Earl Grey Golf Club — Calgary's 1919 Civic Memory
Earl Grey Golf Club opened in 1919 on a piece of land that had once been the city's sewage farm. A century later it's one of the most exclusive private clubs in Western Canada. The story between those two facts is most of what made twentieth-century Calgary.
The man the club is named after never set foot in Calgary. Albert Henry George Grey, 4th Earl Grey, served as Governor General of Canada from 1904 to 1911. He was an enthusiastic patron of sport — the Grey Cup, first awarded in 1909 for the Canadian football championship, carries his name — but his official tours took him through Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, and occasionally the Maritime provinces. He died in 1917, two years before the golf club was founded.
The naming was a status move. In 1919 Calgary was a town of barely 60,000 people, still deeply colonial in its social instincts. Attaching a Governor General's name to a private club gave it gravitas that “Calgary Golf Club Number Two” would not have carried. It worked. The club attracted the city's professional class from the beginning, and more than a century later it still does.
The land itself is the more interesting story. Before it was a golf course, the site on the bluffs above the Elbow River was Calgary's sewage farm. The City of Calgary had been spreading effluent across the land for irrigation — a common disposal method in prairie towns at the turn of the century. The practice was relocated to the Bonnybrook treatment plant by 1918, and the land became available. A group of Calgary businessmen saw an opportunity: flat land, good drainage, mature poplar trees already established from decades of irrigation, and a bench above the river that gave the site natural elevation change. They leased it from the city, and by 1919 the course was open.
The original eighteen — and the men who built them
The original course was designed by Willie Park Jr., a two-time Open Championship winner (1887 and 1889) who had by then become one of the most sought-after golf course architects in the world. Park visited Calgary in 1919 to walk the site and lay out the routing. It was one of the westernmost courses he ever designed — his portfolio was concentrated in Britain, with a handful of North American commissions.
Park understood the land's advantages immediately. The bench above the Elbow River gave him natural elevation for the par-3 8th, which played downhill toward the river. The mature poplars — products of the old sewage-farm irrigation — provided tree-lined corridors that most new prairie courses lacked. The sandy loam soil drained well, meaning the course could open earlier in Calgary's short season and play firm and fast through summer.
The original clubhouse was modest: a wood-frame building erected in 1922, replaced in 1958 by the current brick-faced structure that still anchors the property today.
| Founded | 1919 |
| Architect | Willie Park Jr. |
| Length | 6,680 yards, par 71 |
| Address | 6540 20 St SW, Calgary |
| Membership | Private, approximately 600 members |
| Guest play | Member-sponsored only, 4–8 times per year |
| Notable members | Ernest Manning, Pat Burns II, Jeanne Lougheed, Jim Riddell |
The 1980s rebuild
By the early 1980s, Park's original greens had deteriorated beyond seasonal repair. The club hired Bill Newis, a Calgary-based architect, to undertake a major redesign. Newis kept Park's original routing — the bones of the course remained the same — but rebuilt every green complex to USGA specifications, installed modern irrigation throughout, and added dedicated practice facilities. The fairways were re-grassed in 1989, and new bunker complexes were constructed around the 14th and 17th holes, giving the course its current strategic character on the inward nine.
The trees are the course's defining visual feature. The mature poplar canopy — many of the original trees dating to the 1920s — creates cathedral-like corridors on the front nine. Some of those original poplars are now reaching end of life, and the club has been replanting with native species since 2010, mixing in spruce and aspen to ensure the canopy persists through the next century.
“Earl Grey is a course you have to grow up on. The greens read differently than anywhere else in Calgary. The wind comes off the river and changes every hole. You can play it a thousand times and still misread the 8th.”
— Long-time member, 2018, Calgary Herald
What it means to the city
Earl Grey is not a public course. It has never been a public course. It has been, since its founding, a proving ground for Calgary's professional class — the lawyers, surgeons, oil executives, and real estate developers who shaped the city through the twentieth century. The waitlist for membership is not published, and the club does not advertise.
From 50 Avenue SW, Earl Grey is an inaccessible green island — you can see the canopy, the manicured fairways, the occasional white flash of a golf cart — but you cannot enter without an invitation. For most Calgarians, it's a place they drive past without ever setting foot on.
Guest play is limited to 4 to 8 rounds per year, sponsored by a member. Weekday green fees for guests run approximately $185; weekend rounds are $215. Walking is permitted on weekdays; carts are required on weekends. The dress code is enforced: collared shirts, no denim, no athletic shorts. Soft spikes only.
The thing about private clubs in Calgary
Calgary has seven private golf clubs: Earl Grey, Calgary Golf & Country Club, Pinebrook, Glencoe, Lynx Ridge, Carnmoney, and Canyon Meadows. Between them, they hold roughly 4,000 memberships in a metro area of more than 800,000 adults. The ratio tells the story — private golf in Calgary is genuinely exclusive, not in the aspirational sense but in the mathematical one. There are not enough memberships for everyone who wants one.
Earl Grey's influence extends beyond its fences. Park's original design — and especially the Newis rebuild — set the standard for what a Calgary golf course should feel like: tree-lined, strategically bunkered, with greens that reward precision over power. Public courses like Maple Ridge and Shaganappi Point were designed with Earl Grey as a reference point, even if their budgets and maintenance standards are a fraction of what a private club can sustain.
If you are invited to play as a guest, the etiquette is worth knowing. Arrive at least 30 minutes before your tee time. Tip the bag drop $5 when they take your clubs. Do not use your phone on the course. Do not take photos of other members. Address the starter by name if you catch it. The locker room attendant will offer you a towel — take it. The dining room after the round is not optional; your host is buying lunch.
What's next for the course
Earl Grey is approaching the centennial of continuous play on the current layout, and the membership is reportedly considering a significant renovation. The names most frequently mentioned are Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw — the architects behind Cabot Cliffs in Nova Scotia, widely considered the finest course built in Canada in the last two decades. If the project proceeds, work would begin after the 2027 season, with an estimated 18-month closure.
The scope, as described by members who have attended the consultation sessions, would soften the approach angles on several holes, add a new par-3, and restore some of Park's original green contours that were flattened in the 1980s rebuild. The mature trees would stay. The routing would remain largely unchanged. The goal, as one member put it, is to make Earl Grey feel like it did in 1925, but play like it should in 2030.
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