Ottawa Hunt (Gold)

Founded in 1908 as a fox hunting club, Ottawa Hunt first decided to incorporate golf into their sporting activities in 1919 when CPGA Champion Davey Black from the Rivermead Golf Club in Ottawa laid out a rudimentary 9-hole course for the members.

This makeshift course didn’t last for long. In 1920 the membership decided to expand its golf offering and fully embrace the royal and ancient game. Willie Park Junior was commissioned to fashion a new 18-hole course, one of almost twenty Canadian tracks laid out by the two-time Open Champion during his career as an architect. By July 1922, Ottawa Hunt’s new 18-hole course was in play.

An additional 9-hole circuit was built in 1959 by Bryant White, along with a curling rink, to effectively make the club an all-year round sporting facility. All twenty-seven holes on the property were then upgraded by Tom McBroom in the early 1990s before Michael Hurdzan’s design company carried out a major renovation in more recent times, replacing poa annua greens and moving a couple of holes to improve the practice area.

The tree-lined fairways on today’s original Willie Park layout (the South and West nines that comprise the Gold course) extend to a total length of 6,864 yards from the tips. The 560-yard par five 6th is a wonderful hole at Ottawa Hunt, playing across water from the tee to a fairway that leads to a marvellous “Biarritz” green. However, the club considers their signature hole to be the par three 4th, a new one shotter added by Michael Hurdzan during his redesign of the South West course.

Ottawa Hunt has hosted a number of prestigious national competitions down the years, including the Canadian Open in 1932 and the Canadian Amateur Championship in 1937, 1960 and 1970. In more recent times, the Canadian Women’s Open was held here 1994, 2008 (marking the club’s centenary) and in 2017.