One-upmanship gave rise to storied mountain loops
Banff Springs was overhauled in bid to better Jasper Park Lodge
It was 1926 and the battle was on.
Working for Canadian National Railway, Stanley Thompson had just completed his masterpiece golf course in Jasper. Three hundred kilometres to the south, Banff and the Canadian Pacific Railway were envious.
Banff already had a golf course; CPR president Thomas Shaughnessy brought William Thomson out to build a nine-hole course in 1911. Then, eight years later, CPR got Donald Ross to build another nine holes.
Ross was already being hailed as one of the best golf architects in the world, having put his name beside world-class courses like North Carolina’s Pinehurst Resort No. 2, Seminole Golf Club in Florida and Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, N.Y.
But Ross’s product in Banff was still no match for Jasper.
“The Donald Ross course had a nice design, but they didn’t have a lot of top soil; it wasn’t in the shape it needed to be,” said The Fairmont Banff Springs Golf Course’s director of golf Steven Young.
So the call went out to Thompson, the colourful Toronto-based golf architect, who was often seen with a glass of scotch in one hand and a cigar in the other, to see if he could perform his magic one more time.
“There was a real rivalry between Jasper and Banff, as well as between the two railroads,” said Alan Carter, who was the executive professional at The Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge Golf Club for 13 years before moving to the Edmonton Country Club, where he’s the general manager. “They both wanted to have the best golf course in the nation,” added Carter.
Like Coke versus Pepsi or the Hatfields and McCoys, each mountain resort wanted to be the best.
Thompson didn’t just tinker with the Donald Ross design; he essentially blew it up and started from scratch.
“Stanley wanted to make his own statement,” said Young. “Pure and simple, Banff wanted the best. More than anything, they wanted an even better course than Stanley designed in Jasper.”
Beginning his work in 1927, Thompson brought in a staff of 200 workers and some 50 teams of horses to Banff to start the arduous task of sculpting the new marvel in the Rocky Mountains.
Railway cars brought in topsoil and manure; other cars toted loads of sand from Revelstoke, B.C.
Two years later — at a cost of more than $1 million, which made it the most expensive course of its time — Thompson pulled back the curtains with the Prince of Wales as the guest of honour. The result was nothing short of breathtaking: 18 holes of sheer beauty and challenge. So who won the battle? “Golfers,” said Carter and Young. “They are both outstanding courses.”
Today, nothing has changed. Both courses continue to receive accolades. SCORE golf magazine, which ranks the top 100 courses in Canada, had Jasper voted as the fourth-best course in Canada and Banff was sixth in last year’s rankings.
Perhaps even more telling, Young said that when the first unofficial rankings of the best courses in North America came out in 1939, Banff was ranked No. 8.
“Augusta National was No. 11; Pinehurst No. 2 came in at No. 28,” said Young.
Meanwhile, in Golf Digest, Jim Moriarty once wrote: “No sport has more shrines than golf, and there is no more inspiring shrine than the Banff course.”
Given both courses’ placement in the rugged Rockies and Thompson as both courses’ architect, it’s hardly surprising that Banff and Jasper share so much.
Both marvellously wonderful, the Jasper Park Lodge and Banff Springs are more than just golf courses, more than just places echoing their splendour in the shadows of nearby mountains.
Instead, they are states of mind where golfers don’t play in the present, but in the past; both courses revelling in their matching history.
Peaceful and serene, Jasper and Banff’s courses stop time and embed memories that will last a lifetime. It is history on hallowed grounds.
“Banff Springs is right at the base of the mountains,” Young said of the course which, at 1,630 metres, is the highest elevation golf course in Alberta. “They are not off in the distance somewhere.
“The spectacular scenery, the Bow River flows by eight holes — you can hear the water rushing by — it’s eye candy all day long.”
Not surprisingly both courses offer two of the most stunning par 3s.
Jasper has No. 9 — a long downhill par 3 called Cleopatra. Banff answers even more spectacularly — if that’s possible — with No. 4, a hole called the Devil’s Cauldron.
Downhill as well, but shorter — it plays anywhere from 79 to 199 yards — the Cauldron is built on the side of Mount Rundle with a tee shot that must carry the glacial lake that appears to have been spray-painted green.
“The Devil’s Cauldron never under-delivers,” Young said of the hole, which made the top 18 list of Golf Magazine’s best golf holes in the world.
“Nobody goes, ‘Oh, it was OK or is disappointed. You get to that hole and you can’t believe what you are seeing. The scenery here is so beautiful that you don’t mind hitting a shot or two in the water because you get to stay and hit another shot,” Young continued.
On a signpost on the hole Thompson is quoted as saying: “I was commissioned to build the last word on golf.”
The Cauldron, however, is just one mind-blowing hole at Banff. There simply isn’t a weak hole anywhere.
Banff Springs has been home to two world skins games. The first, in 2006, brought Jack Nicklaus, Greg Norman, John Daly, Sergio Garcia and Stephen Ames to Banff. The second, in 2011, featured Lucas Glover, Jhonattan Vegas, Anthony Kim, Paul Casey and Ames.
“In 2011, all the players took out their cameras on the elevated 15th tee. Even the caddies were taking photos. That has to tell you something,” Young said.
What also says something is that Young never taught a lesson in Banff where he asks someone to keep their head down.
“There is just so much to see. I think that would be doing them a disservice,” he said. “Instead, I just tell people to take it all in.”
Fittingly, as the round ended, a full-bodied rainbow arched its eyebrows over the 18th hole. But, at Banff, the pot of gold isn’t just at the ends of the rainbow; it is everywhere.
“They both wanted to have the best golf course in the nation.”
Alan Carter