By Garry McKay (April 2007)
Old doesn’t necessarily mean decrepit - certainly not in the case of the Brantford Golf and Country Club. The fourth oldest golf club in Canada, Brantford was founded in 1880. The current course was built in stages by brothers Nichol and Stanley Thompson and George Cumming between 1917 and 1921.
It’s considered one of the great old courses in Canada and yet, they’re consistently trying to make it better. In recent years Brantford has built a magnificent clubhouse with spectacular views over the course and down to the Grand River Valley below. They’ve burned out all of the fairways and completely reseeded them, removed hundreds of trees and are now in the third stage of rebuilding their bunkers under the direction of Canadian architect Graham Cooke, who is also looking at some new tee boxes.
“The golf market has become extremely competitive and you can’t afford to rest on your laurels any more,” says Denis Matte, who is general manager of the private club. “Bigger isn’t necessarily better but there are expectations of change. The newer courses, if they bring anything, bring good conditioning and fairly dramatic architecture.”
“The whole marketplace has changed and for us there was recognition that we have a great layout - and we really haven’t messed with it - but we’ve certainly improved playing conditions.”
In fact Matte says the reworking of the bunkers, which was started by Doug Carrick and Ian Andrew and is being finished by Cooke, is actually taking them back, architecturally to an older style.
Like many courses of its vintage Brantford is not long. It’s 6,510 yards from the tips but that doesn’t mean it’s a pushover, not by any means.
“It’s very challenging because of the undulations,” says Bruce Rogerson who has been the head pro for eight years. “It’s a parkland golf course with lots of trees so there’s a premium on getting the golf ball in the right locations. The ball-beaters of the world don’t necessarily play this golf course very well because they hit into a lot of the trouble out there.”
Brantford is such a shot-maker's course that club members David Hearn, now playing the Nationwide Tour and LPGA Tour player Alena Sharp both honed their game there.
Staying out of the trees is a premium at Brantford but was becoming increasingly more difficult because the course was literally becoming an overgrown jungle. Matte said three years ago they had a United States Golf Association agronomist look at the course and he recommended that they remove about a thousand trees. The club is doing it in stages and they’re almost halfway there.
In some areas it’s provided better air circulation and allowed sunlight in to improve turf conditions. The added bonus, said Matte, is that it’s also opening up dynamic new vistas onto the golf course. Cooke has been asked to come back with a master plan for the future.
“We’re pretty landlocked so there’s really no place to add much length,” says Matte. “I do expect he will recommend building some new tees on some holes so we can vary the lengths.”
Matte also said he wouldn’t be surprised if Cooke comes back with a recommendation to make a change to the fifth hole. It’s the toughest hole on the course but gives the maintenance staff the most trouble
.
“The fairway is in our lowest lying and wettest area and that creates regular problems,” Matte explains. “The second shot is blind, over a hill to a dramatic green setting, one of the best on the course. The last time he was here Graham talked about taking the hill out so you can see the green and using the soil to fix the drainage problem in the fairway.”
Brantford has a large active membership and they have a junior program that is not only progressive for a private club, but gets results. In addition to encouraging members’ children to join, the club offers an ‘unattached junior program.’
“We take five boys and five girls who aren’t necessarily members of the club,” explains Rogerson who noted they aren’t just looking for good players. Good players seem to come out of their junior program anyway regardless of whether they’re from the unattached part or not.
Hearn, Sharp and Michael Hospodar, a former Ontario Amateur Champ who played the Great Lakes Tour last year, are all former Brantford Juniors. Three of the top junior girls in Canada, Nicole Vandermade, Laura Hildebrandt and Jennifer Kirby also play out of Brantford.
“They have good access to the tee which helps and we continuously try and develop a good relationship between the juniors and the seniors,” says Rogerson. “I know at some clubs the juniors are sort of pushed to the side with their own tee times but we really try and get the kids involved with the older members.”
With a strong commitment to junior golf and a progressive course renewal program, Brantford has the perfect recipe for continued success well into their second century.
More articles by Garry McKay
