I recently played the new city of Golden municipal course Fossil Trace GC designed by Jim Engh. It has been a topic of some discussion here, so I thought I'd give a hole by hole blow of the course, starting with the front 9. I'll do the back 9 in a separate thread due to the large # of pictures I am imbedding.
Fossil Trace has been a long time in the making, and its name is fitting due to the archeological finds made during course construction. A blurb on the course and its basic stats can be found here
http://www.fossiltrace.com/printCourseInfo.htmlThe site is extreme, which is nothing new for Jim Engh, who has also worked on 3 other extreme sites in Colorado: Red Hawk Ridge GC, Sanctuary GC, and Redlands Mesa GC. In addition to the extreme topography, the back 9 is also shoe-horned into a small area dominiated by an old quarry. You might consider wearing a hard-hat on the back 9 on several holes, as you'll see in the back-9 post.
We played the blue tees, which are only 6241yards (at a mile high altitude
). This course is really short, and it might qualify as a modern quirky course, although not a throwback to older, quirky courses. I also can't find my scorecard, so yardages are ballpark only. The course was in really good shape, save for 3 of the greens (all on the back 9). Fees for those not residents of Jefferson county are $45 during the week.
The first hole is a 520yd par5 with a tee-shot toward the fairway traps seen in the distance. Snap one left on the teeshot over the ridge with the long grass and you may send someone playing #18 to the hospital!
The second shot veers to the left and is downhill to a landing area short and left of the green.
This short pitch as your 3rd shot into the par 5 shows one of the many very deep greenside bunkers found at Fossil Trace. The greenside traps are on average about 8 feet deep and usually only a few paces wide. They are penal, but as I have discussed with Doug Wright, the course's only resistance to scoriing will be the green surfaces (when up to speed) and the severity of the greenside bunkering (for a muni
).
#2 is a very short par 4 of around 300 yards where the timid (or, in my case, the rusty) will lay-up with a mid iron off of the tee to leave a dropshot pitch shown here. It might not be terribly risky to have a crack at this one with the driver, since the area around the green contains everything around the green. However, if you do hit it in the fairway traps on the right, or worse yet, hit the rock ourcropping on the left, the hole could become troublesome.
A better view of the green on #2.
#3 is a 150-ish yard uphill par 3 to a blind green that is well-guarded front-left by some deep traps. The green is one of the better ones on the course, with several plateaus/tiers and a large ridge running roughly front-to-back through its midsection. The maintenance guy that is barely visible in the shadow is at the leftmost edge of the green and the green opens up a fair bit right of the traps.
The 400-ish yard 4th hole is probably my favorite par 4 on the course. The tee shot calls for a fade if you've got it, otherwise fitting a straight shot or a draw will limit how far up the fairway you can play. Just left off of the fairway is a lateral hazard up the entire length on the hole and around the back of the green.
The pin placement on #4 the day we played was on a very small and elevated plateau. I liked this bunkerless green complex (and I took my share of shots around it to prove it!).
This very short par 3 (100yds) has been the topic of a bit of discussion, and opinions have differed on its merits. Knowing this, I asked my buddy I was playing with (a fellow post-doc who hails from Scotland and frequents Dornoch, Royal Aberdeen, and Cruden Bay, so I know he's seen some good architecture) what he though of it. He liked it, and so did I. Steven said it was a nice change of pace to see a short par 3, compared to the standare fare 150yd, 175 yd, 200 yd, and 250yd par 3. Maintaining the front slope into the marsh as short grass (a la Augusta #12) might tighten the sphincter a bit, but the greenside traps, particularly the coffins behind and right make saving par difficult if you can't modulate your gap/sand wedge distance. The hole has no chance of being lengthened as a road is immediately behind the tee.
The 6th hole is a mid length, slightly uphill par 4 with another interesting green (unfortunately I only got a shot of the tee shot). Stay to the right of the fairway bunker, and make sure you stay below the hole and try to make sure you are on the right portion of the green, or a 3 putt is very likely. The green is very wide, and the approach playing uphill with no traps in front makes judging distance tricky. (Nice powerlines, huh
)
The short (350-ish yard) par 4 7th plays severely uphill on the approach. I don't necessarily like the 90 yard scar fairway/greenside trap in plain view in front of the green, as most likely the only players that will be unfortunate enough to hit into it at its point most distal to the green are high handicappers. As a higher handicap member of our group clearly illustrated, when they enter the bunker at its tip, they will aim at the flag when trying to extricate themselves, hit the ball 10 or 20 yards, rinse-lather-repeat a few more times until they finally reach the green.
The 7th green is steeply pitched from left to right, and the left half of the green is somewhat punchbowl in nature. Being above the hole here when the green speeds are up will make 2 putting difficult (although I three putted from said location at current green speeds with no problem
).
The 8th hole is another short 380-ish yard par 4 where the longer hitter from the blue tees need not worry about any of the fairway traps. Playing from the tips (add 60yds or so) will put more pressure on the tee shot. The green is another well-contoured green with a severely sloped front-right pin placement. Putting from above that pin and keeping the ball on the green will be tough when/if green speeds get up to where they should be.
#9 is a decent length par 5 that is pretty vanilla, except for the back tier of the long and skinny green that drops several feet. You can't see this back tier until you are on the green the drop off is so severe. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of this feature, but its evil twin brother is on the back 9, which I'll review in the next day or so.
Discuss!
Cheers,
Brad Swanson