Glen Abbey Golf Club is a public golf course in Oakville, Ontario, Canada. It is one of Canada's most famous golf courses and is home to Golf Canada and the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame. It has hosted 30 Canadian Open Championships, more than any other course, with the first having been in 1977. It was the first solo design by Jack Nicklaus in 1976.

A distinguishing feature of the Glen Abbey course are the "Valley Holes", numbered 11 through 15. On number 11, a par 4, players tee off a cliff to a fairway that is approximately 60 feet below on the valley floor. The second shot must clear Sixteen Mile Creek to the green. Holes 12, 13 and 14 all use Sixteen Mile Creek as a hazard of one form or another. Number 15 is a short par 3 with a sharply sloping green, after which players climb out of the valley to the 16th hole.

Glen Abbey is owned by Clublink, operated by TWC Enterprises Limited. The company was planning to demolish the golf course in order to build residential and commercial units. The plan was opposed by the Oakville Town Council, which designated the facility a heritage site. In 2018, the company achieved some success in its efforts against the town after a Superior Court ruled against the town's attempts to block its plan. From 2017 to 2021, a local citizen’s coalition, “Save Glen Abbey”, pressured local, regional and provincial politicians to stop the development and preserve the site as a golf course. As a result, in July 2021, the Ontario government became involved in the issue and an agreement was reached for the Glen Abbey Golf Course redevelopment plans to be quashed and the golf course to continue. In 1937, the property was sold to Andre Dorfman, as a private estate.

In 2009, Mark Calcavecchia set a new PGA Tour record with 9 consecutive birdies in his second round of the Canadian Open. After having started the round on the 10th hole, he birdied holes 12 through 18, then holes 1 and 2 of the front nine.

Redevelopment plan

Clublink Corp first filed an application in October 2015 to redevelop the property. In its plan, there was no provision for a golf course. Golf Canada was also concerned, since they could not predict whether it could get the necessary permit to hold the Canadian Open at Glen Abbey in 2018. Eventually, the event was in fact held at Glen Abbey.

The Town of Oakville formally rejected the plan to demolish the golf course in a unanimous vote by the Planning and Development Council on February 12, 2018. In summer 2018, Clublink was awaiting a Superior Court decision on its plan to request a demolition permit and, in the meantime, the Canadian Open took place at the course. On October 25, 2018, Justice Edward Morgan ruled that Clublink had a right to take its demolition application to the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal (LPAT), in spite of the town's previous denial of this step. The city council subsequently voted unanimously to take the issue to the Ontario Court of Appeal.

On December 11, 2018, the Ontario Superior Court ruled against the conservation plan and bylaws which had been enacted to stop the Glen Abbey development plan. Judge Edward Morgan said that the effort exceeded the town's legal rights and was made in bad faith. The Local Planning Appeal Tribunal (LPAT) will hold an eight-day hearing in June 2019 on ClubLink’s appeal of the town’s updated official plan and amended bylaws and later in 2019, another hearing later about ClubLink’s development application appeal. These would be over and above the planned office space and commercial/retail space.

In July 2021, following discussions with the Ontario government, the Glen Abbey Golf Course redevelopment plans were quashed by Clublink and the property continued as a golf course. With the redevelopment plans no longer proposed, the Glen Abbey Golf Course continues to operate going forward, recognized as a sports property of historic importance.

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See also

  • List of Jesuit sites