The PGA Cup doesn’t register on the Canadian golf radar. It’s a Ryder Cup-style team competition between U.S. club professionals and their counterparts from Great Britain and Ireland.

But this year’s playing, the 24th, beginning Friday and ending Sunday, has a Canadian connection. The host course was designed by Toronto-based architect Doug Carrick and even bears his name.

The Carrick is located northwest of Glasgow on the banks of Loch Lomond. Nine of the holes stay in the Lowlands near the lake and the other nine rise into the Highlands, creating an unusual number of elevation changes for a Scottish course. It's also unique because it’s more of a heathlands style, rather than a traditional British links, and it’s dotted with majestic pines and heather.

“It’s a beautiful setting,” Carrick said recently, before heading to Scotland to take in the matches. “I think it turned out very well.”

Gary Alliss, head professional at the Belfry and captain of the GB&I side, agreed The Carrick is unique to Britain and said it has more of a Scandinavian feel.

He said it will provide an exciting and challenging test for his 10-member team as it tries to regain the Cup, which the Americans hold after winning the 2007 edition at Reynolds Plantation in Georgia. “The last few holes, running along the loch side, are absolutely amazing,” he said earlier in the year while revisiting Reynolds.

The course, one of Carrick’s few overseas projects, opened in 2006 but the PGA Cup isn’t its first big tournament. It also staged the 2007 and 2008 Ladies Scottish Opens. Sophie Gustafson won in 2007 at three under for 54 holes, Gwladys Nocera last year at five under.

Carrick, known for award-winning Canadian gems such as Muskoka Bay, Bigwin Island and Magna,  believes the course will stand up for men’s play just as well. “It’s a pretty good test, especially if the weather gets a little bad.”

The players agreed, and expect it to play tough even in calm conditions.
“It’s a very fair course, you can see everything and the fairways are pretty generous,” British team member James Lee said this week on pgacup.com.

 “I think the greens are the hardest part of the course, they are very slopey and tricky and I think the toughest part will be keeping concentration around the greens and hitting the ball in the right spot. It’s not going to be easy, you have to stay on your toes around the green – they will be a really big factor.”

Coincidentally, a Carrick course is being used for another significant golf tournament this week. Fontana Golf Club near Vienna is staging the Austrian Open, an event on the PGA European Tour.

The course, a collaboration with Hans Erhardt, was ranked Austria’s best track between from 1997 to 2005. The owner is Canadian-Austrian auto parts magnate Frank Stronach and the course is located at the European headquarters for his Magna operations.

Carrick did another course for Stronach, Magna in the Toronto area, named after his company.