Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club

The Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club was established in 1908, as the name says, for riding to hounds before it was for golf, which was a common enough progression in Edwardian Canada.

Willie Park junior, twice Open champion and one of the leading architects of the period, was commissioned in 1920 to lay out eighteen holes; the South and West nines are his, and they form the tournament course. Park built close to twenty Canadian courses in his career. The club now plays twenty-seven holes in the south of the city, and the greens were rebuilt in a major renovation by Michael Hurdzan’s practice, replacing the old poa annua surfaces.

What it asks of you

Parkland on the flat ground of the Ottawa valley, with mature trees and Park’s characteristic greens: modest in size, subtly pitched, and defended by bunkers set close enough that a miss is rarely an easy chip.

Since the rebuild the greens run very fast, and that is the single thing every account mentions. On a flat site with no wind protection and no elevation, the putting surfaces have to carry the course, and here they do.

The set of par fives draws particular praise, and the par fours are described as consistently tough. It is not a course that gives strokes away.

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 meticulous, and it is one of the qualities the club is best known for regionally.
• The rebuilt greens draw consistent praise for speed and trueness, and they are the reason the course plays as hard as it does.
• The par fives are singled out as a strong collection, and the par fours as genuinely difficult.
• Several accounts call it simply the best course in the Ottawa region, and the clubhouse and staff are well reviewed.

What comes up against

• The site is flat, and visitors expecting movement in the ground find the interest entirely in the greens and the trees.
• The green speed is punishing for a first-time visitor, and three-putts are the common experience.
• Access is closed, and the review record is thin as a result.
• The season is short, running roughly May to October, and the Ottawa winter is long.

Getting there and when to go

The club is in the south of Ottawa, around twenty minutes from Parliament Hill and ten from Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier airport.

The season runs from roughly May to October, with midsummer the most reliable. 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 Park design and the green renovation, 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.