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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The Accidental Golfer:
Brandon Tucker:
Mark Nessmith:
Jason Scott Deegan:
A quick FYI about the golf balls John Daly launched across the Niagara Gorge last year: only 15 were actually used. Mr. Daly chose to stop short of the 20 intended trials due to extreme mist weighing down the balls' flights across the expanse. He did get one ball to land on the lower shore of Goat Island, the goal, but it was not long enough to actually achieve the target landing area on Terrapin Point. I was there last year, watching the entire stunt.
Cheers!
Leena