Cataraqui Golf and Country Club

Cataraqui was founded in 1917 at Kingston, at the eastern end of Lake Ontario. Stanley Thompson came around 1930, kept a handful of the holes already in the ground and rebuilt the rest, and the result is regularly named among the best hundred courses in the country, which is a remarkable thing for a club in a city of this size and the reason Kingston appears on Canadian golf itineraries at all.

George Cumming had worked on the original layout, and the course has since been restored by Doug Carrick, with further work by Ian Andrew. It is Thompson’s course carrying two generations of careful custodianship rather than a redesign.

What it asks of you

Thompson working on rolling ground with limestone close to the surface, which gives firm turf and abrupt changes of level.

The trademarks are all here: finger-style bunkering that reaches into the fairways, greens sited on natural high points and defended by falling ground, and a set of short holes that are distinct from one another. The putting surfaces have subtle slope rather than dramatic contour, and they run very fast, which is where the difficulty lives.

It is not a long course. The examination is where you leave the ball rather than how far you hit it, and a Thompson green rejects an approach played from the wrong angle without needing to be severe about it.

What players say about it

Guests play by member introduction and the review record is modest but consistent. The notes below summarise recurring themes across specialist golf sites, traveller review pages and player discussion threads. They are other people’s opinions, not ours: we have not played the course, and we do not name or quote individual reviewers.

What comes up in its favour

• Conditioning draws consistently excellent marks, and the greens in particular are described as fast as any the reviewers have played.
• The Thompson design is admired for the bunkering and for the short holes, and the restoration work is well received.
• The setting above the eastern end of Lake Ontario is repeatedly called picturesque.
• Staff, food and the general club atmosphere come up in a large share of accounts, which suggests a club that looks after visitors.

What comes up against

• Access is closed, and the review record is thin as a result.
• The course is short by modern standards and will not stretch a strong player.
• Kingston is off the main Ontario golf circuit, and most visiting golfers never make the trip.
• The season is short, running from roughly April to November with the shoulder weeks a gamble.

Getting there and when to go

The club is on the western edge of Kingston, around two and a half hours from Toronto and two from Ottawa or Montreal, which makes it a natural stop on the drive between them rather than a destination.

The season runs from roughly April to November. Late spring and September give the firmest turf. Guest play is arranged through a member.

Green fees

Guest conditions and rates are set by the club and are not published. See the club’s own site.

How this page was made

The factual frame comes from public sources: OpenStreetMap for the location, Wikipedia and published architecture coverage for the history, the Thompson design and the later restoration, and the club’s own site for access. The opinion section summarises public reviews and guest accounts read in September 2026; we report recurring themes rather than individual voices, and we do not reproduce or attribute quotes.

We have not played this course, and nothing here is a substitute for that. The club has not paid for this page, has not seen it before publication and has no say in what it says. If you know the course and something here is wrong or out of date, write to us and we will correct it.