Article on The Mad Russian Golf Club

[George Pazin]

From Sept 2003 Golf Digest. This was discussed when it first came out, if anyone would care to dig up the discussion.

[astavrides]

Interesting, George.  If you had posted this a few months back, I would have made an effort to get there when I still lived in Colorado.   I posted a thread maybe 18 months ago asking if anyone knew anything about the course, but no one replied. 

[Doug Wright]

George,

Thanks for posting this article on The Mad Russian. Slag Bandoon and I played it in the fall of 2002 during Slag's grand tour of the Rockies and Nebraska (amazing how time flies...). I haven't been back since, and it doesn't pop into my mind as a must-replay. Having said that, it was worth seeing once for the novelty and uniqueness of a home-made course.

From the GCA.com archives, here are comments Slag and I have made on The Mad Russian:

Doug Wright 12/18/02:

The Mad Russian GC showed me that one can find architectural gems in the most unlikely places. The Mad Russian, built on his own land by a potato farmer with no golf architecture training, contained flashes of brilliance that are hard to explain given his background (eg a par 3 that Ross would be proud of), and other parts that were simply unexplainable. It wasn't the "Painswick of The West" as I'd hoped, but it certainly was unique.

Slag Bandoon review 10/20/2002:

The Mad Russian was a fun romp through parched fairways with extra long drives and rolls. Doug Wright and I had a fun time here and came to the conclusion that the reason nobody ever talks about it is that every architect has stolen all of the Mad Russians ideas! Diagonal carries, small (teeny) fallaway greens, greenfront noses, Ross crowned greens. The fairway crossings were not as dangerous as I'd hoped . It was a blast and getting near the greens wasn't hard, but staying on them and getting the ball close was. It was maddening! The 7th across the lake is an interesting drivable par four over a lake. I assume the correct line is to go left of the green with a fade into a fairway slope and watch it run to the green and hopefully not come side right off of a rollaway slope to the water. (I found it on my pitch approach!) We took liberty of a couple of shots here as it was too interesting to pass up. Doug, thanks for a grand day out. I wear my new Mad Russian hat with pride!

Doug Wright 11/14/02:

One of the most fun and unique golfing experiences I had this year was playing The Mad Russian Golf Club north of Denver (with Slag Bandoon no less!). "Designed" by a non-golfing Russian immigrant farmer who wanted to use his land for something else, this course has all sorts of weird things going on, not as totally bizarre as Painswick but what is? In many cases, I'm sure if we were to ask the "Mad Russian, GCA" what he was thinking in designing this or that hole, his answer would be "I have no earthly idea!!" And you know what, in some cases where he had no earthly idea the outcome is actually quite good!

Doug Wright 11/19/02:

Mad Russian? OK, that qualifies but likely only for this GCA crowd. Anybody else playing it would say The Mad Russian farmer/owner who designed the course was off his rocker!

Doug Wright from a thread on cross-over holes 11/12/02:

Holes 7 and 11 at the aptly named Mad Russian Golf Club north of Denver cross over. A lake in the middle must be carried on each hole.

Slag Bandoon 11/04 regarding amateur designs:

And we mustn't forget the granddaddy amateur design of them all...The Mad Russian Golf Course in (Milliken?) Colorado.

Slag 01/08 thread on what courses the PGA Tour should play to shake things up:   

Okay, The Mad Russian GC in Colorado. After half the players shoot 59s, they can all spin til they're dizzy in the rotating house off the 18th.

[George Pazin]

Sorry, Alex, if I had listened to my wife and cleaned sooner, I would've posted it then!

Thanks for the info, Doug. I'm not sure who I envy more, you getting to golf with Slag, or Slag getting to golf with you.

[Norbert P]

 What a pleasant surprise. I don't recall ever seeing that article. Saved in files.

  Doug, that's quite a fun flashback to go through. Regret not ever sending pictures and doubly sore at myself since the photos were never backed up onto disc (cheap thing didn't have a cd burner beyond the floppy drive) and that old cheesy computer is toast.  I commend you on your organizational skills with files.  That was a fun day. Later that day I played River Dunes, my first and only Pete Dye.  One of the best munis I've ever played.

 The Mad Russian GC was a treat. It just didn't follow any rules of orthodox design, much like the article tells of the designer's personality.    I recommend it to any student of golf architecture.