The good news is that most golf courses in Canada have finally opened. The bad news is that there are a lot of new rules. Two of my favourite golf resorts in Canada, The Fairmont Banff Springs and the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge, reopened on May 29. I’m not going to list every rule and regulation required to take a swing during these COVID-19 times during Phase 1, but thought you’d be interested in knowing some of the ways the game has changed on these two tracks based on Alberta health authority guidelines.
• If you have COVID-19, COVID-19 symptoms, are self-isolating, have returned to Canada in the last 14 days or have travelled outside Canada in the last 14 days you will not be permitted at the facility.
• You must practice physical distancing at all times, both on and off the course.
• All tee times must be booked in advance on-line. All players must be recorded on tee sheets to enable contact tracing if necessary.
• You must wear a mask when entering the clubhouse or shop. Only four people are allowed in the retail shop at a time
• Don’t arrive more than 15 minutes before your tee time; otherwise you will be asked to sit in your car.
• A greeter will perform a screening check including a temperature reading and questionnaire
• No use of locker rooms.
• Power cart rentals must be used by one individual only, unless being shared by members of the same household. Individual cart rentals will be based on daily availability. Carts will be sanitized after every use.
• Ball washers and bunker rakes have been removed.
• Flagsticks are to remain in the hole and must not be touched. A device has been put on each flagstick to allow easy removal of your ball using your putter.
• Food and beverages services will be reduced; washrooms are open.
I’m willing to abide by all these protocols because, let’s face it, we addicts will do just about anything to pull out a driver and let it rip. And even with the new rules, the awe-factor lives on, especially on these Rocky Mountain stellar courses.
Banff holds the distinction of being the first track in the world to cost more than one million dollars to construct. Designed in 1928 by Canada’s foremost architect, the late Stanley Thompson, it has received numerous accolades, including one of the ten best in the world to play. When you play the Banff Springs Stanley Thompson course, you’ll be following in the footsteps of celebrities: Marilyn Monroe took golf lessons while filming The River of No Return with Robert Mitchum; Bob Hope and Bing Crosby have also taken a swing here.
Thompson’s genius was in refusing to impose a course on its setting. Indeed, it’s hard to concentrate on your swing with snow-frosted mountain peaks, azure glacier lakes and elk, bear and geese that have the right of way.
The first couple of fairways present a gentle handshake to Mr. Thompson’s 18-hole odyssey. It doesn’t matter if you hit a lousy shot, just look up and take solace in the scenery. Devil’s Cauldron, the par-three fourth hole best exemplifies Thompson’s mastery of design. Emerging from a pine forest onto elevated tees, one must carry the ball over a boulder-filled glacial lake against a backdrop of snowcapped peaks.
Number 15, The Spray, originally the first fairway, is another memorable sight. You tee off just in front of the patio of the Waldhaus pub, over the gushing Bow River.
As long as you’re in this neck of the woods, you’ll want to take the three and a half-hour drive north along the Icefields Parkway to the Banff Springs’ sister property, The Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge. Mountain goats, elk, ravens, glacier lakes, waterfalls and The Columbia Ice fields are all part of the ride.
Probably nowhere else in this land is the classic Hollywood image of the great Canadian west better portrayed than at Jasper Park Lodge, the 1,000-acre resort on the edge of Lac Beauvert. You can almost picture a Mountie emerging from the forest with a distressed damsel in his arms.
Shirley and I checked into a log cabin suite overlooking the gorgeous green Lac Beauvert.
In the summer of 1924 it took 200 men and 50 teams of horses to clear timber and rocks from the golf course site. Thompson’s wit and genius shine from the first tees to the 18th green. Thompson, who reputedly had a weakness for whiskey and women, named the par-three 9th hole Cleopatra and modeled its greenside bunkers in the form of the voluptuous Egyptian queen. Every Jasper Park fairway is aligned to frame the Rocky Mountain setting. By the 14th hole we were wondering just how much better it could get when we found ourselves teeing off alongside aquamarine Lac Beauvert that takes its amazing hue from glacial silt deposits.
When you combine scenery that Teddy Roosevelt commented “would bankrupt the English language” with a couple of the world’s finest golf courses, not even COVID-19 can ruin your round.
The Fairmont and The Bay – Green and Lodge View – Hole 16