From the Niagara Falls Review:
Niagara Falls MPP Kim Craitor has booked 158 tee-off times for free rounds of golf at Niagara Parks Commission golf courses since he was elected in 2003.
He uses the perk the parks commission offers public officials to promote the community to guests and to make up for time his job takes him away from his family.
“I acknowledge I like golfing,” Craitor said. “So we use it. I also use it for promoting Niagara Falls.”
Since 2004, the Ussher’s Creek course at the Legends on the Niagara complex near Chippawa has been his favourite spot. But Craitor mixes it up, playing the Battlefield course at Legends or the Whirlpool course, along the Niagara Parkway.
From the Niagara Falls Review:
Call it a buyers market. With a decline in tourism spending in recent years, that has many Niagara-area golf courses locked in a tug-of-war for local patrons, low prices and attractive package deals are the order of the day.
The competition is so fierce, some private owners say they don’t know what the future will bring for an industry that’s already heavy on the supply side if things don’t soon improve.
Given the current market conditions, it’s not surprising, perhaps, that a number of them are again questioning the pricing and marketing practices of the Niagara Parks Commission - a provincial government agency - which operates three golf facilities, including the top-rated Legends on the Niagara.
“Legends was built as a tourist destination,” says Michael Croft, owner of Links of Niagara at Willodell.
“I want (the parks commission) to stay out of my marketplace.”
From Niagara Falls Review:
John Daly made a whirlwind tour Tuesday of his Thundering Waters signature golf course in Niagara Falls, cutting a swath of smiles everywhere he went.
He mingled with golfers playing in the Kids R King Celebrity Pro-Am, which was raising funds for the Boys and Girls Club of Niagara.
He posed for photos with shivering Hooters girls dressed in tank tops and short shorts, signed balls and T-shirts and posed for photos with the suitably-impressed Grade 4 class from St. Vincent de Paul elementary school.
From Commercial Property News:
Grand Niagara Resort Inc., a partnership that owns and operates a new golf course in Niagara Falls, Ontario, is planning a C$300 million expansion of the facility. At its completion, scheduled for 2010, the 800-acre complex will include another golf course, a Hilton hotel, conference facility, time-share condos, homesites, a winery and a pair of manmade lakes.
From the Niagara Falls Review:
Grand Niagara golf course got city approval to expand its resort, but still needs to overcome opposition from its Grassy Brook Road neighbours to get the road closures a resort representative says it needs.
“That’s the talk of the town where we live,” said Denis Boulet, summing up the rural residents’ concerns about the golf resort’s expansion plans.
Grand Niagara opened its Rhys Jones-designed course last year south of the Welland River and north of Biggar Road. The company also has plans for another course, a hotel and a “lifestyle residential community” of townhouse condominiums.
They had asked city council for zoning and official plan amendments needed to expand onto 22 hectares west of Morris Road and eight hectares north of Grassy Brook Road. They also want to add a 220-unit residential area.
On a recorded vote, council voted 8-1 in favour of the zoning and official plan amendments. Ald. Janice Wing voted against them.
GolfLogic.ca has a coupon that gets you a round of golf at Thundering Waters Golf Club, a cart with a GPS device, for $79 + tax (note that you have to be registered with the site to get the coupon).
The person who runs the site had an opportunity to play the course. You can read his comments on his blog.
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