The Avalon Club (Goodwood Golf Club)

Set out on the glacial moraine landscape to the north of Toronto, Ontario, the course at Goodwood Golf Club is a new millennium layout that was conceived by the late Canadian entrepreneur Gordon Stollery as a private golfing retreat where he could entertain business associates and the like.

Donald Steel’s design company – which made its North American debut at the end of the 1990s in Port Stanley with the Redtail course – was tasked with routing the eighteen holes around an expansive property and it would take until 2007 before lead architect Martin Ebert, working by then with his own company, completed the project.

Little earth was moved during construction and many of the greens are located in the natural lie of the land sites, with a premium placed on approach shots finding the right part of the generally large and contoured putting surfaces. Bunkers have been used sparingly around the property, as might be expected at a venue where the pursuit of golfing pleasure is an underlying theme.

There’s an eclectic mix of long par fours and short par fours on the course, while the par threes are all stout one-shotters – playing in the 185-yard to 210-yard range – with the best kept ‘til last at the 17th, where a heroic, do-or-die tee shot is called for across a small valley to a narrow target.

We hear that Mackenzie & Ebert are still involved in making minor course alterations at Goodwood and there are plans in hand to build an enormous Himalayas putting green and a short game putting surface shaped like the Road Hole green on the Old course at St Andrews.