by Karen Misuraca, KarenMisuraca.com

Early mountaineers discovered hot springs in a spectacular valley in the Canadian Rockies of Alberta Province. As word spread, people made arduous treks to the medicinal waters, and in the 1880s, the Canadian Pacific Railroad built the Banff Springs Hotel, a baronial, Scottish-style castle at the confluence of the Bow and the Spray Rivers overlooking the Bow Valley, one in a chain of luxury hostelries along the railway line through the Rocky and Selkirk Mountains. Now a National Historic Site and a big tourist attraction, the massive hotel is today the Fairmont Banff Springs http://www.fairmont.com/banffsprings.

Arriving guests step into a soaring grand lobby to see sweeping stairways, carved beamed ceilings, baronial chandeliers and high, paned windows. European manor-house-style furnishings, huge stone fireplaces, and richly-colored fabrics and wall coverings are fit for royalty, who have been known to show up. Queen Elizabeth has trod these halls, as did the Prince of Wales when he christened the place in 1929. (Click here to read the article in full)

David Allen Barr (born March 1, 1952) is a Canadian professional golfer who has played on the Canadian Tour, PGA Tour and Champions Tour.

Barr was born in Kelowna, British Columbia. He attended Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma and was a member of the golf team. He turned pro in 1974. From 1974 to 1978, he played on the Canadian Tour, where he earned 12 victories. He played on the PGA Tour from 1978 to 2002.

Barr had two wins on the PGA Tour. His first, which he calls the biggest thrill of his golf career, was at the 1981 Quad Cities Open. In 1987, Barr won the Georgia-Pacific Atlanta Golf Classic. His best finish in a major was a T-2 at the 1985 U.S. Open. Although he never became famous for winning a lot of PGA Tour events, Barr had a solid career on the Tour with more than 3 dozen top-10 finishes including many 2nd and 3rd place finishes.

After turning 50 in 2002, Barr began play on the Champions Tour. He became the first Canadian to win a Champions Tour event, the 2003 Royal Caribbean Golf Classic.

Barr was inducted into the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame in 2000 and is also a member of the British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame. He lives in Westbank, British Columbia. Barr won the 2007 Canadian PGA Seniors’ Championship at The Marshes Golf Club in Kanata, Ontario. He was also given a lifetime membership on the Canadian Tour.

Professional wins (20)

PGA Tour wins (2)
1981 Quad Cities Open
1987 Georgia-Pacific Atlanta Golf Classic

Canadian Tour wins (12)
1975 BC Open
1977 BC Open, Alberta Open, Quebec Open
1978 BC Open
1981 Victoria Open
1985 Canadian PGA Championship, Quebec Open
1986 Quebec Open
1987 Manitoba Open
1988 Canadian TPC, Manitoba Open

Other wins (4)
1977 Washington Open
1983 World Cup (individual event)
1985 World Cup (team with Dan Halldorson)
1994 Alfred Dunhill Cup (team event)

Champions Tour wins (1)
2003 Royal Caribbean Golf Classic

Other senior wins (1)
2007 Canadian PGA Seniors’ Championship

George Alfred Christian Knudson, CM (June 28, 1937 – January 24, 1989) was a Canadian professional golfer, who along with Mike Weir holds the record for the Canadian with the most wins on the PGA Tour, with eight career victories.

Born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Knudson learned to play golf at the St Charles Golf and Country Club. Between 1961 and 1972 he won eight tournaments on the PGA Tour. He won the Canadian PGA Championship five times and won the World Cup with Al Balding in 1968. He wrote a book, The Natural Golf Swing (ISBN 0-7710-4534-4) with Lorne Rubenstein.

Knudson tied for second in the 1969 Masters, one shot behind champion George Archer. In seven Masters appearances, Knudson posted three top-10s, including 10th in his 1965 debut and sixth a year later.

He was inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1969.

Knudson left tournament golf in the late 1970s, and started teaching golf, with success, at a facility in the Toronto area. His teaching methods have since been adopted by the Canadian PGA.

In 1988 he was inducted into the Royal Canadian Golf Association Hall of Fame and was made a member of the Order of Canada.

He was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1988. He recovered, and was about to make a comeback at the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf Senior tournament, but left because he felt weak. The cancer had spread to his brain, and he would die from it in 1989.

He was buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto, Ontario.

Professional wins (16)

PGA Tour wins (8)
1961 (1) Coral Gables Open
1963 (1) Portland Open
1964 (1) Fresno Open
1967 (1) Greater New Orleans Open Invitational
1968 (2) Phoenix Open Invitational, Tucson Open Invitational
1970 (1) Robinson Open Golf Classic
1972 (1) Kaiser International Open Invitational

Other wins (8)
1964 Canadian PGA Championship, Panama Open
1966 Canada Cup (individual event)
1967 Canadian PGA Championship
1968 Canadian PGA Championship, World Cup (team event with Al Balding)
1976 Canadian PGA Championship
1977 Canadian PGA Championship

Murray Irwin “Moe” Norman (July 10, 1929 – September 4, 2004) was a Canadian professional golfer.

Career highlights
Canadian Amateur Champion (1955, 1956)
55 career Canadian Tour event victories
Canadian PGA Championship winner (1966, 1974)
Canadian PGA Seniors’ Championship winner (1979 - 1985, 1987)
33 course records
Inducted into the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame in 1995
Inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2006

Details
Born in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, he played briefly in the PGA Tour but due to shyness and a preference to stay in Canada, he stayed in Ontario rather than travel.

His play, along with his way of dressing, were both described as unconventional. He devised what is known as “The Norman Swing”—very short backswing and very short follow-through which produced an amazingly accurate ball placement. Norman played extremely fast, sometimes not even slowing to line up his putts. He was inducted into the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame in 1995. He never took a golfing lesson. It is even said that on one hole his caddy told him he could get to the green with a driver and a nine iron. Naturally, he hit off the tee with his nine iron and then onto the green with his driver.

Norman’s skills as a ball striker are legendary. Sam Snead, himself a great golfer, once described Norman as the greatest striker of the ball. In January 2005, Tiger Woods told Golf Digest’s Jamie Diaz that only two golfers in history “owned their swing”: Moe Norman and Ben Hogan. Stated Tiger, “I want to own mine.”

Norman died in a Kitchener hospital from congestive heart failure. He had suffered from congestive heart failure since having heart bypass surgery six years earlier. He also had a heart attack two years before his death.

Titleist
In February 1995 the president of Titleist and FootJoy Worldwide, announced that it would pay Norman $5,000 a month for the rest of his life.