Burlington is investing in municipal facilities. The question is will Hamilton follow suit?
Hamilton golfers will have to wait until at least next month to find out what the future holds for their municipal golf facilities, Chedoke and King’s Forest.
That’s when a study commissioned by the city and carried out by Toronto-based GGA Partners to look at the operations and requirements for municipal golf in Hamilton is expected to be reviewed by city council.
The Spectator has learned it could be presented as early as May 2, but Ward 1 Coun. Maureen Wilson, the driving force behind the study, said in an email last week she hadn’t yet been informed of a date.
Wilson told The Spectator last spring her constituents had questioned whether there needed to be 36 holes at Chedoke and whether some of it could be converted to parkland instead.
That would most likely be the Martin course, where golf has been played since 1895, making it one of the 10 oldest golf facilities in Canada still operating on the same site.
It was the second home of the Hamilton Golf and Country Club before it moved to its current location in Ancaster in 1916.
The city acquired the course in 1924 and created the Chedoke municipal golf facility, adding the Beddoe course in the early 1950s and King’s Forest in 1973. That also means the City of Hamilton is celebrating 100 years of operating municipal golf this year.
In Toronto and Burlington, though, the future of municipal golf appears settled.
Both cities have opted to keep golf as part of their recreation facility offerings with no reductions in size.
A little over a year ago the City of Toronto took a serious look at its municipal golf operations — Dentonia Park, Don Valley, Humber Valley, Scarlet Woods and Tam O’Shanter — and, like Hamilton, considered whether at least some of the land could better be used for parks.
It decided to keep them as golf courses, and to be more efficient, turned the operation of the courses over to a management company headed by Kevin Thistle, the executive director of the Professional Golfers Association of Canada.
Burlington operates just one golf facility, Tyandaga, and for months had also been looking at whether to keep it as an 18-hole course or reduce it to 12 or nine holes and put the rest of the property to other uses.
“This is all about what our community wanted,” said Renee Kulinski-McCann, senior manager of recreation services for the City of Burlington. “It could have had a nine-hole course with green space or an 18-hole course but, through engagement sessions and listening to the community, we heard loud and clear that they wanted it to remain an 18-hole course.”
Last fall, Burlington held six engagement sessions and residents were also able to offer opinions online. “It wasn’t just golfers who come out (to the engagement sessions),” said Kulinski-McCann. “We had golfers, league players and residents. We really had a good turnout.”
They even brought in experts from the golf industry to tour the course and provide input.
Tyandaga, which is one of the Indigenous names of Mohawk Chief Joseph Brant, who lived in Burlington later in his life, was designed by Canadian Golf Hall of Fame architect Robbie Robinson and opened in 1963.
The city acquired the course and began operating it as a municipal facility a decade later.
Brad Weake, manager of Tyandaga Golf Club, said some changes at the facility, northwest of Highway 403 and Brant Street, are already underway.
“All of the Ash trees on the course have been removed,” said Weake. “We’re also going to be trimming back some trees on the course to improve sight lines and we’ll do that as soon as the ground dries out a little bit to allow us to get heavier equipment on the course.
“The new parking lot is about 80 to 90 per cent complete. We have put benches out on every hole and we expect to have a new warm-up hitting net near the first tee by the end of this month.”
Long-term, the course is also looking at rebuilding many of the tees that have become crowned over the years and planting trees around the perimeter to help keep golf balls from leaving the property.
It is also in the process of establishing a Tyandaga Advisory Committee made up of golfers, league players and nongolfers to help steer future projects on the course.
Tyandaga is expected to open for the season this weekend.
Junior golf
The Hamilton Halton Junior Golf Tour is gearing up for another season.
Junior boys and girls who are interested in trying to qualify for the seven-event tour can get more information at hhjgt.com.
The deadline to enter is June 1 and the qualifying tournament is Sunday, June 9, on the Martin course at Chedoke. The tour schedule is: Friday, June 28, Port Dover; Tuesday, July 2, Dragon’s Fire; Monday, July 15, Burlington Springs; Thursday, July18, King’s Forest; Thursday, July 25, Chedoke Beddoe; Wednesday, Aug. 7, Granite Ridge; Thursday, Aug. 15, Cambridge.