I don’t know why, but I’m attracted to golf courses built on old, city dumps. True, I like the environmental reasons – turning formerly rancid land into land for public use.

But, it’s more than that. City dumps, old railroad yards, etc. can be interesting terrain, ripe for good golf courses. I’m thinking of the excellent Kinderlou course in Valdosta, carved from an old borrow pit. Or the Wildcat in Houston, built over an old city dump or the River Club in Augusta, which sits on the site of an abandoned railroad yard and illegal dump.

Add to that collection the Fire Rock Golf Club in southern Ontario, Canada, on the outskirts of London, Canada’s 10th largest city. The relatively new course – it is now in its second full season – was laid on top of an old sand and gravel pit; most of the mounds you see along the course were old gravel dumps.

“One of the first elements that struck me at Fire Rock was the nature of the disturbed land – it had a really fascinating feel to it for us to explore,” architect Tom McBroom has said about the site.

It’s true that you don’t necessarily need pristine nature to build an interesting golf course. McBroom did it here by following the natural lay of the old pit in the Oxbow River Valley and leaving the natural savannah grasses and trees, mainly spruce and poplars. Small creeks flow through the layout, which shows off some moderate elevation changes, and there are plenty of “environmentally sensitive” areas – don’t want to disturb that old gravel.

Look for the full review coming soon…

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