Beaconsfield Club de Golf

Around fifty disenchanted members of Westmount Golf Club – who were no longer willing to accept the prohibition of golf on a Sunday – formed the Beaconsfield Golf Club back in 1904 and they set up a primitive 6-hole course which they could play on for all seven days in the week if they so desired.

Architect Stanley Thompson was involved in an extensive renovation of the course in 1941 and so wide ranging were the changes made, the layout has since been considered as a Thompson “original.”

It remains a relatively short course at 6,512 yards but Beaconsfield’s lack of length is more than made up for in its demand for accuracy. And, with a formidable array of holes early in the round between the 3rd and 6th, many believe that golfers who come out of this loop relatively unscathed will have a good chance of posting a decent score.

The five short holes on the scorecard are particularly challenging and “Village,” the difficult 13th is widely regarded as one of the toughest short holes in the country. The signature hole on the course, “Gibraltar” at the 15th, is another superb one-shotter, laid out beside a 30-foot rock face, a remnant of the course’s limestone quarry origins.

The Canadian Open has been played at Club de Golf Beaconsfield on two occasions and both events were won after all-American playoffs. George Fazio triumphed in the 1946 tournament, beating Dick Metz over 36-holes. Ten years later, Doug Sanders – still an amateur at the time – overcame Dow Finsterwald at the first hole of a sudden death playoff. In over 100 years of Canadian Open competition, the “peacock of the fairways” is still the only non-professional player to win the event.

In between the two Canadian Opens, Beaconsfield gained international recognition for holding challenge matches between teams from the United States and Canada in 1952 and 1953. The club also hosted the inaugural Canada Cup, the precursor of today’s World Cup, in 1953 when the Argentinean team of Roberto de Vicenzo and Antonio Cerda overcame six other teams to win the trophy.