18 Reasons Why To Go To Rawlins, Wyoming

[Tommy_Naccarato]

Some pretty impressive looking stuff here at Rochelle Ranch, all from Ken (The Good Kavanaugh") Kavanaugh, at least impressive enough to understand why he distances himself from his brother!  

And Just to think its just right on good ol' Interstate 80 in the bedroom community of Rawlins!

***RED ALERT***RED ALERT***RED ALERT***RED ALERT***RED ALERT***

IMPORTANT "WARDIAN FACTOR" INFORMATION FORTH-COMING!!!!!!!!!

EVERYONE STAND BACK! I SAID, STAND BACK, HERE IT COMES!!!

TOTAL YARDAGE FROM THE TIPS: 7,925 YARDS---SLOPE RATING: NOT RATED AT THIS TIME.---COURSE RATING: NO COURSE RATING AT THIS TIME---CONTACT INFORMATION: NONE OF YOUR F'N BUSINESS! GO CALL A FREEKIN' TRAVEL AGENT or GO FIGURE IT OUT YOURSELF!---DOAK RATING (As per WARDIAN logic and algorythm): NOT KNOWN AT THIS TIME.--ENGH FACTOR: CITY HAS NO PLANS YET FOR AN ENGH COURSE BUT YOU NEVER KNOW--R.J. DALEY FACTOR: (Chances of Dick Daley driving from Green Bay to see this course) 98.9% (Down .6% due to time of year)---O'REILLY FACTOR: I THINK HE DID IN FACT SEXUALLY HARASS HIS ASSISTANT AND SHOULD BE INTERROGATED BY DAN RATHER FOR DOING SO........
ALL CLEAR***ALERT OVER***ALL CLEAR***ALERT OVER***ALL CLEAR***ALERT OVER***ALL CLEAR***ALERT OVER***

[Jason Hines]

Tommy,

I seemed to have missed the buzz on this one, any background or website info?  How were the playing conditions? (speed, grasses, bunkers etc).  Quick mileage check shows Rawlins is approximately 320 miles from Holyoke and Ogallala and 245 from Denver.

Jason

[rgkeller]

>>Fauna note: Those little deer-like animals running around are pronghorn, they are not antelopes.<<

They are pronghorn antelopes.

[Steve_ Shaffer]

Rawlins serves as the County Seat for Carbon County. This city lies in the middle of everything, Rawlins is surrounded by desert, mountains, rivers, prairie, wildlife, and history. Rawlins is one of Wyoming's oldest cities and has a Frontier Prison, which served as the State Penitentiary until 1981. Rawlins has federal, county, and city offices as well as a diverse retail community. The three main employers are Union Pacific Railroad, the penitentiary, and Sinclair Oil Refinery. You will find a modern hospital here as well as good schools, beautiful parks, and an outstanding recreation center. Rawlins has a new 18 hole golf course as well. Rawlins lies on Interstate 80 and offers visitors a wide variety of restaurants and lodging.

From golfcoursenews.com

Tucson, Ariz. – Golf course architect Ken Kavanaugh will be on hand Aug. 14 for the grand opening of his latest design, Rochelle Ranch, located in Rawlins, Wyo. Rochelle Ranch is a municipal golf course run by the City of Rawlins. The facilty is a gift from local ranchers and investors Curt and Marian Rochelle, who wanted to give something back to their community.

 

Built by Landscapes Unlimited of Lincoln, Neb., the course measures 7,925 yards from the championship tees and 5,763 yards from the front markers. To accommodate a variety of players on a site that often features strong prairie breezes, Kavanaugh designed extra-wide, strategically bunkered fairways. The layout sports a rugged, rough-hewn look, with weathered, wind-blown bunkers and expansive sand dunes.

 

“The course looks as if it were found instead of built,” Kavanaugh says. “It blends beautifully with the natural landscape of Wyoming. I hope the community will enjoy playing it as much as I enjoyed building it.”

[redanman]

Don't try to contradict me......rg  


Entirely unique on this planet, the Pronghorn's scientific name, Antilocapra americana, means "American antelope goat." But the deer-like Pronghorn is neither antelope nor goat -- it is the sole surviving member of an ancient family dating back 20 million years.

Full Link to article

They are really cool animals to watch bouncing around like kangaroos.

245 from Denver

About the same as Philadelphia to Providence, RI.......

[Mike Hendren]

Hopefully they will pick up drive by business as there are 6 or maybe 7 people in Rawlins who even know who Alister Mackenzie was.

If they're lucky they've never heard of Doak, C & C, Tillinghast, Ross and Colt either!  All they know is that it's fun to golf the ball on their new course.  Let's not spoil it for them.

MIke

[RJ_Daley]

Tommy, regarding your crawling banner, I will be out there as far as Holyoke this weekend.  But, I just can't go the extra 320 miles to see Rawlins this time.  If I had a driving partner, maybe...  But, I still can't find anyone from the frozen tundra to make the drive, even to NE let alone another whole day further.  Maybe I'll do it one of these years.

36 at Wild Horse Sat.  27 Sunday with Dan Proctor, Monday a tour at Holyoke with Dan.  

But, it looks like JakaB's brother might have a real winner on his resume.  From pictures it looks like a cross between Wild Horse, Barona Creek and Rustic Canyon.  At any rate, it looks like this Kavanugh can do natural, minimal, and presumable strategic very well.  LU is really cranking it up on the prairie techniques too.

Maintenance meld alert!!!!  I love the low profile greens with no sagging shoulders.  I hope they keep them shaved in the surrounds for a good distance off the putting surface.  The one par 5 looks one hell of a lot like Rustic Canyon's 13th with the fairway bunker in the middle. And what appears to be a boomer or similar green. With alkaline soils, and wind to blow anything away, the super must be one rugged SOB!!!

My guess is that the river is the upper reaches of the North Platte.  I guess that is the common thread that runs all the way down to Wild Horse.  I bet a fellow could bring his trout fishing gear to break up the monotony of golf on the lone prairie.

Kudos to the Rochelles for the donation of the land to the good folks of Rawlins.

gotta hit the road now... long drive ahead...

[A_Clay_Man]

Kudos to the Rochelles for the donation of the land to the good folks of Rawlins.

Was it just the land, or did they also build the course for altruistic reasons.

My guess is, with that kind of justification for it's existence, RR will be one of America's greatest courses.

[John_Conley]

WOW!  This looks terrific.  And I have to give mad props to the photographer.  Great work with the lens.

I promise not to let the surname of the architect influence my rating once I see this place.

Any idea what the tariff will be?  (Maybe you already mentioned.)  I'm guessing it will be hard to charge more than $30 for a resident.  I'd shoot for $75 for anyone visiting from out of state!

[Jeff_Lewis]

Wow.  

Other than Murphy Creek, what else has he done Tommy? What is his background? Phenomenal looking stuff.

[Jeff_Stettner]

I nearly swerved off the road this summer driving from Oakland to St. Louis because of this golf course. You can see a little bit of the course from interstate 80. It looked fantastic, even not fully grown in. I tried hard to dig into the details of the course, and found nothing. Thanks for the post, Tommy.

[ed_getka]

Tommy,
  Thanks for the legwork. This looks MUCH better than Murphy Creek near Denver, which I was underwhelmed by. Did you play or just look around?
   I look forward to seeing it some day. Great job Ken K.

[Brian_Gracely]

ok, I've got to ask the question to truly understand the level of insanity....Would anyone actually go all the way out to this middle of nowhere place and not play?  

[Brian_Gracely]

None of the bunkering appears to be very deep. Isn't the sand going to get blown out of those bunker fairly quickly?  Or can they not be built deeper because of some drainage or soil issues?

[Lou_Duran]

Tommy,

Did you play the course?  Is there much movement to the land?  How about the contouring of the greens?

The pictures remind me of Wild Horse, and Black Sheep, which I just played this past Saturday and loved it.  I may have been Redanmanized, as courses with few trees and wide views are becoming more and more appealing to me.  It is just anecdotal, but I believe that these types of courses invite bolder play and freer swings.  My playing partner at Black Sheep remarked how much easier the course played, to which I noted that he had executed many excellent shots.  Perhaps heavily wooded courses have a straight-jacket effect on our swings.

[Matt_Ward]

Tommy:

One of your best posts -- simply hilarious stuff and frankly well deserved on my part!

I was just out to Wyoming but a bit out of range for the course. Next summer I'll be back in the immediate Denver area and will give it a look -- of course, from the maximum back tees!

P.S. Would love to know the CR and slope ...

[Doug Wright]

Only 245 miles from Denver? Hell, that's a mere 3 hour drive!

Ed,

I think this new course looks a lot like Murphy Creek BEFORE the influx of housing messed up the aesthetics. It also has that low profile "Talking Stick North" or Wild Horse sort of feel from the photos, particularly the bunkering. If Ken K. opted to take a page from Talking Stick North or Wild Horse that's OK with me... From the map looks like a lot of bunkers in the middle of fairways--what's up with that???    

I passed thru Rawlins this summer returning from Montana. Nice town, great truckstops! Sure beats the hell outta Rock Springs... http://www.rawlins-wyoming.com/gen_raw.htm

[Scott_Burroughs]

Great stuff, Tommy, and of course to Ken K. as well.  Never heard of this course before today.

The scorecard can be found here:

http://www.rawlins-wyoming.com/golf_map.htm

7900+ yards may seem super long, but Rawlins is at 6755 feet elevation!  And it's not exactly a ghost town at a population of 9380.  That's about triple the population of Gothenburg, NE.

Only 245 miles from Denver? Hell, that's a mere 3 hour drive!

Doug, you stick to the slow lane....out there, 82 mph is standing still...

Question for Tommy Naccarato:

Please post your estimate of time required to create this original post.  It is worthy of an end-of-year award, even if a category has to be created!

Bill, it's not that difficult to do this kind of stuff  
I will admit that it probably took more than a few minutes to do the GCA.com ticker logo and save it to his website.

[ed_getka]

Doug,
  It is hard to imagine that Murphy Creek was ever a fraction of what I am seeing here. I rarely notice housing and its effects of the aesthetics of a course, so that has no bearing on my opinion of what I saw at Murphy Creek. I was much more intrigued by Riverdale Dunes than MC.
   There are certainly some good holes at MC, but many more mediocre ones, and I cannot remember more than a few holes. The good company of Brad Swanson could be responsible for that though. I was enjoying our conversation much more than the course.

[Scott_Burroughs]

it is still a "gargantuan effort".  

I'm not going to touch that one.


As for posting lots of photos in one post...been there, done that.  Last time, yesterday.

I'd like to see someone try what I did in my previous post, quoting two authors in one post, keeping the author and time info intact (I did 3 the other day), in just a minute or two.

[Tommy_Naccarato]

The images are courtesy of John K. via Ken K. I have not been to Rawlins, Wyoming, not yet at least.

Matt, Thanks for having the personality to see that this wasn't personal one bit at all!

Dick, I guess the Daley Factor should have risen up a percentage point or two, now that I know your on your way close to there. Whats a mere 245 miles away? For crying out loud, go by and check it out!

[Tommy_Naccarato]

Redanman,
I just tried calling. Turn your cell phone on!

[John Kirk]

Boy that looks nice.  Thanks for the great photos.

Rawlins is right on the way from Portland, OR, to Holyoke, CO, a trip I hope to make at least once a year, as I am currently applying for membership at Ballyneal.

[Joe Perches]

This course looks like 18 forced carries.  There are no holes where you can walk-off the tee onto fairway or walking path.  All of the tee boxes seem to be little islands of grass.

While I don't mind even more than half of a golf course having these style holes, I do find it more enjoyable when courses don't require walkers to stay on cartpaths after tee shots for a couple of hundred yards before getting to walk on some nice grass .

[JakaB]

Tommy,

Thanks for taking the time and effort to present the pictures in such a professional and entertaining light....no wonder you are so loved....For more information on Ken Kavanaugh his new website is up and running at http://www.kenkavanaugh.com ...I just found out about the site today and all I can say is I had no idea...