Cordillera Golf Club is located in Edwards, CO, and consists of three courses. The first course they built was the Mountain course designed by Hale Irwin in 1994, and then they built the Valley Course which is not even on the same property designed by Tom Fazio in 1997, and then finally built the Summit course designed by Jack Nicklaus in 2001. They also have a 9 hole par 3 course that Dave Pelz did in 1997, so it is a pretty impressive facility. Well, the summit course is literally at the top of the mountain at 9,000 feet in elevation, you honestly feel like you are on top of the world. IMO it is a pretty good golf course considering the elevation changes he had to deal with, I can't even imagine trying to come up with a routing for this property. I thouroughly enjoyed this round of golf since it provides views that are AMAZING, and once I was done I wanted to go to the first tee again to have another crack at it. I had beef with only two golf holes, #2 and #11, I will explain the problem on the pics, but other than that I thought all the holes were done pretty well. As you will notice, a lot of tee shots go up over the crest of a hill and then down to the green, you must realize he is designing a golf course on the top of a mountain. I played the course from the tips at 7,530 yards but given the elevation is probably played around 7,100 yards.
Hole 1 Par 4- 434 yards (Good opening hole, the first three holes start in the trees)
Hole 2 Par 4- 455 yards (Ok the tee shot looks pretty, and the view is amazing, but I hit a cut driver and it goes WAY through the fairway into the trees. How am I supposed to know that on a 460 yards par 4? They need to put a sign up or something)
Hole 3 Par 3- 135 yards (Very pretty short hole, they have these cool wooden plaques that list all the members who have gotten hole in ones, and they was over 25 on this hole!)
Hole 4 Par 4- 438 yards (The next three holes are in the open prairie land, providing vistas that extend over 200 miles)
Hole 5 Par 5- 549 yards (Good par 5, with a skyline green that just sits at the edge of the peak)
Hole 6 Par 4- 482 yards (Hardest hole on the course, uphill the hole way)
Hole 7 Par 3- 198 yards (Very pretty par 3, a big two tiered green)
Hole 8 Par 5- 584 yards (A long sweeping par 5, that has amazing views to the right, a very uphill approach to the green)
This is sort of out of place, but a cool phone booth to order food at the halfway house
Hole 9 Par 4- 398 yards (A uphill par 4)
Hole 10 Par 4- 438 yards (A very good sweeping downhill par 4 that bends to the right, that right fairway bunker probably grabs tons of balls)
Hole 11 Par 3- 272 yards (Not a typo there, Yes a 270 yard par 3, even with the elevation I still hit a full three wood. My problem with this hole is that most people are going to hit driver and there is about only 20 yards to be safe or else you are in the junk.)
Hole 12 Par 4- 504 yards (Probably my favorite hole on the course, you have to hit your tee shot over a cool rock outcropping then your second shot is over a marshland lake to a two tiered green)
Hole 13 Par 5- 621 yards (A very long par 5 that has a split fairway to approach the green on your second shot)
(You can hit it up by the maintenance vehicle on the right, or you can hit it to the left of the bunker)
Hole 14 Par 4- 412 yards (A par 4 that sits in the valley and then has a severe uphill second shot)
Hole 15 Par 4- 371 yards (A cool short par 4 that wraps around that mammoth bunker on the right hand side)
Hole 16 Par 3- 201 yards (The best par 3 on the course, set back into the woods)
Hole 17 Par 5- 560 yards (A cool par 5 that is a birdie opportunity, a nice tee shot and then a downhill approach to a tightly guarded green)
Hole 18 Par 4- 473 yards (A good finishing hole that has an uphill tee shot, and then goes dowhill to a pretty green site)
Here is the view looking back from the 18 tee at the previous three holes
