This golf extravaganza, a $27-million complex owned by the Niagara Parks Commission, includes two championship 18s, a nine-hole course, a putting course and quite possibly the finest practice facility in the entire country. If that wasn’t enough to lure legions of enthusiastic golfers, it’s also all conveniently located within a couple of kilometres of the Falls. To ensure Legends’ success, the commission hired the two biggest names in Canadian golf course architecture: designers Tom McBroom of Ussher’s Creek fame, and Doug Carrick, mastermind of the three-course Osprey Valley project. After beating McBroom in a coin toss, Carrick chose the north section of the property, which, as its name suggests, is adjacent to an 1814 battlefield. The course has three separate looks: the leadoff stretch of links-style holes is open, with heavy fescue squeezing the fairways and Carrick’s trademark deep bunkers guarding the greens; the next series of holes is cut through forest and features tight, tree-lined fairways; and the third batch, especially seven, eight and nine, bends around the edges of a foreboding 20-acre lake. Carrick also designed the first half of the Chippawa nine-hole course, a 2,202-yard, par 30 layout that has a solid combination of six par threes and three par fours. To top it all off, he was the mastermind behind the wonderful practice area known as the Firing Range. The 45-acre facility has an assortment of grass tee decks, practice bunkers, chipping areas, bunkered target greens and driving fairways; a large bag of practice balls costs just $8.50.