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Rival golf-course operators in Muskoka and southern Georgian Bay could only watch in envy last August when PGA heavy-hitter John Daly attempted to drive a ball through the swirling mist of Horseshoe Falls across the Niagara Gorge to Goat Island in the United States.

Though "Long John" failed in all 20 attempts, he generated a cascade of publicity for both the Niagara Peninsula and his new Thundering Waters Golf Club, a course Daly designed with Canadian architect Bo Danoff.

"How is anyone supposed to compete with a stunt like that?" says Jim Lee, executive director of the Canadian Golf Tourism Alliance, a national marketing association. "That type of publicity is priceless."

For almost a decade, the Niagara, Muskoka and southern Georgian Bay regions have fought for the golf spotlight by opening increasingly luxurious resorts, recruiting celebrity course designers such as Daly, Nick Faldo and Greg Norman, and spending millions of dollars on publicity campaigns. This summer, the battle will escalate with the opening of two highly anticipated public courses. "All three destinations draw on Southern Ontario's huge population base, an almost unfair advantage over the rest of Canada," Lee says.

More than 100 public-play courses are scattered throughout three stunningly varied landscapes encompassing a mix of deciduous and hardwood forests, pristine lakes, valleys and rocky escarpments. Locals and visitors from the Greater Toronto Area, as well as the growing number of golf tourists from elsewhere in Canada and abroad, are almost overwhelmed with choices in what has rapidly become Canada's — and perhaps North America's — hottest golf scene.

Even before entering the golf-tourism battle, the three regions stood out as long-established holiday mainstays. Niagara is world-famous for the thundering falls that annually attract about 14 million visitors. Muskoka and southern Georgian Bay, both about two hours from Toronto by car, rank among the most popular — and priciest — cottage districts in Canada.

In targeting the golf tourism market, the three destinations are following a path first blazed in Canada by Prince Edward Island in the 1990s. After a concerted marketing effort, annual revenue from golf tourism in Canada's smallest province jumped from about $17-million in the mid-1990s to around $80-million in 2005.

Not surprisingly, other regions of the country were quick to hop on the golf bandwagon, promoting courses in the Vancouver, Whistler and Okanagan regions of British Columbia, in the Alberta Rockies, the Quebec Laurentians, Cape Breton and mainland Nova Scotia.

In Ontario, Muskoka was the first to chase golf travellers, who, according to statistics, spend about 35 per cent more per trip and travel more often than other tourists. Since the early 1990s, a succession of acclaimed courses has opened throughout a ruggedly beautiful district whose cachet seems to grow with each passing year.

The lavish summer homes of wealthy Torontonians and Hollywood celebrities, including Goldie Hawn and Martin Short, adorn the waterfronts of Lake Muskoka, Lake Joseph and Lake Rosseau, the three most coveted addresses.

This July will see the unveiling of the Muskoka Bay Golf Course, a demanding 7,322-yard track carved through typically rough-and-tumble terrain just outside the town of Gravenhurst. Designed by Doug Carrick, Muskoka Bay adds yet another marquee course to a roster that includes Deerhurst Highlands Golf Course, The Rock Golf Club, Taboo Golf Course and Bigwin Island Golf Club.

Golf has been popular throughout the Niagara Peninsula ever since the 1881 founding of the Niagara-on-the-Lake Golf Club, one of the oldest clubs in North America. But it was the 2002 launch of the $27-million Legends on the Niagara golf complex on the outskirts of the city of Niagara Falls that overnight established the honeymoon capital as a rising star of Canadian golf.

Determined to grab the attention of serious golfers, the Niagara Parks Commission recruited two of the nation's top golf architects, Carrick and Tom McBroom, to design two 18-hole championship courses and combine their talents on the facility's nine-hole executive course and practice facility. Together with the opening of the $1-billion Niagara Fallsview Casino Resort in 2004, Legends on the Niagara helped to reignite the slumbering economy of a city that now accounts for 40 per cent of Ontario's tourism industry. And with two more high-end layouts opening to rave reviews in 2005 — the Rees Jones Course at Grand Niagara and John Daly's Thundering Waters Golf Club — Niagara tourism officials are touting the region as a golf destination that may eventually rival Myrtle Beach, S.C.

With a hotel infrastructure already in place to accommodate winter skiers, southern Georgian Bay has added golf to its tourism mix by opening a string of memorable courses. Batteaux Creek Golf Club, Monterra Golf at Blue Mountain Resort, and Cranberry Golf Resort and Conference Centre are drawing golfers to a region experiencing explosive growth. In the town of Collingwood, the area's central hub, new housing construction has more than doubled in the past three years.

In partnership with Intrawest, the Vancouver-based resort developer with properties across North America, Collingwood's Blue Mountain Resort is racing to meet a July 1 opening date for the Raven Club at Lora Bay. Set on the dramatic Nipissing Ridge overlooking the Georgian Bay shoreline, the course was jointly designed by PGA Tour veteran Tom Lehman and McBroom. "So far, Muskoka and Niagara are better known among golfers than southern Georgian Bay," says McBroom, who has designed courses in all three regions. "But the rapid elevation changes of the terrain and panoramic views of Georgian Bay make this a really exciting canvas for course design. We might be witnessing the birth of the next great Canadian golf destination."

A strength shared by all three destinations is a strong lineup of second-tier courses, offering golfers a variety of playing options and prices. Golf industry surveys reveal that no matter how extravagant a club's facilities, or high-profile the designer, most golfers balk at paying green fees of $150 and more every time they step onto a course.

Yet few would argue that recognizable names such as Daly, Faldo, Norman and Lehman are critical to a golf destination's success — especially in a market as image-conscious as Southern Ontario.

Faldo, a three-time British Open and Masters champion, was hired to design The Rock Golf Club in Muskoka as much for his playing record as for his reputation as an architect. Faldo's course in the village of Minett is the first phase of the estimated $500-million Red Leaves project, which will transform more than 560 hectares, including more than a kilometre of Lake Rosseau shoreline, into a resort village with restaurants, shops, resort homes, galleries and a JW Marriott hotel.

Similarly, the fame of Lehman, who will captain the U.S. Ryder Cup squad in September, is being counted on to promote Intrawest's rapidly expanding Village at Blue Mountain, which closely resembles Intrawest's ski-and-golf villages in Whistler and Mont-Tremblant. Scheduled for completion in 2010, the $660-million expansion will include 2,000 resort homes and 70 shops and restaurants.

"Celebrity architects can help sell everything from real estate to golf shirts in the pro shop," says Stephen Johnston, an industry analyst with Toronto-based Global Golf Advisors. "But more than anything it's good design that guarantees a course's long-term success, not the name of the architect."

No destination is betting on the selling power of celebrities more than the Niagara Peninsula, where the $180-million Grand Niagara Resort project (scheduled for completion in 2010) on the outskirts of Niagara Falls features an already operating public-play course by Rees Jones and a semi-private layout by Greg Norman still under construction. Both Rees Jones and Norman, a two-time British Open champion whose course will charge $250 to $300 for green fees when it opens in 2008, rank among the top architects in the game.

Legends on the Niagara, the facility that sparked the local golf boom, scored a coup over its competition in 2004 by hosting the Canadian Women's Open, a tournament that drew most of the world's top female golfers. "Given Niagara's momentum," says Jim Lee of the Canadian Golf Tourism Alliance, "Ontario's golf war isn't over, but it may already be as good as won."

Brian Kendall is the author of Northern Links: Canada From Tee to Tee.

'Big three' golf packages

Most major courses in Ontario's "Big Three" golf regions offer packages that combine tee times with overnight accommodations, meals and other amenities. Here is a sampling:

NIAGARA PENINSULA

Hunters Pointe Golf Club: A two-night play-and-stay package includes accommodation (Sunday to Thursday) at one of three regional properties, two breakfasts per person, two rounds of 18 (Hunters Pointe, plus 18 at either Thundering Waters or Grand Niagara), carts, taxes and gratuities. Cost: $379 a person. For more information, visit www.niagarafallstours.com/hunterspointe.html

Legends on the Niagara and Whirlpool Golf Course: A two-day shoulder-season package includes overnight at Best Western Cairn Croft, breakfast, one round at Legends and one at Whirlpool, cart, taxes and tips. Cost: from $187 a person. For more information, visit www.niagaraparksgolf.com/legends/golfpackages.php

MUSKOKA

Deerhurst Highlands Golf Course: A summer and fall package includes one night's accommodation, one round with cart and club cleaning. Cost: from $224 a person. For more information, visit www.deerhurstresort.com/specials.html#golf

Taboo Golf Course: A foursome can stay one night in a three-bedroom cottage and play a round, including a cart. Cost: $169 a person. For more information, visit www.tabooresort.com/specials.php#golf

SOUTHERN GEORGIAN BAY

The Raven at Lora Bay: Starting in July, a two-night package includes accommodation, one round of golf at the Raven and one round at Monterra Golf Course at Blue Mountain. Cost: from $368 a person. For more information, visit www.intrawestgolf.com/raven_lorabay.

Blue Mountain: A one-night "eat, sleep, golf" package includes resort accommodation, a round of golf at Monterra with a shared cart, breakfast and dinner at the Pottery Steak and Seafood restaurant. Cost: from $182 a person. For more information, visit www.bluemountain.ca/lodging_specials.htm#02