First look: Piper’s Heath Golf Club

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I had the opportunity to play the eagerly anticipated new Piper’s Heath Golf Club  in Milton this morning in advance of its official opening this weekend. Designed by noted Canadian architect Graham Cooke – Piper’s Heath is a faux-links style course with tight fairways, extensivebunkering and fescue lined fairways as you can see from the 3rd hole (above). The course is built of relatively flat ground (and is open to the wind) with very little water, but environmentally sensitive scrub areas abound throughout the property.

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Cooke has used an interesting ‘steeply-sloped’ bunkering style throughout the course that uses a consistent angled-shape around many of the bunkers around the course. See example from the 1st hole above. It’s a different look using this angled approach rather than something a little bit more flowing, but it seems to work well in the context of this design.

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One of the more interesting holes is the 14th hole (above). The risk/reward tee shot tempts the better player to try to cut the corner to set up a shorter approach to the elevated green. But one thing I thought was odd was the front-to-back sloping green (see below) that was not very receptive to approach shots. Overcooked balls will wind up in a collection area behind the green – but the collection area has long rough between it and the green – rather than it being closely mown all the way to the green edge, which cuts down on the options you are left with to get your ball on the green.

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As with any brand-new course the course will need time to grow in – a few fairways were still a little rough, but in general the green sites were in very good shape (as were the bunkers). You can also an example below of the 13th hole (below)which still will need some time to mature.

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All in all Piper’s Heath should grow into quite a fun course as it matures, and if rates stay reasonable (green fee is above $70 plus cart at current) it will be a welcome addition to the local course rotation.

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