In 1968, the Biffis family opened their modest, 40-room inn on the outskirts of Alliston; nearly two decades later, the family began building golf courses on a holding that now spans a whopping 575 acres. Today, the Nottawasaga Inn is one of the largest golf resorts in Ontario, encompassing 45 holes. Regularly interchanged as the front nine of the Nottawasaga course, the Green Briar and Briar Hill nines are both solid but unspectacular loops. However, the Valley (which always plays as the back nine) is a real treat, especially for mid to high handicappers. It’s postcard pretty and mostly open, with the Nottawasaga River rushing across the occasional fairway. The Ridge course is a different animal altogether. Designed by the resort’s long-time golf director, Ron Harris, it’s a tough, tight layout, with uneven lies that swing up and down the natural ridge. Fully opened in 2000, the course was cut through farmland, with approximately 1,000 transplanted white pines standing 20 feet high along the edges of the fairways. The 16th hole typifies the course: a 406-yard par four, it tees off through a chute of cedars and willows to a narrow fairway bounded on the left by the river and on the right by a looming land bank.