Centennial Stories
100 years. Millions of stories.
As we celebrate the 100th anniversary of Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge Golf Club, we are reflecting on the moments, memories, and people who have shaped this iconic course. Over the last century, our greens have seen everything from royalty and legends to wildfires and rebuilding. Centennial Stories is a series honoring the people behind the course: the ones who keep it running, bring it back to life, and make it unforgettable.
Preserving a Stanley Thompson Masterpiece: Jasper Park Lodge Golf Club Reborn
When Glenn Griffis, superintendent of Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge Golf Club, first stepped back on the course seven weeks after the 2024 wildfires, it was far from the place he’d worked on for 30 years.
“It was a real eye opener walking the course for the first time,” Glenn recalls. “I wouldn’t have guessed when we evacuated that I would come back to no grass in some areas and eight inches in others.”
The fire destroyed the maintenance facility, equipment, mainline irrigation, and scarred more than 90% of the world-renowned course. Burnt golf balls scattered the fairways, bunkers filled with ash and debris, and even century-old water lines were ripped apart by the force of the winds. Yet the course itself became a firebreak, helping protect the resort from even greater loss.
Restoring a Stanley Thompson Masterpiece
For Glenn, the work ahead was both daunting and deeply personal. His very first project more than three decades ago was restoring the course’s signature bunkers. These dramatic capes and fingers of sand that Stanley Thompson are never just hazards: they frame shots, shape strategy, and give Jasper Park Lodge Golf Course’s unmistakable identity. Guided by designer and historian Ian Andrew, Glenn and his team are using this moment not just to repair, but to return the course closer to Thompson’s original vision from 1925.
Tekarra’s Cut and the Next Chapter
One of Glenn’s proudest accomplishments this season is the restoration of Hole #8, Tekarra’s Cut. Arguably the most difficult green to read, this hole’s challenge comes entirely from the green. Known for its blind approach, and its pronounced slope from back to front and right to left, it has long been one of Jasper’s most intimidating tests.
The wildfire damaged this formidable green, with fallen trees altering its signature approach. Glenn and his team carefully restored the green’s original undulation, bringing back the precise difficulty Thompson intended.
In a 2023 interview, Glenn reflected with awe on the course’s origins:
“Even some of our water lines are the ones they put in 98 years ago. I’m always impressed — every day I’m here I’m thinking, how did they do this 98 years ago?”
Today, that reflection has come full circle. Glenn is no longer only marveling at the ingenuity of those who built Jasper. Instead, he is now part of the architect’s dream, walking alongside the ghosts of the course’s past while serving as its present-day custodian and architect of its future.
A century after first opening, Jasper Park Lodge Golf Club stands restored, resilient, and renewed. With just 60 days left in the 2025 season, now is the time to experience both the strategy and the restoration of this iconic course.
Just Keep the Diesel in the Tank
How One Man Helped Rebuild the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge Golf Course
By the time Hiroki returned to Jasper, the golf maintenance shop was already gone.
The wildfire that swept through Jasper in 2024 left more than burned trees it left the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge Golf Course without its tools, its garage, staging areas, or rhythm. But one thing never disappeared: the team’s determination to rebuild.
Hiroki, a longtime member of the golf grounds crew, was among the first to return.
“I always said 2024 was the dress rehearsal for 2025—so we better have our A-game,” he says. “We got more than that. We got a chance to prove what this team is made of.”
On Hands and Knees
Heading into 2024, the goal was to prepare for the Golf Centennial in 2025. But when the evacuation order hit, everything changed.
“When I came back and saw the course in September, I dropped to my knees,” Hiroki recalls.
“But I knew I wanted to be part of rebuilding it.”
With no equipment or base of operations, the Jasper golf course team improvised. Tools were borrowed, machines were moved by hand, and operations were relocated, multiple times, from the resort grounds to the riding stables, often fixing machines without shelter or power.
“We’ve moved everything over and over. But we keep going.”
Some mornings, Hiroki is out before sunrise, on his hands and knees, preparing equipment just to make sure the team is ready after for their 5:30 a.m. roll call.
“I just try to make sure the crew has what they need,” he says.
“I’m just the guy keeping the diesel in the tank.”
To him, it’s not about recognition. It’s about the people doing the real work—the ones cutting fairways, clearing debris, and showing up every single day.
Rebuilding for the Centennial
In 2025, the Jasper Park Lodge Golf Course celebrates 100 years. And thanks to the grit of the grounds crew, the course is rising again. Not with fanfare. But with people like Hiroki, who keep the team fueled with more than diesel, but with hope.
Kate’s Comeback
Today, meet Kate, our Grounds Irrigation Supervisor. Kate returned to Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge after the 2024 wildfire, when hope was scarce and nothing was certain, and she helped bring the course back to life.
“You’d think after all that destruction, it wouldn’t be green again for 10 years. We did it in three months.”
That’s how Kate describes what it felt like to watch Jasper’s golf course begin to regenerate after last year’s historic wildfire. But her story didn’t begin with recovery — it began with loss, uncertainty, and a surprising realization in New Zealand.
Q: How long have you been working on the course, and what does this year mean to you personally?
Kate:
This is my third season working in golf maintenance at Jasper Park Lodge Golf Course. When I came back in September, it was pretty scary. The course had no water, no electricity, very little equipment, and a lot of unanswered questions. I wasn’t sure the course would open again, or if I could handle it.
I actually left and went to New Zealand to try working at a different course. But when my boyfriend and I got there, we looked at each other and said, “This isn’t Jasper.” A few weeks after we got back, I asked Glenn (Golf Superintendent) for my job again and he said, “You’ve always got a job here.”
I started back on April 1, 2025. Over the last few months, I realized this course means more to me than I ever thought. The fire opened up views we hadn’t seen in decades. I’d go through it all again in a heartbeat.
Q: You cut the holes on July 22, 2024 — the day of the evacuation. And then again on opening day this spring. What was that like?
Kate:
It was definitely surreal. When I cut the holes that day, I had no idea it would be my last time for the season. Hole tending is one of my favourite jobs in golf maintenance, and I missed it while we were bringing the course back.
When I finally got to do it again this spring, I got kind of emotional. I was nervous, not just about whether the course would open, but about how people would react to it. I had grown more connected to the course than ever, and I just really hoped people would still love it.
Q: What part of the course are you most proud of this year?
Kate:
Definitely the greens. Restoring them was tricky — way trickier than most people realize. When we came back after the fire, they were extremely long. We hadn’t had water when we shut down for the winter, so they didn’t winter well either. That was probably the scariest part of all this.
But we took our time. It took a lot of steps to bring them back, and honestly, I think they’ve never looked better. A big part of that is Jacob, our new assistant superintendent. He brought fresh ideas and a new perspective, and it really paid off — for the team and the course.
Q: What does the 100th anniversary mean to you now?
Kate:
At first, I didn’t think much of it. I thought it was cool to be here for the 100th year, but I didn’t realize how much history it held until I started learning about it. I’ve been reading about Stanley Thompson, the World Wars, and how the course had to be abandoned and overgrown, just like it was after the fire.
Now, I think it’s incredible. We kept the course alive, hopefully for another hundred years. People will talk about this for generations, and I’m so grateful I got to be part of that.
(edited for length and clarity)
Centennial Stories continues…
From brown fairways to bunker rebuilds, from emotional first cuts to unexpected new views, Hiroki and Kate’s story is just one of the hundreds that make up this remarkable season.
Stay tuned for more stories from the people who make this place what it is — and what it’s becoming.
