For mountain-loving golfers, the Bow Valley offers the best of both worlds with stunning landscapes, challenging fairways and meticulously maintained greens. The Bow Valley has enough variety to keep the avid golfer playing with enthusiasm all summer long. Banff and Canmore have five golf courses between them, Kananaskis Country has three and there are several others within two hours’ drive away. These Rocky Mountain courses are all open to the public with options to suit every budget. Green fees range from $22 for nine holes to $150 for a full 18-hole round. Some courses offer reduced fees in the twilight hours as well as ‘local’s rates’. There’s also a facility guaranteed to suit every golfer’s handicap. Course designers include such names as Les Furber, Robert Trent Jones, Bill Robinson, Doug Carrick and Canmore local Gary Browning. The area’s oldest golf course, the Canmore Golf and Curling Club, dates back to 1911. Stanley Thompson designed the original 18 holes at the Fairmont Banff Springs Golf Course in 1928 to wind with the Bow River under the looming Sulphur Mountain and Mount Rundle. Another nine holes were added in 1989. Several local courses are award winning. Score magazine named the 36 holes at Kananaskis Country Golf Course Canada’s best value for money links and, in 1999, Golf Digest named the Kananaskis club among the top courses in North America. Golf Digest also named Canmore’s Stewart Creek Golf Club, now planning additional holes to its existing 18, as one of the best new courses in North America. Incorporating 183 metres (600 feet) in elevation change, Canmore’s SilverTip Golf Course is a 2,196m (7,200ft) par 72, 18-hole course. The club likes to distinguish itself as ‘extreme golf’; the 10th hole drops a challenging 38m (125ft). Brewsters Kananaskis Ranch Golf Resort has a rustic log clubhouse built on a historic family homestead and housed with hand-made pine furniture. The clubhouse is situated so close to Mount Yamnuska perceptive golfers might spot rock climbers working their way upward. All clubhouses feature gourmet dining and offer first-class amenities and most clubs offer GPS-equipped carts. Driving ranges, pro shops, cart rentals, banquet pavilions and practice greens are also common features. Playing amidst towering mountains, tumbling streams, crystal-clear ponds, stands of aspen and spruce, rushing rivers, hoodoo formations, grazing elk and old mine entrances that double as rain shelters might prove challenging but the distraction provided by the Rocky Mountain scenery will no doubt lure golfers back for game after game. Four exceptional and truly unique golf courses call the Bow Valley in the Canadian Rockies home. SilverTip
The wildlife is so abundant in SilverTip high in the scenic benchlands above the town of Canmore that the course has adopted “Where Nature Plays Through” as their motto. This is no joke. The award-winning course is situated within a prime wildlife corridor, which means on any given hole animals are sometimes more plentiful than players. The course has natural elevation changes which range anywhere from 1, 310 metres (4,300 feet) to 1, 560 metres (5,200 feet) on its 18 holes, guaranteeing truly awesome views from every tee box.
Stewart Creek
Rated the Second Best new course in Canada by the 19th Golf Digest annual ranking, Stewart Creek is an exceptional 18-hole course in an exceptional location. Canadian Gary Browning, who designed the course, is quoted on the course Web site as saying “the intent of the first tee was to place players up there and take their breath away.” This line of thinking was apparently applied to all holes, however, as the entire course is created with the rocks, streams, lakes, and surrounding forest in mind, melting the course into these natural features instead of removing them to make way for play.
Fairmont Banff Springs
Designed in 1928 by master Canadian golf course architect Stanley Thompson, the 27-hole Banff Springs course has been photographed and featured by publications around the world. The premise for the course design was as simple as providing breathtaking 360-degree views from every hole, as well as providing thrilling challenges for professionals and amateurs alike. If its class you’re looking for, you’ll certainly find it here.
Kananaskis
A 36-hole golfing paradise, the Mount Kidd and Mount Lorette courses offer stunning backdrops that will stir the excitement of even the most travelled golfers. Together the courses offer over 600 acres of lush greens and fairways nestled among forest, creeks, ponds and the world famous ‘Blue Ribbon’ Bow River. The mighty Mount Kidd looms high above like a sleeping giant, keeping watch over play and the wildlife that give these courses their natural charm.
