Wildfire

The Thomas McBroom-designed course at Wildfire Golf Club sits on Stoney Lake – one of the more popular cottage retreats in the Kawartha district of Ontario – and fairways wind through a wonderful 210-acre tract of forest and wetlands that’s dotted with beautiful rocky outcrops.

The front nine holes at Wildfire are very good – particularly the back-to-back par fives at holes 7 and 8 – but the back nine are great, comprising three short holes, three two-shotters and three par fives.

Two titanic holes on the inward half are the doglegged par four 10th (which features glacial granite boulders running down the right side of the fairway) and the risk/reward par five 12th, played across marshland to a tantalizing island green.

The course architect had little doubt about the impact the course would make when he spoke the following words on Opening Day in 2002: “This lake has a fantastic tradition for boating and fishing. The opening of Wildfire signifies a new era for cottage-life in the Kawarthas. It will put Stoney Lake on the map, much the way we did with The Lake Joseph Club in Muskoka when it opened in 1996.”