jamesdeluxe
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2020
I'm back in Colorado for a week of work-related events and had been looking forward to this golf outing for several months. It was originally planned for my visit in mid-June but had to be postponed due to lightning. A colleague of mine who belongs to a well regarded country club in Parker (south of Denver) invited my brother and me to join him for a round, and we gratefully accepted. Of all the names they could've chosen, I'm not sure why they settled on the generic-sounding "Colorado Golf Club;" however, the course is the furthest thing from generic and is considered by many golf geeks to be a Top 5 layout in the state, which is pretty impressive given the level of competition.
As you're probably aware, Colorado and most of the west has been suffering over the past few weeks due to smoke floating in from massive forest fires in California; however, by the start of our round early Saturday afternoon, about 90% of it was gone so we were able to enjoy decent sight lines.
After going through the guardhouse, here's the stately entrance gate opening for us:
Driving past one of the surrounding homes with a classic prairie windmill, which is a nice touch.
Beautiful flowers along the clubhouse terrace:
A subtle reminder for public-course hillbillies like my brother and me:
With the course relentlessly beating up on my brother and me (our host warned us that first-timers often leave frustrated, which turned out to be accurate), I only posted pix from a few holes. They do a decent job portraying the visuals; however, it goes without saying that the panoramas are more impressive in person. You can follow along with this excellent drone flyover of every hole.
Hole #1. That's our caddy on the left in the white jumpsuit; he's not there to carry our clubs (we were riding in carts), rather to provide pro-level shot and putting recommendations -- this was his second round of the day on foot. He's heading out to the fairway to direct our tee shots:
The approach:
Teeing off on 150-yard Hole #2 -- not a lot of room for error:
Our fourth player, who'd just arrived a few hours earlier from Houston, ended up in this nasty bunker but made a nice up and down to save par:
On Hole 3, you have to clear a fair amount of yucca and prairie grass on your tee shot: a typical situation at CGC:
The second shot goes over bunkers and a gulch followed by an additional sand trap:
My brother and I had a tough time on the next several holes (no pix) so let's fast-forward to Hole #11: a 214-yard par 3 over a pond and several bunkers that looks south toward Pike's Peak:
Hole #12: a 531-yard par 4. Even with the light air at this elevation, 6,100 feet, you need to drill two shots to reach in regulation:
Approach shot:
CGC's signature cocktail, the paintbrush (here's the recipe: vodka, strawberries, lemonade, sparkling water):
The drink is named after this flower, the Indian Paintbrush, which is also the logo of the country club:
Hole #16, a 551-yard par-5 with the clubhouse in the background. As Crenshaw pointed out in his notes, "the creek that snakes up the middle is a problem on every shot."
We counted 17 turkeys on the approach to Hole #17:
In short, CGC lived up to its billing as a very challenging and scenic course. I ended up with a hideous 101 -- four pars along with a heap of single, double, and triple bogies, ugh. While many of my mistakes could be considered "unforced errors," a first round at a place like this certainly helps encourage blown shots. Many drives look like they have very narrow landing areas; however, when you actually arrive on the fairway, you realize that it was a bit of an optical illusion. Even if the caddy confidently says "it looks tight from here but there's more space out there than you think," it intimidates you a bit and you mess up your shot.
A great experience and we were really appreciative for my colleague's invitation despite the frustration of playing a top-shelf course with two far better players: a hacker comeuppance. On the way home, my brother and I joked that we should consider sticking to less demanding public courses.
As you're probably aware, Colorado and most of the west has been suffering over the past few weeks due to smoke floating in from massive forest fires in California; however, by the start of our round early Saturday afternoon, about 90% of it was gone so we were able to enjoy decent sight lines.
After going through the guardhouse, here's the stately entrance gate opening for us:
Driving past one of the surrounding homes with a classic prairie windmill, which is a nice touch.
Beautiful flowers along the clubhouse terrace:
A subtle reminder for public-course hillbillies like my brother and me:
Instead of me providing an amateur description of the course, here’s a good summary from the Planet Golf website:
Set amongst the pine-covered hills and lush meadows of Parker, Colorado Golf Club was designed by leading architects Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw and opened for play in 2007. The designers were clearly attracted to the undisturbed nature of this 1,700-acre property, and the fact that the golfing part of the development would be free from the encumbrance of associated housing.
Coore and Crenshaw were given great freedoms here, choosing to arrange their course across prime acreage through the center of the site. The routing is broken into two loops, each starting and finishing within the wooded hills and flowing effortlessly up, down and across the steady terrain. Both nines tumble and rise and incorporate ravines, streams and a natural sandy wash along the way. Importantly, despite the size of the golfing area, by keeping tees and greens in close proximity the layout is easily walkable and has a distinct sense of intimacy and flow.
With the course relentlessly beating up on my brother and me (our host warned us that first-timers often leave frustrated, which turned out to be accurate), I only posted pix from a few holes. They do a decent job portraying the visuals; however, it goes without saying that the panoramas are more impressive in person. You can follow along with this excellent drone flyover of every hole.
Hole #1. That's our caddy on the left in the white jumpsuit; he's not there to carry our clubs (we were riding in carts), rather to provide pro-level shot and putting recommendations -- this was his second round of the day on foot. He's heading out to the fairway to direct our tee shots:
The approach:
Teeing off on 150-yard Hole #2 -- not a lot of room for error:
Our fourth player, who'd just arrived a few hours earlier from Houston, ended up in this nasty bunker but made a nice up and down to save par:
On Hole 3, you have to clear a fair amount of yucca and prairie grass on your tee shot: a typical situation at CGC:
The second shot goes over bunkers and a gulch followed by an additional sand trap:
My brother and I had a tough time on the next several holes (no pix) so let's fast-forward to Hole #11: a 214-yard par 3 over a pond and several bunkers that looks south toward Pike's Peak:
Hole #12: a 531-yard par 4. Even with the light air at this elevation, 6,100 feet, you need to drill two shots to reach in regulation:
Approach shot:
CGC's signature cocktail, the paintbrush (here's the recipe: vodka, strawberries, lemonade, sparkling water):
The drink is named after this flower, the Indian Paintbrush, which is also the logo of the country club:
Hole #16, a 551-yard par-5 with the clubhouse in the background. As Crenshaw pointed out in his notes, "the creek that snakes up the middle is a problem on every shot."
We counted 17 turkeys on the approach to Hole #17:
In short, CGC lived up to its billing as a very challenging and scenic course. I ended up with a hideous 101 -- four pars along with a heap of single, double, and triple bogies, ugh. While many of my mistakes could be considered "unforced errors," a first round at a place like this certainly helps encourage blown shots. Many drives look like they have very narrow landing areas; however, when you actually arrive on the fairway, you realize that it was a bit of an optical illusion. Even if the caddy confidently says "it looks tight from here but there's more space out there than you think," it intimidates you a bit and you mess up your shot.
A great experience and we were really appreciative for my colleague's invitation despite the frustration of playing a top-shelf course with two far better players: a hacker comeuppance. On the way home, my brother and I joked that we should consider sticking to less demanding public courses.
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