Banff Springs Hole #13

Banff Springs Hole #13 "Sulphur" 225-yard Par3 Handicap 16

Open in front and ringed on its sides and back by bunkers and mounds, this was the penultimate hole on Thompson’s design.Reflective ofhis marching from CPR, Thompson built a tough, hard golf course. The tiger golfer is always challenged and yet Thompson provides ways for the less accomplished player to enjoy his game as well. For example, this green is wide open in front and, like the twelfth, narrows in the back. The weaker golfer can certainly bumble one upnear the front edge while the tiger has more than his hands full to get near any of the middle or back hole locations.

Playing short to the thirteenth green is not a bad leave.

Banff Springs GC:

My favorite Banff holes were the second, third and fourth and the 15th. The par-3 second (179, 171, 147 and 127 yards) is called ëRundle,' as it is backdropped by Mt. Rundle. The par-5 third is wedged into the side of the mountain and is named Gibraltar -- it looks just as imposing as that famous rock. Along the left side of the fairway is a grove of trees that Banff's elk herd -- which roams everywhere, like those sacred cattle in India -- uses to rub its horns against leaving bare patches on the trunks.

Banff:
Lake Minnewanka – Banff Nat’l Park’s largest waterway…Don’t do Devil’s Gap boat trip (1.5hrs, nothing cool) …. It’s the largest lake in Banff National Park at 24 kms (15 mi) long and 142 m (466 ft.) deep. Only scuba divers can view the remnants of a small town called Minnewanka Landing, after a hydroelectric dam built in 1941 caused the lake level to rise by 30 m (98 ft.). But most visitors either walk along the lakeside trail or sign up for the interpretive boat tour to learn about the history, native folk lore and geology. On the road up stop at Bankhead, a once thriving mining community from 1903 to 1922 that produced coal to power Canadian Pacific Railway steam engines. An interpretive trail winds its way around the remains of the old mining site, old machinery and crumbling foundations of the town.