Edmonton

Edmonton Country Club celebrated its centenary in 1996 by hosting the twenty-fourth edition of the LPGA du Maurier Classic, which Laura Davies won by two strokes from Nancy Lopez and Karrie Webb.

By marking the occasion in such style, it obviously indicated the club had come a long way since its inception, when a mere fourteen founding members once played on a basic 5-hole layout in the river valley near Fort Edmonton.

A new 426-acre site was acquired by Edmonton in 1910 and a 9-hole layout was soon established, designed by American professional L.G. White. An additional nine followed a couple of decades later.

Stanley Thompson subsequently altered this 18-hole layout in the late 1940s, in one of his last design projects. The architect liked the redesigned par three 18th so much that a photo of the hole featured in advertisements for his company.

The toughest hole on the modern day course is the 6th, an arrow straight par five with water lurking to the right of the fairway, short of the green. The left doglegged 17th is another formidable par five (rated stroke index 2) where a good score for the round can easily end in tears on the penultimate hole.

Ian Andrew was appointed to draw up a master plan for the course in 2020 and over the following three years he oversaw a major upgrade project to remove trees, rebuild greens and reconstruct bunkers, with a new drainage network installed around the property.