First of all, thanks Doug for e-mailing me to wake me up and let me know about the Devil’s Thumb post. As some of you know, I am a lurker and will post on a few things here and there, but my participation is very sporadic. As such, I tend to miss entire topics at times. Thanks for all the nice words about Devil’s Thumb. Obviously I am proud of what we did for the City of Delta.
A few clarifications and general info: Devil’s Thumb is in Delta, Colorado, which is, in fact on the “Western Slope”(for those who were asking it is basically anything west of the Continental Divide in Colorado). Delta is about 40 miles southeast of Grand Junction, on the south flank of the Grand Mesa. Enough geography!!
In response to some of the specific questions and comments:
Ran: Regarding your comment about the mound/bunker behind the green, framing mounds, etc. The photo you referred to (third from the bottom of Jim’s original photos) is a shot of the 17th hole, a par 3, taken from the forward tee, with some zoom to boot. The other tees are a bit higher and to the left of this view. The green was built into a natural saddle between two existing mounds so only the bunker is “artificial.” The bunker was added because there is a significant portion of the green that is wrapped around to the back left, where there is no “back wall” by the way. So a golfer who is trying to shape a draw into the back corner over the front left bunker and doesn’t execute the shot, will be left in the bunker with a tough downhill sand shot to that hole location.
Jim: The third photo from the top that you refer to is the 13th hole. One of my favorites. It’s a reachable par 4, 320 from the tips straight to the green, with a seventy foot drop from tee to green. The alternate fairway is way off to the right of your photo and it stays on top of the bluff. The hole plays about 380 going that direction. Again, the green was built into the saddle between two existing hills, and you are very correct saying that it is intimidating with zero back-drop and a twenty foot drop-off behind the two tiered green. There are three ways to play this hole. One, obviously is to go for the green (requires about a 250 carry to get to the lower fairway). The second, if the hole is on the front half, is to hit a tee shot 240-260 as close to the edge of the bluff as you dare so you can see your approach. The third, which most golfers would never think of, is about the only sane way to get it close if the hole is on the higher back shelf. That is, hit it about 170 off the tee, again as close to the bluff as you can. This leaves you a great angle into the top shelf from a distance of about 160, but again its downhill about 70 feet so its likely a wedge or 9-iron. Fun??
Matt: The terrain is pretty much how it looks. A good two-thirds of the site sits on a flat, sometimes windy bluff with tremendous distant views of the San Juan Mountains, the West Elk Mountains, the Grand Mesa and the Uncompaghre Plateau. The other third drops off the bluff into some awesome rolling ground leading into an area of adobe clay hills that look like something you would see on the moon. I wished at first that we could design the whole course in the “dobies” as they are called, but there is a good reason why they have no vegetation on them, the soil is horrible at best. Even the soil that we had to work with was no picnic. We generated enough rock during construction to build a five-foot high “wall”, 2.5 miles long along the property’s west boundary. Someday, when they have time and money to clean it up and stack it into a real wall, it should add a great "old world" touch to the place.
Anyway, I was able to route the course to take advantage of the topography on both nines. The front side has holes 3-7 playing in the fun stuff, while the back has 13 and 14 down below. While these are the holes that lots of folks talk about, I think that three or four of the best holes on the course are on the flats.
Probably the biggest disappointment for me is the top photo in the second bunch that Jim posted. This is the 11th hole. It is a split fairway, with the big bunker in the middle. The green is wide open if you take the risk of hitting over the bunker to the right side fairway. Otherwise, the approach has to carry the two bunkers in front of the shallow green. The problem is that not enough of the right fairway is visible, so the golfers aren’t comfortable taking that risk. We should have imported about 3-4 more feet of soil and built up the right side so you could see it better, but money was not available.
Once again, thanks for the positive comments, and the negative ones too!! It’s the only way to learn.
Please feel free to ask anything else and I’ll do my best to explain myself. Also, please do get out a play this one. Like Doug mentioned, it’s less than an hour from Grand Junction and Redlands Mesa so you could hit them both in a weekend without a problem. The weather is really mild in this part of the State. The site is a high desert (seven inches of moisture per year) and the golf season is practically year-round. Pretty cold there December through February, but after that it can be wonderful. Freak snowstorms can happen anywhere in Colorado from October to the end of April though so the fine print would include that disclaimer!
Rick Phelps