royal ontario golf club

The course overall not in the best of shape. Lots of divots in the fairways not properly cared for. Greens slow and many holes a bit gimmicky with blind shots and a lack of yardage indicators along the course making club selection very challenging. Garbage cans full and no Marshall's on the course to regulate play. Not a lot of staff on duty making getting any support challenging.

For $112 each, 4 of us played Aug.29th.for the first and last time. The Pro shop staff were great as was the staff helping out front. That is where the value ended. The course was in fair shape . Potted plants all over the place most had been dead for weeks. The cart path was almost destroyed in many places and the staff on the equipment would not pause as you took your shot. In places it looks like a premium course until you see that it is supplied with old tired equipment and very poor maintenance. A reasonable price would be around $50-$60 to keep it in line with the comps.

This course requires experience to play well as there are many times that you are forced to hit shots blind or it is not obvious as to how far you need to hit it. This is disappointing as Management needs to provide maybe a course guide or GPS to help more.

Once again I find myself writing about a Kaneff golf course.I was willing to keep an open mind despite my previous disappointment at their Royal Niagara facility. I played in a charity event on the 29th of May/14. Your first impression is the dandelion filled practice range which offered a "mats only" warm up. The event was a full course shotgun at 1:00pm yet there were no practice balls set up at almost a quarter of the stalls. The "pyramid" presentation was like putting lipstick on a pig. I had a spike fall out of my shoe while on the mats and went into the pro shop to have it re-installed. After taking 5 minutes to find the tool the spike was replaced, I asked if they could give the rest of the spikes a once over just to be sure, and I was told they were too busy. The day was spent in a dated, dirty golf cart. The divot mix container on our cart had an empty beer can, a coffee cup and cigarette butts, as well as some mix. The parking brake was a hit and miss adventure, most times taking 3 or 4 attempts to get it to engage. Southern Ontario has just endured one of the worst winters in recent history and a number of golf courses took a beating. It appears that Royal Ontario fared better than most. Having said that, the appearance of the course fell victim to very poor maintenance. The tee decks often had worn dirt areas and the markers were often placed right in the middle of it. The impressive granite hole markers were surrounded by untrimmed over grown grass and weeds. This is a Golf course that charges a $120.00 green fee. I had pretty much written off playing another Kaneff golf course after my Royal Niagara experience (Where old golf carts go to die) and had this not been a charity even I would not have played here. I believe it is time for Kaneff to reconsider its commitment to its golf properties, it has clearly lapsed into a sense of comfort riding the reputation of its once revered Lion Head courses which quite frankly have lost their luster. I would ask that if you are going to continue to do golf, that you focus on quality not quantity. This will be my last Kaneff golf review.