They say golf is really played from 100 yards and in. City Place Golf Club, which opened this weekend on a tiny parcel of land about two good shots from Toronto's SkyDome, takes that adage to an extreme.
At City Place, golf is played exclusively from 100 yards and in, give or take a few paces on a couple of holes. The longest tee-shot required is 118 yards; the shortest hole a mere 48 yards.
Such constraints are par for the course when a golf course is put on one of the most densely developed and pricey tracts of land in downtown Toronto.
The nine-hole, par-27 layout, which has been straining the necks of golf-curious commuters since construction began last summer, offers Canada's most intensely urban links experience.
The southern boundary is the Gardiner Expressway, the northern one is the GO Transit line.
The project is part of the $2-billion City Place development, which is expected to see 6,000 highrise condominium units built over the next decade in vacant former railway lands west of the SkyDome as far as Bathurst Street and south of Front Street to the Gardiner. Rather than let the land sit empty during the project rollouts, the developers decided to provide a rare urban golf experience.
A behemoth it's not. The entire course measures only 682 yards on the scorecard, likely making it Canada's shortest nine-hole course. By comparison, the final nine holes at Angus Glen Golf Club in Markham, Ont. -- just named the site of the 2002 Canadian Open -- measure 3,770 yards.
The new facility has been massaged into 10 acres, less than a tenth of the land used by a full-size course.
"When they told me what they wanted to do and how many acres they wanted to do it on, my first thought was that it couldn't be done," said Steve Young, who nevertheless managed to squeeze nine entertaining, short, par-three holes into the site.
His best achievement may have been pulling that off while allowing golfers on each hole to feel isolated from those on the next. The genius lies in having most of the tees and greens in ravines surrounded by massive mounds, many of which are topped by new trees.
The mounds also provide a margin of safety for errant shots. "We could have made the course longer, but in the interest of safety we chose to make sure there was [room for missed shots] We figure it's going to be busy," Mr. Young said.
The price, however, isn't undersized. The peak rate for the roughly one-hour round is $32.10; playing 18 holes will run duffers $48.15 (taxes included). By comparison, the City of Toronto-owned Dentonia Park golf course, which adjoins a subway line in the east end, charges $21 to play its 2,176-yard, 18-hole, par-three loop.
On a cost-per-hour basis, it may be one of the most expensive courses in Canada, rivalling the $230 ticket to play a 4.5-hour round at Oakville's Glen Abbey.
A spokesman for Vancouver-based Concord Adex Development Corp., which is developing the condominium project, said it expects the course's location and attention to detail will justify the expense. Between 30,000 and 35,000 rounds will be played this summer, the company predicts.
So far, the only hitch in the project has been the driving range. It was originally scheduled to open at Christmas, but now isn't expected to be operational until September.
To prevent balls from flying into the path of the G0 Trains that carry commuters from the western suburbs into Union Station, the range requires 25-metre-high netting along the sides. The telephone-pole-style supports were installed in late October but snapped like match sticks in heavy winds less than a week later.
No one was hurt, but precautions are being taken to prevent a similar occurence.
While the course is short, the $5-million facility comes with the bells and whistles of the green complexes at most premium courses.
There are 40 bunkers protecting the putting surfaces, some as deep as 10 feet. All are filled with the same sugary white sand that gives bright contrast to the greenery at legendary courses such as the Augusta National, site of The Masters each April.
And while the finishing hole is only 58 yards, the tee shot requires a carry of a pond and a deep bunker, all of which must be managed in front of the clubhouse patio. Par is well earned.
Simply getting on the greens guarantees nothing. They are large and subtly contoured, with a wide range of pin positions.
They feature bent grass that allows for the smooth roll at championship layouts such as Glen Abbey, although it will likely take a few months before the greens can be groomed to that extent.
"What I set out to do is make nine different approach shots that you might find on a championship course," Mr. Young said.
The only concession to the demands of running a large volume of golfers through a small facility is the use of the synthetic tees, which eliminated the need for large grass tee boxes.
The concept of a high-calibre, short-game course might be just what the golf business needs to make the increasingly popular sport more accessible to city dwellers, beginners and those who can't find the five hours it takes to play a full round at most courses.
"You have to look at what the big barriers are to people playing golf these days," says Kris Jonasson, executive director of the British Columbia Golf Association. A number of short courses and elaborate practice facilities have opened recently to provide more golf opportunities in the Vancouver area where land is at a premium.
"The barriers aren't just money, it's time and the number of courses available that can be played by parents and kids in a couple of hours. If someone could build facilities like that, they'd be very successful."
It's a strategy that's been embraced to some extent in pockets across the country. Vancouver-based Eaglequest Family Golf Centres has developed nine practice facilities, mostly in B.C., Alberta and Ontario, some of which include short courses.
But none have the unusual ambience of City Place, where players must contend with local quirks such as the blare of car horns from frustrated commuters and the rumble of trains.
The urban golf trend is more established in the United States. The City of New York, which owns 13 courses, is paying for a $22-million, Jack Nicklaus-designed, short course, driving range and golf learning centre on a former landfill site along the shore of the eastern Bronx.
A similar project is being planned for downtown Providence, R.I., and a new golf practice facility opened recently in Baltimore, also on a former dump site.
The first and best known of these ventures -- and the one that most resembles City Place -- is Chicago's Illinois Family Golf Center, which also features a deluxe short course on a piece of prime downtown real estate.
The land is so valuable, in fact, that the popular facility's days are numbered. A local developer has a contract to purchase the site for $90-million (U.S.) and planning is under way for a highrise there.
Similarly, Torontonians curious to try golf in a rare setting shouldn't wait too long. The long-term plan for City Place Golf Club is for it to give way to a high-rise condominium, probably within five years.
Until then, beware of passing traffic.