Stanley was here
Islington Golf Club was an early assignment for Stanley Thompson, one of the foremost architects in North America.
"More than 80 years after the first golfers teed it up on the Appleby's former farm, Islington still exudes an Old World charm." ~ Ian Cruickshank, from the book, The Golf Courses of Stanley Thompson
Play on history
The course plays close to its original design and retains much of the charm and features of Thompson's original layout.
The following is an excerpt from Ian Cruickshank's mini essay for the book, The Golf Courses of Stanley Thompson: Celebrating Canada's Historic Masterpieces.
The origins of the club reachback to 1913, but it wasn't until 1923 that the west end trio of Colonel Bill Rogers, EHA Watson (the principal of Riverdale Collegiate and a realtor named Mr. Chadwick were able to officially negotiate an option to build a golf course on the Appleby family farm at the northwest corner of Islington and Dundas. They wanted the best and so hired Stanley Thompson to design the new layout. With a workforce of 50 men and a team of 20 horses, the course was completed in less than a year, and play began in the late summer of 1924. Thompson continued a long and warm relationship with Islington and stayed on as a consultant to the club until 1946.
Over the decades, Islington has been home to a terrific range of great golfers and personalities. One of the most fascinating was Captain Melville Millar, who oversaw the original construction of Islington and later worked with Thompson on subsequent projects.
A long-time club secretary at Islington, in 1926, Millar and his wife donated the Millar trophy, which was presented to the winner of an annual match play competition among the best professional golfers in Canada. The tournament was frequently played at Islington (see photo above), and the statuesque gold and silver trophy can be seen in the foyer of Islington's clubhouse. It has historic associations. In the late 1940s, during the Millar matches, well-known CFRB sportscaster Wes McKnight became the first in Canada to deliver broadcasts from a golf tournament.