Tobiano is Canada top new course?

That seems to be the rumour hitting the blogosphere this week in advance of Golf Digest announcing their official 'Best Courses' awards next week.

Tobiano Golf Club in Kamloops has been hotly tipped to be Canada Best New by a (usually reliable) poster on Golfclubatlas. Canadian golfers are eagerly anticipating an opportunity to play this one.

Tobiano has been a big part of a huge movement of high-end new courses being built in the BC interior. Word is that Canada's Mike Weir may shortly be designing his first course design in the area.

Golf course development in Ontario slowing

Interesting to read comments from Rob Thompson on his G4G blog this morning about the golf industry in Ontario and how it has been affected by the financial turmoil that is all around us.

Apparently more than a dozen course were put on credit watch by July of this year...probably more now:

...a conversation I had while playing with Paul McLean, the head of Maxium Financial, which does financing for golf course equipment. McLean said — and this was in July — that he had more than a dozen courses on credit watch. Wonder how big that number is now that we’ve had the wettest summer in 30 years?

Also, development of new courses in Ontario has really slowed:

Otter Creek near Woodstock has been well regarded, but little else has opened in the province this summer (Turtle Creek is the only other one I can think of). I spoke with Doug Carrick yesterday and he said he had nothing in construction in Ontario, though a couple were in planning. Meanwhile Thomas McBroom’s site lists nothing new or in construction in Ontario — just a couple of courses in Western Canada and one in Halifax.

The rest of the story can be found here: Ontario golf clubs in trouble.

We'll watch with interest but Ontario has had way many courses open the past few years that it is almost high time for a bit of a rest, especially considering the number of golfers in the province hasn't really changed.