Glen Abbey Golf Course, designed by Jack Nicklaus and opened in 1976, is one of Canada's most famous golf courses and is home to the Royal Canadian Golf Association and the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame. It has hosted 25 Canadian Open Championships, more than any other course, with the first having been 1977. Glen Abbey hosted the 2008 and 2009 Canadian Opens. As of 2005, Glen Abbey is owned by ClubLink Corporation. It is located in Oakville, Ontario, west of Toronto.
A distinguishing feature of the Glen Abbey course are the "Valley Holes", numbered 11 through 15. On number 11, a par 4, players tee off a cliff to a fairway that is approximately 60 feet below on the valley floor. The second shot must clear Sixteen Mile Creek to the green. Holes 12, 13 and 14 all use Sixteen Mile Creek as a hazard of one form or another. Number 15 is a short par 3 with a sharply-sloping green, after which players climb out of the valley to the 16th hole.
The 18th hole is notable due to its connection to Tiger Woods, who, in the final round of the 2000 Canadian Open, hit a six-iron shot 218 yards from a bunker on the right side of the fairway to about 18 feet from the hole. The shot was all carry over a large pond that guards the green. In doing so, Woods proceeded to defeat his playing partner Grant Waite and won the tournament. The shot is regarded as one of the most spectacular both of Woods' career and in recent PGA Tour history.
In 2009, Mark Calcavecchia set a new PGA Tour record with 9 consecutive birdies in his second round of the Canadian Open. After having started the round on the 10th hole, he birdied holes 12 through 18, then holes 1 and 2 of the front nine.
Famous quotes containing the words golf course, abbey and/or golf:
“emerald as heavy
as a golf course, ruby as dark
as an afterbirth,
diamond as white as sun
on the sea ...”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“The Abbey always reminds me of that old toast, “Above lofty timbers, the walls around are bare, echoing to our laughter, as though the dead were there.””
—Garrett Fort (1900–1945)
“If there is any larceny in a man, golf will bring it out.”
—Paul Gallico (1897–1976)