Glen Abbey Golf Club is located in Oakville, Ontario and was the first solo design by Jack Nicklaus in 1976. It is one of Canada's most famous golf courses and is home to the Golf Canada and the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame. It has hosted 25 Canadian Open Championships, more than any other course, with the first having been 1977. As of 2005, Glen Abbey is owned by Clublink.
A distinguishing feature of the Glen Abbey course are the "Valley Holes", numbered 11 through 15. On number 11, a par 4, players tee off a cliff to a fairway that is approximately 60 feet below on the valley floor. The second shot must clear Sixteen Mile Creek to the green. Holes 12, 13 and 14 all use Sixteen Mile Creek as a hazard of one form or another. Number 15 is a short par 3 with a sharply-sloping green, after which players climb out of the valley to the 16th hole.
The 18th hole is notable due to its connection to Tiger Woods, who, in the final round of the 2000 Canadian Open, hit a six-iron shot 218 yards from a bunker on the right side of the fairway to about 18 feet from the hole. The shot was all carry over a large pond that guards the green. In doing so, Woods proceeded to defeat his playing partner Grant Waite and won the tournament. The shot is regarded as one of the most spectacular both of Woods' career and in recent PGA Tour history.
In 2009, Mark Calcavecchia set a new PGA Tour record with 9 consecutive birdies in his second round of the Canadian Open. After having started the round on the 10th hole, he birdied holes 12 through 18, then holes 1 and 2 of the front nine.
ClubLink Corp, the owners of Glen Abbey, filed an application in October 2015 to redevelop the property into a residential community, with offices and retail stores. There is no provision for a golf course in the plan. The Town of Oakville Council responded in August 2017 by declaring the golf course a heritage site under the Ontario Heritage Act. This would make it more difficult for ClubLink to develop the area as it had planned, with 3,222 housing units and 122,000 square feet of retail and commercial space. Golf Canada was also concerned since it could not predict whether it could get the necessary permit to hold the Canadian Open at Glen Abbey in 2018.
References
Oakville's iconic Glen Abbey golf course could be replaced by housing, retail development - The golf club could be saved if city council deems the course a heritage site.
External links
- Official website
