Lambton Golf and Country Club

Lambton Golf and Country Club was incorporated on 16 July 1902, with Albert W. Austin as its first president, on ground above the Humber River in the west end of Toronto. Tom Bendelow laid out the original course, and Stanley Thompson reworked it in 1927, which is when it took the shape it broadly keeps.

Bendelow built hundreds of courses across North America in the first quarter of the century, often in a single day’s visit; Thompson’s 1927 work is what makes this one worth playing.

What it asks of you

Twenty-seven holes on 171 acres of rolling ground defined by the Humber River and Black Creek, so the round moves between plateau and valley and back. The clubhouse sits on the high point, the routing takes you down to the river and then works its way slowly back up, and the return climb is a real part of the experience.

The championship eighteen is the main course and the nine in the valley is the second. Thompson’s greens are the examination as usual: sited to accept a ball from one side and to reject it from the other, and firm enough that the wrong angle costs a stroke.

The stretch from the fourteenth to the sixteenth is the part reviewers single out, along with the extended seventh.

What players say about it

Guests play by member introduction and the review record is modest. 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 is described as excellent across the accounts.
• The property itself is called special: a river valley inside the city, with the clubhouse on the high point looking over it.
• The fourteenth to sixteenth stretch and the extended seventh draw specific praise.
• The practice areas, particularly the chipping ground, and the clubhouse are well reviewed.

What comes up against

• A drainage ditch running through the property divides opinion. Some reviewers find it an eyesore, others accept it as the price of being in a river valley.
• The climb back from the river is demanding, and it comes at the end of the round.
• 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.

Getting there and when to go

The club is in the west end of Toronto above the Humber, twenty minutes from downtown and around twenty-five from Pearson.

The season runs from roughly April to November. Late spring and September give the firmest ground and the best of the valley. 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 and the Thompson work, 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.