With the adoption of the second shot, and with the principle of each team playing it’s own ball, this primeval game became golf and at the same time acquired a strategy, something that it’s medieval rival, football, did not until the invention of the scrimmage in the 19th century. It also rapidly acquired such a popularity, which so utterly eclipsed the sport of archery (which was vital to Scotland’s preparation for national defense), that playing golf in Scotland was made a criminal offense punishable by hanging. No idle threat that, for at least one poor golfer did pay this sorry price for his round – but ultimately a peace with England was achieved and the Scots devoted their renowned intensity to the study of what would become their national game.

Since that time, there doesn’t seem to be any aspect of ball-striking or mental technique that hasn’t come under scrutiny, particularly in our own highly scientific 21st century. Stance, grip alignment, swing plane, waggle, wrist cock, shoulder turn, and angle of attack have all been addressed by the parade of teachers, visionaries, kinesthetic, scientists, engineers, mystics, duffers, and well-meaning Uncle Bobs who have over the past 600 years plunked a ball on the turf and offered the magic phrase “let me show you…”

19th century

The show-and-tell of golf instruction took on new importance in 1848 when, with the invention of the gutta percha ball (or “guttie”), golf became both exportable and cheap. Prior to 1848, golf ball construction was a laborious and costly art practiced by a handful of cottage manufacturers in the vicinity of Edinburgh – and if a ball was expensive, freight was prohibitive. Golf at this time simply had no chance to expand beyond the Scottish lowlands. Since all of golf was compacted into such a tiny area, golfers were able to learn simply by imitating the great players of the day on the handful of courses then in existence.

The guttie changed all that. By 1865, the game had expanded to England, Ireland, France, and India. These new clubs hired full-time professionals, many of them expatriate Scots, and with them came the flowering of formal golf instruction as the canny professionals undertook the task of teaching golf in foreign lands and foreign conditions. The first book of golf instruction can be firmly dated to this period, with the publication in 1857 of A Keen Hand, by H. B. Farnie. The 19th century was a time of slow advancement in technique, with concentration primarily on a long-running disagreement as to whether an open stance or a closed stance was the better way to address the guttie, which for all it’s low cost was something of a dodo and difficult to put into the air. The controversy was only truly resolved when the modern wound (Haskell) ball appeared in the early 1900’s and made the guttie obsolete.

At roughly the same point in time as the Haskell, golf instruction was advanced even more directly by the arrival of the touring professional golfer. Soaring popularity and plummeting travel costs ushered in the barnstorming era when golfers such as Harry Vardon could earn a living from personal appearances, tournament purses, and exhibition matches, avoiding the low status and even lower pay of the golf club professional.

Vardon’s tournament success and his proselytizing work in far-flung places such as Canada and the United States led to popular adoption of two of his innovative techniques- a steady, rhythmic, and utterly simple swing technique, and the overlapping (Vardon) grip, which is still the most popular method of gripping a club. Vardon did not personally invent either – but his success stamped them first with legitimacy and finally with a certain inevitability as he racked up six British Open crowns and the 1900 U.S. Open title

20th Century

Although both the first golf magazines and the British and American Professional Golf Associations appeared early in the 20th century, barnstorming professionals and Bobby Jones would continue to dominate golf instruction right up to the Great Depression. Huge crowds flocked to see Jones and Walter Hagen on both sides of the Atlantic, learning such secrets as Hagen’ straight-line putting: drawing the clubface back from the ball in a straight line rather than a slight arc popular at this time. His innovation was important in the 1920’s and allowed him to win many tournaments – but it is even important today with the increased emphasis on fast difficult putting surfaces.

The modern sand wedge and bunker techniques were also a by-product of the era – this popular innovation the work of several golfers, most notably Gene Sarazen. But the Great Depression had a devastating effect on touring professionals, and the age of coast-to-coast exhibition tours came to a close. The years between 1932 and 1956 are not celebrated in golf instruction lore, but that isn’t to say that the instructors of the era weren’t any good. In fact, club-level and local instruction were better in this era than at any time during golf’s history, as aging tour pros such as Tommy Armour retired to club jobs while young pros like Tom Harmon decided not to join the nascent PGA tour, owing to it’s low purses and often appalling conditions.

Ernest T. Jones was at his studio on Fifth Avenue in New York City, preaching the virtues of “swing the clubhead” at five dollars a lesson to all comers. In addition, the best northern pros would travel to Florida in the winter and pick up new teaching styles and techniques in winter teaching meetings, or on the winter tournament circuit. Finally, modern golf range equipment began to appear, eliminating the need for a ball-shagging caddie, and sparked a boom in driving-range construction. College-based instructional programs were also adopted by many major universities during these years, attracting future stars such as Arnold Palmer.

In the mid-1950’s, largely due to television, a new golf boom began, and with tournament purses soaring and golf acquiring a certain cachet, younger amateurs and club pros abandoned careers in insurance, or on the practice tee, for glory on the PGA Tour. Prize money and endorsement income made millionaires out of Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, and with thousands of dollars now resting on the success of this putt in the Masters or that five-iron in the Open, leading professionals began to openly seek the advice of golf gurus such as Gardner Dickinson, Bob Toski, Harvey Penick, and Jack Grout.

At the same time, Palmer, Nicklaus, and Gary Player parlayed their tournament success into an empire of instructional publications- magazine articles, television tips, and ghost written, handsomely illustrated books. National magazines such as Golf and Golf Digest capitalized on the newfound popularity of the game to achieve relatively mass circulations and a national forum of cutting-edge instructional techniques. Golf instructors too, found that golf magazines, and their increasingly visible work with touring professionals, brought them more business than they could handle on a local level. So, although golf schools had been in existence since just after the war, in 1968 the first national golf schools would evolve.

Golf did not sustain in the 1970’s the same level of popularity it had enjoyed in the 1960’s, but significant changes were looming for the game as golf’s expansion had created a large enough golf economy to allow for substantial investment in research and development. The groundwork was laid in the 1970’s for radical transformation of turf preparation, golf club technology, and instructional technique. The cavity-backed iron, the metal wood, the graphite shaft, as well as revolutionary changes in irrigation technique and turf-laying, date to the 1970’s. All would have substantial impact on the game as golfers achieved better and better control over the golf ball (in flight direction, overall distance, and spin characteristics.)

Golf instruction, particularly golf schools, would not enjoy a real economic boom until the 1980’s but the influential theory of connection, video analysis of the golf swing, and the emphasis on big-muscle leadership date to the pioneering work of David Leadbetter, Chuck Evans and others in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. Golf instruction also became more specialized, as teachers by the mid 1980’s began to emphasize their expertise with “practical instruction” (John Jacobs), “short game instruction” (Dave Pelz), “women’s instruction” (Penny Zavichas and Linda Craft), or “mental conditioning” (Carey Mumford and Chuck Hogan).

Today

By the 1990’s, and into the new millennium, golf instruction in the U.S. had boomed to the point that there are now a multitude of national golf schools offering hundreds of programs across the country, with a cornucopia of techniques, price points, regimens, and training goals. The largest of these is America’s Favorite Golf Schools with more than 40 locations nationwide. Virtually all of the national golf schools offer books and videotapes for sale. Prominent golf gurus such as Dave Pelz, Bob Toski, Rick Smith, and Jim Flick are in demand not only with the touring pros but at skyrocketing master class rates at the finest resorts. Harvey Penick’s Little Red Book also became the biggest selling sports book of all time. In short, golf instruction has expanded into one of the largest and most vibrant sectors of the substantial golf economy.

Looking back over the entire grand parade of gurus and teachers, if one were to assign a grade to golf instruction as a whole, six centuries into it, one would pencil “I” for “incomplete”. It’s well-worth knowing that even in this day of gurus and their technical wizardry, fewer than half of the world’s players can regularly break 100. It’s also fitting to mention that when James Durham recorded 94 at the Old Course at St Andrews in 1767, he set a course record that lasted 86 years. Golf instruction has indeed come a long way.

It’s also amazing how many activities one is able to cram into a short amount of time. I wanted to give them a really good taste of everything that I love about the city of Toronto and my new country. So occasionally I put a few too many things on our plates and we ended up racing through a few of the activities. On the whole though, I think our European guests had a fabulous time and they fell in love with Toronto, just like I did, many years ago.

Saturday all six of us went golfing to a little par-3 golf course in the East end of Toronto. None of my Austrian guests had ever golfed before, so a couple of days earlier we started with a few buckets of balls at the driving range, followed up by an indoor putting practice session on the carpet. Saturday we would get to try the real thing. The attempts at the driving range didn’t look all that great, with balls spraying all over the place, to the left and to the right. But on Saturday afternoon, another gorgeous day, our four Austrian guests performed quite admirably and only lost 2 balls in the water hazard.

They really enjoyed golf, a sport they had never even dreamed of playing, but the Toronto area with its several hundred golf courses, many of them reasonably priced, made it easy to give this sport a try. All preconceived notions about golf only being a sport for old people went out the window, and they enjoyed the challenge of trying to sink the round little ball in the hole.

Sunday came our second big excursion: a driving tour through the Kawartha Lakes. I had only planned two major driving tours: a wine-tasting tour through the Niagara Peninsula, and a second one to the lake district of the Kawarthas. We started by driving east on Toronto’s 401, a 12 to 16 lane highway whose size duly impressed my European visitors. Then we headed north-east through rolling farm country to Peterborough, a rural university town with a population of about 70,000. From there we drove north into the Kawarthas, a gorgeous lake region set in the rocky landscape of the Canadian Shield.

Our first stop was Buckhorn, where we watched the mechanics of lift locks of the Trent-Severn Canal that links Lake Ontario with Georgian Bay. We saw how several boats assembled inside the lock following by an opening of the sluices and the water level equilibrating itself with the level of the lower portion of the river. The Parks Canada lock supervisor explained the whole process to us and it only took about 10 minutes for the boats to reach the lower level.

From Buckhorn we drove through rocky and marshy countryside to the quaint village of Bobcaygeon where we took an extended stroll. We had a nice waterfront lunch, looking across to the marina, seeing the the boats come in an out of the canal. Particularly our Austrian friends Luis and Isabella love boating and seeing the many houseboats on the Trent-Severn Canal gave them a few ideas for future vacations in Canada.

The lunch was delicious and we took a little stroll around this charming town, admiring the waterfront parks and picnic facilities that allow great access to the water. From Bobcaygeon we drove on to another little picturesque country town: Fenelon Falls, whose name comes from a waterfall in the middle of town that has been used for electricity generation since the 1870s.

After a sizeable line-up we picked up a few delicious cones of Kawartha Dairy ice cream and strolled over to the bridge over the falls and then down to the little peninsula that sticks out into the river. From there you can look into a rocky gorge where both sides of the river are surrounded by high rocks.

Again, we watched boats being lifted and lowered, this time in lock 33 of the Trent-Severn Canal System. This is another town with a beautiful little park right by the locks with lots of opportunity for barbeques or simply for a relaxing snooze in the sun . Time was flying by and by this time it was already 3:30 pm so we had to start our return to the city. We only took back roads and my brother lost count of the numerous golf courses that dotted the landscape. It was a nice relaxing drive through rolling countryside and we made it back to Toronto in less than 2 hours. All four of my Austrian guests had fallen in love with the Lake District and the prospect of another vacation in Canada to explore the waters north of Toronto seems ever more likely.

Yesterday was their last full day in Toronto, and we took our bikes out for a spin one more time. Since we all love water we rode down to the Eastern Beaches again, and leisurely explored the waterfront. We watched some lawn bowling, and one of the participants kept coming over to us to explain the rules of the game to us since none of us was familiar with this sport. My guests commented several times on the friendliness of people in the stores, restaurants, in line-ups and even I myself was surprised at the approachability of Torontonians, often known as a more reserved breed of people. But we truly kept having very positive experiences, equally with people employed in the service sector, as well as with regular citizens, taking a stroll, playing a game of lawn bowling or going for a walk with their dog.

Of course we admired the inukshuks by the beach, a public play area for adults with rocks of various shapes and sizes that are used by passers-by to create interesting stone sculptures. We watched a few tense points at the Kew Gardens Tennis Club, and checked out the picturesque Kew Gardens park itself. From there we headed west past the beach volleyball facilities to the little peninsula west of Ashbridges Bay which always offers a fabulous view of Toronto’s skyline. We took in the tranquil atmosphere and soaked in the sun for a while before we started our return back along the waterfront. My European visitors commented several times how incredible it is to have all this publicly accessible land right along the waterfront and how in some secluded spots you don’t even realize that you are in a major metropolitan area.

To get back up to our house we had to climb back up from the waterfront and this time we chose the Glen Stewart Ravine, where a little brook has carved a valley into the slopes leading down to the waterfront. It is a densely forested area and when you are in there it feels like you are in a remote forest somewhere, not right in the middle of Toronto.

Once back at our house, preparation got started for our final goodbye barbeque and we had invited a few extra friends to join us to give our Austrian guests a proper sendoff back home. We enjoyed some excellent food and they sampled a few more varieties of Canadian wines and beers, all of which they had commented quite favourably on. We didn’t sample much restaurant cuisine since my brother is a talented chef, but the fresh ingredients that he purchased in Toronto’s various markets made for some truly delicious dinners.

In the evening we took one more spin in the car, first to revisit the Distillery District at night. Luis had wanted to buy some beer glasses at the Mill Street Brewery as a souvenir, but unfortunately the brewery and restaurant were closed. The whole Distillery area was a little quiet, not surprisingly, since it was Labour Day, the last official day of summer, and the final day of respite before school would begin again. We continued our driving tour with a little spin through downtown and up Yonge Street before we turned east on Bloor Street. We crossed the Bloor Street Viaduct and arrived on the Danforth, Toronto’s Greek area. As always, Greektown was quite busy and people were milling about. We sat down on the patio of one of our favourite restaurants and enjoyed some Greek snacks before we headed home after another long day, all of us a little sad, commenting how nine days can pass so quickly.

Today we’ll have to take their four rented bicycles back and around 2:30 we’ll have to start the trek to the airport. It’s been a fabulous 9 days, an extended sleepover with four great people and we won’t forget this holiday for a long, long time. We are already hoping for another reunion, either in Austria, or back here in Canada, to deepen this fabulous connection.

On the parking lot of the gondola you can see a big bus with oversized wheels called the “Ice Explorer”. This is the type of vehicle used to carry tourists onto the famous Columbia Icefields located between Lake Louise and Jasper National Park.

The gondola takes you from 1583 m (5,194 feet) at the base station to 2,281 m (7,486 feet) to the upper terminal on Sulphur Mountain in just 8 minutes. On the way up I enjoyed the wonderful view of the townsite of Banff, looking down at the Banff Springs Hotel.

At the top of Sulphur Mountain is a complex of visitor services that includes a restaurant called the Regal View Garden. No doubt this is a rather appropriate name since the panorama from Sulphur Mountain is truly something to behold. The summit gondola station also features a roof-top observation deck that is equipped with a variety of arrows, indicating directions and distances to major world cities.

The one kilometer interpretive boardwalk takes you over to Sanson’s Peak which is the location of the 1903 Stone Observatory. Norman Sanson observed the weather from Sanson’s Peak for every week for 30 years and recorded his observations. Near the observatory is the foundation of a designated National Historic Site: the Sulphur Mountain Cosmic Ray Station that measured cosmic radiation during the 1950s and 1960s. Along this boardwalk there are a variety of informative panels informing you about local fauna and flora in this unique habitat.

The gondola brochure points out that you may actually encounter local wildlife such as Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep, Golden Mantled Squirrels, Bald Eagles and Golden Eagles. Although I didn’t run into any major wildlife, I enjoyed the majestic view from the mountain and the peacefulness that surrounds it.

I had a little snack in the cafeteria and sat right next to the picture window and looked down onto the townsite of Banff. It wasn’t a perfectly clear day and Cascade Mountain’s top was covered in mist and cloud, but the view from Sulphur Mountain is one of the most astounding panoramas anywhere.

After my wonderful mountain break, I took the gondola down – although I was debating whether I should take a snowy forest pathway all the way down the mountain which I kept seeing from the gondola. From the base station I walked over to the Banff Upper Hot Springs. The Canadian Rockies limestone mountains have all sorts of fissures and hot springs feed geothermally heated water right up through one of the cracks to the Banff Upper Hot Springs.

The springs were discovered in 1894 and contain steaming water loaded with minerals. Even in the winter people sit in the open-air pool and enjoy the medicinal waters of the Upper Hot Springs. The fully restored bathhouse dates back to the 1930s and also provides day spa facilities offering massage therapy, a steam room, aromatherapy and other facilities. A restaurant and snack bar are also located in the Bathhouse.

For a minute I was tempted to try the Hot Springs myself, but I didn’t have a bathing suit with me. Although the retail shop in the Bathhouse sells bathing suits I decided that rather than relaxing in the hot water I’d get a bit more exercise and I started my walk towards town.

Instead of taking the main road back to town I took a forest path that connects the Banff Upper Hot Springs with the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel. It was a beautiful peaceful walk through the trees and it would have been perfect if I hadn’t been wearing the world’s most slippery boots. I had to watch every step on the sloping forest terrain to make sure I didn’t wipe out, and I finally arrived at the bottom of the hill, relieved to be back on a paved parking lot right next to the Banff Springs Hotel.

I strolled by this famous Banff landmark into town and crossed the road to explore the grounds of Canada Place, the home of the Banff Park administration since 1936. During the summer Canada Place offers free admission to an exhibit that celebrates Canada’s land, culture and achievements.

During the winter the facility is closed, but the view from the surrounding Cascade Gardens towards Cascade Mountain is stunning on a clear day. I wasn’t so lucky, for our entire week in Banff we never got to see famous Cascade Mountain completely clear and free of clouds. But never mind, the glimpses that we did catch gave us a feeling for this amazingly photogenic natural feature that is always pictured on Banff postcards.

From Canada Place I crossed the bridge over the Bow River and I visited another important landmark: the Banff Park Museum. It is one of Canada’s oldest and grandest natural history museum, housed in a historic “railway pagoda”, built in 1903, the largest and most elaborate example of early park design, using decorative cross-log construction.

Specimens inside the museum include mountain goats, deer, cougars, bisons, bears, a large variety of birds and mammals and some of these specimens date back to the 1860s. Norman Sanson, the weatherman on Sanson’s Peak, was the curator of this museum for over 30 years, and personally collected thousands of specimens for this museum.

The museum also holds a library where you can browse through a variety of books and magazines. After I had informed myself about Western Canada’s wildlife I strolled down Banff’s main street, aptly named Banff Avenue, I strengthened myself with a quick late lunch in the food court at the Cascade Plaza Shops, one of Banff’s main shopping plazas. After lunch I headed back out on the street and a very chilly mountain wind had started blowing. This was my last walk through Banff on this vacation and I was mentally saying goodbye to this picturesque mountain town.

For the entire article including photos please visit
http://www.travelandtransitions.com/stories_photos/banff_sulphur_mountain.htm

Cabin rentals are not just an added advantage to the place, North Dakota. North Dakota cabin rentals are the one of the best alternatives for taking accommodation while holidaying. They provide comfort and various amenities present in home such as TV, washer, dryer etc. Along that, North Dakota cabin rentals also embraces of fully furnished kitchen, in which the vacationer can took any type of cuisine.

In return of using all amenities being offered in North Dakota cabin rentals, the vacationer is needed to pay rent. Location, size and amenities offered in cabin rentals are some of the factors which are considered while deciding the amount of rent to be paid.

North Dakota cabin rentals are available in different sizes. It is true that needs and requirements of each and every vacationer vary from each other. Thus, the vacationer can choose the cabin rental as per his needs and requirements. Prior to deciding the cabin rental, he must consider his budget and the number of people, who will stay in the rental.

The vacationers also have an option to stay in other means such as inn, hotels, motels etc. But staying in North Dakota cabin rental is a recommended means. Following are the brief points which truly describe cabin rentals in North Dakota:

•North Dakota cabin rentals offer privacy.

•They are cheaper than other means of taking accommodation.

• Cabin rentals in North Dakota are the most comfortable means of accommodation as it provide comfort and amenities of home.

Most of the traveling agencies arrange cabin rentals in North Dakota. The vacationer can also gather information about place and available cabin rentals in North Dakota through online mode. And, they can easily book their desired cabin rental through internet just through a single click.

New Dakota is a place of adventure and if you want to reenergize yourself for each adventurous day in North Dakota, then don’t forget to stay in North Dakota cabin rentals.

Well, as everyone knows that reverse mortgages are a kind of loan, where the lender pays the monthly installments to the loan seeker, instead of letting the seeker pay the amount to him. Studies show that over two hundred thousand people have already used reverse mortgage Canada to elevate their life after retirement. It is a government sponsored and insured loan that requires no payments until the person is residing in his or her house. Moreover, this loan enables homeowners to access the money they have built up as equity in their houses. Hence, the name reverse mortgage is aptly adopted by various financial agencies as the payment stream is reversed. It enables senior citizens to convert their home equity into tax-free income. However, the reverse mortgage Canada is designed to strengthen seniors’ personal and financial independence by offering funds without a monthly payment during their lifetime in their homes.

The lender pays the amount of the home equity in a form of a lump sum, in a stream of payments, or as a supplement to social security or other retirement funds. However, not every senior citizen is eligible for reverse mortgage Canada. The applicant must be at least 62 years of age, owns, and occupies a home as their personal residence. The owner should have a single-family residence, town home, condominium, multiple unit building, or mobile homes with a permanent foundation. However, unlike a conventional home equity loan or second mortgage, no repayment is required for the reverse mortgage until the borrowers no longer use the home as their principal residence. The other basic difference between a reverse mortgage in Canada loan and a bank home equity loan is that with a traditional second mortgage or a home equity line of credit, the debtor should have sufficient income to qualify for the loan and he or she is required to make monthly mortgage payments.

The benefits involved in a reverse mortgage in Canada could be that ownership of home can be retained for life. The remaining equity will be passed on to heirs; proceeds from reverse mortgages Canada are tax-free. And can be used for many things like home care, repairs and improvements, paying off an existing mortgage, education of grandchildren, hospital and health care costs, paying off taxes and credit card debt, buying a second home, and vacation. Hence, let your home pay you back! In reverse mortgage, no loan repayment or payments as long as the person lives in their houses is required. In fact, there is no income, medical or credit requirements to be fulfilled. This is also available in federally insured, lender insured and uninsured reverse mortgages.