Canadian Golf Architecture Review: Steven Ward

One of the final installments in an ongoing series.

Steven Ward's terrific Timber Ridge GC

Steven Ward

Years in industry: 27

Best Course: Timber Ridge GC (Brighton, Ont.); Trillium Wood GC (Belleville, Ont.)

Quote: “I’m not exactly a big city guy. I suppose a lot of clients want a guy who is in Toronto and won’t consider you if you’re not. But that’s just fine with me.”

Strengths:

• Ability to create interesting golf on a limited budget
• Willing to break the mould and build shorter courses that focus on wildly rolling greens.

Weaknesses:

• Not overly ambitious; seems content working in smaller markets on low profile courses.
• Course have not been built in large urban centers, hurting his exposure to a wide market.

Comment: Ward is finally starting to gain some recognition for the fine work he did at Timber Ridge. Ward, who formerly worked on resort projects in the U.S., understood that he could not build a 7,000 yard monster using the limited rolling land at Timber Ridge, Ward focused on creating smart, unusual holes with interesting greens. The end result was the creation of a reasonably priced golf course that recently cracked Score’s Top 100 Golf Courses in Canada list.

New work has been tough to come by recently, leaving Ward content to work on restorations near his home town of Picton and work with his daughter, an aspiring junior golfer. A project near Newmarket fell through in recent years.

What’s possible?: Unlikely to garner much attention outside of Eastern Ontario, Ward’s best work may already be behind him.

Overall: B