Glen Abbey Golf Course Redevelopment

Saving Glen Abbey Golf Club

You don’t need to be a golfer to appreciate Canada’s most famous golf course!   This picturesque property straddling Sixteen Mile Creek has long been considered the historic and scenic heart of Oakville.

Once the site of a 350 acre estate, it was sold in 1952 to the Society of Jesuits, whose decade long ownership inspired Glen Abbey’s logo of the ‘swinging monk’!

In 1972, Rod McIsaac purchased the property and commissioned pro golfer Jack Nicklaus to design the course.  This would be Jack’s first solo project.  Today Glen Abbey is considered to be the best gallery course in the world and has hosted 28 Canadian Opens.

Briefly the RCGA owned Glen Abbey GC prior to it being sold to ClubLink Corporation in 1998 for a reported $40 million dollars.  Less than 10 years later, developer Rai Sahi would attain majority ownership of Clublink.  In 2015, Mr. Sahi filed plans to redevelop Canada’s premier golf course into a residential and commercial subdivision with approximately 3,000 homes.

A group of local citizens have formed a grassroots organization dedicated to ‘saving Glen Abbey’ and a petition is now circulating online.  They are understandably concerned about the proposed destruction of an impressive woodland canopy that shades both a manicured and natural landscape.

The town is currently studying the potential impact of the redevelopment plan.  It is hoped that a compromise can be reached.  There is no doubt that many are excited by the proposition that new homes may be built in such a beautiful setting.

As a footnote, it was reported that Jack Nicklaus was saddened to learn that a redevelopment proposal had been made to obliterate his first independent golf course design.

We will be updating this blog as more news becomes available.