East/South

Few golf experiences in the Ottawa Valley carry quite the same low-key prestige as the combination courses at Emerald Links Golf and Country Club, which sits just south of the capital in Greely. The East and South nines represent one of the club's standard 18-hole pairings, drawn from a 27-hole layout that lets the club rotate its configurations across the season. The course plays through the gently rolling countryside characteristic of this corner of eastern Ontario — open sky, mature trees lining the fairways, and the kind of unhurried pace that distinguishes golf outside the city proper.

Greely itself sits in Osgoode Ward, a rural municipality absorbed into Ottawa's amalgamation in 2001 but still very much its own place in character. The land here is agricultural and spacious, and that openness reads clearly in the golf — wider corridors, room to breathe, and a design sensibility aimed at playability over punishment.

For Ottawa-area golfers seeking a solid members-and-public facility without the pretension of the city's more formal clubs, Emerald Links delivers a reliable, well-maintained round on pleasant Ontario farmland.