In recent years, the Barrie area has become a hot spot for Canadian golf. Three new courses opened between 2004 and 2005, including Settlers’ Ghost, which fully launched in 2004. There is a lot to like about this place. Mary-Pat Quilty is the head professional (one of the few females in the country in the position) and a well-known teacher and Canadian tour player. The architect, John Robinson, is a veteran Canadian designer whose work includes the highly regarded Whistle Bear outside of Cambridge, Ontario. The landscape is handsome, rolling farmland with views out to the Niagara Escarpment and the occasional glimpse of Georgian Bay. Even the name is cool: historically, before Champlain’s arrival in the 1600s, the area was a Huron native community, later resettled by emigrants from the British Isles; the name is a nod to the folks who lived on this land in the previous centuries. At just 6,311 yards from the tips, it’s a shortish layout for big hitters; the eighth, a 539-yard par five, should be plenty long enough for the grip-it-and-rip-it crowd. It plays straight west, back toward the property’s original barn and silo, and curves through a grove of red pines. Keep it straight and there’s a chance for a birdie dance.