Thanks for the invitation to reminisce!
In my life so far, 1997 to 2004 is the golden era.
I was young and newly-married. We lived in Denver. She commuted to Colorado Springs, and my work schedule was Thurs-Sun. That left me 3 days of idle hours and empty golf courses.
It was a -wonderful- time to be a vagabond golfer on the Front Range.
-Suburbs like Aurora and Lakewood had gone on a jag of building exceptionally high-quality munis.
-Residential developers were building on land that was guaranteed to yield either memorable successes or spectacularly interesting failures.
-Likely because of that, there was some very interesting architecture; a young Jim Engh was using the region as his own modern art studio, for instance.
-Water rights issues meant you rarely saw any of the new tracks too soggy.
-New construction aside, there was (and is) great -variety- in the more well-established courses. Where else could you see so many different types of terrain -think Marianna Butte, Riverdale Dunes, Fox Hollow, Wellshire, and Arrowhead- all in the same tank of gas and play each for less than $40?
The weather was particuarly outstanding during that stretch, too - I played at least once a month most years and every -week- of '98.
So... good times!
All that said, the circumstances that ended that 'era' of my life -the birth of our baby boy and subsequent move east- may be leading to the dawn of an even better one: my now-7-year-old is insane about the game, and seems to enjoy playing it with Dad almost as much as Dad likes playing it with him.