Baxter Creek Golf Club

Baxter Creek Golf Club is an 18-hole public course at 1702 Cedar Valley Road, Fraserville, in the Township of Cavan Monaghan, Peterborough County, Ontario, a short distance south-west of Peterborough. Designed by the Ontario architect David L. Moote on what had been a family farm, it plays to a par of 72 and 6,601 yards from the gold tees on the club’s current scorecard, with four further sets of tees and two combination sets that bring it down to 5,035 yards. Directories give 2004 as the year it was built. Its website is baxtercreekgolf.com, and tee times can be booked there or by telephone at 705-932-8888.

The club sells itself on a short slogan, “Great Golf. Great Value.”, and on an extra hole: behind the 18 regular holes sits a stand-alone 19th with an island green, meant for settling whatever bets are still open at the end of the round. Beyond that, it is a working daily-fee course with a range, leagues, a teaching professional and a clubhouse that hosts weddings and tournaments as much as golfers.

History: from a farm on Baxter Creek to a public course

The course takes its name from Baxter Creek, a watercourse of the Otonabee River basin that rises on the Oak Ridges Moraine and flows to the Otonabee; the club’s own description has holes running along its banks. The land itself has a long agricultural past. A wedding-venue listing for the club says the property was first settled in 1883 by David and Sarah Ann Wood, and that the Larmer family bought it in 1987, when plans for a golf course began to take shape. The Millbrook Times, in a May 2022 article, describes the 165-acre property as a farm for generations before brothers Ralph, Ron and Grant Larmer and their cousin Jerry Paxton developed it into a golf club. The original farmhouse still stands, reached from County Road 28, together with a few outbuildings.

The design was entrusted to David L. Moote, who leads the Brampton firm founded by his father, the architect Robert Moote. The American Society of Golf Course Architects lists Baxter Creek in his portfolio alongside courses such as Guelph Lakes, Savannah Golf Links in Cambridge and Seguin Valley in Parry Sound. The club notes that Moote also designed The Rock in Muskoka, which it says Golf Digest named best new course in Canada in 2004. According to the club, Moote kept the character of the Larmer farm while shaping rolling fairways, greens and bunkers inspired by the styles of Stanley Thompson and Donald Ross, and routed the holes through woodlots, naturalized areas and along the creek.

The opening date is less precise than one would like. Golfn and GolfNow both give 2004 as the year the course was built; the Millbrook Times says only that the conversion took place more than a decade before 2022; and the club’s own pages give no year at all. We found no contemporary report of the opening, so we use 2004 as the directories do, without a month. The clubhouse came later, according to the same newspaper: a full-service building of 7,500 square feet, by the club’s figure, with a lounge, patio, banquet hall and a second-floor boardroom. Golf simulators for the off-season were added around 2020.

Ownership is where the sources need careful reading. The Millbrook Times reported in 2022 that the Larmer brothers and their cousin had stepped down and that the club had passed to the fifth and sixth generations of the original owners of the property, with no significant changes planned and the staff kept on. The club’s website describes itself as locally owned and operated by the fifth and sixth generations of the Larmer family, while an older wedding-venue listing speaks of the fourth generation. All of them agree on the essential point: Baxter Creek remains a family business rooted in the farm, not part of a group or chain.

What it asks of you

On paper, Baxter Creek is a moderate-length par 72 with real teeth. The club’s scorecard rates the gold tees at 72.7 with a slope of 136 for men, a figure above par on a course of only 6,601 yards, and the blue tees at 71.2 and 130. That gap between yardage and rating usually points to hazards and contours rather than distance, and the sources agree on the hazards: the Millbrook Times counts 50 bunkers and several water features, and GolfPass’s listing describes more than 50 bunkers and nine ponds. The routing puts the back nine through existing woodland, according to the newspaper.

The card is balanced in a classic way: each nine has two par 3s, two par 5s and five par 4s, and each plays to 36. The par 4s are mostly of a manageable length. From the gold tees only two exceed 400 yards (the 2nd at 400 and the 5th at 432, stroke index 1 for men), and several sit in the 320 to 380-yard range, which leaves the four par 5s, all between 484 and 544 yards, as the main scoring opportunities for longer hitters. The par 3s run from 143 yards at the 4th to 209 at the 16th.

The club insists that the course is easy to walk, and the expected pace of play it publishes is four hours and fifteen minutes for 18 holes; the scorecard even prints a cumulative target for each hole, from 14 minutes at the end of the 1st to 4:10 at the end of the 18th. Pull carts are available for those who walk. All yardage markers on the course measure to the centre of the green: red at 100 yards, white at 150 and blue at 200. Flags are colour-coded for front, middle and back positions.

Tees and ratings

The scorecard lists six options. Gold measures 6,601 yards (72.7/136 for men), blue 6,241 (71.2/130), a blue/white combination 6,117 (69.2/128), white 5,953 (68.8/126), a white/red combination 5,450 (66.1/120 for men, 71.8/131 for women) and red 5,035 (65.4/117 for men, 70.5/125 for women). GolfNow publishes a different, lower set of ratings, for example 71.0 and 127 from the gold tees; we follow the club’s card, which is the document golfers receive at the club.

The course, nine by nine

The club’s website offers hole-by-hole videos but no written descriptions, so the notes below are drawn from the scorecard and from the general descriptions in the sources. Yardages are from the gold tees unless stated otherwise.

Front nine

The round opens with a par 4 of 354 yards, men’s stroke index 13. The 2nd stretches to 400 yards and is rated the third-hardest hole for men. The 3rd is the first par 5, 542 yards, and the 4th the shortest hole on the course, a par 3 of 143 yards (130 from the blue tees, 97 from the red); it is one of the three holes on which the club’s hole-in-one register records aces. The 5th, at 432 yards, carries the men’s stroke index 1, and it is the longest par 4 on the card. The 6th (396 yards) and 7th (376 yards) are mid-length par 4s, the 7th being stroke index 1 for women. The 8th, a par 3 of 197 yards, leads to the 9th, a par 5 of 544 yards. The front nine measures 3,384 yards.

Back nine

The inward half is shorter on paper at 3,217 yards, and it is here that the routing moves into the woods. The 10th is the shortest par 4 on the course at 322 yards and stroke index 18 for men; the 11th, at 410 yards, is the longest par 4 of the back nine. The 12th is a par 3 of 175 yards. The 13th is the hole the card treats most seriously: a par 5 of 544 yards, stroke index 2 for both men and women. The 14th (347 yards) and 15th (376 yards, men’s stroke index 4) are par 4s, followed by the longest par 3 on the course, the 16th at 209 yards. The 17th is a shorter par 5 of 484 yards, and the 18th, a par 4 of 350 yards, finishes within view of the clubhouse, whose boardroom terrace looks out over the closing holes and the 1st and 10th tees.

The 19th

The extra hole is part of the card, not an afterthought: the scorecard gives it a length of 121 yards from the gold tees, 111 from blue, 105 from white and 75 from red. Its island green is designed for one swing to settle a match, and it is the feature reviewers mention most often by name.

What golfers say

We read the review summaries and the published comments on Wanderlog (which aggregates Google ratings) and SkyGolf in October 2026, along with the descriptions in tee-time directories and the search summaries of GolfPass and Tripadvisor pages we could not open. Google’s average was 4.5 out of 5 on 231 ratings at the time. These are other people’s opinions, not ours. We report recurring themes, we quote no one and we name no reviewer.

What comes up in its favour

• Course condition is the most consistent compliment, with fairways and greens described as well kept, including in dry or hot summers.
• The greens are often described as fast and true.
• Staff are generally described as friendly and welcoming.
• The island-green 19th is singled out as a fun way to finish.
• The course is described as challenging without being overly long, and some comments compare it favourably with other courses outside the Greater Toronto Area; on value, the club itself quotes Canadian Golf Magazine calling it one of the best values in Canada.
• Weddings and events receive many positive comments on the organization and the grounds.

What comes up against

• Green speeds are reported as varying from hole to hole.
• Some players found parts of the course overwatered and soft, with longer fairway grass than they would like.
• At least one reviewer found the layout bland apart from a few strong holes.
• Isolated comments mention pace of play, upkeep of facilities and the attitude of some staff, but these do not recur widely.

Playing as a visitor

Baxter Creek is open to the public, and tee times open six days in advance; the club sells a limited number of bookings further out for an extra fee. Members book seven days ahead, and the membership list was full with a waiting list at the time of writing. Groups are limited to four players; adding players or spectators needs the pro shop’s approval at least 24 hours ahead, and groups of 16 or more go through a separate group-booking process. The club requires 48 hours’ notice to cancel and applies a fee per missing player for no-shows; repeated no-shows can lead to an online account being closed.

Power carts with GPS are rented per rider, and drivers must be at least 21; carts are not included in the standard green fee. Full sets of rental clubs are available. The dress code asks for golf slacks or shorts and preferably collared shirts for men, collared or sleeved tops for women, and soft-spiked shoes, golf sandals or runners. Outside alcohol and personal coolers are not allowed. Rain checks must be requested before leaving: a full 18-hole rain check if play stops after three holes or fewer, prorated after that, and none if the course is cart-path only.

Practice facilities include a driving range open from sunrise to sunset, closed for maintenance from 4 pm on Wednesdays to 9 am on Thursdays, and a practice green. Lessons are given by the club’s PGA of Canada professional, and the club runs men’s and ladies’ leagues. The clubhouse restaurant and licensed patio are open to golfers after the round.

Getting there and when to go

The course sits at the corner of Cedar Valley Road and County Road 28, which runs south from Highway 115 through Fraserville. By our measurement from the coordinates, it lies about 14 km south-west of downtown Peterborough and roughly 100 km north-east of downtown Toronto in a straight line; driving distances are longer. Highway 115 links the area with Highway 401. Some directories file the club under neighbouring Otonabee-South Monaghan or under Peterborough; the postal address is Fraserville, K0L 1V0.

The club publishes no fixed opening or closing dates. In season, its stated hours run from 6:30 am to 8:30 pm Monday to Thursday, from 6 am on Friday, and from 6 am to 9 pm on weekends and holidays, all weather permitting. Twilight times start at 4 pm and do not guarantee 18 holes. The Millbrook Times reported that indoor golf simulators were added for the off-season. Check the club’s site for the current state of the course before travelling.

Green fees

We do not publish prices, which change with the season, the day and the time of play. Current rates, memberships and packages are on the club’s rates page, and tee times can be booked through the club’s website.

How this page was made

This page was written in October 2026 from sources we read ourselves: the club’s website, including its scorecard, course, rates, guidelines and policies, dress code, driving range, clubhouse, lessons and contact pages; The Millbrook Times article of 9 May 2022 on the change of ownership; the Ontario Wedding Network listing for the settlement and purchase dates; the American Society of Golf Course Architects profile of David L. Moote; Golfn and GolfNow for the year built and an alternative set of ratings; Hole19, whose card shows the blue tees in what appear to be metres despite a yards label; the Wikipedia article on Cavan Monaghan; the Baxter Creek Watershed Alliance for the creek; and Wanderlog and SkyGolf for the reviews. GolfPass and Tripadvisor pages could not be opened directly, and we relied on their search descriptions only for the count of bunkers and ponds and for a few isolated review themes.

Where sources disagree, we say so. The course and slope ratings differ between the club’s card and GolfNow, and we follow the club. The family generation running the club is given as the fifth and sixth by the club and by The Millbrook Times, and as the fourth in an older listing. No source we read gives the month of opening. Where a fact could not be confirmed, such as the course’s grass types or the exact season dates, we have left it out.

Nobody from Panxis has played or visited this course, and this page is no substitute for a round. The club has not paid for this page, has not seen it before publication and has no say over its content. This page contains no commercial link and earns us no commission. If you know the course and something here is wrong or out of date, write to us and we will correct it.

Other courses nearby

Closest to this one in our Canadian directory:

• Angus Glen Golf Club — 82 km
• Bayview Golf and Country Club — 90 km
• Rosedale Golf Club — 95 km
• Oakdale Golf & Country Club — 104 km