The Humeniuk family has owned TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley for more than 25 years and now is finally ready to fulfill the vision they’ve long had for the hidden gem golf club.
Expansion plans, which include adding accommodations to the property in bucolic Caledon, northwest of Toronto, aim to give the public club’s members and visitors a deeper experience than just a round of golf.
The expansion may also end up having ripple effects throughout the sprawling town that covers 170,000 acres of rolling land, boosting its reputation as a golf hot spot and even spurring economic, tourism and residential development.
A similar enhancement at a nearby private club, Devil’s Pulpit Golf Association, strengthens that potential.
Together, the clubs propose to add commercial spaces and housing that they say will contribute to Caledon’s growth without compromising any of its rural flavour or the integrity of its environmentally protected land.
“Our hope is to create a destination, whether it’s for people to live, for people to come visit, come for a day or a few days – not only to play golf but also enjoy all the amenities,” says Chris Humeniuk, president of Osprey.
Mr. Humeniuk’s father, Roman, and uncle, Jerry, are land developers who bought Osprey from its founding owner in the early 1990s after the club got into financial trouble. The brothers later snapped up some adjacent land, creating a big enough property for three 18-hole courses.
The family company’s portfolio has grown to consist of a total 1,700 acres in Caledon. Its holdings also include a residential subdivision under construction near Osprey in Alton, one of the many villages within the town’s borders.
Noted Canadian golf architect Doug Carrick designed the three courses and all of them are ranked within the country’s top 100. But the club has remained a hidden gem, catering mostly to locals and Toronto golf aficionados who were patient enough to drive an hour beyond city limits and past the suburban sprawl of Brampton to get there.
Roman and Jerry saw the potential – a sign at the club’s entry once referred to Osprey as a “resort” – but never fully carried through. “I won’t say they ran out of time, money or energy,” Mr. Humeniuk says. “It’s just they never pulled the trigger or executed on the vision. It was such a huge vision. I’m not sure we ever knew where to start.”
But the trigger has been pulled now. With Mr. Humeniuk taking over Osprey’s operations a few years ago, the family has made the commitment to take the club to the next level over the coming years.
Among the first signs of a new identity, Osprey joined the Tournament Players Club, a U.S.-based network of courses owned or operated by the PGA Tour, and rebranded as TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley in 2018. It also signed on to play host to the Osprey Valley Open, a professional tournament on the third-tier Mackenzie Tour – PGA Tour Canada.
Its biggest changes are yet to come. A new clubhouse is on the drawing board, as are cottages or villas throughout the property for overnight stays. To extend the club’s reach beyond just a golf audience, event space and a conference centre are also planned. “We recognize golf is not enough,” Mr. Humeniuk says.
He has examined other world-class golf resorts, including Cabot Links in Nova Scotia, for expansion ideas, but found the greatest inspirations at a California winery he once visited on holiday. Cakebread Cellars in Napa Valley showed him, he says, that a functioning business can do double duty as a charming community hub.
Osprey’s on-site lodging would augment Caledon’s limited supply, which includes the quaint Millcroft Inn in Alton, bed-and-breakfasts and chain hotels that skirt nearby Orangeville and Brampton. The community spaces would fill an identified need to accommodate everything from small corporate gatherings to weddings, Mr. Humeniuk says.
A 10-minute drive from Osprey, Devil’s Pulpit has the same urge to fill gaps, albeit for the benefit of its members and their guests, and not the general public. The private club has two 18-hole layouts that are also ranked in Canada’s top 100 and clubhouses at each, but little else.
