Colorado AvidGolfer July 2022 Digital Issue (2.0)

AvidGolfer Colorado

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Elevating the Game Since 2002

THE LONG VIEW AT 8,463 YARDS, WINDSOR’S RAINDANCE NATIONAL MAKES GOLF HISTORY

RETURN OF AN

AMATEUR CLASSIC ///////

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CONTENTS

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JULY 2022

DEPARTMENTS 08 Forethoughts One Life to LIV.

By Jon Rizzi

10 The CGA

Junior Golf Championships get an overhaul.

15 The Gallery

The Country Club at Castle Pines’ new clubhouse; Cornerstone turns a corner; D’Lance at 25; Girls’ High School champions; the first U.S. Adaptive Open

88 Blind Shot

The 150th Open at St. Andrews.

By James Cusick COURTESY OF HUNTER SWANSON

FEATURES

72

Long Ain’t Wrong

At the 8,463-yard RainDance National — Fred Funk and Harrison Minchew’s historymaking, legacy-preserving course in Windsor—the fit could not be more right.

By Chris Wheeler

80

For the Love of Golf

Playing for pride, not a purse, some of the world’s best amateurs convene this month at Denver Country Club for the 118th Trans-Mississippi Championship. By Jon Rizzi

84

Going OB in Montana The stellar, secluded Wilderness Club continues to evolve. By Tom Mackin

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COLORADO AVIDGOLFER

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JULY 2022

SPECIAL SECTIONS

47

The 58th Inspirato Colorado Open

With the defending champion out of the field, who’ll take this year’s $100,000 first-place prize?

57

Colorado Getaways

PHOTO BY CHRIS WHEELER

72

47 PLAYER’S CORNER 29 15th Club

It’s All in the Hips.

By Kathleen Kershisnik Sieg, DPT

32 Lesson

Off to a Good Start.

By Keith Rogers

34 State of Play

Redlands Mesa, the Gem of Grand Junction.

By Jon Rizzi

SIDE BETS 36 Fareways

The best of Eagle and Summit counties and the Roaring Fork Valley.

Surf, Turf and Links at Green Valley Ranch Smokehouse and Oyster Bar.

By John Lehndorff

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42 Nice Drives

ON THE COVER

Poppies planted by Course Architect Harrison Minchew bring beauty to the tee of RainDance National’s 8th hole. Photograph by Chris Wheeler

2022 Porsche Macan GTS; Hyundai Kona Electric Limited and Mercedes EQS 450+ By Isaac Bouchard

JULY 22 | VOLUME 21, NUMBER 4 coloradoavidgolfer.com

PRESIDENT & GROUP PUBLISHER ALLEN J. WALTERS EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

JON RIZZI

SALES, MARKETING & ADVERTISING associate publisher

CHRIS PHILLIPS vp of sales & marketing

LORI PERRY

director of sales & marketing , golf passport & events

MIKE CARVER

digital marketing manager

BRANDON KUSEK

ART & EDITORIAL creative director

JANI DUNCAN SMITH art director

MICHELLE M. GUTIERREZ editor-at- large

TOM FERRELL automotive editor

ISAAC BOUCHARD style editor

SUZANNE S. BROWN contributors

SAM ADAMS, ANDY BIGFORD, E.J. CARR, ANTHONY COTTON, CLARKSON CREATIVE, TONY DEAR, DENNY DRESSMAN, SUE DRINKER, DICK DURRANCE, CHRIS DUTHIE, SCOTT GARDNER, GARO PRODUCTIONS, TED JOHNSON, JOHN LEHNDORFF, TOM MACKIN, KIM MCHUGH, CHRIS WHEELER

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Colorado AvidGolfer (ISSN 1548-4335) is published eight times a year by Baker-Colorado Publishing, LLC, and printed by Publication Printers Corp. Volume 21, Number 4. 6143 S. Willow Drive, #406, Greenwood Village, CO 80111. Colorado AvidGolfer is available at more than 250 locations, or you can order your personal subscription by calling 720-493-1729. Subscriptions are available at the rate of $17.95 per year. Copyright © 2022 by Baker-Colorado Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is prohibited. Postmaster: Send address changes to Colorado AvidGolfer, 6143 S. Willow Drive, #406, Greenwood Village, CO 80111. The magazine welcomes editorial submissions but assumes no responsibility for the safekeeping or return of unsolicited manuscripts, photographs, artwork or other material.

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Forethoughts

R NAMENT U O T

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One Life to LIV

2022

8

Letter from the Editor

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JULY 2022

AS RAINDANCE NATIONAL opens as the longest golf course in the Western Hemisphere, you’d think it would warrant more attention than just the cover feature of this modest regional golf magazine.

And with the Inspirato Colorado Women’s Open striking a blow for gender pay-equity with identical purses in its men’s and women’s events, you’d think more than just golfers would pay attention to the $100,000 Clariss Guce received for winning last month’s championship.

But as compelling as these stories are, the controversy surrounding LIV Golf—the breakaway golf league fronted by Greg Norman and financed by the Saudi Arabian government—overshadows it all.

A week after Guce’s landmark victory, Andy Ogletree earned $180,000 for finishing last in the inaugural LIV Golf tournament in England. The winner of that tournament, 2011 Masters champion Charl Schwarzel, made $4 million, plus $750,000 for leading his team, Stinger GC, to victory.

That’s the largest prize in golf history, but nothing in comparison to the $200 million Phil Mickelson reportedly received for defecting to the disruptors.

Similarly lured by lucre, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Patrick Reed, Bryson DeChambeau, Kevin Na, Louis Oosthuizen, Sergio Garcia, Abraham Ancer and other hessians have followed suit.

Suspensions of LIV golfers from the PGA TOUR have resulted—as have explanations to fans about why these guys can still play in the Masters and U.S. Open. One friend, who wouldn’t know a curling iron from a 5-iron, peppered me with questions.

I saddled up my high horse and started answering with terms like “sportswashing,” “human-rights violations,” “ties to 9/11,” “the murder of Jamal Khashoggi,” and “war crimes in Yemen.”

“Do the golfers have to play golf there or make their wives wear hijabs?” he said. “We do import Saudi oil. I just think it would be hard to turn down that much money, no matter where it came from.

If these guys are independent contractors, not part of some golfer’s union, then they have the right to make as much money as they can.”

It would be hard, I conceded, especially for an up-and-comer like Ogeltree, who’s 24 and paying

SCAN TO JOIN OUR NEWSLETTER OR SUBSCRIBE!

to play in qualifiers for PGA TOUR events in which he may not make the cut, to turn down a guaranteed $180,000 payday—no matter how much blood stains the money.

On the other hand, do golfers who have already made untold millions on the PGA TOUR need more?

Some might, given the sponsors that have severed ties with them. For these guys, greed trumps golf.

And that changes the calculus. Golf has always distinguished itself by its rich amateur heritage and the mertitocratic culture of its professional game.

Unlike other professional sports, there are no guaranteed contracts; you earn your living with every tournament. Miss a putt, miss a meal.

In addition, as more players defect to LIV, it will potentially dilute the PGA TOUR talent pool. To keep its stars, the PGA TOUR will have to increase purses, which puts pressure on sponsorships and ticket prices. It also portends to diminish the enormous philanthropic commitment in which the PGA TOUR takes so much pride.

I don’t begrudge any golfer for making a “business decision.” But from a moral perspective, I dislike LIV Golf and I don’t have to follow it.

Before you join me, though, remember that LIV Golf is an industry disruptor, just like the AFL was in football, the ABA in basketball and the WHA in hockey. These upstart leagues challenged institutions and poached talent—and brought the beloved Broncos, Nuggets and Avalanche to Denver.

So, if LIV Golf comes at RainDance National or another golf course near you, are you going?

JON RIZZI Editorial Director

R NAMENT U O T 2022

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The CGA

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Serving All Colorado Golfers

Raising the Junior Golf Bar An improved format brings the boys’ and girls’ state championships to a more competitive level.

O

ne wonders what Mr. and Mrs. M.A. McLaughlin—and the cadre of avid golfers and clubs who helped them found, respectively, the Colorado Golf Association and Colorado Women’s Golf Association in 1915 and ’16—would think if they could view Colorado golf today.

They would be amazed at the myriad advancements wrought by technology, as well as the abundance of amazing public and private courses across the state and the high demand for tee times at all of them. They might also marvel at the now-unified world of the organizations they founded.

While much has changed, one goal remains the same: to recognize the champions of men’s and women’s amateur golf in Colorado. This year we have introduced eight new champions to the state with the launch of the CGA State Junior Championship, a modern and elevated version of the historic CGA/CWGA Junior Stroke Play and Match Play Championships and their JGAC iterations.

Our goal is to crown the best boys’ and girls’ players in four divisions: Open, 13 & Under, 11 & Under and 9 & Under.

Starting in May, we’ve conducted stroke-play qualifying tournaments at different locations across the state. The boys and girls advancing from each event go to CommonGround Golf Course—the home course of the CGA—for a stroke-play competition to determine who advances to the multiple-day, s in g l e - e lim in a ti o n - b r a cke t match-play stage that decides COLORADO AVIDGOLFER

HITTING REFRESH: Combining stroke and match play competitions, the CGA aligns its format with that of events like the U.S. Junior.

LOGAN HALE

EMILY CHENG AND HADLEY ASHTON

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE COLORADO GOLF ASSOCIATION

10

WESLEY ERLING

the champion.

On June 23, we crowned the winners of the Open division. Next month, we will do the same for the boy and girl champions of the 13 & U, 11 & U and 9 & U divisions. The last two qualifying events for those are July 14 at Broken Tee Golf Course in Englewood and July 18 at Highland Hills Golf Course in Greeley.

According to CGA Managing Director of Golf Operations Ashley Harrell, “this championship format resembles several of the most sought-after junior championships in the nation, such as the U.S. Junior and U.S. Girls’ Junior Championships. This gives the state’s best junior golfers the opportu///

JULY 2022

nity to experience the rigorous challenges of stroke-play qualifying followed by single-elimination matches. Above all, the new format will crown singular state champions in each of the age divisions.”

Harrell continued, saying “the CGA State Junior Championship is a platform for junior golfers across Colorado to showcase their skills against the best in the state. Players representing communities from Montrose to Sterling have earned their way into the event —the vast statewide representation is an important aspect of this championship.”

Ed Mate, Executive Director/ CEO shared, “We look forward to providing a championship

experience that all participants remember for a lifetime— whether or not they hold the trophy at the end of the week.”

Celebrating and honoring champions remains a key part of the CGA’s mission of representing, promoting and serving golf in Colorado. The CGA values the competitive spark lit 107 years ago, and crowning men’s, women’s and junior champions will remain a priority for all of us at the Colorado Golf Association.

Learn more about CGA competitions at coloradogolf.org

Visit coloradogolf.org for information on all programs and contests.

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Golf Passport Member Conditions: 2022 Member Privileges. All rates include a cart unless offer specifies differently. Visit coloradoavidgolfer.com/golf-passport for complete details regarding rates, available tee times, number of rounds and reservation policy. Tee time requests are on a space available basis to Golf Passport members and participating courses’ rain check policies will apply. Unless otherwise stated, the golf offers are good from January 1, 2022 – December, 31 2022, excluding holidays, special events, tournaments or closure to environmental or economic conditions. Mountain seasons may vary slightly. The Golf Passport is limited to one per person and is non-transferable. Prices do not include sales tax. Some courses may require a credit card to secure a tee time prior to play. If a tee time is canceled, the golf course may charge for its discounted fee. Colorado AvidGolfer reserves the right to make reasonable modifications to the Golf Passport, effective upon notice by e-mail or first class mail to the Golf Passport member. A Golf Passport member may reject any such modification by responding in writing to Colorado AvidGolfer and returning the Golf Passport within ten (10) days. The Golf Passport member will receive a prorated refund. However, no refund will be given if the Golf Passport Member received the Complimentary Two Night Stay at CasaBlanca Resort and Two Rounds of Golf at CasaBlanca or Palms Golf Club. The Golf Passport member agrees that he or she is not entitled to any additional compensation. Colorado AvidGolfer disclaims all liability for damage or loss or property or injury to any person occurring while using the Golf Passport. If ordered online, please allow up to 10 days for delivery of your Golf Passport. Golf Passport membership includes a digital subscription to Colorado AvidGolfer with the option to opt-in to the mailing subscription for an additional fee. Members will also be subscribed to the Colorado AvidGolfer weekly newsletter list and can unsubscribe at any time.

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The Gallery

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News | Notes | Names

PHOTOGRAPH BY MARK LEWICKI/COURTESY OF THE COUNTRY CLUB CASTLE PINES

New Digs at Castle Pines

Y

ou won’t see paintings of Augusta or Pebble hanging on the walls of the renovated clubhouse at The Country Club at Castle Pines. Nor mountain landscapes or mounted elk heads. “You want mountains and golf, there they are,” General Manager David Whalen says, pointing to the floor-to-vaultedceiling-high windows that reveal a Front Range panorama stretching from Pikes Peak to Devil’s Head, Mt. Blue Sky (née Evans) to Longs Peak.

“The architects, Davis Partnership, had one mission: Maximize the views of our dramatic landscape wherever possible,” Director of Marketing Mark Lewicki adds. “They delivered.”

Did they ever. The “reinvented” clubhouse, which opened Memorial Day, is part of a $20 million expansion of club amenities that as of this month will include three tennis courts and a heated resort-style infinity-edge pool surrounded by an expansive deck with cabanas, a hot tub and fire pits that look towards the mountains and perch 400 feet above the 18th green. Adjacent to the pool, the All-Seasons Village building houses the men’s and women’s lockers and

showers, as well as a full room of Technogym equipment that spills onto a yoga deck and a cliffside restaurant and bar offering poolside service.

At the center of the transformation lies the clubhouse, “75 percent of which has been changed,” Lewicki says. Suggesting of the shape of the pinecone scales on the club’s logo, the chevron arch replicates itself more grandly as you enter, mimicking and framing the mountains clearly visible in the distance.

The expansive, high-ceilinged open floorplan represents a monumental upgrade to its partitioned predecessor. Although a deep gray covers most of the walls and beams, multiple modern light fixtures impart a sense of airiness. The club also strategically repurposed many of the large log posts and beams that had previously defined the structure.

Every table in the dining room boasts a view of the mountains and surrounding landscape. If members tire of the natural splendor, they can always watch Executive Chef Jimmy Terry’s team turn out showstopping dishes in the brand-new exhibition kitchen.

For private dining, there’s a glass-enclosed wine room, as well as the nearby Amethyst

Room, which doubles as a meeting space.

NanaWalls retract between the dining area and bar from the club’s heated and covered patio, creating a modernly rustic but elegant indoor/outdoor dining experience. The patio—the first iteration of which opened 10 years ago—now wraps around the entire rear of the building, with stairs leading down to The Crags, the acclaimed roller-coaster-like putting course that opened in 2020 on an acre straddling the precipice. At night, a trio of firepits and landscape lighting illuminate the green, as does a stunning 15-foot-high gas-powered torch.

The Crags isn’t all that’s new on the golf side, either. CCCP has unveiled an expanded short-game complex including two chipping and sand play greens as well as a full featured short iron range.

The entire project, which was approved in November of 2019, took about 27 months to complete. But it was well worth the wait.

After 35 years of listing a dining room and Jack Nicklaus Signature Course as its only amenities, The Country Club at Castle Pines can now accurately call itself a “country club.” ccatcastlepines.com

VIEWS YOU CAN USE: Like its Crags putting course (top right), CCCP’s renovated clubhouse makes magnificent use of the surrounding landscape.

coloradoavidgolfer.com

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The Gallery

News | Notes | Names

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TEAM SPIRIT: From top: The 3A champion St. Mary’s Wildcats (individual champion Maddy Bante third from right) sport pink to honor coach Ann Wolta Blackstone; freshman Hadley Ashton (far left) led the Erie Tigers to their initial 4A title; Valor Christian’s 5A win came with a team of rookies.

First Times for Everything

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COLORADO AVIDGOLFER

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JULY 2022

FROM TOP: PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY ANN WOLTA BLACKSTONE; COURTESY ERIE H.S. (VIA INSTAGRAM); COURTESY VALOR CHRISTIAN H.S.

n the 3A Championship at Broadlands Golf Course in Broomfield, St. Mary’s Academy—which last year claimed the first state championship in school history—duplicated the feat with a 43-stroke margin of victory. In both cases, the trio of Maddy Bante, Mallory Hopper and Natalie Tatar did all the scoring. Bante, who as a freshman finished second in 2021, closed the deal this time, firing an even-par 144 to become the first St. Mary’s player to win the championship. “I’m really excited for Maddy because she rallied from last year,” said Coach Ann Wolta Blackstone, who in August will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame. “I’m so blessed to have these girls on my team.”

The Hall will also honor Hadley Ashton, a freshman at Erie High School who earned the organization’s female Future Famer Award after winning last year’s JGAC Tour Championship. At the 4A championship at Grand Junction’s Tiara Rado Golf Course, Ashton captured the individual title with a 3-over 147 to lead the Tigers to their first-ever championship in girls’ golf. The 14-year-old phenom combined with sophomore teammates Logan Hale and Kait Park to put 14 shots between themselves and the Mullen High Mustangs.

Like Ashton, none of Valor Christian’s players had previously competed in the state championship. But that didn’t stop the Eagles from winning their first team championship in girls’ golf at the 5A championship at The Old Course at Loveland. Comprised of junior Elle Higgins and freshmen Brenna Higgins and Bella Eide, Valor finished eight strokes ahead of 2021 team champion Loveland High, despite a successful individual title defense by Loveland senior Katelyn Lehigh (75-69-144), whose sister Lauren also won back-to-back titles in 2018 and ’19. chsaanow.com

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The Gallery

News | Notes | Names

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Cornerstone Turns a Big Corner

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PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF CORNERSTONE CLUB

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lthough it occupies 4,700 scenic acres atop a plateau between Montrose and Telluride, Cornerstone Club’s outlook hasn’t always matched its spectacular views. That all changed five years ago when a resident-led ownership group took over and brought stability and vision to the private club.

In 2017, it hired former Greg Norman architect Matt Dusenberry to rejuvenate his ex-boss’s course, which, like the property’s 21 miles of trails, winds though magnificent aspen stands, thickets of scrub oak and panoramic promontories. Cornerstone now also boasts a full-on equestrian center, clay-shooting range and a stocked fishing pond. Throw in access to skiing at Telluride, fly-fishing on the Gunnison and on-property guest cabins, snowmobiling and cross-country skiing, and you have the makings of the ultimate fourseason club.

To realize its full potential, in May Cornerstone

2022 get into golf

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the 2022 tournament season is filling up book your event now! for more information, call our events team at 720.287.8195 or email tournaments@raccooncreek.com

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News | Notes | Names

SANCTUARY

PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF CORNERSTONE CLUB

entered into a management and operation agreement with Montage International. The California-based ultra-luxury hospitality company—whose portfolio includes properties from New York to Kapaula—now runs the club’s golf and club operations, programming, activities and amenity offerings.

“The Cornerstone ownership group was really attracted to the idea that we could expertly execute a luxury experience,” Montage VP Tina Necrason explains. “We know what the luxury community is looking for. It is a differentiator for the area and helps expand the property’s footprint on the awareness side.”

Details on how Montage will increase that footprint are still being worked out, but Necrason suggests that it might be similar to the private club/luxury resort/ residential community hybrid that Montage has in Montana. After operating and managing the private Spanish Peaks Mountain Club for a few years, last December Montage opened the 139-room Montage Big Sky luxury resort at the club.

Cornerstone lacks the kind of slope access that Spanish Peaks has at Big Sky Ski Resort. However, Necrason maintains that the abundance of existing and potential year-round outdoor pursuits provides “activation points” around which Montage can build Cornerstone’s membership and homeownership numbers.

By the end of this summer, look for some fully furnished guest cabins to complement four existing ones, as well as enhancements to the clubhouse. Plans for building new homes and recruiting new members are in the works. Could boutique lodging and luxury home rentals become part of the equation?

“We’re still formulating the future,” Necrason says excitedly. “We share the ownership group’s passion for this vast, beautiful property, and we’re determining what things will look like and when. We expect this to be a remarkable relationship.” cornerstoneclub.com; montageinternational.com

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Owned by the Colorado Golf Association, and designed by world-renowned architect Tom Doak, CommonGround can be found in Aurora at the intersection of Mission and Masterpiece. commongroundgc.com | 303-340-1520 20

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PHOTO: Wheeler Golfscapes

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The Gallery

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If the Club Fits…

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indoor Trackman4-outfitted hitting bays are getting fit for new shafts or clubs. Many come to practice with the benefit of the launch monitor, others to take lessons from one of the many instructors to whom Sueltz provides space. They’re there for the golf, not to drink beer and play games.

“There are at least ten of those places up and down the Front Range,” he says. “That’s for bachelor parties and entertainment. We have serious technology for serious golfers.” And he’s serious about serving them, even developing a free app to assist in fitting. D’Lance memberships, which cost $350 per month or $1,200 per year, provide unlimited access—the suite is open 24/7/365 via a back door with electronic entry. Bays run $50 per hour for nonmembers.

Twenty-five years is an achievement, but Sueltz, “being an engineer and a numbers kind of guy,” points to other metrics. “Our average member’s handicap is 10—and that includes juniors—and we’ve been a Golf Digest Top 100 club fitter ever since the award was introduced.” dlancegolf.com

DAN SUELTZ

COURTESY OF D’LANCE GOLF

rom persimmon to titanium to carbon fiber, D’Lance Golf founder Dan Sueltz has seen the materials used to make golf clubs change every year. “This is a fashion industry,” he jokes.

“Every year, there’s a trend, the latest and greatest.”

At D’Lance, this year’s material is silver—only because the precious metal commemorates the company’s 25th year of custom-fitting, building and testing golf clubs for each golfer’s unique swing.

A chemical engineer who spent years working in software development for major corporations, Sueltz opened D’Lance in 1997. As he developed the algorithms that formed his proprietary seven-step BGF (Better Golf…Faster) fitting system, he also cultivated a stellar reputation among amateur and professional golfers, equipment manufacturers, instructors and students. At its modest company headquarters in an Inverness office park, D’Lance annually fits roughly 600 golfers and builds more than 10,000 clubs.

Only some of the golfers who fill D’Lance’s four

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/// The Gallery

News | Notes | Names

Super Mario

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PHOTOGAPH BY JOHN LEYBA/COURTESY OF MARIO DINO

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total of 96 inspiring players will compete in the eight adaptive categories in the USGA’s inaugural U.S. Adaptative Open (July 18-20) at Pinehurst Resort’s No. 6 Course. Among them are Amy “I Got This” Bockerstette (intellectual impairment); World Golf Hall of Famer Dennis Walters (seated player impairment); and Ken Green (leg impairment). Green, the first winner of the inaugural International at Castle Pines, lost his lower right leg in a 2009 automobile accident.

There’s also Colorado’s Mario Dino, who’ll compete in the neurological disability category. Born with cerebral palsy, he discovered golf at age three. “Even though I have spent countless hours in physical and occupational ther-

apy,” he told Colorado AvidGolfer last year, “golf has been the best thing for my confidence and physical development.” The Mullen High graduate finished second in the 2020 4A High School Championship and now plays for the University of Redlands in California.

To show its support for all the competitors, the MagnaReady magnetic apparel company has introduced its first men’s shortsleeve polo embroidered with the logo for the U.S. Adaptive Open. The shirts ($65$75) come in light blue, lavender, heather grey, navy and black and feature patented magnetic closures hidden along the front, allowing it to be opened and put on one arm at a

time instead of pulled over the head. MagnaReady also makes a 122nd U.S. Open Championship polo. usga.org; magnaready.com; fantatics.com

2022

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Player’s Corner

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15th Club

By Kathleen Kershisnik Sieg DPT | Photographs by E.J. Carr

It’s All in the Hips A lack of hip mobility and stability leads to bigger problems than just higher golf scores. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

DURING MY DAYS as a NCAA Division I golfer, our daily routines focused more on improving hip mobility than on building hip stability. Today, as a Doctor of Physical Therapy, I know that stable (or “strong”) hips are equally as critical to the golf swing as mobile (or “flexible”) hips are.

I also know that most of my patients— men and women of various fitness levels, both golfers and nongolfers—have both weak and tight hips caused mainly by too much sitting and not enough core and hip exercises. (See “Lower Cross Syndrome” box on page 31).

On the golf course, this weakness and tightness can decrease swing speed, power, accuracy, distance and consistency. Off the course, it can result in painful orthopedic conditions ranging from spinal degeneration and disc herniations to labral and ligament tears, sciatica, arthritis and worse.

The following pages explain the importance of hip mobility and stability, let you gauge your hips’ mobility and stability, and show you exercises to help improve your game and leave you walking off the course feeling happy and healthy.

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Player’s Corner

15th Club

HIP MOBILITY WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO GOLFERS?

Titleist Performance Institute research shows that good hip internal and external rotation range of motion (greater than 45 degrees) is paramount for proper loading of the hind leg during the backswing and proper posting into the lead leg during the downswing. Additionally, the lead leg requires the most hip mobility: Research shows that golfers use roughly 75 percent of their available lead leg hip external rotation (ER) range of motion (ROM) and 84-131% of their internal rotation (IR) ROM during the golf swing.

TAKE THE TEST

Seated Hip Active Internal and External Range of Motion Test

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it with your trunk S slightly reclined and knee bent to 90 degrees. wing your lower S leg as far outward as you can without lifting your hips up off the surface.

This tests hip IR ROM (image 1).

3

wing your lower S leg as far inward as you can without lifting the hips up off the surface.

This tests hip ER ROM (image 2).

SEATED HIP ACTIVE INTERNAL RANGE OF MOTION TPI STATISTICS

SEATED HIP ACTIVE EXTERNAL RANGE OF MOTION TPI STATISTICS

NORMAL 45 deg Average

NORMAL 45 deg

AMATEUR GOLFER < 40 deg

AVERAGE AMATEUR GOLFER < 40 deg

AVERAGE PGA & LPGA GOLFERS > 60 deg

AVERAGE PGA & LPGA GOLFERS > 60 deg

60˚ 60˚

IMAGE 1

40˚

IMAGE 2

45˚ 40˚

45˚

HIP MOBILITY EXERCISES SEATED WINDSHIELD WIPERS 1-2 sets, 1 minute (multiple reps)

STANDING HIP IR + TRUNK ROTATION 1-2 sets each leg for 1 minute (multiple reps)

STEPS

1

ay on your back with both L knees bent and feet flat on the floor OR sit on the ground with both knees bent and hands behind you so your trunk is reclined.

2

STEPS

ove your legs like windshield M wipers side to side, pausing for 3 seconds before transitioning to the other side

*Try to avoid lifting your hips up off the ground. The goal is to get your knees to the ground while still maintaining contact between your glutes and the ground.

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1 2

tand with one foot in S front of the other and toe turned in Cross your arms across your chest and turn your trunk over the forward leg while keeping your feet still (hold for 3 seconds)

3

Return to midline with the trunk and repeat

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HIP STABILITY WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO GOLFERS?

Good hip mobility is nothing without hip stability, and the hind leg requires more stability than you think. While the lead leg is undoubtably important for stability and balance throughout the golf swing, we can’t forget about the importance of stability in the hind leg. The hind leg must control the available ROM in our hip joint in order to protect our low back from overextending and compressing. Research shows that golfers only use about 20 percent of their hind leg’s available hip IR ROM and roughly 35 percent of their hip ER ROM during the golf swing. That means the 20 different muscles that surround the hip joint have to work together to minimize over-rotating on the hind leg in order to protect the low back from injury and execute a good golf swing.

TAKE THE TEST

TAKE NOTE

Single Leg Balance with Eyes Closed

The result of prolonged sitting, poor posture and a lack of core and hip exercise, Lower Cross Syndrome (figure a) develops by the shortening of spinal muscles crossed with the shortening of hip flexors, weak buttocks and abdominal muscles. Compare with figure b, good posture.

1 2

tand by a counter S or wall in case you need it for safety tand on one leg S with the opposite thigh elevated and parallel with the floor

3

lose your eyes C and time how long you can go before: 1) opening your eyes, 2) making big movements at your chest or using your arms, 3) losing your balance, or 4) moving the foot on your stance leg.

RESULTS

Percentage that could maintain balance for more than 10 seconds

HIP STABILITY EXERCISES

a

Tight Erector Spinae

Weak Abs

AMATEURS

PROS

ON RIGHT LEG

ON RIGHT LEG

38% 39% ON LEFT LEG

57%

Weak Gulteus Maximus Tight Hip Flexors

64% ON LEFT LEG

b

ISOMETRIC HIP EXTENSION + RESISTED FIRE HYDRANT 2-3 sets each leg, 30 sec hold STEPS

1 2

fter putting a medium to heavy resistance A band loop above the knees, stand by a wall and press one foot flat against the wall with knee flexed to 90 degrees. ithout moving your foot against the wall W open your hip laterally and hold. (Keeping your standing leg slightly bent will engage the glute muscles.)

*Want to challenge your balance and stability?

Add a ball toss with a partner to this exercise!

Colorado native Kathleen Kershisnik Sieg is a Doctor of Physical Therapy and former Division I golfer and assistant coach at the University of Wyoming. She currently works at Physical Dimensions IHG in the Denver Tech Center (303-925-1050; physicaldimensionsihg.com). For more detailed videos of the above exercises, you can visit her Instagram @KKSiegDPT.

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Player’s Corner

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Lesson

By Keith Rogers | Photographs By Barry Staver

Off to a Good Start Perfecting your takeaway is key to a consistent swing.

01. ADDRESS

WHILE WE REGULARLY see several swing flaws, improper takeaway is by far the most common one among amateur golfers—and the most significant, because an improper takeaway leads to a series of unnecessary movements and manipulations that will rob you of solid contact, distance, accuracy and the ability to create a repeatable swing.

As my mentor, Jim McLean, often says, the first two to three feet of the takeaway are critical.

Understanding how the hands, arms and club should move away from the ball will drastically improve consistency, accuracy and quality of contact.

A great setup position makes it easier to return the club on plane and with a square clubface.

• Get in an athletic position (like a basketball player shooting a free throw): feet shoulder-width apart, back straight, knees slightly bent and your weight placed evenly from the balls of your feet to your heels—never forward on your toes.

02. SETUP

For a standard iron shot, relax your arms and keep your grip pressure at a 4-5 (on a scale of 1-10). From the rough, increase to 7-8.

• Place your hands slightly ahead of the ball and clubface, creating a slight shaft lean towards the target. Done correctly, your hands should be slightly to the inside of the left thigh for a right-handed golfer (do not over-exaggerate by having your hands completely in front of the left thigh.).

04.

HALFWAY BACK

With the club parallel to the ground, the shaft should match your toe line, and the leading edge of club head match your spine angle.

• At this stage the arms should still have little to no tension in them.

• Begin to hinge the wrists and bend your right arm going to the top.

• This position will aid in maintaining a downward angle of attack and compressing the ball at impact.

05.

AT THE TOP Certified Jim McLean Instructor Keith Rogers is Director of Instruction at 5280 Golf Instruction at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club in Denver.

Reach him by email at keith.solutions@gmail.com or text at 303 880-2222.

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03. THE TAKEAWAY

• Initiate the takeaway with your shoulder turn, not your arms or hands. Your club head, hands, and arms turn with your sternum. You should feel as if your lead (left) hand is pushing the club away, not that your trail hand is pulling it away.

• Maintain the club head position relative to your hands.

• DO NOT roll the clubface away with the hands; it will make this position impossible to achieve.

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JULY 2022

Arms will have formed a nice triangle.

• Keep your left wrist flat or even slightly bowed depending on your grip.

• Hands will intersect somewhere close to your right shoulder and on a great plane angle to return the club!

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Player’s Corner

State of Play

The Jewel of Grand Junction An emphasis on hospitality enriches the experience at The Golf Club at Redlands Mesa.

By Jon Rizzi

PHOTOS COURTESY OF GOLF CLUB AT RED LANDS MESA

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Player’s Corner

WESTERN SLOPE RATING: The clubhouse patio firepit (opposite) provides a perfect perch.

Clockwise from above: one of the course’s 27,000 annual rounds; the delectable Ocotillo; pool members come from both the community and town.

G

rand Junction turned into a golf destination when the Golf Club at Redlands Mesa opened alongside the Colorado National Monument in 2001. Climbing, snaking and plummeting through vivid red-rock outcroppings, architect Jim Engh’s surreal layout was as thrilling to play as it was to see—and after Golf Digest named it the “Best New Affordable Public Golf Course” in the country, golfers came in droves.

Twenty-one years later, they still do.

Only now, the surrounding 500-acre development sports 200 residences, and the former real-estate sales office now houses the golf shop. This arrangement allows the clubhouse to function as more of a hospitality space—not only for itinerant golfers, but for the growing number of neighbors, members of the men’s and women’s leagues and Grand Valley residents looking to play a memorable round or enjoy a special meal at Ocotillo Restaurant. Members of the pool club may also swing by for a swim.

A public course with a pool is but one of the changes Sandra and David Weckerly have brought to Redlands Mesa since buying it five years ago. The couple originally arrived from Niwot to retire in 2015, but David, who had worked as managing director for the development’s previous owner, had other ideas, as did Sandra. David reformulated the real-estate business model, leading to more than 160 sales, and Sandra, who has a background in restaurants and hospitality, became the general manager.

“We started treating it like a resort,” she says. “Every day you’re here, you should feel like you’re on vacation.” They remod-

“EVERY DAY YOU’RE HERE, YOU SHOULD FEEL LIKE YOU’RE ON VACATION.” eled, repainted and recarpeted, converting the boozy boy’s club atmosphere in the grill into the casually elegant Ocotillo, which serves as many golfers as nongolfers in its dining room and on its deck.

A righteous selection of cocktails, beer and wine complements Executive Chef Jose Anés’ wide-ranging lunch and dinner menus. His flair for sazón is evident in the ahi wontons, street tacos and grilled salmon with salsa verde. And if you must have a burger, make it the Ocotillo—with fried egg, bacon, Swiss and caper truffle aioli.

Men’s and women’s league members have access to the club’s golf simulator, and the 150-member outdoor pool club has a waiting list. The lower level hosts receptions

for tournaments and events like weddings, which spill onto an expansive event lawn where people once putted. “There’s still a practice green,” Westerly notes, “and plenty of room on the range.”

There’s also room to build some type of lodging, which the Westerlys know would complete the “resort” experience. Until that happens, many Grand Junction hotels offer stay-and-play packages.

Thanks to ownership investment and Superintendent Kass Severson, the golf course remains as good as ever, with in-season rates between $75 and $120 (including cart) per person.

To book a tee time 14 days in advance, visit redlandsmesa.com.

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Side Bets

Fareways

Surf, Turf and Links

Serious Southern BBQ and fresh seafood are a winning twosome at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club’s new signature eatery.

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By John Lehndorff

Adeeb’s Home Team Restaurant Group operates 37 restaurants in five states (including Bono’s Bar-B-Q in Centennial), as well as several seafood-oriented establishments. Although Adeeb is single-digit handicap, none of those eateries has ever been located at a golf course, and for good reason.

“I’ve eaten at plenty of good restaurants at golf clubs and I’ve eaten at some bad ones,” Adeeb says. “A lot of golf course restaurants are just glorified snack bars.”

However, the prospect of opening one of the “good” ones at Green Valley intrigued him. “I told Pat: ‘I’m here to help you. Let me think of a unique concept that would be right for this community,’” Adeeb says.

The restaurateur cut his teeth in the industry working at his family’s Jacksonville seafood restaurants. In 1980, he and his wife Brenda bought the Bono’s Bar-B-Q where the couple had their first date in 1968. However, the seafood and the barbecue offerings have largely starred on separate menus.

“This is a first for us,” Adeeb says in a Florida accent as thick and smooth as hollandaise. “There are barbecue places that serve a few seafood dishes and seafood places that serve baby back ribs, but there really aren’t places that have merged the two things like we have here.”

What he came up with for Green Valley is

PHOTOS COURTESY OF HOME TEAM RESTAURANT GROUP

PHOTO BY LISA “MOOSE” KRAL/DANCING IN MY HEAD PHOTOGRAPHY

Y

ou know change is in the air at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club even before stepping into the clubhouse. It’s a captivating aroma that’s part smoke, part spice and part seacoast.

“When you pull into the parking lot to play golf, you immediately smell that barbecue,” says Kevin Laura, president of Green Valley Ranch Golf Club and CEO of this month’s Inspirato Colorado Open. “It turns heads. It makes you hungry.”

The new Green Valley Smokehouse and Oyster Bar is rapidly becoming the rarest of attractions: a golf course restaurant that’s a dining destination for golfers and locals alike.

Located in a standalone building separate from the golf clubhouse and instruction academy, the innovative eatery resulted unexpectedly from a long friendship—cultivated at numerous golf courses and lots of post-round dinners—between Pat Hamill, the owner of Green Valley Golf Club, and Joe Adeeb, the legendary Florida restaurateur.

Last summer, when Hamill was looking for a great new concept to replace the facility’s Ebert’s Terrace restaurant, he turned to Adeeb.

“Pat and I have similar handicaps so we’ve played a lot together,” Adeeb says. “I told Pat: The last thing I need at 69 years old is another restaurant.”

FRIED & ’CUE: Opposite page, clockwise from top: smoked sausage and pulled pork sandwich; meat combo platter with collards and Brunswick stew; grilled salmon; the popular fried catfish with hush puppies. This page: the brisket sandwich and whole fried snapper both pair with sweet potato fries, grits and other downhome sides.

a family-style, sit-down restaurant set in a bright dining room plus an expansive bar area and a patio that looks out on the 18th hole.

“We got a lot of feedback from the nearby community that they thought Green Valley was a private club, and that the restaurant wasn’t open to the public. We’re trying to change that. Everyone is welcome, whether they play golf or not,” Adeeb explains, pointing out that more than 40,000 people live within a few miles of the course.

Green Valley Smokehouse and Oyster Bar has a split culinary personality that makes deciding what to order a pleasant challenge. One side of the menu features pulled pork, beef brisket, St. Louis-style slabs, sausage and turkey that spend up to 14 hours in the on-premises smoker. The meats are available on platters, in sandwiches and by the pound.

The establishment’s showstopper is clearly the chicken wings. Instead of being fried, Green Valley’s big wings are rubbed with spices and slow-smoked, giving them a melt-in-the-mouth craveability enhanced with mild, spicy or sweet barbecue sauces.

“In the South, it’s all about pulled pork.

Here brisket and ribs are a lot more popular so far,” Adeeb explains.

The seafood half of the menu starts at the oyster bar where dozens of freshly shucked bivalves from various coasts are available on the half shell along with hot or coloradoavidgolfer.com

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Side Bets

Fareways

FISH STORY: Clockwise from top left: the aromatic exterior; fish and chips; oysters chill with the catch of the day; the best-selling New Orleans Charbroiled Oysters.

EXTERIOR PHOTO BY JON RIZZI; ALL OTHERS CIOURTESY OF HOME TEAM RESTAURANT GROUP

GREEN VALLEY SMOKEHOUSE & OYSTER BAR

greenvalleysmokehouse.com; 303-375-7880

cold peel-and-eat shrimp. Starters include calamari and the memorable New Orleans charbroiled oysters crowned with butter, Parmesan, parsley and garlic.

Fried shrimp and Mississippi catfish along with beer-battered fish and chips naturally lead the list of seafood entrées, plus Charleston-style shrimp and creamy grits and Low Country Boil that combines shrimp, sausage, corn and new potatoes and a bottle of hot sauce.

Serious Southern seafood devotees will want to put in a special order for whole fried red snapper or the fresh fish of the day special served fried, broiled or blackened.

“We’ve been really surprised but seafood is outselling barbecue and fried catfish is more popular than salmon,” Adeeb says. He

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proudly notes that his Papa’s Joe’s combo of fried catfish and shrimp with hush puppies is the top order.

To give diners more bang for the buck, pricier items like snow crab, lobster, scallops and giant steaks don’t appear on the menu. Nor do the usual golf food suspects: club sandwiches and Cobb salads. Adeeb’s relatively short bill of fare does squeeze in grilled ribeye steaks, cheeseburgers topped with pulled pork and salads crowned with grilled salmon and house-made barbecue ranch dressing.

Some diners at the Smokehouse are skipping the proteins to focus on the delectable downhome side dishes ranging from cornbread, fries and rings to coleslaw, baked beans, sweet potatoes and silky collard greens. The don’t-miss comfort sidekicks are the rich creamed corn and baked macn-cheese.

Sweet finales at the restaurant range from banana pudding and a brownie sundae to peach cobbler. However, the eatery’s

JULY 2022

Florida origins makes ordering classic Key lime pie the perfect finale.

While the restaurant and the menu have been totally revamped, one beloved Green Valley tradition—the Three Hole Challenge—will continue. If you make par or better on the last three holes of the course, you get a free beverage at the bar … plus all the bragging rights.

As Green Valley prepares to host this month’s Inspirato Colorado Open, Joe Adeeb is wondering whether Green Valley Smokehouse and Oyster Bar is an idea that just may plot a new course for golf cuisine.

“I’ve got to tell you that we may really have something here,” Adeeb says. “We’ve already heard about a few golf clubs that might be interested in this concept. I’m excited to see where we can take this.”

Colorado AvidGolfer Food Editor John Lehndorff is the former Dining Critic of the Rocky Mountain News.

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Nice Drives

By Isaac Bouchard

The Wheels of Progress Even as gas prices soar and EVs become more attractive, some petroleum-

powered vehicles never lose their appeal.

2022 PORSCHE MACAN GTS

THE MACAN IS LIKELY to go down in history as one of the finest-driving gasoline-powered crossovers ever made. Updates for 2022 only add to its appeal. Porsche’s exterior changes are restrained but notable and include revised intakes, LED headlights and updated, textured side blades. The standard Macan model (as well as the sportier T model) run a turbocharged two-liter four-cylinder that can still shove the Macan to 60mph using launch control in a scant 5.8 seconds; EPA the S and GTS have RATINGS: lovely V6 twin turbo 17/22/19mpg engines making up 0-60MPH: to 434 hp. All use 4.3sec a PDK dual-clutch PRICE AS transmissions and TESTED: $94,990 superbly calibrated AWD systems as standard to ensure smooth, effortless performance.

The stars of the Macan show are the steering and chassis, fully worthy of the Porsche crest in their communicative abilities. The Macan remains composed over bad pavement—and is refined to boot. With sufficient space for humans and cargo, the interior exudes luxury and drama, and the basics are so good it’s easy to justify the spend. With comprehensive updates, the Macan continues to combine practicality and everyday usability with driving pleasure typical of a true Porsche.

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coloradoavidgolfer.com

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Nice Drives

2022 HYUNDAI KONA ELECTRIC LIMITED THE HYUNDAI-KIA GROUP NOW outsells everyone EV maker but Tesla EPA in the States, and the Kona is amongst RATINGS: the most affordable model one can 132/108/ 120MPGe buy. With 201hp motor driving the 0-60MPH: front wheels, it is very sprightly, and 6.4sec its 250-mile range means it can be PRICE AS more than an urban runabout.

TESTED: This Kona, like its gasoline siblings, $44,240 is also fun to chuck about and sized (before $7,500 really well for those with who mostly federal discount) travel solo, or with a single passenger.

Cargo room with seats folded is generous, and the tech is all intuitive and glitch-free. Although you can’t call any Kona luxurious, the quality is very high. It is quiet and rides quite well, and the Limited is loaded with features for its modest price. Backed by the best warranty available, it has three years of free maintenance included.

The Kona Electric proves that one doesn’t need to be a one-percenter to inhabit a gasoline-free future.

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2022 MERCEDES EQS 450+ IF WOW FACTOR is what matters, the EQS has it in spades. Its exterior is as slick as its shape suggests, cleaving the air more effi- EPA ciently than almost any other car; its interior, when equipped with RATINGS: the optional 56-inch-wide HyperScreen, is unlike any other; and 97/97/97MPGe the cockpit is as roomy as a platform designed for exclusively elec- 0-60MPH: 5.5sec (est) tric power would suggest, with incredibly sumptuous, massaging seats and pillowy headrests. However, the back seat is very oddly PRICE AS TESTED: shaped and tight. Springing for the Executive Rear Seat package $122,100* solves this, but it’s a shame it doesn’t come standard.

At night the Mercedes’ interior is flamboyant and stunning.

Onboard tech is generally very well executed, with the standouts being the augmented-reality navigation, huge head up display and one of the best voicecommand systems in the business.

The EQS ride is whisper-quiet and oblivious to most of the outside world’s intrusion. While the adjustable air suspension is susceptible to transverse ridges and abrupt pavement seams, in all other respects the EQS450+ is as luxurious a Mercedes as has ever been conceived. In the 450+ model, a 329hp, electric motor powers the rear wheels; the 580 4Matic’s 516 electrified ponies are harnessed by all four tires. Either way, a 107.8kWh battery—one of the biggest out there right now—ensures between 340 and 350 miles of driving range. Its 406lb-ft of torque also means the EQS can leap off the line, though most Coloradans will choose the AWD version or the forthcoming SUV built on the same platform.

THE

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WHERE LEGENDS BEGIN ® JULY 21-24, 2022 | GREEN VALLEY RANCH GOLF CLUB, DENVER

CLARISS GUCE | CHAMPION

2022 INSPIRATO COLORADO WOMEN’S OPEN

ALL PHOTOS BY CHIP BROMFIELD/ COURTESY OF COLORADO OPEN GOLF FOUNDATION

HARRY RUDOLPH | CHAMPION 2021 INSPIRATO COLORADO SENIOR OPEN

ALEX WEISS | CHAMPION 2021 INSPIRATO COLORADO OPEN

coloradoavidgolfer.com

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Let no commute go to waste.

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Prestige Imports 9201 West Colfax Ave. Lakewood, CO 80215

©2022 Porsche Cars North America, Inc. Porsche recommends seat belt usage and observance of traffic laws at all times. European model shown. Some options may not be available in the U.S.

JULY 21-24, 2022 | GREEN VALLEY RANCH GOLF CLUB, DENVER

Whom to Watch

ALEX WEISS

ALL PHOTOS BY CHIP BROMFIELD/ COURTESY OF COLORADO OPEN GOLF FOUNDATION

It Won’t Be Twice for Weiss

“I

t will suck not to go back,” Alex Weiss says, referring to the Inspirato Colorado Open, the tournament he won last year by one stroke. “The golf course was as good, if not better than, any course on the mini-tours. It’s the best nontour event that exists in the United States.”

Instead of defending his title, the 26-year-old Ohio native will compete that weekend in a Korn Ferry Tour event in Springfield, Mo. As of last month, he ranked just outside the top 75 on the KFT Points List and felt he needed to play in every event leading up to the penultimate KFT tournament near his hometown of Columbus and September’s season-ending Korn Ferry Tour Championship.

Despite the potential to hold another $100,000 winner’s check in Denver, Weiss says “it doesn’t make business sense” to play in it again. “This is my first year on the KFT, and I need to keep my card.”

Such are the decisions players make in an event that prides itself on being “where legends begin,” but not necessarily where legends return.

Weiss got his KFT card by winning two stages of KFT Qualifying School and finishing in the Top 50 in the Final. “The Colorado Open started the best three-month stretch of golf in my life,” he says. In addition to the Q-School stages, he forced playoffs in two other tournaments. “In five consecutive events, I only lost to two people.”

In Denver last year, he also almost found himself in a playoff. He’d started Sunday in the third to last group, two shots behind co-leaders—and Colorado natives—Jake

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Staiano and Derek Fribbs. A bogey-free 64 put Weiss at 19-under par. As the final group reached the 72nd hole, he was the leader in the clubhouse by a shot.

He says he was too excited to stay there—or even to warm up for a playoff.

With Fribbs and Staiano both needing birdies to catch him, Weiss watched Staiano—with whom he’d played the day before—reach the green in two. After Fribbs had a birdie chip roll past the hole, Staiano left his eagle putt eight feet short, and then missed just low on the birdie attempt.

Despite his disappointment, Staiano was gracious in defeat. “He was worldclass about it,” Weiss says. “He and his dad couldn’t have been nicer.”

“I didn’t feel like I lost it as much as Alex earned it,” Staiano says. “He chased me down.”

Staiano, who won the Sinclair Rocky Mountain Open a few weeks later, has done a fair share of chasing since qualifying for the KFT. Making only two cuts in his first seven KFT events, the rookie has registered for this year’s Inspirato Colorado Open as a contingency if he’s not in the KFT field in Missouri.

Fribbs has no such conflict. Shortly after coming up short at Green Valley Ranch, he won last year’s Siegfried & Jensen Utah Open and, not having status on the KFT, confirmed his participation in the 2022 Inspirato Colorado Open.

“It’s too bad the Colorado Open isn’t the following week,” Staiano laments. “I’ve always played well there, and the Korn Ferry has a week off.”

JULY 2022

In addition to Fribbs and maybe Staiano, this year’s Inspirato Colorado Open field will consist of former champions such as Sam Saunders (2020), Davis “Dru” Love IV (’18), Jimmy Gunn (’15), Zahkai Brown (’13), Wil Collins (’05) and Kevin Stadler (’02).

Last year’s low amateur, Easton Paxton, now competes as a professional.

Paxton tied for fifth with Olin Browne Jr., who will join other PGA TOUR legacies Gunner Wiebe, Tom Lehman Jr. and Michael Mattiace (Len Mattiace’s nephew). Two-time PGA TOUR winner D.J. Trahan has tentatively committed. Others competing include Colorado PGA stars Micah Rudosky, Geoff Keffer and Ben Lanting, as well as amateur standouts Colin Prater, Carson Griggs, Cal McCoy and Walker Franklin.

DEREK FRIBBS

2021

BY THE NUMBERS

10

strokes, relative to par, was the difference between 2020 Inspirato Colorado Open winner Mark Anguiano’s winning score of -29 and the -19 posted by 2021 champion Alex Weiss. The gap can be explained, in part, by par for the course shifting before last year’s tournament from 72 to 71, as the second hole changed from a 577-yard par-5 birdie hole (4.43 average score) to a tougher 463-yard par 4 (3.96). Another difference: weather. In 2020, rain fell the nights before rounds 3 and 4, softening the greens and prompting players to fire at pins. Lat year’s fast and firm conditions discouraged that.

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bogeys or higher came on Green Valley Ranch’s 417-yard par 4 10th, the tight-driving dogleg-left hole with bunkers running up the left side of the fairway. Despite being rated the course’s no. 10-handicap hole, it produced a scoring average of 4.33, the highest of any hole in last year’s Open.

JAKE STAIANO

16.62

represents the field’s Sunday’s average score over GVR’s final four holes, more than a half-shot higher than Saturday’s 16.04, and even above the three-day average of 16.23.

THE MOST FLEXiBLE WAY TO GiVE AND TAKE LUXURY VACATiONS

I N S P I R AT O . C O M / T R Y S E L E C T 855.481.5405 Inspirato® is a luxury hospitality company that includes a private travel subscription that requires a non-refundable Initiation Fee or Enrollment Fee and either an Annual Membership Fee, Monthly Membership Fee or Annual Subscriber Fee, as applicable. Travel is subject to acceptance of terms and conditions and other eligibility requirements. Availability, benefits, and nightly rates and taxes may vary by accommodation, date and membership, subscription, or travel option selected. See website (www.inspirato.com) for complete details. The operator of Inspirato® is Best of 52, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, a subsidiary of Inspirato LLC. Operator’s address, email address and telephone number are 1544 Wazee Street, Denver, Colorado 80202, info@inspirato.com, (303) 586-7771. Best of 52, LLC is registered with the Delaware Seller of Travel License No. 2022700082; State of Florida as a Seller of Travel - Registration No. ST38403; Washington Seller of Travel Registration No. UBI 603086598; Virginia Seller of Travel; California Seller of Travel Registration No. CST 2107465-50 (registration as a seller of travel in California does not constitute approval by the State of California and Operator is not a participant in the California Travel Consumer Restitution Fund). Pursuant to Haw. Rev. Stat. § 468L-1 et. seq., operator maintains a Hawaii travel agency trust account named "Best of 52, LLC Client Trust Account" at First Hawaiian Bank, 215 Papalaua Street, Lahaina, Hawaii 96761. Operator and its authorized agents, representatives, vendors, successors or assigns may perform Operator’s obligations and exercise its rights hereunder. ©Copyright 2022 Best of 52, LLC. All rights reserved

JULY 21-24, 2022 | GREEN VALLEY RANCH GOLF CLUB, DENVER CLARISS GUCE

HARRY RUDOLPH

ALL PHOTOS BY CHIP BROMFIELD/ COURTESY OF COLORADO OPEN GOLF FOUNDATION

L.A. Women

On June 3, for the second consecutive year, a player from Los Angeles County won the Inspirato Colorado Open by five strokes.

L

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The news put the Inspirato Colorado Open Championships in the vanguard of gender pay equity in sports, and it made Guce the 28-year-old event’s all-time money winner, vaulting from 50th to first. In addition to the $100,000, she also earned $2,800 for winning the pro-am with Butch Carlson. Her previous best performance in the Inspirato Colorado Women’s Open came in 2015, when she tied for first with current LPGA player Allison Emrey.

“I lost to her in a playoff but now she is one of my best friends,” Guce says, remembering she received $6,350 for second and Emrey $11,000 for first.

Although she now has more than enough money to pay for every stage of Q School, Guce hopes the momentum from Colorado will eventually carry her into the top 10 on the Epson Tour money list, earning an automatic LPGA Tour card. A top 25 will punch her ticket to the final stage of Q School.

While L.A. County women have cashed the last two winner’s checks, Boulder County collegians have captured consecutive low-amateur honors. Last year, Erie resident Hailey Schalk, who plays collegiately for the University of Colorado, fired a 3-under 213. Last month, Boulder Country Club product Kelsey Webster, currently a senior at Oregon State University, shot a 6-under 210, good enough for sixth overall.

JULY 2022

Inspirato’s sponsorship also brought a raise from $65,000 to $90,000 for competitors in the Inspirato Colorado Senior Open, making the purse the highest for any state senior open. The winner’s share of the event, which takes place at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club Aug. 24-26, jumped from $12,500 to $18,000. In 2021, Harry Rudolph, from La Jolla, Cal., became the first back-to-back champion in the event’s history. A year earlier, Rudolph defeated Denver-based amateur Jon Lindstrom in a sudden-death playoff. A Coloradan has not won the senior championship since Carbondale’s Doug Rohrbaugh in 2013.

TOP AND RIGHT: COURTESY LPGA TOUR; FAR LEFT: COURTESY OF COLORADO OPEN GOLF FOUNDATION

ast year, Savannah Vilaubi of Downey, Cal. carded a 15-under, five shots clear of two-time champion Becca Huffer of Denver. This year, Clariss Guce, of Artesia, Cal.—just eight miles southeast of Downey—was five shots better than another former champion, Lauren Coughlin, and one-time University of Colorado star Brittany Fan. Guce and Vilaubi, who this year finished a shot behind Coughlin and Fan, competed in Southern California junior golf, and then as members of Big West Conference college teams and on the Epson Tour. Playing and practicing at the local municipal courses, Guce still competes on the Epson Tour; Vilaubi plays out of Hacienda Golf Club in La Habra Heights and last year graduated through Q-School to the LPGA Tour.

But whereas Vilaubi received $50,000 for her victory, Guce’s check was for twice that amount, thanks to a groundbreaking sponsorship agreement between the Colorado Open Golf Foundation and the Denverbased luxury travel concern Inspirato. As part of Inspirato’s five-year deal to be the new title sponsor of the three Colorado Open Championships, competitors in the women’s and men’s events will now play for identical $250,000 purses and payouts, with the winner of each event receiving $100,000.

Seniors Get a Bump

Kup Runneth Over

The Inspirato Colorado Women’s Open can always boast of being the site of Jennifer Kupcho’s first win as a professional golfer. The 25-year-old Westminster native has now not only won an LPGA major—the 2022 Chevron Classic—but she also has multiple victories on the LPGA Tour, having defeated Nelly Korda and Leona Maguire in a playoff at Blythefield Country Club to make the 2022 LPGA Meijer Classic the second title in her brief career.

JULY 21-24, 2022 | GREEN VALLEY RANCH GOLF CLUB, DENVER RETIEF GOOSEN AND HUNTER SWANSON

ALEXIS CUNNINGHAM

“I

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HUNTER SWANSON (L) AND KYLE LEYDON

COURTESY OF HUNTER SWANSON

Colorado kids got to compete in the Pebble Beach tournament anyway. “On the day they announced it, we were on the 16th hole at Green Valley Ranch with (First Tee Program Director) Zach Kinmartin,” Leydon recalls. “We were watching Golf Channel on our phones, waiting for our names to pop up. I can’t describe the feeling of seeing my name and knowing I was going to play Pebble Beach in tournament conditions.”

At Pebble, Swanson was paired with World Golf Hall of Famer Retief Goosen, and Leydon drew Colorado’s Shane Bertch.

“Retief didn’t talk to me much, because he wasn’t too happy with how he was playing,” Swanson shares. “Still it was crazy to be in his presence.” So, Swanson, who caddies at Cherry Hills Country Club when he’s not mentoring kids at FTGVR, observed how Goosen worked with his caddie and managed the course and his emotions.

Goosen didn’t make the pro cut, but Swanson made the junior cut, and played the final round with New Zealander Steven Alker, both finishing fifth overall.

Leydon didn’t make the junior cut, but he came away from the experience with a

’ve never seen a tournament with nicer kids and more ball marks fixed,” Hunter Swanson says with a laugh.

A member of First Tee-Green Valley Ranch since he was five, Swanson is referring to last June’s inaugural First Tee National Championship at Clemson University’s Walker Course.

He and fellow FTGVR member Kyle Leydon were among the 24 boys and 24 girls selected to participate from 150 First Tee chapters across the country.

And by the time you read this, the best friends will also have competed in the second edition of the event—this time at the Warren Course at the University of Notre Dame—June 27-July 1.

At Clemson, Leydon finished 10th with a 7-over-par 223 while Swanson carded the low round of the tournament—a five-under 67 in the third round that propelled him into a playoff for the title with Ashton Harper of First Tee-Roanoke.

With an automatic spot on the line in the pro-junior portion of September’s PGA TOUR Champions’ PURE Insurance Championship Impacting The First Tee at Pebble Beach, Swanson lost to Harper on the first playoff hole.

The good news is that both

friend in Bertsch—with whom he has since played in Colorado—and two memorable encounters.

Before his early-morning tee time at Spyglass, the Brighton High School player arrived in the dark to work on his putting.

“I can barely see, and I hear someone with a bag,” he says.

“It was Bernhard Langer, and we wound up having a great 15-minute conversation.”

In the parking lot the following day, he spotted Vijay Singh and his wife walking towards him. “I thought I’d say ‘hi,’ not bother them,” Leydon remembers. “He says, ‘Hey Kyle, how’d you play this week?’ I had to comprehend how he knew my name. I stood awkwardly for five seconds. ‘I saw you on the driving range this week; you have a great swing, so keep it up.’ We talked for five minutes.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF FIRST TEE-GREEN VALLEY RANCH

COURTESY OF HUNTER SWANSON

Going Big Time

Driving Alexis

Currently a University of Denver sophomore, 19-year-old Alexis Cunningham started at First Tee-Green Valley Ranch when she was seven years old, “and I never wanted to leave.”

For the last four years, Cunningham has earned her way into numerous national First Tee programs. In 2018, she was selected as one of 96 participants from across the nation to attend The First Tee’s Joe Louis Barrow, Jr. Life Skills & Leadership Academy at Michigan State University.

The following year brought her to Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., as one of nine First Tee participants from around the country to partake in a CoBank PEAK Performers event featuring Sir Nick Faldo, who played six holes with groups of three while imparting wisdom and knowledge about golf and life.

“Both of those experiences were awesome, and were very much focused on golf,” Cunningham explains. In 2021, however, golf took a backseat at the inaugural First Tee Leadership Summit at West Creek Ranch in Montana. The result of an expanded partnership with PGA TOUR Superstore and the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, the Summit welcomed two groups of 20 participants— who had been selected after a lengthy screening process—for five days of “strengthening their leadership skills through dynamic outdoor and team-building activities and preparing them to transfer those skills to other scenarios they will face in the future.”

“It was a super neat experience,” Cunningham says, citing PGA TOUR Superstore’s Partnership Marketing Director Ralph Stokes as an inspiring speaker. Possessed of greater self-knowledge, she’s switched her focus from pre-med to pre-law.

But instead of a law-related internship, this summer she’s teaching kids at FTGVR. “I’m only 19, close in age to them, and I have some pretty good advice to give,” she says, adding that she wants to coach there as long as she can. “The more consistent the coaches, the more the kids want to be there. I know this from my own experiences.”

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MARKS 20 YEARS OF THE TURNING THE DOUBLE PLAY NEAR VAIL

Red Sky Golf Club PHOTO COURTESY OF TKKK

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VAIL VALLEY

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A world-class golf facility deserves a world-class instructor. One of the finest short-game players and teachers of his generation, former PGA TOUR player Larry Rinker runs the Red Sky Golf Academy. The academy features a golf-fitness center, private video analysis room complete with Flight Scope and a shaded outdoor practice tee and an elaborate short-game area to work on every scoring shot. redskygolfclub.com

20 Years Young OF A PIECE WITH the historic ranchlands, aspen groves and scenic ridgelines just west of Vail and Beaver Creek, Red Sky Golf Club debuted in 2002 with its 7,116-yard Tom Fazio layout and opened its 7,580‑yard Greg Norman-designed course a year later. The pair have consistently earned national accolades ever since. A private membership club with a separate resort golf operation, Red Sky Golf Club allows members and guests each to enjoy their own clubhouse (members at the Norman Course; guests at the Fazio), with play alternating daily between the courses. The Fazio Course sits lower in elevation, and weaves through open sage covered

HISTORY LESSON

Built on land once ranched by the Jouflas family, Red Sky perches south of I-70, across the highway from the private Eagle Springs Golf Club, a 1995 Jay Morrish/Tom Wesikopf design.

A Red Sky Golf Club membership—$140,000/ $10,761 dues—includes access to the lavish members clubhouse and Silver Sage Restaurant, fitness center, outdoor pool, clay tennis courts and mountains of programming. redskygolfclub.com

hills, a dense aspen forest and around a highland lake. The more rugged Norman layout climbs through outcroppings, twisted knots of scrub oak, rugged gulches and wildflower meadows, offering panoramic views from a number of greens Situated just 20 minutes from the Vail/Eagle County Airport, the courses serve as centerpieces to the exclusive 780-acre Red Sky Ranch community. Three dozen luxury COURTESY RITZ CARLTON

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Partner resorts offering stay and play options at Red Sky include such standouts as the Ritz Carlton– Bachelor Gulch, Pines Lodge and Park Hyatt in Beaver Creek; Arrabelle, Sebastian and Sonnenalp in Vail and 30 others. redskygolfclub.com

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COLORADO AVIDGOLFER

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JULY 2022

PHOTO BY BRENDAN CAFFREY

Experience Red Sky Golf Club – ONE OF AMERICA’S TOP MOUNTAIN GOLF DESTINATIONS In the heart of the Colorado Rockies, both the Tom Fazio and Greg Norman designed courses are consistently ranked in Golfweek and Golf Digest’s top courses you can play. Enjoy a round at Red Sky Golf Club, coupled with lodging at Beaver Creek or Vail, two iconic mountain villages. redskygolfclub.com | 1.866.293.4818

VAIL

Special Advertising Section

A 4-Season, 4-Course Club COVERING MORE THAN 7,000 acres and 2,000

tion—and cuisine, as each of the 18-hole courses

feet in elevation gain, The Club at Cordillera

features its own clubhouse and restaurant. The

When the snow flies, so do Cordiller’as mem-

affords opportunities for heartpumping hikes,

Valley has TimberHearth, the Mountain has the

bers—down the slopes of nearby Vail and Beaver

jaw-dropping views and championship golf at

Chaparral Grille and Summit boasts the epony-

Creek. The Club at Cordillera also boasts an out-

three distinct altitudes: The Tom Fazio-designed

mous Summit Grille.

door ice-skating rink, as well as a groomed track

the three-million acre White River National Forest.

Valley Course alights at 7,200 feet above sea level;

Golf isn’t Cordillera’s only summer activity.

for sledding, tubing, snowshoeing and cross-coun-

the nine-hole par-3 Dave Pelz Short Course perch-

There are Pickleball and tennis courts, and the club

try skiing on seven miles encompassing the Moun-

es at roughly the same elevation (8,126 feet), as the

owns fishing rights on 1.3 miles of the Eagle River,

tain Course, whose clubhouse serves as the Nordic

Hale Irwin-designed Mountain Course (8,250 feet)

and anglers can also cast into five trout-stocked

Center and restaurant provides the perfect après-

and the Jack Nicklaus-designed Summit Course

ponds. Spring, summer and fall bring hikes and

ski family atmosphere. While private, Cordille-

crowns the quartet at 9,200 feet. That equals 63

rides atop mountain bikes and horsebacks along

ra’s courses welcome Troon Privé members and

holes of changes in climate, topography, club selec-

the club’s 31-mile trail network that extends into

guests of select hotel partners. cordillera-vail.com

INSIDER INSIGHT BETTY FORD ALPINE GARDENS

HISTORY LESSON

As Vail Golf Club, the area’s oldest course, turns 60 this year, Cordillera’s Mountain course hasn’t hit 30, the Summit is barely 21, and the Valley and Short courses turn 25.

MOUNT OF THE HOLY CROSS

COURTESY OF THE BETTY FORD ALPINE GARDEN

PHOTO BY JEREMIAH LAROCCO/COURTESY WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

OUTSIDE AND IN: Endless outdoor options await in the Vail Valley. Instead of spending four hours chasing a white ball, hike to Gore Lake, Pitkin Lake or Lost Lake. Better yet, spend a half-hour viewing the Mount of the Holy Cross and the Gore Range via the Eagle’s Loop. You’ll never regret visting the thousands of plants and wildflowers at the Betty Ford Alpine Gardens, nor singing “Wagon Wheel” with Old Crow Medicine Show (July 24) at the Vilar Performing Arts Center—where Kenny G., Shakey Graves and Kristin Chenoweth (accompanied by the the Colorado Symphony) will also perform this summer. vilarpac.org

SPONSORED BY

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JULY 2022

EAGLE COUNTY

Special Advertising Section

Scoring in Eagle NOW IN ITS 22ND season, Eagle Ranch Golf

native grasses along its wide, mounded fairways.

Club has firmly established itself as one of the

Water—in the form of two ponds and the sinu-

best and most affordable courses in golf-rich Ea-

ous Brush Creek—comes into play on 10 holes,

gle County. The anchor of a residential community

creating numerous risk-reward options. Sitting

that has grown up 30 minutes west of Vail in the

at “only” 6,600 feet, the course opened in March

quaint town of Eagle, this Arnold Palmer Signature

and usually remains that way until Thanksgiving.

Design spans 5,423 to 7,461 yards, reflecting Pal-

High-season rates just recently cracked the cen-

mer’s belief that courses be enjoyable for every-

tury mark, but twilight golfers still can get a full

one and competitive enough for the pros (and Col-

18 for $75. The eminently walkable course boasts

orado Open qualifiers). More of a links-style than

generous greens and views of the Sawatch Range,

a mountain layout, Eagle Ranch features long

Flat Tops and Castle Peak. eagleranchgolf.com

The 14th Annual Eagle Mushroom & Wild Food Festival (Aug. 5-7) turns the tiny town of Eagle into a big mycology mixer. Learn from experts about wild-food foraging, cuisine, cultivation, preservation and adventuring. Cooking classes, live music and a special dinner at TiAmo highlight a full menu of events. eaglemushroomfest.com

SPONSORED BY

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JULY 2022

The first course in the Vail Valley remains its most popular. Currently its 60th season, the 6,766-yard Vail Golf Club layout sits at 8,200 feet, with views of the Gore Range and Gore Creek on most holes.

This month brings an end to the the second phase of a greens reconstruction project that will finish this time next year. “The greens were basically the same as they were when we opened in 1963,” Director of Golf Alice Plain says. To improve the drainage and overall health of the putting surfaces, Vail is building sand-based “Californiastyle” greens and carpeting them with dominator bentgrass, which will survive the winters better. In addition to course conditions, Vail has improved its already impressive pace of play by spacing teetime intervals from 10 to 12 minutes. “If it wasn’t for the pandemic, we never would have done it,” Plain says. “We lost one tee time per hour, but we didn’t lose any revenue. People are still playing in 4:07, but they’re happier and enjoying themselves more.” Other Eagle County courses, such as Eagle Ranch and Gypsum Creek have also shifted to 12-minute intevals. vailrec.com

As an international resort town, Vail oozes with excellent restaurants, including Sweet Basil, Mountain Standard and Mastuhisa. But there’s also Grill on the Gore, located in the clubhouse at Vail Golf Club, which doubles as a Nordic Center in winter. The seven-year-old restaurant features upgraded golfer comfort food accompanied by an awesome cocktail menu and specatular views of the golf course and mountains. vailrec.com

Mountain Golf at its Level Best

Eagle Ranch Golf Club is located in the beautiful small town of Eagle, Colorado, just 30 minutes from Vail. The majestic Colorado Rocky Mountains provide a spectacular setting for this Arnold Palmer Signature Design Course. The course opened in 2001 as part of the master-planned residential community Eagle Ranch. Our unique Western golf club features an 18-hole course, including a terrific practice facility, grille and patio.

For golfers also interested in dining at the Eagle Ranch Grille, ask about our $85 golf and lunch special for tee times booked after 12:00 noon. For more information, visit us online at EagleRanchGolf.com to book a tee time or call 970.328.2882.

0050 Lime Park Drive | Eagle, CO 81631 | 970.328.2882 | EagleRanchGolf.com

SUMMIT COUNTY

Special Advertising Section

This summer’s Keystone Festivals include the Keystone Wine and Jazz Festival (July 16-17), River Run Village Art Festival (July 23-24), Keystone Bluegrass and Beer Festival (Aug. 6-7), Mountain Town Music Festival (Aug. 13 & 20) and Oktoberfest (Sept. 3). keystonefestivals.com

THE 36 STUNNING HOLES at Keystone Ranch Golf Club and The

River Course at Keystone offer dramatically different interpretations of mountain golf. Set among the original homestead and barns from an early 1900s lettuce and dairy farm, the older Ranch course, designed by Robert Trent Jones II, weaves through parkland, sage meadows, pine forests and around a 9-acre lake. Four sets of tees ranging from 5,041 to 7,017 yards—as well as a orange short-course orange tees at only 2,635 yards—give golfers of every level a chance. So do the 2,561-yard orange tees that complement the five other teeing areas (4,748 to 6,886 yards) at the Hurdzan/Fry-designed

COURTESY VAIL RESORTS/ JEFF ANDREW

COURTESY VAIL RESORTS/ JEFF ANDREW

Keystone Combo

Keystone Resort prides itself on being the ultimate summer destination for the whole family, offering mountain-top hiking, lift-accessed mountain biking, fishing the Snake River, horseback riding, paddle boating on Keystone Lake, relaxing at the spa, enjoying a festival in the village and much more. keystoneresort.com

ADVENTURE PASS Booking two or more nights of lodging directly with Keystone gets you free golf on your arrival day, free evening golf for kids and unlimited same-day play.

River Course. Here, from elevated tees, shots float against bluebird-sky backdrops featuring the Continental Divide, Soda Creek Valley and Lake Dillon. The front nine holes play around the path of the Snake River and the back nine holes wind up and down through a lodgepole pine forest. Both courses offer a fully stocked golf shop, with the Ranch featuring the AAA Four-Diamond Keystone Ranch restaurant, a Wine Spectator DiRoNa winner, and has been named by the prestigious Zagat Survey as Colorado’s best restaurant. golfkeystone.com

Surrounded by mountain views, shops and restaurants, the five-acre Keystone Lake provides a postcard-like setting at the heart of Keystone’s Lakeside Village. Rent paddle boats, kayaks, canoes or stand-up paddle boards at Keystone Adventure Center. Or ride along the path that runs through the entire valley. keystoneresort.com

SPONSORED BY

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COLORADO AVIDGOLFER

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Colorado's Best 36 Holes

GOLF WITH ALTITUDE

Keystone offers 36 holes of Rocky Mountain golf at one incredible mountain resort starting at $205 per player. Golf fees include your golf car use, practice facility access, and practice balls.

Journey up and down through pine forests & sage meadows, over the river and around a lake as you experience two distinct golf courses, Keystone Ranch & The River Course. Enjoy panoramic views and exceptional service.

Bring your group for an unforgettable day or take advantage of free day of arrival golf & unlimited same-day play when you stay & play.

GolfKeystone.com

(970) 496-1520

SUMMIT COUNTY

Special Advertising Section

Grand Elk

Beavering Away in Breck IDEALLY SITUATED at the base of Breckenridge

Elk nines all rise to 9,300 feet above sea level. You

country trails. If you’re feeling strong, consider

Ski Resort’s Peak 9, Beaver Run Resort and Con-

can also try to get on the scenic Hurdzan/Fry/

summiting 14,184 Quandary Peak—the “easiest”

ference Center features 535 rooms and suites,

Tom Lehman-designed Raven at Three Peaks in

14er. The trail to the top starts 15 minutes south.

affording summer access to miles of mountainside

Silverthorne.

Fly-fishing on the Blue River never gets old; nor

hiking trails. A short stroll gets you downtown,

The hotel can arrange whitewater rafting trips

does floating down in a pontoon boat. For a feel of

or you can take the free shuttle. The resort boasts

through Performance Tours, and Breck Sports—

the old west, have the concierge arrange a horse-

swimming, hot tubs, fitness, tennis, spa services

which has a store at Beaver Run—can rent you

back ride through Breckenridge Stables and spend

and Spencer’s restaurant, making it the ideal base

bikes for rides to Vail, around much of Lake Dillon

approximately 90 minutes exploring the beautiful

for adventures.

and even to Keystone or Leadville.

Breckenridge scenery between Peaks 9 and 10 on

Those can start with a round (and a half) at

Within five minutes of the resort lie the trail-

the Ten Mile range. Alternatively, you can also just

Breckenridge Golf Club, one of Jack Nicklaus’s

heads for the Burro, Illinois and Sawmill trails, all

stroll into the lively downtown, where the Breck-

few 27-hole public courses. The Bear, Beaver and

of which connect to vast networks of other back-

enridge Arts District awaits. beaverrun.com.

INSIDER INSIGHT

HAPPY HOUR

Breckenridge Distillery’s eye-popping entrees come with eye-popping prices.

Instead of paying $150 for a Kobe steak, go between 3 and 5 pm when the Kobe steakburger is $12.

COURTESY OF MIMO FANCY TAPAS

BEER LOVERS will be pleased to know Breckenridge Brewery still pours Avalanche at its original downtown location.

For less pubby fare, however, head to the Breckenridge Distillery. The artisan whiskeys, vodkas and other “awardwinning hooch” pairs well with upscale menu items such as a 20-ounce Kobe New York Strip and Hazelnut Finished Pork. Other recommendations include the exquisite tapas at Mimo and the artistic aliments at the Ember, Relish, Aurum and Twist; and if you’re into rib-sticking starts to your day, hit the Columbine Cafe and order a smothered breakfast burrito. gobreck.com

SPONSORED BY

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JULY 2022

ROARING FORK VALLEY

Special Advertising Section

A FourCourse Feast WHETHER YOU’RE talking about the Maroon PHOTO COURTESY OF ASPEN PARKS AND RECREATION

Bells or celebrity residents like Kate Hudson, the Aspen area abounds in beauty. This includes its golf courses. While some of that splendor remains exclusive to the eyes of dues-paying members at Maroon Creek, Roaring Fork, Snowmass Club and Aspen Glen, the following four courses share their magnificence with everyone.

Architect Dick Phelps completed work on Aspen Golf Club’s walkable, tree-lined parkland layout in

River Valley Ranch Golf Club, a 7,348-yard Jay

wood perches north of I-70, offering stunning

1978. At 7,136 yards, it’s one of the longest municipal

Morrish gem that opened in 1997 along the banks

views of the Roaring Fork Valley. Ironbridge opened

courses in the state, but multiple teeing areas give

of the Crystal River. The river crosses or borders

50 years later with a stirring but stern Arthur Hills

all a chance. Water—in the form of ponds, creeks

about half of the holes, and RVR’s final four rank

layout that Tom Lehman “softened” in 2014. Leh-

and irrigation ditches—factors into nearly every

as one of Colorado golf’s finest closing sequences.

man removed 34 bunkers, but none of the views of

hole, as do views of Pyramid Peak. Tip: Aspen’s

Glenwood Springs features the nine-hole Glen-

Mount Sopris. The four-hole “Lost Horizon” stretch

lickety-split greens always break toward the valley.

wood Springs Golf Club and 18-hole Ironbridge

that starts the back nine remains a true feast for the

In Carbondale, mighty Mount Sopris looms over

Golf Club. Built in 1953 by Henry Hughes, Glen-

eyes, but now it’s less of a beast for the scorecard.

INSIDER INSIGHT

GOLF GRUB

In a restaurant-rich region, Ironbridge (The Kitchen), River Valley Ranch (Homestead Grill) and Aspen Golf Club (Red Mountain Grill) more than hold their own, with nongolfers regularly filling the tables.

A COMMITMENT TO sustainability and craftsmanship has propelled Carbondale’s Marble Distillery to the forefront of the handcrafted spirits field. At the company’s Distillery Inn, you can sample the creations right where they are made in a refined tasting room featuring a bar made from genuine Yule Marble quarried 30 miles away. You can then sleep off the effects of Hoover’s Revenge whiskey on premises in one of five plush rooms featuring sustainable materials, sophisticated finishes and ubercomfortable beds. A lodging component also figures in the Marble Bar Aspen, a tasting room with another custom Yule marble bar located the Hyatt Residence Club Grand Aspen. marbledistilling.com

SPONSORED BY

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LONG AIN’T WRONG In the case of 8,463-yard RAINDANCE NATIONAL, the fit could not be more right.

Text and Photography by Chris Wheeler

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A MARVELOUS SITE FOR A RAINDANCE: Arroyos wrap the green on RainDance National’s par-3 eighth. Two of the course’s nine bridges connect to other holes.

coloradoavidgolfer.com

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W

hen discussing RainDance National, Colora-

Located in Colorado’s Big Sky Coun-

do’s newest golf course,

try between Fort Collins and Greeley,

lots of numbers enter

RainDance National is the dream of

worked with Arnold Palmer for 26 years and who has designed 150 golf courses worldwide.

If you are imagining this site, situat-

the conversation: 300 acres; a 8,463-

eight-time PGA champion Fred Funk,

ed three miles east of I-25, to be gently

yard layout; a 752-yard par 5, 602-yard

renowned golf course architect Har-

rolling grasslands punctuated by mean-

par 4 and a par 5 that takes a 293-yard

rison Minchew, and owner/developer

dering streams, you could not be more

carry to reach the fairway. There’s also

Martin Lind. It is the longest course in

wrong. Instead, RainDance is a badland

225 feet of elevation change, a putting

North America and second to only a

of steep hills, deep arroyos, jagged

course measuring more than three

course in China for most yardage.

rocks and surprisingly little water.

A PLAN FOR THE LAND

into play is the 541-yard 15th, which

of RainDance National, which opens

In the fall of 2011, Design Consultant

curves around a large pond. Rain-

this month. To truly appreciate the gran-

Funk sent Course Architect Minchew

Dance’s rugged beauty is softened

deur of this project outside of Windsor,

topographic maps of the proposed Rain-

by tall prairie grasses and colorful

you have to see it for yourself.

Dance site, which sits two miles due

wildflowers. Sprinkled amongst the

west of Water Valley, a 25-year-old Lind

native flora are red poppies. Last year,

Front Range during the past 30 years,

development that includes the 27 holes

Minchew scattered the poppy seeds in

RainDance sits in a place where time

at Pelican Lakes and Pelican Falls golf

strategic locations around the course.

stands still. Atop the 18th tee box, it’s not

courses. The maps offered clues, but

The architect describes designing a golf

hard to imagine a party of Cheyenne Dog

nothing could have prepared Minchew

Soldiers roaming the plains, or a line of

for what he saw on his first visit.

acres and nine bridges.

But metrics tell only part of the story

With all the changes along Colorado’s

Prairie Schooners grinding their way to

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look like they have been there forever.

“I was stunned,” he remembers.

the new town of Denver City. The nine

“When you see it, touch and see

bridges throughout the course seem like

existing vegetation, it was like, ‘Oh my

smaller-scale versions of historic railroad

gosh!’ I have been doing this for a long,

trestles that hauled gold and silver from

long time and I do not remember a

the Rockies more than a century ago. The

site as good as that site.” That’s heady

bunkers, rimmed with native grasses,

praise coming from the architect who

COLORADO AVIDGOLFER

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JULY 2022

The only hole where water comes

THE LONG VIEW: The Mummy Range of Rocky Mountain National Park provides a picture-perfect backdrop for RainDance National’s fourth green.

Below, a rusted ’38 Chevy pickup serves as target practice at “The Funkyard,” RainDance’s driving range.

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MARKING AG HISTORY: From a rusting vintage tractor to gravel paths to rotary-hoe tee markers to directional signs fashioned from discarded fenceposts, “the whole goal is to make everything look like it was 100 years ago,” PGA Professional Christopher Williamson says. Far left: the long par-4 fourth reveals a distant view of Windsor.

CHRISTOPHER WILLIAMSON

course on this Oz-like land as a dream

THE MAN WITH THE PLAN

come true. “On a scale of 1 to 10, it’s a

A fourth-generation Coloradan, Lind’s

RainDance, however, is personal. To

15,” Minchew says.

German-Russian ancestors immigrated

honor his ancestors, Lind tapped into his

to Windsor around 1900. They labored

large collection of agricultural artifacts.

“It’s going to shock people when they see it,” RainDance owner Martin Lind

in the sugar beet fields, endured the

says. “Within one hour of seeing it, Fred

Dust Bowl and carved a living out of

(Funk) said it’s the most natural place

the harsh lands.

By the time Martin

for a golf course he had ever seen.”

arrived in 1961, the family had a 160-acre family farm south of Windsor. He’d planned to go into the family business, but after a crop-destroying hailstorm forced his father to quit farming

JULY 2022

John Deere harvester.

More historical treasures sit on a driving range dubbed “The Funkyard,” and at the “Firepit,” an on-course precipice that offers sweeping views of holes 4, 7, and 8 as well as the Rockies beyond.

“It’s an important part of our heritage,” says Lind. “To me, it’s personally

biles. In 1989, he formed a partnership

important.”

Water Valley.

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green rests a classic

selling oilfield supplies and automothat purchased the 1,200 acres to start

COLORADO AVIDGOLFER

The tee markers of RainDance are old rotary hoes. Just behind the 11th

“ON A SCALE OF 1 TO 10, IT’S A 15.”

in the mid-1980s, Lind found jobs

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industrial and residential projects.

THE LONG VIEW

Over the course of the next 32 years,

For all its outstanding natural beauty

Lind bought out his partners as he and

and colorful history, RainDance is all

his family-owned Water Valley Land

about the golf. Bogey golfers need

Company started reshaping Northern

not fear. At an elevation of 5,000 feet,

Colorado with numerous commercial,

Minchew says, the 8,463-yard Rain-

Minchew says, adding that RainDance

MARTIN LIND

HARRISON MINCHEW (L) & FRED FUNK

will bring to mind a links, where “you want to keep the ball on the ground.”

The greens average 6,504 square feet, which is comparable to courses that host PGA TOUR events. “This course is going to stand up to the best

COURTESY OF RAINDANCE NATIONAL

players in the world,” Funk said. “But the goal is for any player to walk off the course and say, ‘I can’t wait to do that again.’”

For all the efforts to accommodate recreational golfers, RainDance was created with a dream of bringing professional golf back to Colorado. Funk’s PGA pedigree is crucial, as is Minchew’s 35 years BOUNTIFUL HARVEST: A fourth-generation Coloradan who built nearby Water Valley and owns the AHL’s Colorado Eagles, Lind (above) hired Funk and Minchew (right) to realize a “personally important” vision with RainDance National.

Dance plays more like a 7,700-yard

of design experience. “It’s got not only

course at sea level. The holes have six

the length, but the space between the

tee boxes, making RainDance accessi-

holes makes it a potential tournament

ble for players of all abilities. The firm

venue,” Minchew says. He’s confident

fescue fairways are generous to say the

RainDance National will be hosting the

least. The fact that course maintenance

pros “sooner rather than later.”

only owns one mower for the rough tells you everything you need to know.

Despite the dramatic elevation

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Due to open July 12th, Funk, Min-

RainDance National lays on the land without spoiling its pristine beauty. The historical treasures scattered throughout the course provide a fitting tribute to those who have toiled on this land for centuries.

For all the accolades Colorado’s newest golf course deserves, the highest praise may be this: RainDance looks like it belongs.

chew and Lind have created a golf masterpiece on the northern plains of

changes, Funk and Minchew designed

Colorado. Just outside of Windsor is a

the course to have only four uphill

Chris Wheeler is a Lousiville-based

place where raw beauty, innovative

holes. “For the average golfer, it’s

photojournalist, documentary filmmak-

course architecture and Colorado heri-

going to play easier than you think,”

er, still photographer and avid golfer.

tage all converge.

raindancecolorado.com/raindance-golf

COLORADO AVIDGOLFER

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JULY 2022

Help Support The Animals at

The World’s Largest Carnivore Sanctuary

WildAnimalSanctuary.org

For the Love of Golf Playing for pride, not a purse, some of the world’s best golfers convene this month at Denver Country Club for the 118th Trans-Miss, one of the foremost amateur competitions in the country.

By Jon Rizzi

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COLORADO AVIDGOLFER

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A

s unapologetic avarice threatens to

Fred Couples, Bob Tway, Mark O’Meara,

splinter men’s professional golf, maybe

Nathaniel Crosby and Jack Nicklaus, Jr.

it’s time to show greater appreciation

championship conducted as stroke

all evil, but by the root of the word

play saw Tway’s son, Kevin, lose in a

“amateur”—amare, Latin for “love.” As

sudden-death playoff to Arizona State’s

in love of the game.

Scott Pinckney. The field included future

You probably already know that

PGA TOUR players Max Homa, Brandon

next September the U.S. Amateur will

Hagy, Coloradan Wyndham Clark and

be played at Cherry Hills Country

Harry Higgs, who finished T-11, a shot

Club, marking the fifth time the oldest

behind Gunner Wiebe, the talented son

national championship in the United States will come to Colorado. The great Jack Nicklaus won it PHOTO COURTESY AUSTRALIAN GOLF

at the Broadmoor in 1959, as did LIV Golf pioneer Phil Mickelson in 1990 at Cherry Hills.

But had you heard that one of “the majors of am-

...amare, Latin for “love.” As in love of the game.

of Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Mark Wiebe.

Prominent Trans-Miss champions crowned since then include Bryson DeChambeau (2013), Will Zalatoris (’14 and ’16), Collin Morikawa (’15) and Cameron Champ (’17).

They follow in a long

ateur golf”—the Trans-Mississippi Ama-

line of notable winners such as Ben

teur Championship—will take place July

Crenshaw Gary Koch, Bob Tway, Brian

5-9 at Denver Country Club? And did

Watts, Bob Estes, Deane Beman, Frank

you know the average handicap of plus-

Stranahan, Colorado Golf Hall of Famer

5 makes it the most competitive field in

Jim English and multiple winners Jack

the Trans-Miss’s 118-event history?

Nicklaus (twice), Johnny Goodman and

Part of the Elite Amateur Golf Series

Charlie Coe (four times apiece) and

(EAGS), the “Trans-Miss” (as it is infor-

Harry Legg, the Minnesotan whose vic-

mally called) has taken place in Colora-

tory in the 1910 Denver event was the

do 15 times since the Trans-Mississippi

second of his five Trans-Miss titles.

Golf Association’s 1901 founding. The

The most recent winner, Derek Hitch-

16th time will also mark DCC’s sixth—the

ner of the 2021 NCAA Division I cham-

same number of times that The Broad-

pion Pepperdine Waves, will attempt

moor has hosted it and two more than

to defend his crown against a field

Cherry Hills has.

that counts teammates William Mouw

DCC was first, however. One of 15 PHOTO COURTESY AJGA

ARRIVING AMATEURS: Defending Trans-Miss champion Derek Hitchner (left) will take on Australian star Harrison Crowe (top) and Texas titan Tommy Morrison.

At DCC in 2010, the first Trans-Miss

for players driven not by the root of

and incoming freshman Ian Maspat.

charter clubs in an association now

Muow and Hitchner are among dozen

composed of more than 200, the club

or so competitors ranked in the top 100

welcomed the Trans-Miss in 1910,

among DI college players, according to

two years before members heroically

Golfstat. Favorites include Oklahoma’s

restored the course after a catastrophic

Andrew Goodman, New Mexico’s Sam

flood to host another EAGS event, the

Choi, Louisiana State’s Cohen Trolio,

Western Amateur, which was won by

South Carolina’s Jack Wall, USC’s

the progenitor of the Evans Scholars

Jackson Rivera, BYU’s Carson Lundell,

program, Chick Evans.

Auburn’s Alex Vogelson and Louisville’s

The Western never returned to DCC,

PHOTO COURTESY TRANS-MISSISSIPPI GOLF ASSOCIATION

but the Trans-Miss did. In 1921 and ’46,

Jiri Zuska and Chris Francoeur.

Mason Nome will represent the

future U.S. Amateur champions George

current NCAA DI champion University

Von Elm and Skee Riegel triumphed in

of Texas Longhorns, although more

their championship matches, and in

people might notice 17-year-old Tommy

1980, University of Houston standout

Morrison, the UT verbal commit who

Ray Barr took out Gregg Jones of Colora-

stands 6-foot-9. They might also notice

do Springs, besting a field that included

that Sean Lehman (Cal Poly) and Carson

coloradoavidgolfer.com

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CAMERON CHAMP

WILL ZALATORIS

COLLIN MORIKAWA

HARRY LEGG

PHOTOS COURTESY TRANS-MISS. GOLF ASSOCIATION COURSE PHOTOS BY DEAN MAYO/FORETOGRPAHY/COURTESY DENVER COURTY CLUB

Herron (New Mexico) each resemble fathers who currently play on the PGA TOUR Champions, and that Boise State’s Joe Neuheisel shares a surname with a former head football coach of the University of Colorado..

Among the Colorado contingent are Griffin Barela, Davis Bryant, Cal McCoy, Connor Jones, Carson Griggs, Dillon Stewart, Andrew McCormick, Justin Biwer and Dylan McDermott.

“My pick is one of our own, Jackson Klutznick,” DCC’s PGA Head Professional Steven David says, citing the D-III Emory University star’s two DCC club championships, two Nickalus Award nominations and many junior titles.

Dozens of noncollegiate players have entered, as have competitors from 12 countries, with Australians—led by 20-year-old star Harrison Crowe and Kazuma Kobori—comprising most of the non-U.S. contingent. Aussie Lukas Michel, who won the 2019 U.S. Mid-Amateur at Colorado Golf Club will not compete.

The field will take on a course that

CULTIVATORS Since 1953, the Trans-Mississippi Scholarship Fund has assisted young men and women pursuing careers in turf management. The first recipient of the $600 scholarship, Colorado State University (then Colorado A&M) student Jay Morrish of Grand Junction, went on to fame as golf-course architect. “The Trans-Mississippi Scholarship led to a major career change,” said Morrish, who died in 2015. “The financial aid and assistance was invaluable.”

differs from the course that Trans-Miss competitors played in 2010. As David shares, recent renovation by Gil Hanse

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JULY 2022

has added bunkering and yardage via

continues. A DCC member must accom-

new tee box locations. “We also did

pany all guests and spectators.

restoration on Cherry Creek, which

It’s worth making that effort. You’ll

resulted in the relocation and expansion

see elite golf, played with the mission

of several greens,” he says, adding that

of “cultivating fellowship, harmony,

the course removed a number of trees

friendly competition and cooperation.”

to improve sight lines, turf conditions

It’s not the mercenary, supercharged,

and safety.

team-oriented, shotgun-start carnival

“Overall, the golf course should pres-

that threatens to diminish the PGA

ent a challenge not because of length

TOUR. And what’s not to love about

but because of the importance placed

that?

on positioning,” David says.

“DCC membership is excited to host the tournament and showcase the

Jon Rizzi is the editorial director of

newly renovated Gil Hanse design,” he

Colorado AvidGolfer.

AN URBAN INSTITUTION: The westernmost of the original 15 clubs in the Trans-Mississippi Golf Association, Denver Country Club will host its sixth Trans-Miss Championship on a course originally laid out by Old Tom Morris’ former assistant, James Foulis. Its most recent renovation, completed by Gil Hanse, brings Cherry Creek more into play and sports more bunkers, new teeing areas, greater length and expanded greens.

ESCAPE GOLF INDULGE The Ultimate VAIL Golf Getaway Two Days of Golf at The Club at Cordillera Two Night Luxury Accommodations at the Grand Hyatt Vail Mountainside Mimosa Welcome Breakfast Incredible On-Course Food Stations A Special Apres’ Golf Party & Dinner Amazing Food, Wine, Beer and Cocktails Great Player Prizes & Course Contests for ALL “Competitive” & “Play for Fun” Flights

CORDILLERA GOLF EXPERIENCE A Colorado AvidGolfer Signature Event

Saturday & Sunday September 10 -11, 2022

SPOTS ARE HIGHLY COVETED SIGN UP TODAY @

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Going OB in Montana The stellar, secluded Wilderness Club continues to evolve.

By Tom Mackin

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JULY 2022

I

s it truly possible to get off the grid

partners in 2015 to assume leadership

these days? Probably not. But golfers

of the club, brings his own personal

do have a better chance than most

vision for a family resort catering

thanks to remote destinations like

to two different audiences. “One is

Bandon Dunes in Oregon, Cabot Links

owning your own place and it being a

in Nova Scotia and the Prairie Club in

getaway,” he shares. “Or you can come

Nebraska. Still, those very worthy sites are primarily for golf XXXX

diehards. What about a place with a stellar course, comfortable accommodations and stunning natural surroundings—plus amenities for the whole family? For all of that, it might be tough to beat the Wilderness Club in northwest Montana.

Home to an exhilarating course designed

by Sir Nick Faldo and Brian Curley (it’s currently ranked No. 1 in on Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play in Montana), this resort

“This is a lifelong pursuit for me. When I sell to people, I tell them I’m selling to my friends, neighbors and family because I’m here for the long haul.”

destination certainly fits the remote bill. Direct flights from

a place, and play the course. When you rent through our program you get access to all of our amenities (golf course fees are extra).

It’s definitely not highend private. That’s not us. We’ll always have a hospitality component to it. We book out in the summer when there’s lots of demand.

The fall starts to slow down and the winter is slow. That’s why it’s my desire to build a Village Center and host retreats where people can gather away from all the hustle and bustle year-round.”

Another difference here? Ehlert, a

Denver—on United or Frontier—land

Canadian who originally hails from

at Glacier National Park Airport, and

Calgary, lives on the property. “I tell

after a 90-minute drive north, through

people I’m not like most developers. I

the small town of Eureka, you arrive at

don’t think of this property as let’s sell

a 550-acre property that sits alongside

out, look for the next project, and how

a National Forest Reserve just 15 miles

many of these developments can we

south of the U.S.-Canada border.

do?” he says. “This is a lifelong pursuit

For owner Brian Ehlert, the secluded

THE CALL OF THE WILD: Variable winds off the adjacent lake can make Wilderness Club’s fiddly 17th green (left) a tough target; guest cabins (top), cottages and suites provide rustic elegance; an early-season golfer makes his approach.

for a week, rent out

for me. When I sell to people, I tell

location is a strong selling point these

them I’m selling to my friends, neigh-

days, especially after pandemic-in-

bors and family because I’m here for

duced lockdowns. “Before people used

the long haul. When we sell property,

to say, ‘Well, you’re kind of remote, I

we just dump that money right back

don’t know,’” Ehlert explains. “Now

into the resort.”

everybody’s thing is, ‘You’re remote,

A ton of that money is going into

right? Because that’s where we want to

various phases of new development,

be.’ So that’s changed things quite a bit

which includes a groundbreaking this

over the past couple of years.”

summer for the Village Center. With

Ehlert, who bought out various

an anticipated opening by mid- to late-

coloradoavidgolfer.com

85

2023, it will comprise an event center, new golf shop, general store, real estate sales center, golf cart barn and a welcome area, followed by a Phase II that will include a spa and other amenities. Dining is currently available at the Wilderness Grille in the clubhouse, where the local huckleberry fruit

TAKE YOUR SHOT: Framed by the Salish Mountains and flanked by bunkers and water, the par-3 5th can produce a birdie—or a bailout to the right.

“...not everybody in the world likes to golf, so we’re trying to find things that everybody in the family loves to do.”

highlights items on the menu.

In terms of real estate, which has

fair and thoughtful layout built in

The architects saved the best for last

attracted buyers primarily from the

2009. Starting off with three rather

however, with a final trio that stands

Midwest, West and South, 200 of 320

welcoming holes, it launches to a high-

among the country’s best, highlighted

planned lots have been sold. Options

er level on the fourth, a slight dogleg

by a downhill tee shot decision on the

include smaller luxury cottages

left par 4 with a green split in half by

16th, a heavily contoured green on the

(starting in the upper $400,000s) that

a sharply sloping ridge. If the hole is

par 3 17th, and a closing par 5 with

range from studios to 2-bedrooms, that

on the lower right half, good luck. The

water in play up the left side. Pon-

feature elegant yet rustic interiors,

heavily bunkered sixth is a devilish,

derosa pines line every fairway and

kitchens, a fireplace and an outdoor

risk-reward par 4, while the dogleg

you’d be hard pressed to find a more

hot tub. There are also 2- to 5-bedroom

right ninth features a fairway that

peaceful setting for such a frustrating

estate homes available.

bends right before tumbling dramati-

sport!

And there’s the golf course, a fun,

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COLORADO AVIDGOLFER

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JULY 2022

cally down to the green.

The course, usually open April 1st to

PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF THE WILDERNESS CLUB

early October, is blessed with five great

plans that call for the addition of ten-

months of golf weather. Conditions in

nis courts, pickleball courts, and even

April and October can fluctuate, while

a garden center. Perhaps the most

cooler temps in May and September

mesmerizing thing to do at the Wilder-

balance out the summer heat, which

ness Club, however, is simply to enjoy

can reach 100 degrees at times.

the views of nearby mountains during

“The golf course is a great amenity,” noted Ehlert. “But not everybody in the world likes to golf, so we’re trying to

back porch or hot tub at night.

“There’s lots of little things here that all add up to big things in my mind,”

ily loves to do.” That’s where a Water

Ehlert reflects. “Just the vastness of

Park, with saltwater pools, a hot tub

it I think is beautiful. We don’t have

and a 250-foot-long water slide come

any air-traffic noise, road noise, or city

in handy. As does a Sports Park with

noise. We make our own noise with

a basketball court, fire pit, picnic area

construction. Besides that, usually all

and amphitheater for live music.

you hear are the birds and the wind

swimming, fishing, hiking, cross coun-

NOT-SO-WILD WEST : Tasteful bunking and bunkering defines the rustic elegance of Wilderness Club.

the day or stare at the stars from a

find things that everybody in the fam-

Not enough? There’s also kayaking,

Wilderness Club Eureka, Mont. wildernessclubmontana.com; 406-889-6501

going through the trees. That’s really attractive.”

try skiing in winter, and a growing menu of outdoor activities. The latter will expand exponentially thanks to

Tom Mackin is an Arizona-based contributor.

coloradoavidgolfer.com

87

Blind Shot

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The Unseen Game

PHOTOGRAPH BY GORDON-HATTON

The More Golf Changes… …the better St. Andrews looks, especially as it welcomes the 150th Open Championship.

T

his July brings the 150th edition of the “History of the Scottish Torture,” as Alistair Cooke— sort of an old-school, 18-hole Jonathan Franzen—once called it. Only the Royal & Ancient in St Andrews, he wrote, could celebrate the national game with a crucified saint on its coat of arms.

Whatever way you see it, Open No. 30 in the old cathedral and university town is timely. Let others worry about armored courtesy cars, and whether there’s trunk space for millions in unmarked dollars. At St Andrews, everyone knows who the real star is, and why golf has been played over the northern borders of this place for more than 600 uninterrupted years. Ask in serious locker rooms. The Old Course’s reputation is the natural consequence of where and who.

This “metropolis of golf”—1754 hype by the Society of St Andrews Golfers—has survived a royal order forbidding engagement in its practice and a contract granting 50 years of mining rights. It was almost lost to legalized rabbit farming in the late 18th and early 19 th century. It will even survive the current uncivil golf war.

The place endures. It is about those who come to worship, not what anyone takes away. The myth? The

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COLORADO AVIDGOLFER

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JULY 2022

myth is that nothing changes. The reality? The whole place is in constant evolution—and 2022 is no different.

This will be the biggest Open Championship of all time with nearly 300,000 general admission tickets available. Why are they here? The R&A have planned a parade of champion golfers and a four-hole exhibition over 1, 2, 17 and 18. It will feel confirmational, that the soul of something valuable rests here, regardless of the game’s ongoing adventures elsewhere.

James Cheape, who ended the rabbit wars by buying the under-siege links, would still recognize today’s roped-off Old Course. Misty-eyed commentators might claim Mary, Queen of Scots would recognize the Road Hole (she wouldn’t, honest). Others will focus on defense of the realm, noting that in 1990 when Sir Nick Faldo won, the course was much the same length (6,933 yards) as it was in 1955 when Peter Thomson captured the second of his five Open titles. The 2022 card is once again 7,279 yards—a gentle 5 percent nod to technology.

As the past is protected as much as the future, nothing seems dated at St Andrews. That is the R&A’s great trick. —JAMES CUSICK

THE SPAN OF CENTURIES: Known for ages as the Golfers’ Bridge, the iconic structure traversing the sinuous Swilcan (aka Swilken) Burn connects the first and 18th fairways of the Old Course at St. Andrews—and links every golfer to the game’s history.

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