For more than two decades, Osprey Valley would have seemed a decidedly unlikely facility to play a role in the future of golf in Canada.
At the start, it was just 18 holes of faux links golf in Caledon, Ontario, about 75 minutes northwest of downtown Toronto, where you paid your nominal green fee in an old and underwhelming maintenance building. The club already had gone through a receivership, and in those early days it appeared likely those financial problems might well happen again. But the golf was great, and in time the owner/developers, brothers Gerry and Roman Humeniuk, built two more courses, even though the market seemed nonplussed at best. It was one of those “build it and they will come” scenarios, and they rarely play out.
That’s changed. Last week, the facility now named TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley not only hosted a PGA Tour Canada tournament, but saw golf’s intelligentsia converge in naming the facility the future “home of Canadian golf.” Yes, that’s a heady tagline, but at the same time, the ambitions of Golf Canada, which is spearheading the project, are pretty significant: a new national headquarters for the organization, as well as First Tee Canada, while Golf Ontario and the Club Management Association of Canada will relocate as well. The Canadian Golf Hall of Fame, which is tucked into the ground floor of Golf Canada’s office at Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, Ontario, also will head north and be “reinvigorated.” A putting green playing homage to the Himalayas at St. Andrews will be developed and open to the public.
It is a sprawling project, and at its core is a facility that used to be baffling at its lack of ambition. Those days are gone. Osprey Valley is quickly becoming one of the most significant golf operations in Canada.
“For us, it is the icing on the cake of all we’ve been doing. We’re happy to be there for Golf Canada and golf in the country.”
Chris Humeniuk
If you watched carefully, you could see it coming. Five years ago, Chris Humeniuk, Roman’s nephew, emerged to lead Osprey Valley. He made moves quickly, bringing in new staff, launching a marketing campaign, engaging the PGA Tour, and rebranding under the TPC logo. The three courses at Osprey were always top notch, but rarely saw many players. The facility was like a cult rock band, heralded by those who knew how good they were, but ignored by the broader public. That hasn’t been the case in the last few years.
“When I took over in 2017, we made the decision to make the appropriate levels of investment in (Osprey Valley),” Humeniuk said. “With the success of the business comes the need to support the golf community and give back.”
At the same time, Golf Canada was looking to break away from its aging home at Glen Abbey. After all, Glen Abbey, once the perennial location for the RBC Canadian Open, was at the centre of a development battle as the course’s owner tried to turn its fabled fairways into thousands of homes. The fight over its development is on hold, but no one really believes that it won’t crop up again. Golf Canada went looking for options and found support from Humeniuk.
“For us, it is the icing on the cake of all we’ve been doing,” Humeniuk said. “We’re happy to be there for Golf Canada and golf in the country.”
The project is envisioned in two phases, with the first encompassing the corporate headquarters for Golf Canada. The goal is to break ground next year and open in 2025. The second phase includes the First Tee headquarters, designed to lead the program across Canada in coming years. An indoor short-game complex is included.
Dreaming big isn’t cheap. Golf Canada pegged the first phase at $20 million, which includes “a donation from Osprey Valley.” The second phase is not quite as costly, but is still pegged at $10 million, though it will move forward only if fundraising is successful.
The elephant in the room is the possibility of bringing the RBC Canadian Open to Osprey Valley, something that’s hardly a secret in Canadian golf circles. Humeniuk has investigated making changes to one of his courses to make it ready for the best players in golf, something that suits Golf Canada, which faces challenges when it comes to finding new venues able to support its biggest tournament and revenue generator. Neither Golf Canada nor RBC promised a Canadian Open in the future as part of the announcement, but it makes a lot of sense given the expansive property. It is hard to imagine it won’t happen.
“For us, being supportive of golf means being involved with things like the First Tee,” Humeniuk said. “When an organization like Golf Canada and the Golf Canada Foundation present a vision for the game like this one, it was something we could get involved in and give back.”
For the last three years, golf in Canada has prospered. This year’s RBC Canadian Open was a resounding success. If Golf Canada was going to take a big swing at success, its timing is sound. The game’s organizations will benefit from a cohesive approach, and perhaps the “home of Canadian golf” strategy will deliver just that.
Top: A putting green homage to the Himalayas at St. Andrews will be developed and open to the public.