Canada Golf Course Reviews
Banff Springs Golf Course ReviewBanff, Alberta, Canada
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Banff Springs Golf Course Review Overview:
The real strength of this golf course lies in its extraordinary surroundings. Located in beautiful Banff, the views include thick pine forests, the historic Banff Springs Hotel, the glacial Bow River, hordes of large elk that live near the course and 9,672 foot Mount Rundle towering over the course, with many more scenic mountains and glaciers visible in the distance. The design of the course itself is heralded as one of Canada's greatest, and is at times ingenious, but does also offer a few average or holes (ignoring, of course, the clearly unforgettably great surroundings, which is tough to do). However, the holes that standout the most are mentioned below:
Banff Springs Hole 1: The opening hole is a straight par four with heavy trees (and OB) to the right and more trees, although less of them, to the left. A straight drive will leave an open shot to a bunkered, but sizeable green.
The real strength of this golf course lies in its extraordinary surroundings. Located in beautiful Banff, the views include thick pine forests, the historic Banff Springs Hotel, the glacial Bow River, hordes of large elk that live near the course and 9,672 foot Mount Rundle towering over the course, with many more scenic mountains and glaciers visible in the distance. The design of the course itself is heralded as one of Canada's greatest, and is at times ingenious, but does also offer a few average or holes (ignoring, of course, the clearly unforgettably great surroundings, which is tough to do). However, the holes that standout the most are mentioned below:
Banff Springs Hole 1: The opening hole is a straight par four with heavy trees (and OB) to the right and more trees, although less of them, to the left. A straight drive will leave an open shot to a bunkered, but sizeable green.
Banff Springs Hole 2 (right): The first par three on the golf course is mentioned mostly for the view; Mt. Rundle is situated squarely behind the green, making distances and depth-perception quite skewed, but pleasantly so. There is great bunkering around the green and a slope that will keep most shots that are short from climbing onto the putting surface, but a generally decent golf shot will not find much trouble. The putting green is sloped from back to front, but not absurdly so, so a good shot at the flag, but below it, leaves the best birdie opportunity.
Banff Springs Hole 3 (left): This par five will afford one of the better scoring opportunities, if the golfer can thread the needle between bunkers and trees on the drive. From there the hole bends right around the corner of the dogleg to a green that is set between a bunker to the left and trees and hillside to the right, but the short-ish nature of the hole means two big shots will leave a good look at birdie.
Banff Springs Hole 4: Considered by golf architecture gurus to be one of the very best holes in all of the world, “Devil’s Cauldron” is a very beautiful par 3. Well downhill and with Mt. Rundle directly in the background, the tee shot must be played over a natural glacial lake to a green surrounded by 6 sand traps (or the less famous, but more treacherous alternate green cut close to the lake well right of the original as seen in this picture). The distance is very difficult to judge, but just watching the ball flight from the tee is one of the most serene moments any golfer will ever enjoy, at least until it lands.
Banff Springs Hole 5: This difficult par four has OB right and doglegs left around a big bunker to the left. There are more bunkers up by the green and the player must bring two of their best shots of the day here to score well.
Banff Springs Hole 8: As if two outstanding par threes on the front weren't enough, Stanley Thompson decided to add the great little 8th hole with a lake to clear (and river to not be distracted by) to add the exclamation point to a really great set of one-shotters on the front side of this course.
Banff Springs Hole 10: Another solid, long par 3, this long one-shotter must be played over a bend in the beautiful "little" Bow River tributary. Anything right or too short will find it, and the golfer who is too cautious will find bunkers or long grass and mounds left of the green that will make up and down quite challenging.
Banff Springs Hole 12: The second of two very similar par fours heading in the same direction, this one has slightly better bunkering and a green that finishes quite close to the river (although only really apparent from the left side of the fairway, or when you're up on the putting suface.
Banff Springs Hole 14: A tough uphill par 4 with the Banff Springs Hotel looming on a hill in the background and the Bow River on the right side (although not much in play). The real treat here is that there are 18 bunkers on this hole, so avoiding them is a victory in itself. As a side note, this is the first golf hole that the author ever hit a golf ball on, with a 7 iron at age 7. Is it any wonder golf is my sporting passion?
Banff Springs Hole 15: Just a purely beautiful par four in every sense. A well struck shot from the elevated tee over the Bow River and under the shadow of the Banff Springs Hotel will hang in the air against the forested backdrop of Mt. Rundle for a long, long time. The distance on the drive can also be mammoth in the high-altitude air. The approach shot is challenging as 6 bunkers surround the green. As a side note, this used to be the first hole on the course and usually had many spectators (talk about a nerve-wracking start to a round).
Banff Springs Hole 16: After the sublime 15th, the course finishes on a more relaxed note, with this par four and the docile par 4 seventeenth and the final, par 5 eighteenth, for which the only real struggles are the OB to the right. This hole has beautiful bunkering, but if those are avoided, is a fairly easy hole.
