Huron's Golf Courses

Huron can be a golfer's paradise

By Shawn Loughlin
Huron County is like a golfer’s paradise. Across the county there are 10 courses to choose from, each with its own personality, characteristics, history and tradition, something else Huron County is famous for.
Here, listed alphabetically, are some of the memorable events and historical tournaments that have helped to put Huron County on the golf map.

Bayview Golf Course

This course, located on RR2 in Zurich, is a par 72 18-hole course, with a total yardage of 6315.
Located 11 km north of Grand Bend on Hwy. 21, this course features power carts, club rentals and a golf shop, which can be reached at (519) 236-4030.
Jim Masse, co-owner of the course, recalls a charity tournament his course used to hold, to benefit a cause very close to his heart.
“The most fun we’ve had here is when we used to have the charity tournament to benefit the neonatal intensive-care unit. Over the five years we held the tournament, we donated over $150,000 to them,” he said. “Over the last 27 years, I would say that was the most fun and the most gratifying. I have had two grandsons born prematurely, so this is something that’s very close to my heart.

Bluewater Golf Course

This course is located on the Bluewater Hwy. in Bayfield. It’s a challenging course that features a lot of bush, water and sand traps along the way.
Bluewater offers power carts, rentals, a golf shop and a snack bar.
Open from April 1 to Oct. 31, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., this course can be reached at (519) 482-7197.
Manager Krista Jefferson says the clubhouse getting a facelift was one of the most memorable events of the last few years, because it was completed by her and the rest of the family that owns and runs the course.
“We’re going into our third summer with our new clubhouse. We do weddings here now and we built it basically by ourselves,” she said. “We had a contractor, but we were the ones doing the work on it. So that was a big accomplishment for us here. Our old clubhouse was quite a shack.”

Exeter Golf Club

This course is located in Centralia. It’s a par 36, nine-hole course, featuring a charming clubhouse, which was constructed from an century-old barn.
For five of the course’s nine holes, the area’s winding creek comes into play. The course also features a driving range, power carts and rentals.
The course is located 2 km east of Hwy. 4 on County Rd. 6 and can be reached at (519) 235-1517.
Owner Bob Mason says that a corporate tournament, the JMR Tournament, which his course has hosted for over 20 years, is one of his most memorable events.
In fact, last year, the event was memorable without event hitting the course.
“Last year we must have had seven inches of rain and the tournament was rained out, but all the boys brought out portable pumps and hoses when our basement got flooded out,” he said. “So they all pitched in and helped us out that year.

Goderich Sunset Golf Club

This course is located just 7 km north of Goderich on Hwy. 21. It features an 18-hole regulation course, a new nine-hole course as well as a driving range. The club also features a clubhouse and a patio to relax on after your round.
The club is located on 33937 Golf Course Rd. and can be reached at (519) 524-8047.
Owner and director of golf, Gary Gravett says one of his fondest memories of the course if the Junior Girls Championship that his course has held twice.
“It’s great to see these young players develop and then we’ve seen about six or seven of them go on to play in LPGA events, which is pretty nice,” he said.
There is also the annual community living tournament, which the whole community typically gets behind, he said.

Ironwood Golf Club

This course is located at 72 Wellington St. in Exeter. It features 6179 yards of rolling landscape that is described as very user-friendly.
This  par-71, 18-hole course is open from April to October, from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. and can be reached at (519) 235-1521.
Manager Karen Pfaff says that two tournaments held at Ironwood are memorable for her. The first tournament is the Ron Westman Memorial tournament, which has become so popular that it has been split into two tournaments, one in the spring and one in the fall. The Golf For A Cure, held annually, aims at raising money to combat breast cancer.

Maitland Country Club

This Goderich course features nine spectacular holes threaded throughout the scenic Maitland River valley.
The club features a fully-stocked pro shop, power carts, pull carts, club rentals and CPGA golf lessons.
The nine-hole course is a par 34, with a total yardage of 2835, and it’s open from April to November, from 8 a.m. to dark.
Manager Dave Bedour says one of the biggest years in the club’s existence was its 75th anniversary in 1996. The club was incorporated in 1921 and that special year came with several special events to highlight the history of the course.
Maitland Country Club also holds several annual events that members and guests can look forward to. There is men’s opening day and women’s opening night dinner, a three-man invitational scramble, a couples’ invitational and the Oktoberfest scramble, which is repeatedly one of the club’s biggest events of the year.

Oakwood Inn Resort, Golf and Spa

This resort has a lot to offer at its location, just north of Grand Bend on Hwy. 21.
It offers a 126-room hotel as well as a newly-built pub to complement its 18-hole, par-70 golf course.
The 5356-yard course is the jewel of this 1922 model, offering a fully-stocked pro shop, lessons and memberships to complement the course.
The course is open from April until October, from 7 a.m. to dusk.
The course can be reached at 1-800-387-2324 or at (519) 238-2324.
Golf pro Colin Scatcherd prides himself on the Inn’s family management and the history behind the business. The course was originally designed  and built by Fred Walker in 1922 and has been thriving ever since, growing to accommodate an extensive hotel and spa experience, incorporated with Walker’s original golf vision.

Seaforth Golf and Country Club

This course is an 18-hole, par 71 gem which measures 5970 yards. The course has been family-owned and operated for 50 years and is open from 7 a.m. to dark and can be reached at (519) 522-0985. It offers power carts as well as lessons.
For Cam Doig, director of golf, choosing a memorable experience was not a tough decision. The club hosted the Seaforth Country Classic last year, for the first of three years, bringing a Canadian tour event to Huron County for the first time.
“The big thing for us was that it was never a dream of my father and my uncle’s to hold a Canadian tour event. They started a golf course because they had a love of the game and they just kept working away at it,” he said. “We’ve had some good players come out of here and we’ve contributed to the sport of golf over the last 50 years. Having my dad here to see the event and play in the pro-am was amazing and having my brother play in the event and my sister plan it was pretty special too.”

Wingham Golf and Curling Club

This course, located on Jamestown Rd. (take County Rd. 4 to the first road south of Wingham) features a par-35, nine-hole course, in addition to its restaurant, patio and curling facilities.
The club also features a driving range, carts, rentals, a pro shop as well as lessons. It’s open from April 15 to October 15, from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. and can be reached at (519) 357-2179.
General Manager Dave Meriam, while he has only been with the club for four years, says one of the most memorable events he can remember the club having is the Potty Cup.
The tournament is typically held in the last weekend of July and started several years ago.
“It began as an eight-man tournament and now it’s grown and materialized into a 64-person tournament,” he said. “It’s just a bunch of guys who came out to golf and it materialized into this huge event. It’s a bunch of local guys who have since moved away, so they all come back for this tournament, so it’s a bit of a reunion.”

Woodland Links

This is a shotmaker’s course where no two holes are alike. It is located on Hwy. 8 just west of Clinton.
This 18-hole course is 6561 yards long and a par 71. It’s open from sunrise to sunset, featuring championship links and a practice facility.
Director of Golf Todd Delmage says the two-day invitational tournament Woodlands holds alongside Black Horse Golf and Country Club, north of Lucknow is the club’s most memorable event every year.
While there are plenty of invitationals, pairing up with another course is something unique that Delmage thought may help to set the event apart.
One memory that Delmage says he will never forget is when the Blyth Inn played its corporate tournament at the course and a hole was sponsored by an insurance company, which had offered a golf trip to Scotland in the event of a hole-in-one, which was achieved by one of the players.
“It was pretty neat to see that, it clearly doesn’t happen very often, and the guy played here a lot, so that was great,” he said.
Woodland Links can be reached at 1-866-853-6369.