Game Changers: How the Local Golf Industry is Primed for a Boom in Golf Tourism

As Megan Young climbed into a golf cart and zipped around the Shelburne Golf & Country Club’s picturesque 18-hole course with me last summer, it seemed as if she could find her way blindfolded. An idea that may not be so far-fetched. After all, she grew up on the course. Until his death in 2024 at the age of 82, her father, Sam Young, ran the club along with his wife, Mary, teasingly known as the “chief shenanigan co-ordinator.”

“We used to swim in that pond,” said Megan, her long brown hair whipping in the wind as she pointed out spots that hold special childhood memories. As the two of us continued zooming along the maintenance paths that connect long, tree-lined fairways, she added, “I remember playing in the sand bunker on the ninth hole, and my dad running out to get me out of there because people were trying to tee off!”

Her family’s history at the club dates to 1975 when Sam, whose longstanding dedication to the sport earned him membership in the Professional Golfers’ Association of Canada Hall of Fame, bought a small pre-existing course. He immediately got busy improving the drainage and turf conditions to transform the course into the meticulously maintained fairways and greens that golfers enjoy today. On any given day, you could find Sam out on the course cutting the grass or coaching. That legacy now falls to Megan, the club’s general manager, and her brother, Brooks, the superintendent.

Brooks also has deep memories of the transformation of this landscape, including learning how to use a backhoe, hauling boulders, and helping his father water the greens at night – by hand – while holding a flashlight, before the automatic system was installed. Having witnessed the evolution of the course from a “nine-hole swamp to a very respectable 18-hole golf facility,” he said that one of the remarkable things about Headwaters is the variety of courses that are accessible to the public.

“Part of the fabric of golf in Ontario is its independent operators,” said Megan, as Mary, a meticulous record keeper, carefully unrolled Sam’s original blueprints for the Shelburne course and showed me weathered scorecards from its opening week. Megan added, “And the nice thing about having a family golf course is you really learn how this place breathes and runs.”

Usually the torch passing from generation to generation is about as big a transition as you will see on the golf landscape in Headwaters. But this year, a much bigger shift is afoot as the area becomes the focus of international attention.

Over the next few months, the Youngs and others who love the sport will be paying close attention as their sport gets a close-up. Golf Canada announced last spring that Caledon’s TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley would host the 2025 RBC Canadian Open, the crown jewel of this country’s golf season, from June 4 to 8. And in the longer term, Golf Canada, the association that runs the tournament, and many other events and programs across the country, will move its national headquarters from Oakville to an expansive campus at Osprey Valley. The campus will also include the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame and Museum.

With Headwaters set to become the epicentre of Canadian golf, I grabbed my golf bag last summer and toured some of the venues that have transformed Headwaters into a vibrant golf hub.

A local sport

Golf has been played in Headwaters for nearly a century and one of the oldest courses is the Orangeville Golf Club. The now-abandoned Canadian Pacific Railway track ran through the nine-hole course, and today, golfers still amble over the former right-of-way. In the 1930s, the course was built on the homestead of actor Arthur Huston, and legend has it that celebrities such as Bing Crosby and Bob Hope would hop off the train for a round of golf and a drink at the clubhouse. 

Tell someone today that you play golf and it may conjure up this posh vision of the sport, but dotted throughout Headwaters are many fun and friendly public golf courses where anyone and everyone is welcome for “a good walk” spoiled. (And among those with membership fees, some charge less than $400 a year.) And like the Young family’s Shelburne course, many have been labours of love intertwined with their family history.

Headwaters’ nearly 20 courses are as varied as the local topography on which they sit, from Melancthon and Amaranth’s flatter terrain to the hills of Mono and the rugged Niagara Escarpment in Caledon. The Credit River meanders through the lush grounds of the Caledon Country Club in Inglewood, its history dating back to 1961. Glen Eagle Golf Club, nestled in the Albion hills, opened on Highway 50 in 1962, nearly across the road from Caledon Woods Golf Club (previously the Bolton Golf Club). As mentioned earlier Sam and Mary Young took over the Shelburne course in 1975.

A stone’s throw from the Elora Cataract Trailway, Erin Heights Golf Course, also family-owned, opened in 1982. And south of Erin village, Calerin Golf Club offers nine challenging holes. The Adamo family, previous owners of Hockley Valley Resort, commissioned Canadian course architect Thomas McBroom to design their 18-hole course after they bought the resort in 1985. McBroom’s design left much of the rugged terrain untouched.

The Bailey family has owned Amaranth’s Lynbrook Family Golf Centre since 1999. More recently, in 2012, Winston Jageshar and his family opened Dufferin Glen Golf Club in Mono.

And Jerry and Roman Humeniuk took over TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley in 1992 and, over the years, have expanded it to offer three distinct 18-hole courses, as well as two new clubhouses, a golf academy and stay-and-play villas.

What the Canadian Open could mean for Headwaters

The news that TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley would host the RBC Canadian Open for the first time, and that some of the world’s most famous golfers, including Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland and Canadian champion Nick Taylor, will be playing in our backyard this June was cause for celebration. As a gauge of the potential impact of this event, consider this: Last year’s Canadian Open, held at the Hamilton Golf and Country Club, welcomed about 136,000 fans and generated an estimated economic benefit of $86 million for the region.

“Hosting the RBC Canadian Open here is going to be phenomenal,” says Osprey president Chris Humeniuk, who took over the club’s reins from his father, Roman, and late uncle, Jerry. “Everything we’re doing in Osprey Valley is going to put Caledon on the international map from a golf tourism perspective and an overall tourism perspective. And we’re proud to be a family-owned public course where anyone can come and play the same course as the world’s top golfers.” 

Chris added that to honour his father and uncle, two maple trees, named the Two Brothers, have been planted on the 18th hole of the club’s North Course, where this year’s open will be played, so that “they’ll always be there in spirit.” (Two Brothers is also the name of the on-site restaurant.) 

My tour continues

Back at the Shelburne club, Megan and I watched Jaymond Woods, the club’s teaching professional, coach a group of youngsters on the driving range. Decked out in matching polo shirts and equipped with identical golf bags, they effortlessly drove balls nearly 250 yards – while I couldn’t help but wish I were 14 again.

The juniors were members of the club’s competitive Advanced Junior Program, an initiative Sam was especially passionate about. The Shelburne club has a legacy of producing athletes who go on to compete at a professional level. “The future of golf is for sure in our juniors,” said Woods, who picked up his first club at age three and trained under Sam to become an instructor. “The industry is really recognizing that it is very crucial that juniors play and learn the right way, because golf is a lifelong sport.”

As I continue my tour, I meet more enthusiasts like Woods and his charges. My next stop? The Dufferin Glen Golf Club in Mono. This low-key nine-hole course is owned and managed by Winston Jageshar and his son, Arif, a PGA Canada professional and instructor. (You are also apt to run into Winston’s wife and daughter on the course.) 

Dufferin Glen incorporates many of the property’s natural features, including a protected wetland to tee off over on the first hole. The par-3 seventh hole challenges players to hit over a pond onto the green – hopefully without slicing the ball toward a nearby windmill.

Though the juniors I watched play at Shelburne, unafflicted by the aches and pains of middle age, may have an advantage, this doesn’t mean they have all the fun. Just ask the women who never miss the weekly ladies’ game at Dufferin Glen.

The clubhouse is small and informal, and as players pop in and out to pay their green fees, Winston and Arif seemed to know everyone by name. “Some of the very first players who came here from the week we opened in 2012 are still playing here happily,” said Winston. “The regulars who play here come three or four times a week. This is their home course, so we treat them like family.”

On the sunny afternoon I visited, Winston took a break from clubhouse duties to barbecue the end-of-season lunch for a group of women who get together to play every week. Hockley resident Sandi Patterson, who helps organize the outings, summed up her feelings about the matches. “I’d say 50 per cent I love the golf and 50 per cent I love the girls. It’s just the camaraderie. It’s a barrel of laughs out there and that’s what we’re looking for. Sometimes we’re laughing at each other, sometimes laughing at the game.” 

Fun “fore” the family

Driving past Lynbrook Family Golf Centre in Amaranth, just a few minutes northwest of Orangeville, it’s hard to miss the eye-catching driving range targets (kids love aiming for the school bus), and the old silo repurposed to look like a huge golf bag at the parking lot entrance. Lynbrook is known for its quirky mini-putt course (also nearby is 10 and 10 Mini-Putt and Driving Range on Highway 10).

Owner and PGA Canada professional Daryl Bailey, born and raised in Orangeville, celebrated the course’s 25th anniversary last year. He and his wife, Kim, named the course after their two daughters, Lindsay and Brooke, and running the show has always been a family affair. Even Daryl’s father, Tom, now 80, still cuts the grass three times a week. 

“I’ve pretty much worked here since I was little, picking up balls, working in the pro shop, everything,” laughs Brooke, now the course’s operations manager, as Daryl jokes, “We change her job titles all the time!” Father and daughter trade stories about the course’s early days – including washing hundreds of golf balls in a washing machine – and share black-and-white news clippings from opening day, when Brooke and her sister were little kids.

Daryl said the family has preserved as much of the natural environment as possible, and that out of the property’s roughly 75 acres only a third has been groomed. “The rest is all wild,” he says, referring to the native grasses and wildflowers that grow around and between the fairways. Brooke added that her mother cares deeply about keeping things that way. “Our ponds have wildlife coming in and out, beavers and muskrats build nests, there are birdhouses all over the course … it’s as natural as possible.”

Upping the environmental and community game

Mitigating the negative environmental impacts of the sport is also a key tenet of Golf Canada’s current mandate. The organization and its industry partners encourage golf courses to protect, expand and naturalize non-playable areas, which may make up 40 to 70 per cent of course properties in Canada, as well as to reduce waste and choose cleaner energy sources such as battery-powered carts.

Garrett Ball, the organization’s chief operating officer, says this ethos extends to events like this year’s RBC Canadian Open, which will be “the most environmentally friendly outdoor sporting event in our country.” Examples from last year’s open include battery-powered temporary tents and structures, electric tournament transportation, and waste reduction measures, such as diverting the equivalent of about 90,000 water bottles by encouraging fans to bring reusable water bottles to use at water-refilling stations.

Long after the crowds have gone home, Golf Canada intends to be a good neighbour, most notably by building a 30,000-square-foot, 18-hole community putting green. Artificial grass will provide the surface. “We love this for a couple of reasons,” says Ball. “It has a long lifespan, it extends the season so you can play whenever there’s no snow, you don’t have to water it or cut it so there’s no gas usage.” The goal? To introduce people to golf. Free to the public with putters and balls provided, the course will be a community initiative he says “will be the first of its kind in Canada.”

Boosting inclusivity underpins First Tee, Golf Canada’s youth development program. Other inclusivity initiatives include enhancing opportunities for women golfers and making the game more accessible to anyone who wants to play in order to “reflect the multicultural strength of Canada’s population,” says Ball.

For local courses, both private and public, the evolution of what was once viewed as an elite sport is a welcome and timely development. “The great thing about tournaments like the Canadian Open is that it always sparks kids and new players to get into golf, and that’s what we’re all about,” said Megan Young. She is especially excited about this year’s Canadian Open because Canadian champion Nick Taylor’s caddy, David Markle, trained under her father, Sam, and is the top junior golfer to come out of Shelburne’s Advanced Junior Program.

“People also have a lot of choice in this area for golf, and there are bed-and-breakfasts and hotels to accommodate golf tourism,” she added of the potential golf boom in Headwaters. “At the end of the day, golf is meant for everyone.”