Canada's best golf courses are Cabot Cliffs in Nova Scotia, St. George's Golf and Country Club in Ontario, Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge Golf Club in Alberta, Hamilton Golf and Country Club in Ontario, and Cabot Links in Nova Scotia.
Keep reading for a closer look at what makes each of these courses stand out and everything you need to know before you visit.
Cabot Cliffs – Inverness, Nova Scotia
Cabot Cliffs is the best golf course in Canada and one of the finest in the world, sitting at #11 globally.
Designed by American duo Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw and opened in 2015, it was built on a former coal mine staging area perched above the Atlantic on Cape Breton Island — with underground mines stretching 2 km out to sea beneath it.
The result is a 6,835-yard, par-72 links layout where every single hole plays with ocean views, moving from rolling dunes to clifftop perches in a way that feels almost theatrical.
What really separates Cabot Cliffs from other world-class courses is its closing stretch. The final three holes are widely regarded as one of the most spectacular finishes in golf:
- 16th (par-3): Plays across a small cove to a green perched above dramatic gypsum and sandstone cliffs
- 17th (par-4): Demands a blind drive across the cove and directly over those same cliffs
- 18th (par-5): Finishes downhill with the final green hanging over the coastline, overlooking Margaree Island — nicknamed “Canada's Ailsa Craig”
The course also features two greens on a single hole, a rare design touch that stands out even among elite layouts worldwide.
Practical details worth knowing before you book:
Cabot Cliffs is a public resort course, open roughly mid-April through mid-November. It's walking only — carts are only permitted with a medical certificate and require a caddie driver.
Caddies are available and worth hiring, especially on your first visit. Non-resort guests can book tee times up to 14 days in advance.
Peak season green fees (July through mid-September) run approximately CAD $475 for outside visitors and CAD $380 for resort guests. Cancellation requires 48 hours' notice.
The resort also includes sister course Cabot Links and an 11-hole par-3 short course called The Nest, making it easy to build a multi-round trip around one base.
St. George's Golf and Country Club – Etobicoke, Ontario
Ranked #2 in Canada, St. George's Golf and Country Club sits in the leafy western suburbs of Toronto and carries more Canadian golf history than almost any other course in the country.
It opened in 1929 as the Royal York Golf Club — bankrolled by the Canadian Pacific Railway alongside the construction of the Royal York Hotel downtown — before being renamed St. George's in 1946 when that financial arrangement ended.
Stanley Thompson, one of golf's great Golden Age architects, designed it at the peak of his career, selecting a rolling, glacially formed parcel of land in Etobicoke full of ravines, gullies, and natural drama.
The layout measures just over 7,000 yards from the back tees at par-71, and it plays every bit as long as it looks.
Thompson routed the course through forested glacial terrain, sending fairways diagonally across valleys to greens perched on domed slopes — a signature of his style.
The putting surfaces are crowned and tightly bunkered, with hidden undulations that punish anything but a precise approach.
In 2014, Tom Doak and Canadian architect Ian Andrew refined the bunkering further, restoring Thompson's original sweeping, graceful bunker shapes that had softened over decades.
The club has hosted the Canadian Open six times, cementing its place as one of the premier championship venues in the country — tied with Hamilton for the most appearances.
The 2022 edition, won dramatically by Rory McIlroy, is the most recent example of the course holding up under the scrutiny of a professional field.
Access: St. George's is a private members-only club. There is no public green fee, and outside visitors can only play as a guest of a member.
If you don't have a connection to the membership, getting on the course is not a realistic option.
Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge Golf Club – Jasper, Alberta
Ranked #3 in Canada and the country's top-rated resort course for 20 consecutive years, Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge Golf Club is Stanley Thompson's other Canadian masterpiece — and depending on who you ask, his greatest.
Thompson designed it in 1925, carving the course out of Jasper National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in an era when that kind of construction simply wouldn't be permitted today.
The par-71 layout winds around the shimmering Lake Beauvert and through dense pine forests, with mountain peaks, wandering elk herds, and genuine Rocky Mountain wilderness as a constant backdrop. It celebrates its centennial in 2025.
Two holes define the course's reputation more than any others:
- 9th hole – “Cleopatra” (par-3): Thompson designed the green complex to resemble a reclining woman, though it was later altered after objections from a railway official. With Pyramid Mountain rising directly behind it, the original intent is still visible — and it remains one of Thompson's most iconic creations.
- 14th hole – “Lac Beauvert” (par-4): Demands a draw tee shot over the lake around a pine tree, widely considered one of the most intimidating tee shots in Canadian golf.
The long par-5 13th, stretching 600 yards, offers the only elevated vantage point on the course from which you can see the town of Jasper in the distance, before finishing on a green tucked entirely out of sight behind a ridge.
Practical details:
Jasper Park Lodge is open to the public as a resort course, running approximately May through mid-October.
Early season green fees for 2024 started from CAD $190, with peak season rates (July–August) running roughly CAD $209 on weekdays and CAD $225 on weekends and holidays.
Cart is included with your green fee, and a driving range and practice facility are on site.
Alberta residents receive a discounted rate, and stay-and-play packages are available through Fairmont.
Confirm current pricing directly with the resort before booking, as rates are updated annually.
Hamilton Golf and Country Club – Ancaster, Ontario
Ranked #4 in Canada, Hamilton Golf and Country Club has been part of the country's golf fabric since 1894, making it one of the oldest clubs on this list.
The championship course was designed by H.S. Colt in 1914 — the same architect behind Royal Portrush, Pine Valley, and Royal Porthcawl — while he was already in North America consulting on other landmark projects.
The official opening followed in 1916, and the course has been considered one of Canada's finest ever since.
Colt's routing is widely studied as a lesson in how to work with natural terrain.
Rather than fighting the hilly Ancaster landscape, he arranged holes in clusters of triangles, sending fairways both face-on and diagonally across the land.
The Ancaster Creek meanders through the property at the bottom of dramatic valleys, coming into play on several holes and adding genuine strategic consequence to wayward shots.
Many holes drop from elevated tees onto undulating fairways, then climb back up to strongly bunkered, elevated greens — a rhythm that keeps the course demanding without feeling repetitive.
The closing hole on the South nine is the signature. The par-4 18th stretches 457 yards, plays over a small stream, and finishes at an amphitheatre green framed by the club's palatial brick clubhouse with a Canadian flag overhead — one of the most recognizable finishing holes in the country.
The course recently completed an $11 million restoration led by Martin Ebert, who advises on eight of the ten Open Championship venues including Royal Troon.
The work returned the layout to Colt's original 1914 design philosophy, with reconstructed greens, restored bunkering, strategic tree removal to recover lost sightlines, and new back tees that added 112 yards of length compared to the 2019 Canadian Open setup.
Hamilton has now hosted the Canadian Open seven times — more than any other venue alongside St. George's — with the most recent edition held in 2024, won by Scotland's Robert MacIntyre.
Access: Hamilton is a private members-only club. There is no public green fee, and the course is not accessible to outside visitors without a member invitation.
Cabot Links – Inverness, Nova Scotia
Ranked #35 in the world and sitting just behind Cabot Cliffs and St. George's in Canada's national rankings, Cabot Links holds a distinct place in Canadian golf as the country's first true links layout.
Designer Rod Whitman, working with Dave Axland and Jeff Mingay, shaped the course by hand from another former coastal coal mine staging area — the same stretch of Cape Breton coastline as its sister course, located just 1.5 km to the northeast.
It opened in 2012 and was co-developed by Canadian businessman Ben Cowan-Dewar and Mike Keiser, the American entrepreneur behind Bandon Dunes in Oregon.
Where Cabot Cliffs leans into drama and elevation, Cabot Links earns its reputation through authenticity.
The 6,854-yard, par-70 layout is built on rolling, firm fescue turf with muted dunes, austere bunkering, and generous greens that reward ground game strategy over aerial power — a philosophy rooted in how the game was originally played in Scotland.
The wind off the Gulf of St. Lawrence is a constant factor, and the course is designed to make you feel it on every shot.
A few features set it apart architecturally:
- All 18 holes are visible from the fairways, giving the course an open, connected feel rare in modern design
- Five holes play directly adjacent to the beach
- The signature par-4 6th wraps around a tidal yacht basin sitting in the heart of the town of Inverness — a composition so striking that early routing plans had it as the closing hole
Practical details:
Cabot Links runs on the same booking and pricing structure as Cabot Cliffs. Peak season green fees are approximately CAD $475 for outside visitors and CAD $380 for resort guests, with the season running mid-April through mid-November.
It is walking only, caddies are available and recommended, and non-resort guests can book up to 14 days in advance.
Stay-and-play packages through Cabot Cape Breton cover both courses along with The Nest short course, making it straightforward to combine both Cabot layouts into a single trip.
How to Plan Your Visit to Canada's Best Golf Courses
The first thing to understand is that not all five courses are actually reachable without the right connections. Of the courses on this list, three are open to the public through resort bookings:
- Cabot Cliffs and Cabot Links — book directly through Cabot Cape Breton; non-resort guests can secure tee times up to 14 days in advance
- Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge — book through the resort or directly via their tee time system
St. George's and Hamilton are both private members-only clubs with no public green fee. Your only realistic path onto either course is through a member invitation — there's no workaround.
For most visiting golfers, the Cabot Cape Breton trip is the obvious starting point. Staying at the resort gives you access to both Cabot Cliffs and Cabot Links, plus The Nest — the property's 11-hole par-3 short course — all in one base.
Both courses share the same infrastructure, the same booking window, and the same peak season green fees of approximately CAD $475 per round for outside visitors.
The season runs mid-April through mid-November, with July through mid-September considered peak. Plan around that window if you want the best conditions, and build in enough nights to play each course at least once.
A few things to know before you arrive at Cabot:
- Both courses are walking only — no carts unless medically required
- Caddies are available on both layouts and are worth the added cost, particularly on your first visit
- Cancellation requires 48 hours' notice, so factor that into your travel planning
Jasper Park Lodge operates on a different model. The season runs May through mid-October, cart is included in your green fee, and a practice facility is on site.
Alberta residents receive a discounted rate, and stay-and-play packages are available through Fairmont.
Early season rates start from around CAD $190, climbing to CAD $209–$225 at peak.
It's a more straightforward booking experience than Cabot, and the setting inside a UNESCO World Heritage Site makes it a natural add-on to any Rocky Mountain trip.
Conclusion
Canada's golf landscape punches well above its weight, with world-class courses spread from the Cape Breton coastline to the Canadian Rockies.
Whether you're booking a stay at Cabot Cape Breton, securing a tee time at Jasper Park Lodge, or working your connections for a round at St. George's or Hamilton, each of these five courses offers something genuinely worth traveling for.
Start with what's accessible to you, and build from there.
