Fairmont Banff Springs Golf Course — Attraction in Alberta

It's difficult to write a bad review about such a meritorious golf course, but our experience fell so far short of expectations that I feel compelled to share. If you don't care to read the rest of this absolute essay, I'll quickly summarize it by saying that this course misses on many of the little things that normally help to justify such a handsome green fee.

We got to the course, the parking attendant directed us to park and head in to the pro shop to check in (we were not asked if we'd like to drop our bags off, so we didn't).

After checking in I went outside and was looking for next steps on which cart to take etc., couple of employees standing nearby saw me bag in hand, pretty obviously lost. No reaction from them so I assumed someone else would be there to give us a cart. Waited a couple minutes before approaching them and asking what to do next, "Oh! Here's a key" "Take any cart?" "Yes you can take any of them". I'm probably not doing this any justice and sounding like a Karen (sorry, good people named Karen), but it was just really awkward standing there looking for help, almost like I had to wring the procedure out of the staff.

Cart didn't come stocked with water bottles or ice in the cooler (not a huge deal but most other courses in a similar weight class do little things like that for you, unfortunately didn't notice this until after teeing off) (no water bottles in the golden ticket shack)

Range has turf mats, not our cup of tea but that's a matter of preference. The issue we had here was that 60% of the range was already in use (we had two groups teeing off in about 25 minutes), and the other 40% was blocked off for lessons. I know that's kind of tough luck for us, but it still feels pretty bad to have to go into an expensive and highly anticipated round of golf cold.

The round itself was alright, fairways and greens were in decent condition, but man oh man were there animal droppings EVERYWHERE. I'm saying like a truly excessive amount, an amount that can't be conveyed in writing. The greens were the only thing clear of feces. If you were ever unfortunate enough to end up in the rough you would quite literally have to play Twister around piles of it to take your shot. I'm not squeamish, and my favorite place to golf is the rockies which is obviously full of wildlife and so a certain amount of this is expected, but this was truly next-level.

Hole 10 (I think, maybe 9) is somewhat adjacent to the driving range and was covered with balls from the range. Fairway and especially the left bunker littered with them (making it very difficult to find your own ball), the green itself housing maybe 9-10 range balls. Never seen that before on any course. I should add this was a Friday afternoon, not a Monday night or anything like that.

The scenery and backdrop during the round were obviously fantastic.

We finished up the round and decided to grab a snack for the road before we left. Went back to the snack shack, ordered a hot dog - $12. I thought ehh that's a tad pricey for a hot dog but oh well it's probably gonna be a decent dog. She handed me what I'm almost certain was a schneiders superstore hot dog, the ones that you get for $5 for a pack of 20. Thing looked like it was wearing it's dad's bun. Sigh, oh well. Sat down to eat it.

Was within earshot of the snack shack while eating. Saw a man walk up and order a couple things, then try to pay. His payment didn't go through for some reason, kept trying with different cards until it worked. A couple minutes later an older gentleman comes by, orders and tries to pay, transaction declined. I hear the employee say verbatim "This machine always works, are you sure your card isn't old or something". My friends and I looked at each other in disbelief, and the gentleman was visibly upset by this but didn't say anything. Instead of acknowledging a point of sale issue, you blame the man's card? Weird move.

I'm probably forgetting some things, but all in all we were very disappointed. Only reason this isn't a 1* is because of how nice the attendant...

Visited Banff Springs golf course twice this season, once with a 12 person guys trip and another with my wife for my 30th birthday. The course is an absolute gem as far as course design, scenery, and playability. There is not a single bad view to be had on the entire course and that speaks to why it is always inside Canadas top 5. The bad. The course is terribly run, majority of the staff are uninviting and unfriendly. Couple of smaller inconveniences to note. The course doesn't carry much for drink selections, no Powerade, no Gatorade, no Vitamin water, no energy drinks, your options are limited to pop or alcohol. First time I went with the guys group they ran out of hot dogs, and about 5 guys were able to get smokies before running out of those. Second time around we went back and same thing they ran out of hotdogs and had no smokies ready. As far as the course goes I have no complaints aside from the bunkers. Sand traps are in terrible condition, a lot of them have no sand and every bunker is littered with nickle to quarter sized pebbles in them. I booked Banff springs to celebrate my 30th birthday. When we arrive we are greeted by a guy named Bailey and are informed that the machines are down and they would have to manually take payment. Not a big deal, he then proceeds to tell us that tee times are also behind 35-45 min schedule, not ideal but what can you do. Before paying, Bailey looks at my wife who was going to be riding along for the day where her collar shirt was. My wife was wearing Lululemon active capris, a black shirt, an athletic Lululemon vest, and Puma golf shoes. An outfit that she wears golfing at our private home course, an outfit that she has worn to several high level courses with no issue. I Informed Bailey that wearing an athletic vest is no different than golfing in a pull over, a sweater, or a jacket. I said I’ve never been questioned what is under my jacket and asked if that was common practice to ask a guest to unzip and he said yes. He informed us that we would need to purchase a collar shirt from the establishment to wear under her vest in order for her to go on course. At this point I am becoming increasingly impatient with Mr Bailey, to which he offers a discount on a product should we find one. After searching the proshop, I found 5/8 ladies shirt that were both collarless and sleeveless in the shop. I pointed out and provided Mr Bailey a blue top that was sleeveless, had no collar, and was also open chested with no buttons or zippers to cover cleavage. I said 5/8 shirts in your shop are collarless yet you are giving me hard time regarding my wife’s golf attire. Initially he had no response to the comment and came back to me 5 mins later stating mock necks and turtle necks are permitted. Mr Bailey then condescendingly offers to cancel our entire tee time with no repercussions to us. To try and salvage what is turning out to be a terrible birthday experience I give my wife an extra polo from the car, after putting it on and zipping up her vest she comes into the pro shop looking the exact same and now we are “ok” to be on course. After paying with another gentleman he states to give the receipt to the starter 10 minutes before our tee time. I asked the guy when should we head over, he gave our original time, I informed him that you were running “35-45 mins” behind. He says “oh right, um, just listen for your name, they will probably call you”. After leaving the pro shop it becomes increasingly apparent that we were being singled out. After being on the range for about 15 mins we meet the two singles who are playing with us along with their pregnant wife’s. one wearing leggings and a black T shirt, one wearing bike shorts (spandex) a tank top and a pullover. We also noticed two gentleman who were both wearing short shorts, one gentleman wearing cargo shorts and sandles, and best of all one gentleman wearing blue jeans and a T shirt. I reached out to the three different emails and have yet to be responded to. Save yourself the money and play Kananaskis for...

Besides the actual golf, the rest of our experience was a little disappointing. For starters, there was nowhere for us to park, I have been to other courses paying $250 for the round and experienced valet service. While valet was not something I necessarily expected, I did expect a place to park, and that was something that in our experience, was not provided. Instead, we were instructed to park on the road, resulting in a fairly decent walk back to the clubhouse... Off to a bad start. The bag drop area was really small and again, nowhere to really park temporarily to unload without blocking traffic. Luckily we were able to be quick enough where we stopped but it was just awkward. And again, no one at the bag drop area to assist, or tell us where to take a cart or load clubs in the cart. The driving range was off of mats, which although they were in really good condition, I did expect to be practising off of grass at a higher-end course. The outdoor food area was very small and felt cheap. We came early to try and enjoy lunch and a view and while the food was excellent, there really wasn't much of a view. The line up for food was really long, and because the line up was really long, we didn't feel like we should come back at the turn to restock or grab snacks and drinks. A long line up after 9 could have caused us to slow down the pace of play which was fairly strictly referred to on our golf cart as something held to high importance. The actual golf was good. And I am trying to be unbiased as to the rest of my experience. The practice green rolled like the rest on the course, fast and fun! The greens were in excellent condition and the course was well laid out. Nothing weird or quirky but lots of variation and excitement. I did expect the rest of the maintenance to be of a little higher standard. Again, when playing other courses with prices of $250 I am usually blown away at the meticulous care of the fairways. The fairways were just good. Not great or outstanding like I expected... just good. All in all the golf was fun and enjoyable once we finally got going and shook off the rest of what was the start of our experience. And although I would like to try the course again I just can't see my self doing so. This is a $120 dollar coarse. And I've had better experiences arriving at a course where I pay $60 to play. I wish I could say I was more impressed, because I did sure expect to be. I would say it is probably a course that is worth trying, but I wouldn't go so far as to say it is...