Toronto's Highlands Golf Trail

In what may be better referred to as the “North of Highway 7” golf trail (doesn’t that one just roll off the tongue), a group of North Toronto golf courses are launching the “Highlands Golf Trail.” It is a pretty fine list of clubs — Angus Glen, Copper Creek, Eagle’s Nest, Wooden Sticks, Bond Head, Lionhead. They are going to kick off the partnership with a media outing at the golf show — this one probably involving beer, and not much golf.

There’s little explanation on the Highlands website as to what the grouping does — most areas simply link to phone numbers for the respective courses, while others bid viewers to “check back soon.” Fair enough — maybe the full concept hasn’t been worked out yet, and the last I checked there was lots of snow on the ground. It would also appear Tourism Ontario is somehow involved — since its logo is on the site — and that has to be a positive aspect, especially if this is designed to grow out-of-town traffic, as opposed to simply trying to generate more play from within the GTA.

My favourite bit comes from the description of the courses:

Leading golf course architects from Doug Carrick to Davis Love III have utilized all that nature has to offer — rivers, lakes and wetlands, ravines and the glacial ridge of the Oak Ridges Moraine to craft master courses.

Davis Love III? Come on — he renovated the North course at Angus Glen and then didn’t show up at the Canadian Open. Doesn’t everyone — Angus Glen included — want to forget this fiasco?

Lastly, I hope this isn’t a version of the partnership set up a few years back between Angus, Taboo and Bond Head, that sold memberships and had a similar kick off event. By all accounts, that one amounted to very little. Let’s hope this attempt is more successful.