Four Mile Ranch - Engh's Evolution in Design ...

[Matt_Ward]

Located in Canon City -- about 45 minutes southwest of Colorado Springs is a new daily fee facility designed by Jim Engh -- the man responsible for such noted courses as Lakota Canton Ranch, Black Rock, Pradera, to name just three of his more successful courses.

What's fascinating about Four Mile Ranch is how it embraces many of the unique elements found with a Jim Engh course -- risk and reward holes of all types of shapes, configurations, and routes -- but how it also eschews some of the more over-the-top elements that a number of other courses had been repeating over and over again -- e.g., bowled-in fairways and greens, excessive mounding and a clear and somewhat obvious attempt to overwhelm the land.

Four Mile Ranch works so well because it emphasizes the following two words ...

Fun and ball position.

Too many designs have opted to go with much longer and longer courses as the way to signale they are unique. What often happens is the reverse -- such courses make players run back to their cars to escape such banality.

Four Mile Ranch maxes out at just over 7,000 yards to a 72-par. Engh still provides avenues for length to be rewarded but he doesn't provide the easy safeguards (the bowled in fairways, containment mounds, etc, etc) that allowed such plays to happen with impunity.

Balls hit far but with little direction will roll into some very demanding terrain and frankly in the bomb'n gouge era such a desire to re-emphasize ball position is long overdue.

Engh has also opted to be more adventurous and unpredictable with his green designs at Four Mile Ranch. They are wild adventure rides and clearly state the case for pin point approaches on any number of them.

Without any doubt -- the fun element needs to play a much larger role in design. Players need various options that don't tilt the playing field overly so to those who can hit the big tee shot and then face little more than elementary challenges.

Four Mile Ranch is also located on some of the more unique property you can find for that area in central Colorado. The first few holes are really tame in terms of land characteristics and Engh has done quite well in brnging them to life with a combination of rolling fairways and green contours that are far from tame in any number of spots. However, the bulk of the property takes you on a Indiana Jones tour with plenty of spots where the shouts of joy and tears of defeat will be intermingled. Even when thrwarted you will be racing to return and try again. A clear sign of a course's quality.

I will write up a number of holes there and if my techno phobia is defeated will even post pictures of a few holes there.

Credit Jim Engh to reinforce what made him special in design and to tone down / eliminate those features that only interfered with what he is fully capable in providing -- fun golf to the max is alive and well at Four Mile Ranch. For all the legitimate praise Lakota Canyon Ranch gets -- I see Four Mile Ranch as a winning sequel to the New Castle layout with a Canon City golf choice that is it's rival in so many ways and frankly a clear case can be made that it's even superior.

[Brad Tufts]

Hi Matt,

I look forward to further commentary, as I plan to play at 4MiR the week after next.  It will be my first Engh experience, possibly to be followed by a Lakota/Redlands double the following Saturday.  It won't be too cold at the end of Sept. in the mountains will it?  I know alot of the Vail courses look to close around 10/1...

-Brad

[Brad Swanson]

... where the shouts of joy and tears of defeat will be intermingled

:               

Looking forward to hearing more about this one, especially if its a deviation from the stylistically homogenous Engh designs of recent years.

Brad

[Doug Wright]

Hi Matt,

I look forward to further commentary, as I plan to play at 4MiR the week after next.  It will be my first Engh experience, possibly to be followed by a Lakota/Redlands double the following Saturday.  It won't be too cold at the end of Sept. in the mountains will it?  I know alot of the Vail courses look to close around 10/1...

-Brad

Brad,

Late September golf in Colorado is like Forrest Gump's box of chocolates--you don't know what you're going to get. The odds are that you will have gorgeous, spectacular weather. You also could get snow.

[Brad Tufts]

Yeah I figured as much...tough for planning anyway...

I know Denver will be nice...

[Jerry Kluger]

Located in Canon City -- about 45 minutes southwest of Colorado Springs is a new daily fee facility designed by Jim Engh -- the man responsible for such noted courses as Lakota Canton Ranch, Black Rock, Pradera, to name just three of his more successful courses.

What's fascinating about Four Mile Ranch is how it embraces many of the unique elements found with a Jim Engh course -- risk and reward holes of all types of shapes, configurations, and routes -- but how it also eschews some of the more over-the-top elements that a number of other courses had been repeating over and over again -- e.g., bowled-in fairways and greens, excessive mounding and a clear and somewhat obvious attempt to overwhelm the land.

Four Mile Ranch works so well because it emphasizes the following two words ...

Fun and ball position.

Too many designs have opted to go with much longer and longer courses as the way to signale they are unique. What often happens is the reverse -- such courses make players run back to their cars to escape such banality.

Four Mile Ranch maxes out at just over 7,000 yards to a 72-par. Engh still provides avenues for length to be rewarded but he doesn't provide the easy safeguards (the bowled in fairways, containment mounds, etc, etc) that allowed such plays to happen with impunity.

Balls hit far but with little direction will roll into some very demanding terrain and frankly in the bomb'n gouge era such a desire to re-emphasize ball position is long overdue.

Engh has also opted to be more adventurous and unpredictable with his green designs at Four Mile Ranch. They are wild adventure rides and clearly state the case for pin point approaches on any number of them.

Without any doubt -- the fun element needs to play a much larger role in design. Players need various options that don't tilt the playing field overly so to those who can hit the big tee shot and then face little more than elementary challenges.

Four Mile Ranch is also located on some of the more unique property you can find for that area in central Colorado. The first few holes are really tame in terms of land characteristics and Engh has done quite well in brnging them to life with a combination of rolling fairways and green contours that are far from tame in any number of spots. However,joy and tears of defeat  the bulk of the property takes you on a Indiana Jones tour with plenty of spots where the shouts of will be intermingled. Even when thrwarted you will be racing to return and try again. A clear sign of a course's quality.

I will write up a number of holes there and if my techno phobia is defeated will even post pictures of a few holes there.

Credit Jim Engh to reinforce what made him special in design and to tone down / eliminate those features that only interfered with what he is fully capable in providing -- fun golf to the max is alive and well at Four Mile Ranch. For all the legitimate praise Lakota Canyon Ranch gets -- I see Four Mile Ranch as a winning sequel to the New Castle layout with a Canon City golf choice that is it's rival in so many ways and frankly a clear case can be made that it's even superior.

[Jerry Kluger]

Oops - Matt: I meant to quote your Indiana Jones statement - what the heck are you trying to say there - do I need a gun and whip to play the course?

[Doug Wright]

Oops - Matt: I meant to quote your Indiana Jones statement - what the heck are you trying to say there - do I need a gun and whip to play the course?

Jerry, the course is located directly across the highway from Colorado's maximum security prison, so a gun might be a good idea!

Otherwise, what I think Matt is referring to is the elevation changes from holes 10-16 where Engh & Co. do a good job of routing interesting holes in, around, over  and through the ridges and arroyos. The land is less severe than Lakota Canyon but has some of the same facets. 

[Jay Flemma]

Uh...PICTURES Matt??

[Doug Wright]

Jay I suspect Matt is riding his horse across Wyoming at the moment. Here is a photo from (I think) the Four Mile website. This is the green on the short par 4 5th. The fairway is flat on the right and heaving with humps and hollows on the left. You need to be on the left side to have a clear view of the green but the lie there may be uneven. There are a number of holes where this partial or total blindness exists depending on where you place your shot. The green has a large buried elephant in the middle. When I was there the pin was in the back; one could get to it several ways depnding on where you were in relation to the mound, including putting it all the way to the back of the green and have the ball come back doen the back slope to the pin. Quite a fun green and a fun hole.

[Doug Wright]

I'm not much of a golf course photographer but I'll post what I got. Matt had a PRO-fessional PHO-tographer out there so if he posts any of those the contrast will be striking.

I didn't get photos of the first five holes except this one of the first green I took from the parking lot.  The approach to this short to medium length par 4 (which played much longer dead into an unusual east wind the day we played) is from the right of this photo. Unusual for a public course, there are a lot of totally or partially blind peek a boo holes on this course, starting with this one. This is what Matt is referring to above when he mentions the need to position the tee ball.  A ridge makes shots hit to the right side of the wide first fairway blind. The area just short and left of the green is a gully/barranca that is an ugly place to start one's round. Several interesting pin positions on this green, including the one pictured, which allows shots to gather from several angles.

Four Mile Ranch #1 Green:

   


This is the approach to Four Mile Ranch #6, a medium length par 5 that plays from an elevated tee into a valley and then slightly uphill to a green that is totally hidden behind the ridge (see the barber pole, which marks the center of the green).





Here are views of the green from greenside right and from behind the green looking back on the fairway. The third shot is usually with a short iron. The bowl effect of the green seems to work well here to offset the blindness of the shot.





 I'll post more when I can. 

[Matt_Ward]

Gents:

I hope to have photos shortly -- they will certainly bolster the narrative immensely.

The aspect of FMR that is striking is that Engh and crew opted NOT to have any bunkers at the course and candidly it was a wise choice. Engh, as I mentioned previously, can be accused (sometimes wrongly) of overdoing the intersection of man's hand and the actual lay of the land.

That doesn't happen to the extreme at FMR and as a result the course benefits from it in a big time way.

The fascination I have w FMR is that it allows for wide range of different plays and doesn't succumb to the bomb'n gouge crowd without mandating a certain high level of execution. As Doug mentioned there was a fair amount of wind when we teed off that day but things became rather tame as the round progressed.

Engh used the gentle flat land to start the round -- but by the 4th hole you are moving away from it and up to the more rolling terrain.

Shaping shots and knowing how far one can hit iron approaches is an absolute must when playing there. Engh does provide backboards but they are not the wall-like elements you see at a few holes at Pradera in Parker or Lakota Canyon in New Castle. If you have a shot of 100 yards to cover a certain ridge or tier at FMR it best be no less than 100 yards -- 99.9999 yards will not suffice.

For those seeking a course that doesn't overdose the mindless distance parade a trek to Four Mile Ranch will restore your confidence that architects need to follow what Engh and company have provided here. For a public layout -- FMR has a ton of fun awaiting just about any player.

I'll follow with more commentary and some photos ...

[Andy Troeger]

These photos were from mid-June prior to the course's opening.

1st hole, approach to medium length par four. Really good green.


3rd hole, medium length par three. Does have a bit of a bowl shaped green that would look familiar to those having played other Engh courses.


7th hole, par three with three distinct green sections (can't really tell from the photo).


10th hole, short par four, taken from behind. One of the best holes on the course IMO. As with some other Engh holes (9 at Tullymore, 14 at Redlands Mesa), its a short par four where one needs to hit a drive fairly far to get a good look at the green.


13th hole, long par four down the hill. Gets narrow if one wants to bomb it down the hill.


14th hole, very unique hole--shown in the next two photos.



15th hole, par five. Blind approach if one goes for it in two. There is much fairway off to the left (right side of the photo) that would give the golfer options and a straightforward pitch up the green as a 3rd shot.

[Matt_Ward]

Andy:

What's neat w the 15th hole is that the green is pushed tight to the high mounding / grass that protects it. No matter how big a tee shot one plays -- the demand on the 2nd shot is really high -- as it should be.

Good job on posting the 14th hole - let me also point out the unique 12th with its backward Biaritz style green. Just a gem of a hole.

Like I said -- FMR certainly shows Engh making necessary adjustments with his latest efforts.

[Andy Troeger]

Matt,
Were you able to successfully stop a ball on the 15th green coming in from over the native area? If so, how far out were you? All three of us when we played hit shots that ended up in the rear chipping area--I wasn't sure whether we misjudged the shot or if its just that hard to make it stop on the green.

[Doug Wright]

Matt,
Were you able to successfully stop a ball on the 15th green coming in from over the native area? If so, how far out were you? All three of us when we played hit shots that ended up in the rear chipping area--I wasn't sure whether we misjudged the shot or if its just that hard to make it stop on the green.

Andy I watched shots hit into the 15th green from the open area to the left (including Matt's short iron from the neck in the fairway) and they all ended up in the chipping area. I'd say it's virtually impossible to hold a shot into that green. The play to and from the open left side is very forgiving; from what I saw I'm not sure I'd even bother with an attempt at the green. 

[Matt_Ward]

Andy:

On 15 the first time I played it I hit a decent straight drive through the bottleneck and had roughly 170 yards to the hole -- hit 7-iron and as Doug mentioned was not able to hold the putting surface even though I do hit my irons quite high when needed.

The second time I played the hole I hit an even bigger and straighter, make it through the opening and had no more than 130 yards to the hole. This time w PW in hand I was able to stay on the far side of the green but only barely.

Going for the green is a very tough choice because as Doug mentioned it's possible to hit to the left of the green in two blows and have a very reasonable and much more user-friendly chip to get near the hole for a birdie. Unless the approach is really high and super soft it's tough to hit and hold. Frankly, I have no issue with that because eagles should never come on the cheap.

Andy, one other item -- I think the next two holes that follow the 15th are exceptional. The 16th requires a soft fade to get in the ideal approach spot. Those who stay way left or pull it -- will have a very tough time getting their approach to stay near the hole. Engh did provide a collection area further down the fairway for those can get to that position off the tee.

I also liked the par-3 17th -- exceptionally deep green - 50 yards if memory serves. Unlike the 17th at Lakota which Engh excessively contoured -- the 17th at FMR sits snugly in a slight mini-canyon like area. The green is also divided into an upper and lower section. Here is a hole that can require a wide array of clubs.

[Andy Troeger]

Matt,
I agree that 16 and 17 are good holes. We had fun trying different shots around both greens--to a front pin on #16 and a high pin on #17. The slope on #17 is a very steep one!

I have to believe that #15 is basically a green that very few folks are ever going to hit. If you can barely hold the green from 130, why would anyone try from 170 or farther out. It seems like one would just play out to the left and take the easy pitch in. There's nothing wrong with that, but there has to be some reward for the risk and it seems like there's not much if one can't hold the green with more than a wedge. It would take more plays to know this for sure, but it seems like this may be the case.

[Matt_Ward]

Andy:

To be fair about #15 -- the hole can likely hold shots -- likely it would require landing the shot on the green itself rather than getting any sort of freak bounce that would propel the ball even further away from the target.

Engh, to his considerable credit, created a couple of par-5's at FMR -- that really test the player who is contemplating going for the green in two blows. I think it's very fair that such a situation will require the highest of skill levels because those players who opt for the more conventional three-shot situation should not be pushed out of consideration simply because of a length advantage.

p.s. I did mention the par-3 12th previously -- really loved the hole. Be curious to know your comments. I concur with you on the 10th -- one of the better holes at FMR because of the unique turning point in the fairway and the way the green is positioned. Getting a pin just above the false front on the left side is truly a very demanding location for any approach.

[Andy Troeger]

I like the 12th, lots of potential variety with the huge green and the distinct levels, not to mention the green falling away. Its a hole that doesn't look that difficult on first glance being a short hole with a huge green, but there is much more to it than that. I also liked the uphill par five 11th which requires two good shots but with the elevated front of the green makes for some interesting features around the green.

I don't doubt that its possible to hold the 15th green if one has the exceptionally high, soft shot that lands in the right place. My point is just that there's too much risk to make it worth the reward for anyone who doesn't hit it to the 120 yard mark. It also wouldn't be much fun for a golfer who has that shot on a consistent basis for their 3rd shot.

While Engh may overuse bowls, it may have been beneficial to the 15th, as it is beneficial on the 6th where the effective area of the green is enlarged, providing a balance to the blindness of the shot. That hole would be my favorite par five on the course. The 15th does work in that the chipping area behind the green is not a bad area to play from.

[Matt_Ward]

Andy:

The think that amazes me about FMR is that it has such range and diversity of holes. People who have bashed Engh in the past for bringing forward a heavy hand should venture to Canon City. I really liked most of the holes -- they require sound thinking and ball positioning because it's much more than strength alone.

I hear what you say / re: bowl on 15th -- but I like the hole for the very reason that strong players can get there with a short club but it will take much more than a mediocre shot to hit and hold the green. That's fair in my book because eagles, at any time, should never be easy to attain.

By the way - the prices to play are also well thought out and I can only hope when the housing does make its way there that the overall course is preserved. I was told the solid land in the hills will not be touched.

[Andy Troeger]

It seemed like any housing would be kept away from many of the holes, but when I played we had to offroad to the 18th green because there was no infrastructure at all yet, so I had a harder time than usual figuring out where I was in relation to other parts of the property. I'll definitely need to go back to see it again now that its officially open.

I do agree that those who have disliked Engh's other efforts should try to see 4MR. Its very different and they moved significantly less dirt than many of their other efforts. Those who dislike Nicklaus' efforts also should see Cougar Canyon. The land is not as diverse as 4 Mile, but they also did not move much dirt there compared to some of Nicklaus' other efforts. Blind shots are in abundance at both facilities.

[Matt_Ward]

Andy:

Agreed with much of what you said UNTIL you got to the point of throwing Cougar Canyon into the mixture. 4MR has the better property and the better diversity of holes with a max effort on the fun meter. Cougar Canyon needs another tee box area beyond the extreme tips and then nearly 1,000 yards shorter with the next tee area.

4MR doesn't have the infrastructure just yet but the course speaks volumes on what Engh has done previously and what he has done there.

I personally can't wait to return.

[Richard Boult]

Thanks for the photos Doug -- added to our GCA Photo Tour directory at:

http://delicious.com/golfclubatlas/Colorado

[Matt_Ward]

Four Mile Ranch is another fine addition to the Colorado golf landscape. The location is a bit much for many Denver-based folks but it's not that far off the beaten path to discourage those who truly want to see it.

I can only hope that with the existing economic crunch the facility can generate the needed plays and visits to keep it going with what it clearly is offering now.

Engh has done well here and it has the chief element of fun front and center.