Luxara / Reserve · Field guide
Golf in the
Canadian Rockies
Five courses carved through the Bow Valley, a season that is short and spectacular, and how to run a golf week from a house that sits on the first one.
The Bow Valley is one of the great mountain-golf destinations anywhere. The season runs barely five months, the courses are cut straight through the Rockies, and there are peaks standing over almost every green. For a group, the move is simple: base on a course, and play out from there.
This guide covers the courses worth your time, when to come, how to book, and how to put a four-day week together. We link every course directly. They are not competitors; they are the reason to come.
The home course
Silvertip
Serenity Point sits on Silvertip, so this is where most groups start and finish. It is a Les Furber design with 600 feet of elevation change and a slope of 153 from the tips, one of the most dramatic mountain layouts in the country. The hole people remember is the downhill 13th, falling more than 100 feet to the green with the Three Sisters filling the horizon.
- Par72
- Length7,200 yd
- Drop600 ft
- Slope153
The Devil’s Cauldron at Banff Springs is one of the most photographed one-shot holes in golf. It is twenty-five minutes from the door.
Four more, inside forty minutes
The courses
10 min Stewart Creek
Built on an abandoned coal mine above the Three Sisters, with the old mine portals still standing along the holes.
- Design
- Gary Browning, 2000
- Signature
- The par-3 9th, a 100-ft drop
- Green fee
- $110 to $195, cart in
40 min Kananaskis Country
Two Robert Trent Jones Sr courses on the Kananaskis River, rebuilt after the 2013 flood and, by most accounts, better than before.
- Design
- Robert Trent Jones Sr, 1983
- Holes
- 36, Mt Kidd and Mt Lorette
- Green fee
- $109 to $144, plus cart
25 min Fairmont Banff Springs
Stanley Thompson’s 1927 design beneath Mount Rundle, home to the Devil’s Cauldron, one of the most photographed one-shot holes in golf.
- Design
- Stanley Thompson, 1927
- Signature
- The Devil’s Cauldron, 192 yd
- Green fee
- $250 to $320, book 90 days out
in town Canmore Golf & Curling Club
The town’s public course, a relaxed and well-priced round a short drive from Main Street. A good warm-up or an easy nine for a mixed group.
- Design
- Community course, since 1926
- Round
- $120 for 18, $60 for 9
- Best for
- Arrival day, mixed ability
The Three Sisters, across the Bow Valley from Silvertip
When to come
A short, spectacular season
Courses open, around the 9th. Green and quiet.
Greenest conditions, light to play past nine.
Warmest and busiest. Book weekends early.
Fall colour, fewer people, cold mornings.
A four-day week
Based at Serenity Point
Arrive
Settle in and play an easy nine at Silvertip from the door. Dinner at the house.
Banff Springs
The bucket-list round, 25 minutes away. Lunch at the course, dinner in Banff.
Kananaskis
The full mountain day, 40 minutes south, on Mount Kidd or Mount Lorette.
Stewart Creek
A morning round ten minutes away, then the Nordic circuit at the house before you leave.
A keen group can play 36 a day in the long June light. A mixed group can swap a championship round for the Canmore club, or a rest day at the house.
Where to base
Serenity Point, on the Silvertip course
Six bedrooms, sleeps fourteen, the Three Sisters across the valley, and a private Nordic spa for after the round. The first tee is a walk from the door, and the rest of the valley is inside forty minutes. Tee times across the courses can be arranged through Vacations in Canmore.
Request a stay