Golf Course Review – Shaughnessy Golf & Country Club

Shaughnessy Golf & Country Club
I hadn’t played Shaughnessy in six or seven years and was really looking forward to the opportunity to play it again. Ten months removed from arguably the best RBC Canadian Open in recent memory I got the opportunity to tee it up this month. I’ve always thought Shaughnessy was one of those special places. It all starts with the turn off Southwest Marine Drive, through the Shaughnessy gates and down the long driveway (with the first hole on the left hand side the whole way in).

Warming Up at Shaughnessy
When you play at Shaughnessy you have to arrive early enough to use the practice range! It is the best in city. Double ended, large wide grass tee, lots of target greens, pitching, chipping and bunker area plus three putting greens. To top it off they have only new white Titleist range balls.

The Golf Course
The golf course was amazing. I had high expectations of the course and it not only lived up to them but I think exceeded them. The course is amazing, everything from the layout to the conditions are fantastic. On this day we played the blue tees (at just about 6,700 yards), which was plenty long enough. The black tees are set at just over 7,000 yards. I did expect that the golf course would be returned to member playability, typically meaning wider fairways, less than 1.5″ rough and greens that are fast but not PGA Tour fast. I was wrong! The fairways seemed to me they were about as wide as during the RBC Canadian Open (although they were likely wider, guess how I played?). The rough was deeper than expected and very thick, although part of this was due to some wet areas that likely hadn’t been cut recently. The greens were quick, running about 12 on the stimp meter, although they are trying to get them over 13 in the next week or so. Shaughnessy is such a classic old golf course, where shot making is a premium. You have to be good in all areas of the game. There is not a bad hole at Shaughnessy. Although I didn’t play well I still think Shaughnessy is one of those truly special places and will always be among my top five golf courses that I’ve played.

You can view the photo set from the day here.