Lambton opened in 1903 on land at Lambton Mills, with the Championship course credited by the club to the leadership of captain George S. Lyon and the assistance of American architect Tom Bendelow. The club’s own published history records later contributions by multiple designers—including Donald Ross—but it does not supply dates for each contributor.
Ross’s connection to Lambton appears to date from the expansive wave of Toronto-area course improvements immediately after World War I. Contemporary golf press in 1919–1920 reported Ross traveling in Canada to prepare plans for major Toronto clubs; the Canadian Golfer documented his sending “complete set of plans” for Rosedale and described follow-up visits in the region that season. Although those articles name several specific clubs outright, Lambton’s name is not paired to a Ross dateline in the surviving snippets; however, the club’s official history lists Ross among architects who “contributed some of their genius” to the “old course,” and later researchers have pointed to 1919 as the year of his Lambton work. In short: a Ross advisory/re-bunkering plan for Lambton circa 1919 is plausible and cited in secondary literature, but the absence of a preserved Ross plan in public collections or a dated entry in the club’s published timeline means his exact scope remains undocumented in primary sources available online.
Through the interwar years, Lambton continued to evolve. The club acknowledges work by Harry Colt and A.W. Tillinghast among other consultants; Stanley Thompson is also named among those who modified the course prior to mid-century. Hurricane Hazel’s devastating floods in October 1954 forced significant post-storm reconstruction on low-lying holes, further distancing the course from any single early-era architectural state.
The most transformative modern phase occurred in 2009–2010 when Rees Jones rebuilt the Championship Course, inserting a new par-3 fifth on unused riverfront land, shifting the opening hole to play to the former second green site, and reversing the order of the closing two holes. The redesign increased back-tee yardage by nearly 500 yards while shortening forward tees, rebuilt the green complexes and bunkering, and then extended similar renewal to the Valley Course (reopening in 2011).
Unique Design Characteristics
Because Lambton has been repeatedly reworked and because the 2010 project rebuilt greens and bunkers comprehensively, there is little surviving, verifiable Ross-era ground game to isolate today without access to original plans or pre-Hazel aerials. The club itself now presents the course as a Rees Jones design, and published descriptions of the Jones work emphasize newly configured greens with additional contour, repositioned bunkering, and altered hole sequencing—elements that would necessarily overwrite earlier Ross-era details. The most visible modern signatures include the river-edge par-3 fifth (replacing the old second), the reimagined par-4 first that now plays into the old second’s green site, and the reversed 17-18 finish. These choices shape play on corridors that have, in places, followed long-used ground, but the features themselves—green pads, surrounds, and sand hazards—reflect 21st-century reconstruction.
If Ross did supply a bunkering and improvement plan in 1919, as secondary sources suggest, its hallmarks at Lambton would most likely have been expressed through revised hazards and targeted green modifications rather than wholesale rerouting, consistent with similar Toronto-area commissions Ross advised on in that period. Demonstrating those specifics here, however, requires the discovery of a Ross drawing or construction ledger tied explicitly to Lambton—materials not available in the sources consulted for this entry.
Historical Significance
Lambton’s competitive pedigree is undisputed: the club hosted four Canadian Opens (1907, 1910, 1925, 1941) and four Canadian Amateurs (1907, 1910, 1919, 1932). Those dates bracket the likely window for any Ross counsel at Lambton (circa 1919) and show the course functioning as a national-caliber venue both before and after his putative involvement. The identity of Lambton within Ross’s portfolio, therefore, is as a possible Toronto-region advisory engagement contemporaneous with better-documented Ross work at nearby clubs in 1919–1920. It represents Canadian clients engaging an established American architect for modernization advice during the postwar boom—but the precise content of that advice at Lambton remains to be pinned down with primary documentation.
Current Condition / Integrity
By the club’s own account and by external reporting, the Championship Course that members play today is the product of the 2010 Rees Jones redesign. Key structural changes—the new river-edge par-3 fifth, the remade first, the reversed finishing sequence, and comprehensive green and bunker reconstruction—signify a near-total modernization of the playing features. The Valley Course likewise underwent significant work in 2011. Given the magnitude of these projects and the mid-century flood rebuilding after Hurricane Hazel, Ross-era features at Lambton should be assumed largely lost or obscured, apart from the broad use of long-established corridors.
Uncertainty
The critical research gap is a dated, Lambton-specific Ross plan or correspondence. The club’s published “History of Lambton” acknowledges Ross among multiple architects without dates, and secondary compendia (including researcher threads that cite a June 21, 1919 newspaper item) place Ross at Lambton as a 1919 remodel/advisor; yet no publicly accessible archival drawing, club minute, or contractor invoice has been located online to confirm the scope or execution of his recommendations on the ground. Until such materials are identified, the safest statement is that Ross advised Lambton around 1919 during a regional wave of course improvements, but the extent of implementation at Lambton is undetermined.
Sources & Notes
Lambton Golf & Country Club, “History of Lambton” (club history page; names architects including Donald Ross; gives 1903 opening and major post-Hazel changes).
Rees Jones, Inc., “Rees Jones Successfully Renovates One of Canada’s Oldest Clubs” (press release detailing 2010 redesign: new par-3 5th replacing old 2nd, shifted 1st, reversed 17–18, yardage/par changes and Valley Course work in 2011).
Top100GolfCourses.com, “Lambton – Championship” (independent description of 2010 changes, including reversal of finishing holes and yardage context).
Wikipedia, “Lambton Golf and Country Club” (summary of championships hosted; used solely to corroborate event years listed by the club and in other public references). Secondary; verify against RGCA/Golf Canada records when possible.
Canadian Golfer magazine, 1919–1920 (articles contemporaneous with Ross’s Toronto-area activity; surviving snippets document Ross plans for other Toronto clubs and tours through the region; a Lambton-specific Ross note was not accessible here, but these issues set the context for his Canadian work). Primary periodical; Lambton-specific confirmation still needed.
GolfClubAtlas discussion thread, “Reunderstanding Ross” (researchers collate period references and assert a 1919 Ross remodel at Lambton; includes a citation to a June 21, 1919 Calgary Herald item, which should be verified directly in newspaper archives). Tertiary; useful lead, not a definitive source.