Last Summer, John Daly debuted a course in Niagara Falls, Ontario, called Thundering Waters. While exact information on his level of participation is scant, he did hit twenty balls across the gorge, in an attempt to conquer the mighty Niagara. He failed. The course, however, is another matter. What it showed me is that Bo Danoff has a future in golf course design. Danoff took a middling piece of railroad property and transformed it into a course reminiscent of Augusta National, Blackwolf Run, and Crooked Stick. That is, he imitates the masters pretty well, all the while keeping his own voice.

The things are: TW is fun for golfers of all levels. No forced carries except from the Daly tees. No holes where the brain doesn’t come out of the bag. Par three holes that make you suck in a large wad of breath while debating the options. Short par fours that let you take a legitimate rip at the green. Par five holes that tell a story, traversing the land vertically and horizontally.

Niagara Falls has seen a host of new courses in the last decade, many of them world-class efforts from noted designers. An Arthur Hills contribution upstream in Fort Erie is slated for a late-decade opening, along with a Greg Norman creation not far away. It’s fairly difficult to create something new on land that realy doesn’t vary from location to location. Elevation change is at a premium in the region, unless your design traverses the Niagara escarpment.

Danoff has given us something unique here at Thundering Waters. I can unabashedly say that, at a level where course excellence ratings diverge by as little as thousanths of a percentage point, Thundering Waters is my favorite new Canadian track.

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