jamesdeluxe
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2020
I'm back in Denver for a week and following last month's memorable round at Sanctuary, I managed to grab a mid-afternoon tee time at another of local course designer Jim Engh's famous layouts along the Front Range, Fossil Trace in the foothills of Golden. Whereas Sanctuary is completely private and only playable by a select few, Fossil Trace is a municipal course open to anyone and maybe 15 minutes from downtown Denver. As one of the premier public golf experiences in the state (and the country for that matter), it ain't cheap. Depending on when and how far in advance you book a tee time, it'll usually run anywhere from $105 to $150; however, I somehow got lucky and scored a comparatively reasonable $65 greens fee as a single player.
Here's the view from the clubhouse overlooking part of the back nine. In the distance, you can eventually get a glimpse of Boulder's Flatirons, about 20 miles away. I was surprised how much water is in play throughout the round. Like most courses in desert environments, I can't imagine how much it must cost in irrigation bills to keep this place green.
In addition to it being a challenging round of golf, the big value-add of Fossil Trace is that you also get to experience and learn about the site’s historic and prehistoric past. Completed in 2003, Engh reportedly finished the original plans for the course in 1991 but had a decade's worth of challenges including preserving remnants of its role as a clay quarry since the late 1800s, cleaning up mining leftovers from excavated pits, and minimizing environment impact. Since I'm not a paleontologist, I had to look up the name of the course, which is the inverse of "trace fossil" -- i.e. a fossil of a footprint, trail, or other marking of an animal rather than of the animal itself, which is a "body fossil." More about that when we get to the back nine.
Already on the first fairway, there's an interesting feature: a trash incinerator used by a nearby boys’ school in the mid-1900s. I asked my playing partners if you get a free lift when your ball is next to it; they said it's like a tree, i.e. an active hazard:
At the green, you confront the first of many oddly shaped sand traps, the infamous "muscle bunkers." The objective for mere mortals is simply to get out of them, not necessarily to put your ball in a good position near the hole. This is one of the shallow ones. Later, you'll see me dealing with pits that are far deeper. Here's a video flyover of the hole, which gives you a better view of that sand trap.
It's nice to have these picturesque buttes frame your tee shot. In a non-drought year, they'd be far greener. This year, they're a desiccated brown, like what you'd see in New Mexico or Arizona.
Impressive how much sculpting they did on this course, around the green:
Deeper sand along with an example of another well-known Jim Engh feature: the amphitheater effect around greens, which often kicks errant shots toward the hole.
The only unexceptional aspect of the course is that a few holes on the front nine are along an unscenic part of Golden. Oh well, first-world problems:
While another player gets out of the trap, my tee shot on this par 3 is just to the left of the hole -- I putted in for a birdie.
A trap (more like a sinkhole) right in the middle of the fairway. With no real possibility to move the ball toward the hole, his only option was to use a sand wedge to get out:
Gotta love the Flintstones-esque signage:
7th hole approach shot: everyone told me, "whatever you do, don't be short!"
Of course, I was a club short and ended up in the absolute worst spot, behind a ten-foot headwall.
I tried three times to get out, gave up, and took an 8. A shovel would have been a better tool. Here's the flyover clip:
Now we're getting to the real fun, the back nine. On the 10th, a par 4, long players can gun for the green across a water hazard:
Approaching the former clay quarry:
Stairs to the 11th tee:
I landed in another deep bunker on the right. Took two tries to get out and I ended up with a 5.
A few of these are scattered on the back nine as a visual enhancement and reminder of the what they used to do here:
Teeing off on the 12th hole, which Golf Digest selected as one of the "18 funnest holes in the country." As mentioned before, you can see the Boulder Flatirons in the far background.
With dusk setting in, my pix don't do justice to this masterpiece. Check out the flyover:
My tee shot went way left, bounced off the clay cliffs and landed in a decent place:
Approaching the hole:
One of the other players found the sand:
Here's a shot from the course website that gives you a better idea of the sandstone pillars than my photos:
Between the 12th green and the 13th tee, there's a covered exhibit built by a local Boy Scout troop featuring triceratops footprints and other trace fossils:
This region is now a high desert; however, in prehistoric times it was a Florida-like swamp with palm trees. The trace fossil of the palm frond serves as the golf course's logo:
Cart path to the 13th tee:
13th tee, back to the buttes. You can see the nearby Coors brewery from this hole.
A par 3 with a two-tiered green:
By this point, darkness was encroaching so I didn't take pix of the last four holes because we were hurrying to finish. In short: a fantastic, unique golf experience. I'll certainly play Fossil Trace again next year and hopefully score better next time. If you want to check out another well-known public course along Colorado's Front Range, here are pix from Arrowhead.
Here's the view from the clubhouse overlooking part of the back nine. In the distance, you can eventually get a glimpse of Boulder's Flatirons, about 20 miles away. I was surprised how much water is in play throughout the round. Like most courses in desert environments, I can't imagine how much it must cost in irrigation bills to keep this place green.
In addition to it being a challenging round of golf, the big value-add of Fossil Trace is that you also get to experience and learn about the site’s historic and prehistoric past. Completed in 2003, Engh reportedly finished the original plans for the course in 1991 but had a decade's worth of challenges including preserving remnants of its role as a clay quarry since the late 1800s, cleaning up mining leftovers from excavated pits, and minimizing environment impact. Since I'm not a paleontologist, I had to look up the name of the course, which is the inverse of "trace fossil" -- i.e. a fossil of a footprint, trail, or other marking of an animal rather than of the animal itself, which is a "body fossil." More about that when we get to the back nine.
Already on the first fairway, there's an interesting feature: a trash incinerator used by a nearby boys’ school in the mid-1900s. I asked my playing partners if you get a free lift when your ball is next to it; they said it's like a tree, i.e. an active hazard:
At the green, you confront the first of many oddly shaped sand traps, the infamous "muscle bunkers." The objective for mere mortals is simply to get out of them, not necessarily to put your ball in a good position near the hole. This is one of the shallow ones. Later, you'll see me dealing with pits that are far deeper. Here's a video flyover of the hole, which gives you a better view of that sand trap.
It's nice to have these picturesque buttes frame your tee shot. In a non-drought year, they'd be far greener. This year, they're a desiccated brown, like what you'd see in New Mexico or Arizona.
Impressive how much sculpting they did on this course, around the green:
Deeper sand along with an example of another well-known Jim Engh feature: the amphitheater effect around greens, which often kicks errant shots toward the hole.
The only unexceptional aspect of the course is that a few holes on the front nine are along an unscenic part of Golden. Oh well, first-world problems:
While another player gets out of the trap, my tee shot on this par 3 is just to the left of the hole -- I putted in for a birdie.
A trap (more like a sinkhole) right in the middle of the fairway. With no real possibility to move the ball toward the hole, his only option was to use a sand wedge to get out:
Gotta love the Flintstones-esque signage:
7th hole approach shot: everyone told me, "whatever you do, don't be short!"
Of course, I was a club short and ended up in the absolute worst spot, behind a ten-foot headwall.
I tried three times to get out, gave up, and took an 8. A shovel would have been a better tool. Here's the flyover clip:
Now we're getting to the real fun, the back nine. On the 10th, a par 4, long players can gun for the green across a water hazard:
Approaching the former clay quarry:
Stairs to the 11th tee:
I landed in another deep bunker on the right. Took two tries to get out and I ended up with a 5.
A few of these are scattered on the back nine as a visual enhancement and reminder of the what they used to do here:
Teeing off on the 12th hole, which Golf Digest selected as one of the "18 funnest holes in the country." As mentioned before, you can see the Boulder Flatirons in the far background.
With dusk setting in, my pix don't do justice to this masterpiece. Check out the flyover:
My tee shot went way left, bounced off the clay cliffs and landed in a decent place:
Approaching the hole:
One of the other players found the sand:
Here's a shot from the course website that gives you a better idea of the sandstone pillars than my photos:
Between the 12th green and the 13th tee, there's a covered exhibit built by a local Boy Scout troop featuring triceratops footprints and other trace fossils:
This region is now a high desert; however, in prehistoric times it was a Florida-like swamp with palm trees. The trace fossil of the palm frond serves as the golf course's logo:
Cart path to the 13th tee:
13th tee, back to the buttes. You can see the nearby Coors brewery from this hole.
A par 3 with a two-tiered green:
By this point, darkness was encroaching so I didn't take pix of the last four holes because we were hurrying to finish. In short: a fantastic, unique golf experience. I'll certainly play Fossil Trace again next year and hopefully score better next time. If you want to check out another well-known public course along Colorado's Front Range, here are pix from Arrowhead.
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