Monterra

Few ski-resort golf courses manage to escape the feeling of being an afterthought, but Monterra at Blue Mountain makes a genuine case for itself. Designed by Thomas McBroom and opened in 1992, the course uses the rugged Niagara Escarpment terrain to create dramatic elevation changes that would be the envy of courses built on flat ground. The routing climbs and descends through hardwood forest, with views across Georgian Bay appearing at unexpected moments — the kind of scenery that makes a bogey sting a little less.

McBroom's design rewards creativity over brute force. Tight, tree-lined fairways demand accuracy off the tee, while the sloping, well-contoured greens have a way of turning a straightforward approach into something more complicated than it appeared from 150 yards out. The course plays longer than a single walk of the scorecard might suggest, simply because of how relentlessly the ground moves beneath you.

Blue Mountain Village sits steps away, meaning this is firmly resort golf — a destination round shared with skiers-turned-summer-visitors who bring the right level of enthusiasm if not always the right handicap.