↑ The idyllic par-3 ninth
There are no signs directing golfers to Redtail Golf Course. You follow a gravel road winding through rural Ontario farmland leading to a course you may have passed a hundred times but never known is there. The gate, hidden between the trees, greets you when you arrive if you manage not to miss the turn, and once through you will have entered one of the most exclusive golfing sanctuaries in Canada. Redtail isn’t a club in the traditional sense. There has long been no membership roster. No tee sheet. No waiting list. In fact, there were only ever two official members—Chris Goodwin and John Drake, the visionaries who built the course in 1992.
A Course for Two
The story begins not with a developer’s pitch or a commercial blueprint, but with a passion project: a 210-acre former stud farm near Port Stanley, transformed into a minimalist masterpiece. Goodwin and Drake hired British architect Donald Steel, known for his reverence for the land, and gave him a simple directive: build the best course possible with the least disturbance to nature.
Steel and his partner Tom Mackenzie spent weeks walking the property. They found thirteen natural ravines, a rich blend of loamy soil and dense forest, and only about 25 feet of elevation change—but it was enough. The result was a course that blends so seamlessly into its environment, it feels more discovered than designed.
Redtail Reveals Itself
Redtail doesn’t grab you with flash, instead it whispers. It asks questions and draws you in with a kind of quiet confidence. The bunkers—fewer than 30 in total—are used sparingly and purposefully. The fairways are generally wide but framed with thick, reddish fescue that sways in the wind and punishes carelessness. The greens? They’re cunning, contoured, and demand imagination.
There are no homes at Redtail. Or, at least, not the kind that are obtrusive or uninvited. You can’t Google Map your way onto the tee box. It was never built for the public—and that’s exactly the point. Even today, rounds are few. Guests have included royalty, movie stars, and major champions. Sean Connery once stayed the night. Nick Price called it one of his favourites. There are rumors the Queen once visited. At Redtail, every round has a story.
And yet, despite its mystique, Redtail remains grounded. The clubhouse is elegant but intimate. The cottages for guests are quiet, set discreetly among the trees. The experience feels like a retreat—because it is.
A Place Built For Golf Itself
Redtail is not for everyone. Its nuances can be challenging to appreciate, especially with very few plays. Golf here is as it was meant to be, on the ground, through the air, shaped by wind, framed by the land, and dictated by imagination. Scorecards or slope ratings are insignificant, though Redtail’s challenge is very real, with a rating of 74.2 from the back tees. But overall, it’s about feel, flow, and unison with nature. It’s also about the quiet thrill of discovering something few others ever will.
The golf course itself is full of great golf hoes. The second hole, a beautiful par-5 stretching past 540 yards, is a great introduction to minimalist golf design moving gently over the natural topography. The ninth, a mid-length par-3, plays to a peninsula green that demands precision and punishes anything short. The 13th, a risk-reward par-5, tempts long hitters to shape a draw around the dogleg and reach the green in two. And the 14th, perhaps the course’s most photogenic par-3, plays across a wooded ravine to a narrow target—a reminder that beauty and danger often walk hand-in-hand.
Redtail’s 18th hole, a strong par-5 that bends through the trees toward a green tucked just beyond the understated clubhouse, is a perfect finish. With golfers sitting tight along the edge of the fairway, the hole is strategic, fair, and incredibly memorable. An exclamation point on all that is Redtail.
Final Reflections: A Place That Lives in Memory
Long after the round ends, Redtail stays with you. In the rustle of the fescue, in the curve of the land beneath your feet, in the memory of a long iron shaped into a green that you didn’t even see until you rounded the dogleg. Redtail is not a place you can revisit easily, but if you’ve been fortunate to visit, you will go there in your mind regularly.
