This week my wife an I had the opportunity to join a group of friends play golf at two highly-rated courses: Whirlpool and Legends of Niagara (the Battlefield course). Whirlpool is the older of the two and shows it with more mature trees and a classic style of course. For our level of play, the general consensus of opinion was it was the preferred course. 
While a challenging and pretty course, the Legends seemed to play a little longer and demanded a pace of play that made it difficult to fully enjoy. Whirlpool is a Stanley Thompson course [1].
Between the 1920’s and 1950’s, Thompson designed, remodeled or constructed some 145 courses in Canada, the United States, the Caribbean and South America, including such renowned Canadian golf courses as Highlands Links (Nova Scotia), Banff and Jasper (Alberta), St. George’s (Toronto), and Capilano (Vancouver).
In 1948, Donald Ross, Robert Trent Jones and Thompson founded the prestigious American Society of Golf Course Architects, and at one time, now-legendary course architects Jones, Howard Watson, Geoff Cornish, C.E. “Robbie” Robinson and Bob Moote worked for Thompson. Of the 100 top-rate courses in Canada, 14 are Stanley Thompson designs [2].
Please see my photo gallery for more pictures of this trip.
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