The Pulpit Club (The Paintbrush)

Here’s a golfing “Trivial Pursuit” question: Who were the creators of the world famous board game of the same name and which private golf courses did they build north west of Toronto in the early 1990s? Answer (for a piece of pie to win the game): Chris Haney and Scott Abbott were the men who established Devil’s Pulpit and Devil’s Paintbrush. Not a lot of non-Canadians will know that!

Michael Hurdzan and Dana Fry were the architects of the Devil’s Pulpit (named after a rock formation seen from the 7th tee), situated on 315 acres in the Caledon Hills on the Niagara escarpment, where they moved over one and a half million cubic yards of soil to fashion the course which opened in 1990.

Within two years, they built the Devil’s Paintbrush course on 164 acres and no, you’ll not find one of Beelzebub’s artistic tools on the property here – it’s named after a wild flower that grows around the course! Constructed at a fraction of the cost of the first course and with minimal earth movement, Devil’s Paintbrush has gone on to become rated even higher than its big sister.

Devil’s Paintbrush is as close to a links style of course that you can get over terrain that is nowhere near the sea – few trees, hummocks and hollows on the fescue fairways, blind shots, bold bunkering (some pot bunkers, some wooden banked, others revetted) – they are all here. There’s also the ruin of an old, abandoned stone walled barn on the fairway of the 8th hole to be negotiated. No cart paths on the course though as it’s a track that is designed to be walked!

And what about the wildly contoured greens on many holes? Plus, at the 2nd and 9th holes, the green is shared, as is the case at the 11th and 14 holes. The latter double green does have a tree, mind you, in the middle of the putting surface whilst the former is reminiscent of “the Himalayas” putting green beside the 2nd tee at St Andrews Old course! The par three 13th is an intimidating 226-yard hole with out of bounds right and a deep gorge in front of a large, two-tiered putting surface.

Golf at the ‘Brush as its members call it, is rugged, adventurous, unpredictable and above all, fun! Truly, members of the Devil’s Pulpit Golf Association are very fortunate to have such contrasting yet high caliber private courses on which to play.

The devil was in the detail, but for some reason the Devil’s Pulpit Golf Association decided to throw the devil out with the bathwater, renaming the facility The Pulpit Club in February 2021.