MICHAEL GRANGE
Sports Reporter
Saturday, July 24, 1999

If you're looking to launch a golf tournament with the heady title of the Canadian Masters, you'd better have a course that can bear the weight of the tournament's name.

The sixth edition of the Masters, one of the two richest stops on the Canadian Tour (purse of $200,000), is under way this weekend at Heron Point Golf Links in Ancaster, Ont. It has already developed a worthy pedigree no doubt enhanced by the quality of the layout just west of Hamilton.

Past champions include Mike Weir of Bright's Grove, Ont., who won his first tournament as a professional at Heron Point in 1997, and fellow PGA Tour member Scott Dunlap, who won in 1995. Whoever wins this weekend will be thrilled to follow in their footsteps.

Both Dunlap and Weir played well at the British Open last week, finishing tied for 10th and 37th places, respectively. Perhaps when they were negotiating the Open links at Carnoustie, Scotland, they were able to use some of the experience they picked up playing out of the fescue and wild grasses that course architect Tom McBroom incorporated liberally throughout Heron Point.

The course has certainly come a long way from its beginnings as a trailer park and recreation area.

Anwar Heidary, a developer in nearby Burlington, decided he wanted to build a high-end private golf club in the late 1980s. While his forecast for the long-term prospects of the club were a bit off -- Heron Point was eventually sold to the current owner, ClubLink, in 1993 -- he got one thing right: buy the right piece of property and allow a talented designer to do his thing.

The result is a layout that many consider the best work of McBroom's career, one of the top courses in the country (ranked No. 34 by Score magazine) and a worthy test for the best the Canadian Tour can offer.

"It's definitely one of the top courses we play," said Todd Fanning, a Canadian Tour veteran from Winnipeg who has played the Masters at Heron Point every year since its inception. The experience seems to be serving him well, as he followed up his opening-round 65 with a 68 yesterday and looks bound to be among the leaders when the tournament winds up tomorrow.

Perhaps the most striking feature at Heron Point is the variety of landscapes included in the rolling, wooded, 257-acre (104-hectare) site.

As well as the long grasses and mounding that define many of the fairways and provide Heron Point with the hint of Irish and Scottish links-style golf, there are a number of low-lying marshland holes that look as if they've been lifted straight out of the Carolinas -- particularly the par-three 13th, where the trip from the tee to the green is made by way of a wooden bridge over a reedy marsh. Others are perfect examples of what Southern Ontario golf can be at its best: forested borders, ravines and subtle changes of elevation.

But beauty aside, Heron Point is also a sturdy golfing test, with the fescue punishing wayward tee shots and greens that have a potato-chip quality -- lots of bends and rolls that can really take a bite out of your score.

Fanning said the most challenging stretch of holes for him and his fellow pros this week is the 10th, 11th and 12th, which are the first three holes for members.

Each of them -- two par-fours and a par-three -- shares the same quality: very slim target areas. A good tee shot on the first hole yields a downhill lie from which creating the shot that can hold the right spots on the broad, shallow green is very difficult so early in a round.

The target on the second hole is even more daunting, with the green tucked into the woods and laid at an angle, with a discouraging bunker guarding the right half.

And if the pin is back-right on the third hole (the 12th for the tour pros this weekend), trying to hold the green behind the twin bunkers will require the kind of short-iron shot that only pro golfers can produce regularly.

Missing the green on any of these is deadly.

"They're just impossible to get up and down from," Fanning said.

That may hint at the key to mastering this Southern Ontario gem: either have no shame, or a Canadian Tour-calibre game.

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