I had the opportunity to take a look at the work going on at Colorado Golf Club last week, and thought I would share some impressions and a few photos.
I had the pleasure of being introduced to the property by Ric Buckton of Redstone Intl. Inc., one of the primary developers. He graciously took the time to show me the site from top to bottom, and provided a lot of insight on the entire development, not just the golf course itself. Ric is a golf course designer in his own right – with courses such as Rio Grande in South Park, Colorado and collaborations with Jay Morrish at Vista Ridge near Denver and Pine Canyon near Flagstaff, Arizona to his design credit.
First of all – the property. Colorado Golf Club is built on rolling terrain that includes both ponderosa pine forest and open meadow on the valley bottom. The soil was described to me as a “sandy loam.” C&C moved hardly any dirt at all to construct the course (in two cases ridges had to be cut down a bit to provide driving corridors). Almost no trees were cut down during construction – instead they were boxed and moved for use either at strategic points on the course or for clubhouse/housing areas. Thus there will be no “nursery-size” trees on the property making it look too new. The scorecard of the course is as follows:
Hole Par Back Tees
1 5 632
2 3 152
3 4 432
4 4 505
5 4 477
6 3 261
7 5 575
8 4 323
9 4 486
Front 36 3,864
10 4 466
11 3 210
12 4 520
13 4 407
14 4 359
15 5 583
16 5 560
17 3 206
18 4 481
Back 36 3,793
Total 72 7,656
It was a good time to visit the course for a GCA geek like myself because the holes were at a variety of different stages in the construction process. Some holes were grassed in and growing, others had been seeded, others had holes in the ground where the greens will be, and one, the 18th, was only discernable because the natural grasses had been mowed down.
The fairways looked fairly wide and inviting, but the course was described to me as one that had to be “played from the edges.” No real rough is planned – there will be minimal first cuts around the fairways immediately giving way to natural grassland. The 3.5 million dollar irrigation system features sprinkler heads that are individually controlled, and the goal is firm and fast conditions.
I believe that I have correctly identified the pictures below, but since I was not taking notes, I may have mixed something up. I will correct if necessary.
The second green. Very small, surrounded by bunkers. The greensite is just a dirt hole at this point, and the drainage is going in. Next, a layer of gravel, then sand. You can see the intended bunker locations.
A slightly closer view of the 2nd.
Here’s a picture from the 3rd green back up the fairway. The downhill fairway means a hanging lie, and the large waste-area type bunker in front of the green will be getting a lot of action. Shots landing on the middle of the green may just roll off the back. There’s a small false front on the green. There’s a lot more work to be done in that waste area, but it’s already pretty intimidating.
Here’s the green complex at the 5th hole, a long par four.
Here’s the sixth hole from the tee. Shots off that little hill to the right will feed onto the green.
This gives you a better idea of the scale of the bunkers short and left of the 6th green.
Here is a view of the 12th hole from the left side of the fairway. This green has been seeded.
A closer view of the 12th green. Not heavily contoured, Ric told me that there would be enough subtlety in this green to challenge tour pros.
The 14th hole from behind the green up the fairway. You can see that this is a “horseshoe” style green. The main dirt road on the old ranch used to go right up this fairway, and I guess Ben Crenshaw said that helped them “find” this hole. Note the grading marks spraypainted on the green.
Here is the 17th from the back tee. There will eventually be water on this hole once they allow water to flow down the main arroyo that cuts through the course.
Ric told me that it is the intention of this club to pursue a major championship. Time will tell on that score, but the course itself is being built with that in mind. It's certainly walkable, as every tee box is immediately adjacent to the previous green.