Set on 150 acres just outside Port Hope, Ash Brook Golf Club is pure 'country golf' - wide skies, roomy fairways, and not a house in sight. It's the kind of place where the stress drops a club length the moment you step on the first tee. The par-72 layout is friendly to newcomers but has enough movement and green-side nuance to keep single-digits interested.
Early holes let you settle the swing, then the routing starts to ask for shape and trajectory. Misses aren't automatic penalties, but premium angles absolutely pay off - especially into multi-tiered greens where a smart leave can turn a two-putt into a tap-in. Wind can be a quiet character here, too; on certain days you'll feel it tugging at club choice and ball flight just enough to make you think.
A differentiator is the setting itself: despite being minutes from Highway 401, the course feels removed from everything - no back-yard windows, no construction noise, just golf. Couple that with a genuinely welcoming staff and a pace-of-play culture that keeps things moving, and you've got the recipe for a repeatable, happy round.
If you're plotting a casual day trip east of the GTA or you live nearby and want a reliable 'go-to' that the whole foursome will enjoy, Ash Brook is a safe bet. Bring a putter that starts on line and you'll be grinning by the time you reach the car.
Your Golf Bud by Bud Key, Mid-Atlantic Director, TeeTime Golf Pass
I own the golf bag from hell. It’s an enormous, overstuffed, full-grain leather TOUR-style staff bag, the size of a ’72 Lincoln Continental and weighing a metric ton. This monstrosity was my prize for winning a closest-to-the-pin contest in 1988, the same year I got married, and it was the catalyst for our first marital spat.
I insisted on showcasing the colossal bag in the dead center of our tiny 600-square-foot studio condo, convinced it had more curb appeal than our meager second-hand furniture. My wife finally caved, but only on […]