau it is a suburban parkland with houses. The value grade is the honest problem: the green fee is among the highest in the province for a course whose design is more solid than inspired, and much of what a visitor pays for is the name. It is a good course with a great history, and the grade is for the course.