Royal Ontario Golf Club

For someone playing this course for the first time, there are too many holes that feel a bit like a gimmick. Too many blind shots or little room for risk/reward on some of the shorter holes. If the best strategy is to tee off with a 9 iron on a par 4 that feels a bit too far fetched..

Sign in procedure to rent a cart is terrible. No cell service in the pro shop. Needed the email address and Gave us the wrong password twice for the wifi. Fellow behind the counter tried his best to help us out but all 4 of us had to sign in and wasted alot of time. Starter at the first tee was a nice fellow and apologized for the inconvenience. Course is very tough but 4:45 was very slow and the slow group in front of us let us through on #11. Could have easily been 5:30 min. Expected better for $140. Our group will not be back!!

This course is not for the faint at heart. Riddled with challenging holes from bunkers to water hazards and high fescue. I challenge you not to lose a ball or two.
Unfortunately, it was cart-path only which definitely affected the pace of play.
Mind you, at this time of year not very surprising.
Staff were great. Putting, chipping, and driving range are all in good condition and well paced.

Course was in great shape. My game was not. Greens were rolling very nicely and overall was very well maintained. I will definitely be back

Course was in good condition. Unfortunately greens had been aerated, making a tough course that much harder. Pin placements where silly, bunkers so so, and the tee boxes not even.
I expect better when forking out $128.00 at this time of the year.

I have played this course a few times per season over the years.On this occasion, the course failed to inform myself or playing partners that the greens were punched / aerated .
This made it impossible to putt.
If I had have known, then I would definitely not have paid the $120 green fee to play this course. My playing partners felt exactly the same.
I would at least expect that before you book and pay immediately online, that you would have full disclosure of the greens being PUNCHED!!
Very disappointed that we didn’t know.
I would urge that anyone playing this course, call before booking, in order to avoid this happening in the future..

Great course… bit of a frost delay but not unexpected… some bunkers were like concrete though

This course is very good overall.
Beautiful layout and well taken care of.
A few too many gimmick holes (short par 4’s, etc.) take away from the overall rating.
Way overpriced at $148.
Mandatory carts is an unfortunate rule for most Kaneff courses for the extra money grab.
Pace of play was 4:20 (early 8:40 tee off) which is unacceptable for a course with mandatory carts.
In my experience, lots of occasional golfers play here - which contributes to the slow play.

Wish they would fix the price and let people walk, but have an actual marshal speeding people up.

Never having played here before but wanting something 'special' for our anniversary, my wife and I chose Royal Ontario. The conditions looked wonderful and challenging but there were a few surprising twists, especially for first timers. 1) Numerous non-level tee boxes, haven't seen that very often before... 2) several par 5's where you can't see the fairway and don't know which direction to aim... 3) a short part 4 where you can't see the green (so driving it isn't an option) and a first timer isn't even sure where to lay up, and 4) a par 3 where the green was obstructed by trees from the white tee box... Lastly, the carts would sound a loud alarm if you were 'in a restricted area', which is fine but it sure would help newbies to maybe put up a sign or two so you know where not to go, or where to 'escape' the 'no-go' zone. Also the alarm went off a couple times while we were on the actual cart-path, and the cart would auto-shut off... so seems like a glitch or two still in the system. All that said, I'd love to go back and try the course again now that I have a better idea where to aim, and the greens and fairways were in lovely condition. The layout is scenic and challenging and great golf fun can be had here. Just wish the par 5s' made it a little more tempting to 'grip and rip'....

Packed, 10 minutes staggering between groups is not appropriate.