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Classic Courses: Jasper Park Lodge Deep in the Canadian Rockies this 83-year-old showpiece of Stanley Thompson architecture continues to inspire
By Rick Young Bing Crosby earned rave reviews for his portrayal of a phonograph salesman cavorting with Viennese royalty in the 1948 Billy Wilder comedy The Emperor’s Waltz. But partial credit for the film’s success belongs to its setting—a Canadian Rockies landscape that filled the screen with alpine beauty and allowed Crosby to indulge his favorite off-camera activity with characteristic passion. On location in Alberta’s majestic Jasper National Park, Crosby spent most of his spare time at the Jasper Park Lodge Golf Course, one of Stanley Thompson’s finest creations. The layout comprises many of the legendary Canadian designer’s trademark attributes—elevated tees, holes aligned with distant mountain peaks and panoramas that take full advantage of wondrous natural backgrounds. No less a figure than Alister MacKenzie made his own pilgrimage to Jasper Park and came away an avowed admirer. “Jasper Park has an amazingly beautiful setting surrounded by rock mountains and bordering a lake which is so clear that the reflections of the mountains in it appear more vivid than the mountains themselves,” MacKenzie wrote in The Spirit of St. Andrews. Unfortunately, time, circumstance and misguided opinion conspired to gradually diminish Jasper’s character. The situation was remedied recently when course superintendent Perry Cooper secured original blueprints from the Canadian National Railway and oversaw the restoration of Jasper to its original configuration. Now, over 80 years since it began hosting actors, sporting figures, captains of industry and golfers from around the globe, Jasper Park Lodge Golf Course continues to complement the extraordinary setting of 4,200-square-mile Jasper National Park—a designated United Nations World Heritage site. It is part of the Fairmont Hotels and Resorts portfolio and treated as sacred ground by its proud owners. The 6,663-yard, par-71 layout is distinguished by wide, undulating fairways cut from thick stands of forest that narrow considerably in the approach areas, placing a premium on shots to the greens. Ever conscious of blending natural contours with challenging golf terrain, Thompson only deviated from his mountain-based routing for a three-hole stretch on Jasper’s back nine. Using a peninsula that cut straight into the emerald waters of Lac Beauvert, he fashioned one of Canada’s more famous sequence of golf holes: the par-4 14th, the par-3 15th (nicknamed “Bad Baby”) and the par-4 16th. Like so many classic-era courses, Jasper grew from humble beginnings. The first development at the site was “Tent City,” a collection of tents erected on the shores of Lac Beauvert in association with the Grand Truck Pacific Railway in 1915. In 1922 eight log bungalows were added and the Dominion Parks Branch of Canada made plans to build a golf course for visitors and townspeople that would showcase the beauties of the lake. The following year the Canadian National Railway approached the government with a substantial offer to take over construction of the project. Receiving a green light, CNR shelved Parks Canada’s original nine-hole drawing in favor of a more ambitious golf project. They immediately turned to Thompson. Building the course would prove difficult, however. Blasting of fairway areas was almost a daily ritual, with rock and excess debris providing the build-up for bunkers and tee boxes. After construction carried out by 50 teams of horses and 200 men, Jasper Park Lodge Golf Course officially opened on July 17, 1925, in a ceremony conducted by General Earl Haig, World War I commander-in-chief of the British forces and a former captain of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews. In a tribute to the opening drive of R & A captains, General Haig hit the first tee shot and the caddies raced out to retrieve it. Three-quarters of a century later, humble beginnings have given way to international acclaim and the golf course is a major drawing card for the 1,000-acre luxury resort, Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge. Its unique playability and almost mystical qualities continue to be a hallmark. Equally enticing are its traditional values. Search high and low throughout Canada and you’ll be hard-pressed to find a more pleasurable or dramatic golf course to walk, particularly in the cool air of a Canadian Rockies summer afternoon.

Classic Courses:
Jasper Park Lodge
Deep in the Canadian Rockies this 83-year-old showpiece of Stanley Thompson architecture continues to inspire

By Rick Young

Bing Crosby earned rave reviews for his portrayal of a phonograph salesman cavorting with Viennese royalty in the 1948 Billy Wilder comedy The Emperor’s Waltz. But partial credit for the film’s success belongs to its setting—a Canadian Rockies landscape that filled the screen with alpine beauty and allowed Crosby to indulge his favorite off-camera activity with characteristic passion.

On location in Alberta’s majestic Jasper National Park, Crosby spent most of his spare time at the Jasper Park Lodge Golf Course, one of Stanley Thompson’s finest creations. The layout comprises many of the legendary Canadian designer’s trademark attributes—elevated tees, holes aligned with distant mountain peaks and panoramas that take full advantage of wondrous natural backgrounds.

No less a figure than Alister MacKenzie made his own pilgrimage to Jasper Park and came away an avowed admirer. “Jasper Park has an amazingly beautiful setting surrounded by rock mountains and bordering a lake which is so clear that the reflections of the mountains in it appear more vivid than the mountains themselves,” MacKenzie wrote in The Spirit of St. Andrews.

Unfortunately, time, circumstance and misguided opinion conspired to gradually diminish Jasper’s character. The situation was remedied recently when course superintendent Perry Cooper secured original blueprints from the Canadian National Railway and oversaw the restoration of Jasper to its original configuration.

Now, over 80 years since it began hosting actors, sporting figures, captains of industry and golfers from around the globe, Jasper Park Lodge Golf Course continues to complement the extraordinary setting of 4,200-square-mile Jasper National Park—a designated United Nations World Heritage site. It is part of the Fairmont Hotels and Resorts portfolio and treated as sacred ground by its proud owners.

The 6,663-yard, par-71 layout is distinguished by wide, undulating fairways cut from thick stands of forest that narrow considerably in the approach areas, placing a premium on shots to the greens. Ever conscious of blending natural contours with challenging golf terrain, Thompson only deviated from his mountain-based routing for a three-hole stretch on Jasper’s back nine. Using a peninsula that cut straight into the emerald waters of Lac Beauvert, he fashioned one of Canada’s more famous sequence of golf holes: the par-4 14th, the par-3 15th (nicknamed “Bad Baby”) and the par-4 16th.

Like so many classic-era courses, Jasper grew from humble beginnings. The first development at the site was “Tent City,” a collection of tents erected on the shores of Lac Beauvert in association with the Grand Truck Pacific Railway in 1915. In 1922 eight log bungalows were added and the Dominion Parks Branch of Canada made plans to build a golf course for visitors and townspeople that would showcase the beauties of the lake. The following year the Canadian National Railway approached the government with a substantial offer to take over construction of the project. Receiving a green light, CNR shelved Parks Canada’s original nine-hole drawing in favor of a more ambitious golf project. They immediately turned to Thompson.

Building the course would prove difficult, however. Blasting of fairway areas was almost a daily ritual, with rock and excess debris providing the build-up for bunkers and tee boxes. After construction carried out by 50 teams of horses and 200 men, Jasper Park Lodge Golf Course officially opened on July 17, 1925, in a ceremony conducted by General Earl Haig, World War I commander-in-chief of the British forces and a former captain of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews. In a tribute to the opening drive of R & A captains, General Haig hit the first tee shot and the caddies raced out to retrieve it.

Three-quarters of a century later, humble beginnings have given way to international acclaim and the golf course is a major drawing card for the 1,000-acre luxury resort, Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge. Its unique playability and almost mystical qualities continue to be a hallmark. Equally enticing are its traditional values. Search high and low throughout Canada and you’ll be hard-pressed to find a more pleasurable or dramatic golf course to walk, particularly in the cool air of a Canadian Rockies summer afternoon.