Hole of the month

4th hole, FAIRMONT BANFF SPRINGS, BANFF, ALTA. PAR-3, 192 YARDS
​ARCHITECT: STANLEY THOMPSON

​​Opened in 1911 as a nine-hole course laid out by Bill Thomson, a Scottish expatriate who apprenticed under Old Tom Morris at St. Andrews, the Banff Springs Golf Course was expanded to an 18-hole course by Donald Ross in 1924. But it was Stanley Thompson, Canada’s most significant and successful golf architect, who created the layout as it plays today. The course demonstrates his appreciation of traditional links golf courses while emphasizing the subtleties of the mountain landscape. 

Money was no barrier for the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), and when unveiled in 1928, the Banff Springs Golf Course was the most expensive ever built at over $1,000,000. Thompson’s layout incorporated some of Ross’s holes but also included some stunning new ones—none more iconic than Devil’s Cauldron, a short par 3 over a glacial lake nestled below the impossibly steep face of Mount Rundle. Devil’s Cauldron is one of the most famously scenic holes in the world of golf.

​​Pick up a copy of the book The World’s Greatest Golf Holes, and you’ll see a picture of the fourth hole at Banff Springs. It’s a par three, over Devil’s Cauldron 70 meters (230 feet) below, to a small green backed by the sheer face of Mount Rundle rising vertically more than 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) above the putting surface.

​Mr. Thompson, so it is said, was walking the future site of the course one day in the 1920s when a rockslide came crashing down from the cliffs above. After the dust cleared, the shaken architect saw that the slide had transformed the small valley into a natural amphitheater of breathtaking beauty. Recognizing the divine hand of a design talent even greater than his own, he immediately decided to build a golf hole on the spot. Golfers have journeyed to the Banff Springs course to try their luck at the Devil's Cauldron ever since.

​A climb to the elevated tee presents a heart-stopping view of the Devil’s Cauldron with its punchbowl green which slopes from back to front in order to drain the water off the putting surface as quickly as possible. From the elevated tee in the midst of the Rocky Mountains forest, you’re asked to hit the ball over a glacial lake to a heavily bunkered green that sits in a bowl, or cauldron, if you will, tucked at the foot of Mount Rundle. The green is nestled at the foot of the colossal Mount Rundle and your tee shot must carry across a glacial lake and then avoid numerous greenside bunkers. 

​Interestingly, because of its location at the very bottom of Rundle Mountain, the dramatic par-3 is not playable until late May each year. The green is tucked right against the bottom of the mountain so it has more days without sunlight each year than it does with sunlight. The course has to wait until it gets three hours or so of sunlight a day so the root system can take hold and it can handle the stress of players walking on it and balls landing on it all day (because this is one of the most famous holes in the world, people don’t typically take just one shot, so in essence, it gets a lot more play than a typical hole).

​Most people claim the hole is even more spectacular than they thought it was going to be. You can see a hole or a course on TV or in pictures, but until you’re actually there in person you can’t appreciate how stunning or beautiful it is. There’s just something special about coming off the third green and driving to the tee box. The anticipation is phenomenal. You see the clouds and mist hanging off the mountains. You see the sun peaking around the bend. Sometimes there will be grizzly bears on the green or an elk walking across the hole. Those are the type of things that a picture just can’t do justice.

​So don’t be short, and steer clear of the bunkers on the right side, the bank on the left side is more forgiving, and consider hitting 1 more club than you think you might need – the ball can trickle from the back of the green to the front but there’s no love on this hole for a shot that falls short.
 
Can you stay focused and swing smoothly on this 200-yard hole?