July 2013

CELEBRATING 100 ISSUES!

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Elevating the Game.

What you don’t know about

Dave Pelz’s Short Course could cost you

The Legendary

BILLY CASPER On recognition, respect and his role in the rebirth of The Golf Club at Ravenna

JULY 2013 | $3.95

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Bobby Clampett’s Impact on Instruction Are Scorecards Obsolete? • The Rub on Massages Solheim Home Stretch • A Mountain Golfer’s Guide

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©2012 Anheuser-Busch, Michelob Ultra® Light Beer, St. Louis, MO • 95 calories, 2.6g carbs, 0.6g protein and 0.0g fat, per 12 oz.

InsideContents

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I n E v e ry I s s u e 6F orethoughts What 100 Means By Jon Rizzi 9 Gallery iWanamaker, WinQuest, Red Rocks CC, more 88 The Games of Golf 1913-2013 Player’s Corner 17 Home Course Cordillera’s Dave Pelz Short Course. By Jon Rizzi 20 Instruction Bobby Clampett’s moment of truth. By Jon Rizzi 22 Competition The Solheim Cup’s deciding holes. By Neal Reid 26 15th Club The benefits of massage.

By C.G. Funk

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Colorado AvidGolfer | July 2013

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F e at u r e s Sidebets 29 Fareways Wellshire’s gastronomic gauntlet. By Gary James 32 Nice Drives Cadillac ATS AWD 2.0T, Jaguar F-Type, Subaru Forester 2.5i Touring.

By Isaac Bouchard

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2013 HealthONE Colorado Open The championship celebrates 10 years at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club.

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Colorado Getaways

Your guide to savoring summer in and around Aspen, Vail and Summit County.

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Have We Got Issues From Todd Helton to Kevin Costner to Amelia Earhart, a selective highlight reel from 100 editions of Colorado AvidGolfer.

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Oh Billy, Billy, Billy, Billy Underrated by the media but never underestimated by his opponents, the legendary Billy Casper now looks to move The Golf Club at Ravenna way up the leaderboard. By Jon Rizzi

on the cover Photograph of Billy Casper on the 18th green at The Golf Club at Ravenna. By Barry Staver.

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July 2013 Volume 12, Number 4

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Allen J. Walters editor

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automotive editor

Isaac Bouchard contributors

Sam Adams, Andy Bigford, Tony Dear, Lynn DeBruin, Sue Drinker, Dick Durrance II, Chris Duthie, Amy Freeland, Lois Friedland, Gary James, Barbara Hey, Ted Johnson, Kaye W. Kessler, Jake KubiĂŠ, Todd Langley, Kim D. McHugh, Emily Ritt, Bob Russo, Jerry Walters, Neil Wolkodoff digital and social media manager

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coloradoavidgolfer.com Colorado AvidGolfer (ISSN 1548-4335) is published eight times a year by Baker-Colorado Publishing, LLC, and printed by American Web, Inc. Volume 12, Number Four. 7200 S. Alton Way #B-180, Centennial, CO 80112. Colorado AvidGolfer is available at more than 250 locations, or you Winter order your personal subscription by calling 720-493-1729. Subscriptions are available at the rate of $17.95 per year. Copyright Š 2013 by Baker-Colorado Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is prohibited. Postmaster: Send address changes to Colorado AvidGolfer, 7200 S Alton Way #B-180 Centennial, CO 80112.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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Colorado AvidGolfer | July 2013

T

hese are tough times for magazines.

Gun-control lobbyists are threatening to ban the high-capacity kind, drones target those stockpiling ammunition, and digital communication is endangering the print-and-paper variety.

Yet I’m pleased to report that for the 100th time, the presses at American Web ran this month for Colorado AvidGolfer. I’ve edited every one of those issues, and as I looked over my library of 99 magazines in preparation for the mini-celebration that begins on page 72, I found myself absorbed in stories I’d forgotten we’d published, even ones I had written.

Will people ever forget about publishing magazines on paper? Newsweek quit print. So did U.S. News & World Report. The ubiquity of digital publications and of affordable devices on which to read them (including smartphones) has rendered print publishing quaintly anachronistic, as a recent New Yorker cartoon of two ruffed medieval guys reminded me: One, possibly Gutenberg, is looking at the other poring over a book in his print shop. “Nice,” the visitor says, “but as long as there are readers there will be scrolls.”

As long as there are readers, there will be print magazines—at least I hope so. Although Colorado AvidGolfer is transitioning successfully to the digital world (see the overhauled coloradoavidgolfer.com and sign up for our enewsletter) and has embraced social media (“friend” us, will ya?) and other forms of electronic communication, our printed products—the magazine and the Golf Passport—remain our most identifiable creations.

The print editions also command attention when they’re autographed, framed and hanging on our office walls. It’s an impressive gallery you simply can’t recreate in PowerPoint with jpegs and electronic signatures.

The great Billy Casper (page 80) will sign this, our milestone issue. I had the privilege of visiting with him at the stunning Golf Club at Ravenna, which his company now manages. The 82-year-old Casper won three majors, 51 PGA tournaments and amassed more Ryder Cup points than any U.S. player in history. Yet he remains overlooked among golf ’s legends— particularly in comparison to the “Big Three” of Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player. Far from embittered, he is a gracious, emotional man who can still chip and putt better than you or I can.

Short-game expertise is Dave Pelz’s métier. At Cordillera, where he has a home, he designed his only Short Course (17). When played as he intended, these 10 holes can lower your scores almost immediately.

Your scores will also go down if you improve your ball-striking. So says another part-time Rockies resident, Champions Tour player Bobby Clampett (20). His Impact Zone Golf program recognizes no two swings are the same, but the best players have identical impact positions—and so can you.

Introducing you to intriguing people like Messrs. Casper, Pelz and Clampett has inspired me for 100 issues—and will continue to do so for 100 more, in whatever forms they may take. —JON RIZZI

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Keeping It Real-Time

I

f you disapprove of cellphones on golf courses or enjoy the post-tournament suspense as scorecards are calculated and results calligraphed, then iWanamaker probably isn’t for you. But if you want to know if a birdie could win a member-guest, or if you just like seeing where you stand during any event—be it an eight-man best ball, 144-person charity scramble, or a virtual skins game across different time zones—then read on.

The brainchild of Colorado Springs IT specialist Doyle Heisler, iWanamaker delivers real-time scoring directly to a players’ smartphone. You simply key in scores the same way you’d pencil in numbers on a card. It’s easy, it’s fun and so intuitive players aged 13 to 80 can do it.

Heisler hatched the idea while staging tournaments for family and friends as part of a “Heisler Golf Association” he started in 2001. He’d hold

co lo r a d o a v i d g o l f e r. c o m

competitions around each major (the Wanamaker is the PGA Championship trophy) and would enter scores into programs and spreadsheets. “I’m always looking to automate and make life easier,” he explains. Heisler first had players report real-time scores via walkie-talkies, then via pagers, then via texts on cellphones. By 2011, he’d developed a real-time, browser-based, smartphone-friendly event-scoring system that accounted for handicaps and course ratings and would work across all platforms. He rolled it out at a tournament at Boulder Country Club and then got Oregon’s Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club to deploy it at its 120-player member-guest, where it was an out-and-out hit.

Success stories from The Broadmoor, Pebble Beach and dozens of other courses have followed. Not only is iWanamaker a real-time way for event planners to engage entire

SMART SCORERS: iWanamaker creator Doyle Heisler (right) and Dan Padrnos

fields for leagues, events and charity tournaments; it also presents multiple revenue streams for the courses. After paying for an annual iWanamaker subscription, these courses can sell advertising on leaderboards or license the program to organizations whose events they host. At a recent charity event, sponsors paid $5,000 for leaderboard advertising space. iWanamaker also encourages badinage on its “wall,” and will soon be adding the ability to post video and photos. Advertising opportunities exist in those areas as well.

“I’m as old-school as it gets, so I was skeptical,” says Colorado Golf Association Executive Director Ed Mate, who tried a “paperless experiment” by using iWanamaker this May at a Colorado Junior Golf fundraising tournament. “But overall, I’m very pleased. It couldn’t have been easier. And it was great fun.” iWanamaker.com July 2013 | Colorado AvidGolfer

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A new player entered the Colorado golf stage when Aspen Skiing Company recently sold Snowmass Club to Toll Golf, the golf and country club operating division of the Toll Brothers homebuilders. Toll Golf will manage all club amenities, including the dramatic Jim Engh course design and 64,000-square-foot clubhouse, as well as provide day-to-day administration the member-owned residences. Toll’s Membership Access program affords privileges at the two-dozen clubs in its portfolio. snowmassclub.com

Mind’s Their Business

Bob Rotella doesn’t have golf ’s mental-game market cornered.

PAIR FOR THE COURSE: Renee and Marilyn Norcross rewire golfers for success.

Just ask Mark Wiebe. In 2004, the Colorado Golf Hall of Famer had spent the better part of two years struggling with his game and his confidence after enduring elbow surgery. Then he hired Marilyn Norcross of WinQuest Worldwide. Wiebe went on to win the 2007 SAS Championship and two more Champions Tour events. “It blew my mind how fast, powerful and lasting her techniques are,” he marvels. “I only wish I’d started with her earlier.” A one-time U.S. National Gold Medalist figure skater, Norcross has developed

specialized techniques that rewire neural pathways in the brain to embody and sustain new habits of excellence. Her approach is highly personalized, empowering and, most important, produces lasting results that stand up to the pressure of competition—be it in sports, business or entertainment. Norcross has been at it for more than 30 years, the last 20 alongside her daughter, Renee, with whom she’s trained and transformed more than 10,000 people around the world, including Olympic, professional and

elite athletes, international government leaders, Fortune 500 executives and women’s organizations. Although their company works internationally and often with corporate teams, the Norcrosses call Colorado home and have a special place in their hearts for golfers, who, like skaters, are wired to compete individualistically and require highly personalized mental strategies in order to break through slumps and ignite winning and sustained performance. winquestworldwide.com

Red Rocks Pools Its Resources As the sun sets on another workweek, illuminating the sandstone outcroppings that give the club and nearby amphitheater their name, some 500 men, women and children at Red Rocks Country

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A Toll in Snowmass

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Club are basking in the glow of another Friday evening at the pool. The live music pulses; specialty margaritas and conversations flow on the recently expanded deck; raw oysters slide down gullets like so many kids into the water. “Action” stations with tasty street tacos, Korean short ribs, Kahlua pork, tuna poke, fresh juices and made-to-order snow cones (spiked and virgin) complement the cabana menu of gourmet wraps, salads and burgers.

“There was a time the pool was a ‘sleepy’ asset,” says General Manager Mark Condon. “Now it’s the major gathering place.” The change in the pool environment represents part of what Condon and Membership Director Ali Canyon call Club 2.0, which maximizes and programs all the facility’s assets for the enjoyment of entire families.

Like other clubs, Red Rocks

POOL PARTY: Friday night delights at Red Rocks.

has instituted kids’ sports camps, themed dinners and multigenerational cooking classes. But how many clubs have a private fishing lake? Moreover, how many country clubs have turned a waste area off a fairway into an organic garden cultivated by club members?

Best New Restaurant

Thirty-five Red Rocks families each have a four-by-eight-foot area on which they grow herbs and vegetables. “They’re so passionate about it,” explains Executive Chef Robert Meitzer, who started the culinary garden in 2011. “It’s great family time,

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and it’s also kind of competitive.

Members are becoming more educated about food and product sourcing is a big deal.” Some produce goes home with its grower; some ends up on the club menu.

Meitzer also built an arbor next to the garden, which functions as an

Wine Spectator “Best Of” Award of Excellence 2013

5085 S. SYRACUSE ST., DENVER, CO 80237 July 2013 | Colorado AvidGolfer

11

theGallery

FARM TO TABLE: Off the ninth fairway, Red Rocks members cultivate organic gardens and eat and drink alfresco.

idyllic private alfresco dining area.

All this comes as the golf course, thanks to work by member Kevin Atkinson of

3 Essential Keys to Consistency, Control and Power is the subtitle of Geoff Greig’s new The Sweet Spot, the first of six short ebooks that will cover all aspects of the game.

Greig, a PGA teaching professional at Green Valley Ranch Academy, is the founder of EvoSwing Golf, which he calls “a response to my students’ desire for simple information that can help them change as quickly and easily as possible.” This ebook series is a way for them to make that information portable. amazon.com

ity on steroids,” says Condon. “We’re not reinventing the wheel.We’re just rolling with it.” 303-697-4438; redrockscountryclub.org

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Colorado AvidGolfer | July 2013

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p h o t o g r a p h C O U RT E S Y O F Dav e Pe l z G o l f

Long View on the Short Course

The only one of its kind in the country, Dave Pelz’s often overlooked course at Cordillera can make you a better player.

By Jon Rizzi

D

ave Pelz is stoked.

The renowned short game instructor has returned to Cordillera, where the Short Course he designed and debuted in 1997 has reopened for play now that the development’s much-publicized legal and financial situation has resolved itself with a trifurcated ownership structure.

“It’s been closed for two years,” he says while seated in a booth at the Grouse on the Green restaurant adjoining the Short Course’s golf shop. “But even before then, with the management and ownership changes, the philosophy of the course was totally lost.”

That philosophy is “to help anyone who plays it a significant number of times to play better on every other course in the world, because it embraces about 85 to 90 percent of the shots in golf on 25 percent of the land and 25 percent of the time of a full 18-hole

co l o r a d o a v i d g o l f e r. c o m

course.” To achieve this, Pelz designed holes between 100 and 200 yards long on 43 acres, with two types of tees (level and uneven) and two basic sets of rules (one for playing target golf through the air; the other for bumping-and-running along the ground). To Pelz’s dismay, however, over the years those rules evaporated like so much morning dew.

The 10-hole par-3 layout basically became a pitch-and-putt afterthought to Cordillera’s 18-hole Valley, Mountain and Summit courses.

But when representatives of the Cordillera Property Owners Association—which as of January 1 owns the Short Course—asked him to bring back his highly successful Scoring Game Schools, Pelz first needed to know what the plans were for the course that bore his name.

And after meeting with CPOA Principal Dan Bennett and touring the course with superintendent Kenny Haynes and

PGA Head Professional Bo Heidrick, Pelz felt exhilarated. “They all gave me a commitment that the course will be restored to its original design and be put into as perfect condition as we can get it,” he says. “All the lanes, cutlines and the trajectories have been designed in, and the fairways will run firm and fast— if there’s a little tinge of yellow in the green, that’s perfect. You can’t bumpand-run on spongy green turf.”

The course, which reopened last month, features three sets of tees—not for men, women and juniors, Pelz explains, but for different bump-and-run shots. He maintains hitting off the uneven teeing area rather than the level one approximates more accurately what you’ll face during an 18-hole round. “I don’t know about you, but I have never played golf on a level fairway or level green surround,” Pelz says. “Laser-leveling on practice tees is the new buzzword, and it’s just not July 2013 | Colorado AvidGolfer

17

playersCorner

in the best interest of the game.

All lessons are given on flat tee areas. Then you go on the course and you say, ‘I was so good on the range and can’t take it to the course. Well, the ball’s above your feet, it’s below your feet.

Your right foot’s above your left, your left is above your right.

There’s not a golf course in the world that’s flat.”

Players who choose to play the “in the air” or “target golf ” game can hit off the level or uneven teeing areas. There are separate scorecards for each of these “regular” approaches, just as there are for players who elect to bumpand-run their way around the course.

“The ground game is much more challenging because you only take two clubs—say, a putter and a 6-iron,” explains Pelz. “And you’re not allowed to land your tee ball on the green or you have to knock it off—a two-shot penalty, in essence. It teaches you not to lay the club open, cut a shot and try to stop it on the green.

That’s not what this is about. It’s about hitting the ball somewhere out on the fairway with the right spin and right curvature of trajectory, to bounce up and roll onto the green.”

Pelz designed four of the holes to promote left-to-right bumpand-runs; four run right-to-left and the other two are dead straight. “The reason I have made it this way is that many courses that are not flat have trees, bush-

4

es or lakes or water or whatever obstacles and other things in the way,” he says. “If you’re in the woods, you can’t pop the ball into the fairway or you’ll hit a tree.

If you can hit it on the ground and you can move it right to left or left to right, you have a good

the right. I’m not saying you’re going to use that shot—it’s a lot easier with a sand wedge—but it makes you realize when you’re in the woods, don’t knock it in a bunker. Play a little to the safe side of green.”

To shed the Short Course’s

SHORT CIRCUIT: The walkable course winds through Cordillera’s Kensington Green.

shot of getting on.”

And what of hitting out of sand with only a 6-iron? “Well, then, just imagine you’re Seve Ballasteros. You wouldn’t believe the high, soft spinning sand shots he could hit with a 3-iron. I can get out of bunker with a 6-iron. You have to lay the club open, aim way left, and slice under it, and the ball spins and kicks a little to

pitch-and-putt identity, Heidrick is posting course records for all four approaches on a big board in the clubhouse. “There are some people who just want to play with their kids and practice,” explains the pro, “but we also attract a clientele that’s a bit more competitive.”

Playing the Short Course can take an hour or less. There are no

long walks between greens and tees, and no time wasted walking between big long drives and big long second shots. The pro will explain the different ways you can play. The views—which take in the Vail Valley and four other golf courses—are spectacular, as is the confidence gained by executing the shots that make up 80 percent of your handicap.

“Every shot you hit out there will be required of you at some point on a regular golf course, including those here at Cordillera,” says Pelz.

The Short Course is the only one of its kind in the country.

But with the USGA and PGA intent on making the game more accessible, Pelz’s Short Course—with or without its byzantine rules (box)—could portend a trend. He has another one planned along Lake Keowee in South Carolina.

But first he has to make sure to get the word out about the one in the Rockies. “People don’t know it exists and they don’t know how well it would fit with golf as we know it. This is not competing with golf as we know it.

It supports it.” golfcordillera9.com; 970-926-5550 Cag From July 25 to 27 the Short Course will host the only Pelz Signature Session in the U.S. this year. Students have the opportunity to interact and learn from Dave Pelz and his expert teaching staff.

800-833-7370.

Ways to Play the Short Course By Dave Pelz

1. In the Air

2. In the Air

3. On the Ground

4. On the Ground

• Full Set of Clubs • Uneven Tees

• 2 Clubs (your choice) • Level Tees

• 2 Clubs (your choice) • Uneven Tees

• Full Set of Clubs • Level Tees

Rules of Play

18

Each day, each hole will have one set of Level Tee markers, and one set for Uneven Tees (there is no distinction for men’s, ladies, junior or senior tees).

For each round there will be 3 holes set with Level and Uneven Tees in each of the FORWARD, MIDDLE, and BACK positions.

USGA Rules of Golf apply—except for play “On the Ground” as follows: 1) The number of clubs that may be carried and used is reduced from 14 to 2.

2) Any shot from tee that first lands on green is assessed one (1) penalty stroke.

3) Any shot from tee that first lands on the green, and then stays on the green, must be putted off the green before the pal to play out.

4) Player may claim ball “unplayable” when in sand, and drop beside hazard no closer to hole, with a two- (2-)stroke penalty Colorado AvidGolfer | July 2013

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player’sCorner

INSTRUCTION

Bobby Clampett’s Moment of Truth The popular player and part-time Steamboat resident’s greatest impact may be as an instructor. By Jon Rizzi

D

oes Jim Furyk’s ball know how funky his swing is? Does B u b b a Wa t s o n ’ s or Matt Kuchar’s?

Did Lee Trevino’s or Johnny Miller’s? Of course not. “The ball only knows impact,” says Champions Tour player and PGA Tour champion Bobby Clampett. “Every one of these players has a swing style that traditional instructors would

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Colorado AvidGolfer | July 2013

never teach, but these players are some of the best ball-strikers ever because their impact positions are almost identical.”

Impact, Clampett says, is “the moment of truth, where the rubber hits the road.”

That’s why he created Impact Zone Golf. “It’s a shift in teaching philosophy. Impact is he starting and end point for improving a student’s golf game. It’s not about copying

anyone’s swing. It’s about putting yourself in position to make the best possible impact with your swing. It’s like Arnold Palmer says in that commercial: ‘Swing your swing…I did.’”

Clampett swung his swing to a stellar collegiate career at Brigham Young University and then to 17h place on the PGA Tour money list in 1981.

But when he decided to take

his game to a higher level, the swing style teachers wanted him basically “to start over— and I was dumb enough to believe them.” He soon found himself starting over...as a part-time broadcaster with CBS in 1991—a position he held for 20 years. Watching the world’s best players, as well as playing with amateurs in pro-ams, inspired “an aha moment” that led him to aucoloradoavidgo lf e r.c o m

thor The Impact Zone in 2007. “It changed my whole way of thinking about the game.

There’s a whole process of learning the game from that perspective now.”

What Clampett saw were amateurs trying to emulate the swings of the pros but bottoming out four inches behind the ball, or flicking at it. That led him to develop the five dynamic fundamentals. They are not modeled after any Tour player—“You don’t teach the 5th graders the same thing you’d teach graduate students,” he says—and are designed to produce consistent, solid impact.

The dynamics are 1) a flat left wrist; 2) a swing bottom (divot) four inches in front of the ball; 3) loading the club on the backswing; 4) using a strong workhorse (pivot) to lag the clubhead on the downswing; and 5) maintaining a straight plane line.

Clampett, who has earned more than $1 million since qualifying for the Champions Tour in 2010, says he has invested most of those earnings in spreading the Impact Zone gospel—DVDs, teacher certification training (there are more than 100 certified Impact Zone instructors), marketing and company infrastructure. “This is my attempt to get back to the game and give back to it,” he says.

It’s paying off. In February, he became the first Tour player ever to achieve Advanced Designation as a PGA Certified Professional, having completed the requirements to achieve certification through the advanced PGA Certified Professional Program 2.0 (CPP 2.0). In addition, Clampett also owns a line of wines, Clampett Cellars, and flies his own 1986 Piper Mailbu.

This month, he’ll be piloting it to Steamboat Springs, where he has a home and will be conducting a two-day Impact Zone School at Haymaker Golf Course July 6 and 7 (call 877-243-8718 for more information).

Joining him will be Impact Zone instructor and two-time Colorado PGA Western Chapter Teacher of the Year Luke Brosterhous.

“What I like is that Bobby’s system gives people a framework they can understand,” says Brosterhous. “It’s easily conveyable as an instructor. Giving people the effect of what we want to happen at impact, showing them the dynamics of impact and just asking them to let that happen and swing into it, it’s hugely successful from the technical and mental side.” Cag Visit impactzonegolf.com for more on Bobby Clampett Golf Schools and Impact Zone Golf. co l o r a d o a v i d g o l f e r. c o m

SWING SEQUENCE

1

Clampett’s address prepares him to be able to swing the club to deliver the club into Dynamic Impact.

player’sCorner

­Swing

2

Loading the club on the backswing (Dynamic #3) sets him up to lag the club on the downswing (Dynamic #4).

3

Clubhead lag (Dynamic #4) on the downswing is the secret to producing Dynamic Impact, leading to longer, more solid and straighter shots and lower scores.

4

Dynamic Impact includes a Flat Left Wrist (Dynamic #1), a Four-Inch-in-Front Swing Bottom (Dynamic #2), and a Straight Plane Line (Dynamic #5).

5

Utilizing a powerful workhorse (pivot) allows him to deliver clubhead lag through impact and results in a stable, high finish.

July 2013 | Colorado AvidGolfer

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player’sCorner

COMPETITION

Forecasting a Frantic Finish

Next month’s Solheim Cup will come down to how players elect to play Colorado Golf Club’s final five holes. By Neal Reid

O

h, decisions, decisions, decisions.

That’s what players from the United States and European Solheim Cup teams will face as they enter the home stretch at scenic Colorado Golf Club in Parker this summer. A reachable par-4, back-to-back par-5s, an ample par-3 and long par-4 will be the stage for high drama when the two teams battle for international supremacy and a coveted crystal cup Aug. 16-18.

When the 2010 Senior PGA Championship was staged at Colorado Golf Club, Tom Lehman played the last five holes in 4-under en route to the title, but he had an eagle, two bogeys and a triple-bogey to go with along with his seven birdies. With that kind of variety, there’s good reason to believe the Solheim Cup’s owner for the next two years will emerge from the same gauntlet.

They’re not just finishing holes. They’re deciding holes.

U.S. Captain Meg Mallon believes the final five will not only be great for match play, but will also create an overwhelming sense of intensity that will add a great deal of excitement for fans.

“The atmosphere that’ll be there with all of the hospitality tents and the galleries will be huge in that area,” Mallon said of the holes. “It’s going to be so electric. It’s going to be awesome.”

No. 14 The 14th is a fitting beginning to a stretch of holes that set up like a dream for fans of match play. The LPGA has shortened the 329-yard par 4 14th at 293 yards, daring the sport’s best players to drive the green in the thin Colorado air.

The only problem with that approach is the three bunkers that guard the green like ornery sentries.

Bunkers on both sides of the fairway fronting the green could grab trickling tee shots, and a boomerang-shaped trap sits smack dab in the middle of where the fairway meets the green. That might be enough to deter players from going for it, but the chance to win a hole could be too tempting.

The Americans and Europeans will more likely use the hole as a chipping contest with their array of wedges, putting a premium on sharp short games that could lead to a “W” on the scorecard.

No. 15 The first of consecutive par 5s—a nice wrinkle thrown in by course designers Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore—this 595-yarder is the second-longest hole on the course.

After a blind tee shot over a hill, players could face a downhill lie on their approach shots that might make them think twice about trying to reach in two—unless of course they catch the full downslope of the hill. A stream running across the fairway roughly 50 yards shy of the green may also force lay-ups, but birdie is not out of the question for pros hitting wedges into a spacious green.

Pin placements could force players to shape shots one way or the other, but the 15th will likely be considered a “birdie hole.”

22

Colorado AvidGolfer | July 2013

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No. 16 Birdie or better could come at this 532-yard par-5 16th, where players and caddies will be making big-time decisions. With a split fairway that offers a classic risk-reward scenario, matches could swing either way on this peach of a hole.

The safe play—if players are trying to hold a lead or close out a match with a par—is to choose the left fairway, lay up and hit wedge into a green flanked by a stream on its right side. Players needing to pick up a hole, or brash pros looking to send a message, will aim for the right, narrower fairway and its tight landing zone that brings the aforementioned stream into play on its left.

Getting home in two is a distinct possibility for players choosing the riskier of the two fairways, but they’ll have to make sure their approaches don’t leak right and get wet if they want to be putting for eagle. Failing to make birdie on this hole could prove costly.

No. 17 Iron play will be on display for spectators at the 180-yard par 3 17th, a solid test that likely will decide the outcome of a number of matches. Another wide CGC green—this one peninsular—gives officials numerous pin placement options, and players will be zeroing in on the flag to make moves in their matches.

There is a generous bailout area to the right, but the Americans and Europeans likely won’t even think about it as they take dead aim. A bunker and water fronting the left side of the undulating green will be their primary concerns, and playing it safe for par might not be a piece of cake because of the green’s size and ridges.

No. 18 Most matches will be decided before players reach the 435-yard par 4 18th, but the ones that go the distance will showcase one of CGC’s more challenging holes.

“That’s a tough hole to finish on,” Mallon said.

It may look rather straightforward despite being a slight dogleg left layout, but the 18th is no walk in the park. It requires a laser-like tee shot, as any player finding the fairway bunkers that hug the left side will be praying for par. Any twosome or individual needing birdie on 18 to extend their match may be in rough shape, unless of course they play the hole perfectly and give themselves a makeable birdie chance.

A massive green could produce lengthy putts. And its undulations make two-putting from any distance an achievement in and of itself.

Regardless, this hole is not one to be trifled with. Just ask Fred Couples and David Frost, who doubled the hole while Lehman notched a par on the first hole of the Senior PGA Championship’s sudden-death playoff.

With a frenzied finish created by these holes, golf fans will be treated to the utmost of match play’s beauty and allure. For both the Americans and Europeans, the stretch represents a challenge rife with opportunity and danger. Cag The 2013 Solheim Cup takes place August 15-18 at Colorado Golf Club. For tickets, visit solheimcupusa.com. Neal Reid is a Colorado Springs-based freelance writer who spent six years as a media relations coordinator for the LPGA Tour. His writing has appeared in USA Today, Newsday, 5280, Colorado Springs Style, the Colorado Springs Gazette, Las Vegas Review-Journal and on ESPN.com and ESPNW.com, just to name a few.

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Colorado AvidGolfer | July 2013

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Where’s the Rub? Massage brings a body of knowledge to golf-related aches and pains. By CG Funk

T

he golf swing puts unnatural stress on our bodies. It contracts the muscle fibers, causing compression, pain and discomfort. Massaging the fibers takes the pressure off the nerves surrounding the muscles, increasing blood flow and allowing the body to start a natural restorative process. Get off the course and onto the table regularly.

Shoulders

Why it hurts: Repetitive motion and/or poor technique can injure the deltoid muscles and the rotator cuff area.

Why massage helps: Cross-fiber friction techniques break up scar tissue and release adhesions. Myofascial release benefits other muscle areas compromised from shoulder injuries.

Upper Back

Why it hurts: The rhomboids and trapezius create much of the force of the full swing. The moving torque can further stress these muscles.

P H O T O G R A P H BY B A R R Y S TAV E R

Why Massage Helps: Swedish techniques, like deep Petrissage and Effleurage, can increase circulation and relax muscular tension.

Elbow

Why it hurts: Strain from the gripping and rotation of the club can cause inflammation.

Why Massage helps: Trigger-point therapy and passive stretching reduces pain and contracted muscle knots. It also increases range of motion.

Lower Back

Why it hurts: A golf stance creates stress in the muscle groups of the lower back. The rotation of the swing exacerbates it.

Why massage helps: Deep tissue and targeted sports massage techniques decompress and stretch muscles, reducing tension and stiffness.

Hand/Wrist

Why it hurts: Tendinitis can develop from repeated gripping of the club. Also when hitting from thick rough or striking rocks, roots or hardpan.

Why Massage helps: Stretching techniques relax the wrist and hand, allowing deeper muscle work to reduce swelling and ease pain.

BELOW THE BELT Hamstrings

Why it hurts: The repetitive planting the front leg to generate power for the downswing can strain the hamstring muscle group.

Why massage helps: Heat therapy (warm towels, topical analgesics, hot stones, etc.) combined with deep-tissue massage relaxes larger muscle groups and calms spasms and tightness.

Knee

Why it hurts: The constant twisting of the golf swing puts tremendous strain on the ACL and MCL of the lead knee.

Why massage helps: Deep tissue massage & friction on muscles surrounding the knee can relieve pain & swelling.

Feet

Why it hurts: The constant shifting of weight, pressure from planting for the shot, and, for some, walking 18 holes.

Why massage helps: Reflexology targets pressure points on the anterior and posterior foot and ankle areas. Massage increases circulation, loosens muscles and relieves soreness.

CG Funk, a 2013 Massage Therapy Hall of Fame Inductee, is vice president of industry relations and product development for Massage Envy (massageenvy.com), which has 850 locations nationally, including 25 in Colorado.

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Colorado AvidGolfer | July 2013

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Fareways

FROM SPECIAL TO STAPLE: Poppies’ Prime Rib

All Wellshire and Good Donald Ross could never have imagined the range of excellent ethnic eateries near Wellshire Golf Course. By Gary James

O

verlooking the Wellshire Golf Course, the Wellshire Inn was a venerable dining destination until a few years ago. The Tudor landmark—originally built in 1926 as a clubhouse for a private club— now functions as a venue for weddings and other events. But despair not, hungry golfers. A world of dining options lines the S. Colorado Blvd. corridor.

co l o r a d o a v i d g o l f e r. c o m

Yes, they’re located in a stretch of non-descript strip malls, but making your way to them is a small sacrifice for some fine eats. Although familyrun enterprises can often offer uneven experiences, when they take care of you, they hit it straight and true.

POPPIES Poppies epitomizes a friendly neighborhood restaurant. It started

small and local—it’s the sole enterprise of owner Bob Newell, who opened it in 1985—and stayed that way. With that longevity comes a long-standing clientele, and there are times of the day when you might think you’ve stumbled into an AARP convention. But this is a multi-generational dining space, with a number of tasty, familiar meals, from sandwiches (I’m parJuly 2013 | Colorado AvidGolfer

29

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tial to the Reuben) to steak. The regulars come for the daily specials, so they don’t even look at the menu. Rookies don’t need to, either. Baby Back Ribs are the house specialty. Lean and meaty, they’re special-ordered from a farm in Iowa.

Poppies isn’t a smokehouse—these morsels are braised in dark beer and a sauce that’s Bob’s original recipe—not a Carolina-style vinegar sauce, not too spicy, but a balanced concoction with enough sugar to pull back on the heat. Poppies is also known for flavorful, tender and juicy Prime Rib—what started out as a special two nights a week has become the other best-seller on the menu. It’s certified Angus beef, USDA Choice, and the kitchen uses it in lots of ways, from French dip sandwiches to prime rib enchiladas. Go downtown and pay twice as much, or hang in comfort at Poppies? Not a difficult decision. And I’m so proud of myself for making it through this review without a cheap Seinfeld reference.

2334 S. Colorado Blvd.; 303-756-2939; poppiesrestaurantdenver.com

ucts. You get ample portions of seafood and vegetables, and the thick, spicy broth is amazing, the kind you can only get from boiling bones. Another solid entree is the Yakitori Don, skewered chicken pieces and vegetables broiled on a special charcoal grill. There are many selections of grilled fish—salmon is the easy choice, but go big with the Sanma Shioyaki, which is saury (a strong-flavored Pacific mackerel) coated with salt and grilled. You can wash it all down with a variety of Japanese sake and beer, wine and shochu (like soju, a distilled vodka-like rice liquor). Sumo-size me, please. 2440 S. Colorado Blvd.; 303-5044043; kikisjapaneserestaurant.com

The modest atmosphere of Kiki’s Japanese Restaurant belies its authentic, tremendously varied menu. Traditional Japanese fare—sushi, tempura and teriyaki—is HOUSE OF KABOB served for lunch and dinner, and there House of Kabob has been serving up are rice bowls and noodle dishes. The tasty Middle Eastern and Lebanese food— set menus called teishoku-ya, consist of a the titular skewered meals plus staples main dish (i.e., a meat or fried seafood), such as hummus and baba ghanoush a bowl of rice and small side dishes. But (bless you!)—for more than 20 years. Nice Kiki’s rocks some unique items you just touches abound, like the reddish-purple don’t see in other Denver restaurants. For ground sumac used as a garnishing spice appetizers, go with Agedashi Tofu if you’re on rice, and a deliciously cool tzatziki dip. a soy boy or bean queen—deep fried tofu in My grilled kabob of choice is Koobideh, a hot dashi-based broth (a-ge means fried, which is usually made from ground beef dashi means broth). J.F.C. is Japanese Fried Chicken, which uses potato starch instead of flour, imparting a crispy (not K.F.C. crunchy) texture. If you believe, as the Japanese do, that a diet requires fermented foods, tack on an order of Oshinko, an assortment of salty, crisp Japanese pickles. I recommend the Spicy Beef Miso Ramen; Kiki’s FEAST YOUR EYES: A sultan’s spread at the House of Kabob. serves cold noodle soups as well as hot, a tradition in Japan according but is wonderfully enhanced here with 20 to the season. The killer find is Champon, percent minced lamb. Sheepishly, I reca spicy seafood noodle soup specific to ommend Lamb Shanks for dinner, an exNagasaki, where the Japanese allowed the quisitely trimmed whole shank cooked in Chinese to have a port during the 1600s. garlic sauce for four hours and served over They brought noodles, and Champon is saffron rice. The manager, Ahmad, is a one of the more inspired culinary byprod- wonderful host, brimming with stories. On

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Colorado AvidGolfer | July 2013

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PHOTO S C O U RT E S Y O F K I K I ’ S AN D HO U S E O F K A B O B

KIKI’S JAPANESE RESTAURANT

USING THEIR NOODLES: Kiki’s spicy, seafoodrich champon is a Nagasaki specialty.

weekends, he’ll convince you to allow belly dancers or the hookah bar to add some spice to your dining experience. Diplomats take note: Middle Eastern peace exists in my stomach. 2246 S. Colorado Blvd.; 303756-0744; houseofkabobrestaurant.com

INDIA OVEN

PHOTO S C O U RT E S Y O F IN D IA OV E N

India Oven is known for reasonably priced lunch and dinner buffets, seven days a week. A typical spread includes the popular Indian chicken dishes—Tandoori Chicken, its derivation Chicken Tikka Masala, and a piquant Chicken Vindaloo. But order from the regular menu to explore variations in the diverse cuisine. Bhuwan, the chef, cooked at the Hotel Manang in Katmandu for five years, and his curry dishes (chicken, lamb, salmon and shrimp) are done in a classic Northern style, with tomatoes, onions and spices. Makhani, or the famous “butter chicken,” is marinated

SEIZE THE BUFFET: A perfect repast at India Oven.

and cooked, then doused in a gravy of tomatoes simmered in butter and cream with some spices and aromatics like fenugreek. Another signature dish is Rogan Josh, a fragrant, succulent “red lamb” stew (the color comes from dried red Kashmiri chilies). And you don’t have to be a vegetarian to savor the inspired array of classic masalas, saags and paneers. For dessert, I never pass up the sweet Gajar ka Halwa, a pudding made with grated carrots, milk and sugar and garnished with dates and nuts sautéed in ghee. Operating the front of the house, Yangdi is a doll; she’ll ply you with Chai tea, hot or iced, if she isn’t too busy busing tables. Her cute handwritten sign announces Happy Hour for the summer, featuring Indian beers: $4.99 for a 24 oz. Taj Mahal or the highly recommended Flying Horse, a lager that goes great with the grub. Do you curry her favor or favor her curry? 2890 S. Colorado Blvd.; 303-756-5866; indiaovendenver.com

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Gary James is a Boulder-based music and food writer. co l o r a d o a v i d g o l f e r. c o m

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July 2013 | Colorado AvidGolfer

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NICE DRIVES

PHOTOGRAPH C O U RT E S Y O F J AG U AR

SLEEK CAT: The Jaguar F-Type

AIconicCat, a Caddy and a ru for different reasons, these brands’ newest models hit their marques.

…………………………… …………………………… …………………………… …………………………… …………………………… ……………………………

By Isaac Bouchard 2013 Jaguar F-Type

EPA ratings: 16/23; 18mpg combined Price as tested: $105,170 If the name of your newest model is supposed to evoke memories of one of the most influential sports cars of all time—the midcentury E-type—then the machine itself better live up to it. Thankfully this one does.

The all-new F-Type is an aluminum twoseater, here now in convertible form, with an even slicker looking coupe to follow. It comes in three flavors, two V6s and a supercharged, 495hp V8. That last was the test vehicle, and in almost every respect it moves the game on for Jaguar, while being a completely credible

32

Colorado AvidGolfer | July 2013

rival to today’s finest driving sports cars— the Audi R8 and Porsche’s iconic 911.

The F-Type look is almost perfect; only a slightly narrow and upright frontal aspect keeps it from joining the styling greats. Inside, its modern and dynamic forms are swathed in supple leather, with simple-tounderstand controls helping to accentuate a modern ambiance. Two center consolemounted buttons in particular are worth paying attention to: the first opens the optional active exhaust’s baffles, leading to one of the world’s greatest V8 symphonies, full of rapid-fire staccato percussion and gloriously arching tenor choruses. The other, a sliding brass colored switch, engages Dynamic mode. This buttons down the F-Type’s firm yet compliant ride, speeds throttle response

and lends real weight to the steering.

That’s important, for this is the fastestacting Jaguar helm ever. Combined with the F-type’s razor-sharp turn-in, it can unsettle the rear tires if all the safety systems are switched out. Thankfully though, the steering offers up real road feel, and the ESP is so well calibrated that most anyone can drive this 500hp machine right up to the limits. When freed of its electronic leash, the F-Type is a ferocious drift machine, always ready to lead from behind and indulge in massive slip angles.

Like the best Jaguars, you can dial it back, power open the top (at speeds up to 30mph) and cruise in comfort, enjoying the supple damping and quiet ride. That’ll make it easier to hear all the compliments passers by and coloradoavidgo lf e r.c o m

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sor, the E46. I’ve owned both, and can say it succeeds on both counts, with more feelsome steering and arguably better body control and neutrality than the Germans’ latest, the F30 3-series. It runs one of two engines, the test car’s 2-liter CADDY DEAREST: The ATS AWD 2.0T turbo serving up bigger numbers than the ing at times. Entry into the tight back seat is BMW 328i’s, with 272hp and 260lb-ft. Coupled to a six-speed difficult due to the svelte roofline, and once and optional all wheel drive it of- there, long-range comfort is somewhat hard EPA ratings: 20/30; 24mpg combined automatic fers virtually lag-free takeoff and nice mid- to find.

Price as tested: $48,375 Interior architecture is as avant-garde range power, but it runs more than a second slower than the BMW 335i in acceleration as the bodywork, with beautiful sweeping The first letter in the name of Cadillac’s to 60mph, as does the 3.6-liter, six cylinder forms and lots of black chrome accents. But newest could easily stand for “audacious.” version. However, the Cadillac proffers bet- the non-moving, touch-sensitive buttons Here is a car that unashamedly attempts to ter braking, with shorter stops and a stouter that control everything from volume to cliquantify the best from BMW’s back cata- pedal activating the monoblock calipers. mate control don’t respond in a predictable logue so as to offer serious sports sedan buyWhen you’re not gunning for redline or manner, and the CUE infotainment system ers the type of machine the Bavarians can be trouncing a back road, the ATS falls down a is half-baked, with a very slow response time accused of no longer building. bit. While its ride quality is admirably judged and inconsistent feedback. Beyond that, It is sized like the last 3-series (E90) and and road noise only slightly higher than that some materials are subpar, most notably the designed to handle like that car’s predeces- of the 3-series, upper door with 5/24 it can •bepub: frustratfile name: CSG_AVID.05.24.13.7.25x4.875 • living release Aviddash Golfand • size: 7.25skins, in X whose 4.875stitched in other drivers are yelling at you.

Only a few nits need to be addressed.

Firstly, taller occupants wont get the kind of muss-free top down motoring the best convertibles serve up; also the eight-speed transmission seems to want to upshift to the highest gear possible as quickly as it can, even its most hard-core settings; finally, the paddleactuated downshifts are quieter than one would hope from such an amazing sounding engine. Thankfully these are all minor issues; in every other way the F-Type is superb right out of the gate. It is indeed a worthy—if long delayed—successor to its illustrious forebear.

2013 Cadillac ATS AWD 2.0T

Fairway

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Colorado AvidGolfer | July 2013

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PHOTOGRAPH C O U RT E S Y O F C A D ILLA C

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2014 Subaru Forester 2.5i Touring EPA ratings: 24/32; 27mpg combined Price as tested: $33,220

FINDING FORESTER: The latest winner from Subaru.

Read more of Contributing Editor Isaac Bouchard’s automotive writing at nicedrivz.com and coloradoavidgolfer.com.

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Colorado AvidGolfer | July 2013

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PHOTOGRAPH C O U RT E S Y O F S U B AR U

vinyl look and feels cheap.

This Cadillac is nonetheless very compelling; it looks fantastic: fresh and distinctive with nice touches such as the semigloss trim in lieu of chrome and great lighting graphics.

It has a honed poise that bespeaks passionate people and thorough development, and there is nice breadth of available powertrain options. With some work on interior finishes, more consistency to the secondary controls and some stouter ponies underhood, the ATS could be the class leader.

Some cars grow old after a few days’ usage; others worm their way into your affections the more you drive them. The new Forester is the latter. A return to the boxier form of past generations is the most obvious external difference; inside it is roomier and built of slightly higher quality materials. There’s abundant backseat space and cargo area. In front are more soft-touch moldings and an upright, commanding driving position.

Subaru’s onboard tech is a mixed bag; I’ve not been happy with the optional EyeSight safety system, yet the active cruise control, which will bring the Forester to a stop in heavy traffic and start it again, works better than those in some $100,000 vehicles. The infotainment system’s menu system is mediocre, but the Harmon Kardon audio system sounds excellent.

It is on the move that this newest Subaru really grows on you. It is refined and very quiet, and while it doesn’t ride as serenely over broken pavement as my own 2006 Outback XT turbo does, it handles better, with tighter body

control and more responsive steering; likewise brake feel is excellent.

Thankfully the Forester sticks with a 2.5-liter version of the company’s long-running boxster engine. The smaller version of this motor, now standard in the Impreza and XV Crosstrek, is too underpowered for use in the Rockies, but this one has a robust torque curve that peaks at 174lb-ft and 170 accompanying ponies. Even the use of a continuously variable transmission can’t undermine it, since its programming is quite well sorted. For those who need more performance, the XT turbo returns, with 250hp. But even the normal version is quite peppy, and it returns decent real-world fuel economy; my average of 23mpg in mixed use eclipses all but that of the Mazda CX-5.

In the final analysis, that is one of only two competitors—the other being the Ford Escape— that is more rewarding to drive, and neither offer the kind of room the Forester has for people and goodies. Figured in with its excellent safety ratings and the durability and resale value Subarus have become known for and you have one very compelling crossover. Cag

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49th

I9th

Colorado Open

Colorado Women’s Open Sept 4-6

July 25-28

10 Years at Green Valley Ranch

the

d

10 for 10

Top 10 highlights from the HealthONE Colorado Open Golf Championships, which this year celebrate 10 years at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club: 1. The first three winners of the Colorado Open at GVR—Bill Loef-

7. John Elway played in his first Senior Open in 2010, just a couple

fler in 2004, Wil Collins (2005) and Dustin White (2006)—earned invitations to The International tournament at Castle Pines Golf Club before the PGA Tour event disbanded in 2007. Collins made The International cut, tying for 57th, though not advancing to Sunday’s final round.

2. HealthONE renewed its sponsorship in 2009, signing a sevenyear deal to run through 2015.

3. In 2008, Brian Guetz won a playoff with three others (Mike Small, Boyd Summerhays and defending champion John Douma) after the four tied with a 72-hole total of 7-under-par 277.

of months after turning 50. He made the cut, but the former Broncos No. 7 took a memorable (triple-bogey) 7 on No. 7 in the opening round. Elway had missed the cut in the Colorado Open earlier that same year.

8. In 2005, Oakwood Homes CEO Pat Hamill donated 6.5 acres zoned for multi-unit housing next to GVR to build a nine-hole, par3 course in support of The First Tee of Green Valley Ranch.

9. Charlie Beljan finished 10th in the 2010 Colorado Open and went on to win $1.3 million on the PGA Tour in 2013, including a victory in the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals Classic. Beljan’s already won more than $850,000 this year and lost in a playoff at the Northern Trust Open. Former Colorado State University golfer Martin Laird tied for 11th at the Colorado in 2006 and is a two-time PGA Tour winner.

10. GVR has made a few changes to toughen the course for Colorado Open competitors. The most memorable were moving the tee box back near the 18th fairway for the 16th hole and enlarging the pond that effectively surrounds the par-3 13th green.

4. Bill Loeffler becomes the second winner of both the Colorado Open (1991, ’93 and 2004) and the Colorado Senior Open (2009).

The Colorado Golf Hall of Famer’s 2004 and ’09 wins came at GVR. Mike Zaremba also won both the Colorado Open (1995) and Colorado Senior Open (2005).

5. Paige MacKenzie’s 2006 triumph was the first by an amateur at the Colorado Women’s Open. She has played on the LPGA Tour since 2007 and has two top-10 finishes.

6. Walailak Satarak of Thailand is the lone back-to-back and multiple winner of the Colorado Women’s Open. She won in 2007 and ’08, the latter the first year the tournament changed to Pro-Am format.

A First for The First Tee of GVR

Andrea Pickford (pictured), an East High School graduate, became the first caddie applicant from Green Valley Ranch Golf Club and The First Tee of Green Valley Ranch to be awarded an Evans Scholarship to the University of Colorado-Boulder.

The Western Golf Association/Evans Scholars Foundation award includes full tuition and housing worth $70,000.

Pickford and Bishop Machebeuf High School graduate Asni Solomon are also the first two African-American women to earn an Evans Scholarship at CU. Solomon represents CommonGround Golf Course in Aurora.

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Colorado AvidGolfer | July 2013

Leaders in Development

Two other First Tee participants have earned spots on the organization’s Life Skills and Leadership Academy field. Sienna Simmons participated in last year’s event in Long Island; Nick Holmes will go to the July 24-30 event in San Diego.

“Every once and awhile you come across teenagers who are outgoing, hardworking, and committed,” says Drew Fournier, The First Tee of Green Valley Ranch program coordinator.

“Nick and Sienna have these three qualities. Having spent years in The First Tee, you can tell they carry qualities like courtesy, confidence, integrity, and responsibility. I talk highly of these individuals because of how they carry themselves. They are great role models for other young adults in our community.” coloradoavidgo lf e r.c o m

Text ER to 23000

to find the nearest HealthONE ER and average ER wait times.

HealthONECares.com/ER Message and data rates may apply.

Proud partner of the Colorado Open Golf Foundation

© Copyright HealthONE ,® 06/2013

co l o r a d o a v i d g o l f e r. c o m

July 2 0 1 3 |Colorado AvidGolfer

39

the

d

Tolan Tries for Third

Derek Tolan returns to defend his HealthONE Colorado Open championship and, though only 27 years, the former University of Colorado golfer is chasing history.

With a victory at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club, Tolan can join an elite club of three-time Open winners. Bill Bisdorf (1964-65 and ’67) and Bill Loeffler (1991, ’93, 2004) have three victories and Dave Hill (1971, ’75-76 and ’81) leads the pack with four.

Tolan, who also made history back in 2002 when he qualified for the U.S. Open as a 16-yearold, has achieved his two Colorado Open victories in different fashion.

In 2009, he smoked the field with an

Where There’s a Jill

Big Brother Remembers

On the face of it, Doug Rohrbaugh’s wire-to-wire victory at the 14th HealthONE Colorado Senior Open seemed pretty unremarkable. Despite six bogeys during the final round, the head PGA Professional at Ironbridge Golf Club in Carbondale still won the event by five strokes.

But, after parring the 18th hole at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club for a 5-over final-round 77, the emotion soon appeared on Rohrbaugh’s face.

Throughout the three-day tournament, Rohrbaugh paid tribute to his sister, Janet Marie, who died at age 49 in January from a heart defect. Scott Freelove, a friend and a Titleist representative, had golf balls made for Rohrbaugh with Janet

40

Colorado AvidGolfer | July 2013

event-record 22-under-par 262. He won by four strokes over John Douma, who shot the third-best Open total, 18-under 266, including a final-round 29 on the back nine.

Last year, Tolan needed a bogey-free, 6-under 65 in the Sunday round to beat Zak Brown by one shot.

After his first victory, Tolan sounded happy to be among the leaders. “Just to be in the mix was really, really cool, and to win in front of so many people that I know makes it really special,” he told The Denver Post in 2009.

But last year, Tolan was a more confident golfer, seeing an opportunity in the blustery conditions on the final day.

“The wind started to pick up on the back side, and I told my caddie I wanted it to, because there were just so many demanding shots out there.”

He’ll look to meet those demands again at this year’s Colorado Open.

Marie’s initials and the number 49 on them.

Rohrbaugh shot an even-par 216, the lone golfer not to shoot over par. Rohrbaugh became the first wire-to-wire winner of the Senior Open since Dave Arbuckle in 2007 and the fourth Colorado PGA member to claim the Senior Open title, joining Arbuckle, Mike Zaremba and Bill Loeffler.

Jill McGill, a member of the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame and two-time competitor in the Colorado Women’s Open, is expected to play in this year’s Colorado Women’s Open, Sept. 4-6 at GVR. A winner of two USGA Championships and more than $2.3 million on the LPGA Tour, McGill sat out a year ago for maternity reasons and played only two events in 2011.

But she has returned to the LPGA Tour this year, making cuts in both events she entered. She qualified for the LPGA Championship last month, missing the cut by two shots. She hadn’t played in one of the women’s majors since the 2008 British Women’s Open when she tied for 48th. She anticipates partnering in the Pro-Am with her father, Gary.

coloradoavidgo lf e r.c o m

co l o r a d o a v i d g o l f e r. c o m

July 2 0 1 3 |Colorado AvidGolfer

41

Thank You for Lending a Hand…

HealthONECares.com

Friends of The First Tee

Title Sponsor HealthONE, LLC

Presenting Sponsor Oakwood Homes, LLC

Supporting Sponsors

Aimco Cares Anadarko Petroleum Corporation Colorado AvidGolfer Magazine Colorado Golf Association Colorado Women’s Golf Association Colorado Section PGA DaVita Green Valley Ranch Golf Club Jones Lang LaSalle Lockton Companies, LLC Massage Envy Spa Pepsi Beverages Company Powers Energy Corporation Ringsby Realty Rocky Mountain Golf Course Superintendents Association The First Tee Walmart

42

Colorado AvidGolfer | July 2013

Special Thanks

Bank of America Anheuser-Busch of Denver Barry & Mary Berlin Antler Creek Golf Course Calcon Constructors, Inc. Canon de Colorado Careerbuilder.com Citywide Banks CarePoint, PC & Hoffenberg Family Cobra PUMA Golf Centennial Bank Colorado PGA Foundation Daniels Fund Clean Energy Collective: Community Owned Solar Eagle Ranch Golf Course Colorado Business Bank El Jardin Mexican Restaurant Colorado Center for Reproductive Medicine Foundation for Educational Excellence Country Inn & Suites, DIA Tad Griffin The Esperance Family Foundation Imperial EZPAWN Legacy Ridge Golf Course FirstBank LPGA*USGA Girls Golf Hubbard Law Offices McAlister’s Deli Keltner Family Foundation PGA of America KeyBank Wells Fargo Foundation Kris Family Charitable Fund Keith Lawton Al Linton Ludlow-Griffith Foundation Otten Johnson Robinson Neff & Ragonetti, P.C. PGA TOUR Superstore/Arthur Blank Family Foundation Powers Products John Seiple Sill-TerHar Motors Jay Small Geoff Solich/Ponderosa Energy U.S. Bank Private Client Reserve Urban League of Metropolitan Denver Molly Greenblatt Welch coloradoavidgo lf e r.c o m

Keeping the game you love the game you love.

When you become a member, you’re supporting golf, not just playing “around.”

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GET A FREE ROUND!* ~AVIDGOLFER EXCLUSIVE~

Join the CGA or CWGA online and play “a round” at CommonGround on us! To learn more about this special offer, visit www.COgolf.org/Avid. The CGA and CWGA created CommonGround to improve, share and support the game you love.

A place for all and all the game teaches.

*Some restrictions apply. Offer good while supplies last. See www.COgolf.org/Avid for details.

www.COgolf.org/Avid

© 2013

2013

Red Sky Golf Club Vail Resorts’ Highly Awarded Golf Destination

3

World Class Trips

A Golfer’s Guide to

Vail Valley, Aspen and Summit County

The number suggests perfection, which is appropriate for Red Sky Golf Club in Wolcott. Its Fazio course turned 10 last year, and the Norman layout celebrates its 10th birthday this year. Members and guests alternate play on the two spectacular mountain designs. The Norman made both Golf’s and Golf Digest’s lists of Top 100 public courses. The Fazio ranked slightly lower but is second to none.

Golf | Where to Play

10 Red Sky Golf Club

t

Know It From Adam’s Spreading across 285 of the 1,600 acres covered by the Adam’s Rib Ranch development south of Eagle, Adams Mountain Country Club features a spectacular 7,181-yard Tom Weiskopf design framed by mountains in the scenic Brush Creek Valley. Ten holes holes play along water, thanks to eight man-made lakes. Unlimited golf comes with club membership, which is available to residents and nonresidents and includes access to the clubhouse, fitness center, spa, guest cottages, pool, tennis courts and equestrian facility. adamsribranch.com; 888-760-2326.

Local Knowledge t Vail Golf Club , the

t Eagle Vail Golf Club

first course built in Eagle County, last month received Town Council approval to comprehensively remodel and modestly expand its existing clubhouse. The project is still in the design and conceptual stage.

also has the family-friendly Willow Creek Par 3, where the longest hole is 100 yards. Another economical, fun par-3 is The Ranch at Roaring Fork on the way to Aspen in Carbondale.

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Colorado AvidGolfer | July 2013

t Beaver Creek Golf Club is exclusively avail-

able to club members, their guests and Beaver Creek, Bachelor Gulch and Arrowhead lodging guests.

Stay and Play packages can knock up to 40 percent off lodging.

For more information go to

coloradoavidgolfer.com

Vail Valley Aspen

|

FEATURED COURSES Adam’s Mountain Country Club 1094 Frost Creek Drive, Eagle 888-760-2326 adamsribranch.com Aspen Glen Club 545 Bald Eagle Way Carbondale 970-704-1905 clubcorp.com Aspen Golf Club 1000 Truscott Pl, Aspen 970-429-1949 aspengolf.com Beaver Creek Golf Club 103 Offerson Rd, Beaver Creek 970-845-5775 beavercreek.com/golf The Club at Cordillera - Valley Course - Mountain Course - Summit Course Edwards 970-569-6460 cordillera-vail.com The Short Course at Cordillera 100 Kensington Drive Edwards 970-926-5550 golfcordillera9.com Country Club of the Rockies 676 Sawatch Drive Edwards 970-926-3080 countrycluboftherockies.com Eagle Ranch Golf Club 0050 Lime Park Drive Eagle 970-328-2882 eagleranchgolf.com Eagle Vail Golf Club 459 Eagle Drive, Avon 970-949-5267 eaglevailgolfclub.com Gypsum Creek Golf Course 530 Cotton Ranch Drive Gypsum 970-524-6200 gypsumcreekgolf.com (cont. on p. 48)

next up on the #1 tee: you Located in the heart of the Colorado Ro ckies, bo th the To m F azio and Greg No rm an designed courses at Red S ky Go lf Club have been co nsistently ranked am o ng Golfweek and Golf Digest’s top courses you can play. Coupled with world-class lodging at Beaver Creek Resort, no w is yo ur chance to play at this co veted club.

stay & Play

from $320 *

Call 888-500-5170 or visit redskygolfclub.com to book today

north aMEriCa’s #1 mountain golf ExpEriEnCE 2013 Best Courses You Can Play

2013 America’s 100 Greatest Public Courses

#1 and #2 Golf Courses in Colorado

–Golfweek–

–Golf Digest–

–Travel + Leisure Golf–

*Taxes and resort fees not included. Based on double occupancy. One night stay and one round of golf, per person, per night at The Pines Lodge, A RockResort.

Valid from June 7 to September 15, 2013. Price subject to change. Some restrictions may apply. © 2013 Vail Resorts, Inc. All rights reserved.

CREATE MEMORIES

Vail Valley | Aspen

3

Photo by Jack Affleck

Tom Fazio, Jack Nicklaus and Hale Irwin have each designed a course at The Club at Cordillera, and for the first time in two years the club plans to open all three. With the well-pubicized legal wrangling finally in the past, the club has hired Troon Privé, the private club operating division of Troon Golf, to manage the Valley, Mountain and Summit layouts, giving Cordillera’s full golf members exclusive access to over 30 world-class private clubs. 970-569-6460; cordillera-vail.com

Classic 18-hole golf course, public welcome.

4:07 PACE OF PLAY So you can enjoy the rest of your day.

Free App with course information, yardages for the course when you play, book tee times, restaurant menu and more.

Adam’s Mountain Country Club

TIPS FROM THE PROS t Don’t always reach for the driver on long par-5s like the double-dogleg

593-yard 16th at Eagle Ranch. A 3-wood or long iron won’t let you go through the fairway. Power isn’t always the key on monster holes. Lay up and score.— Jeff Boyer, PGA Director of Golf, Eagle Ranch Golf Club t The “everything breaks toward the valley” mantra is not always true at

970- 479-2260 www.vailgolfclub.net OPERATED BY VAIL RECREATION DISTRICT

48

Red Sky. Look at the topography around the greens for high and low spots that dictate fall lines and slope. Our wonderful yardage books feature each green’s slope in different quadrants to determine uphill and downhill putts.

—Jeff Hanson, PGA Director of Golf, Red Sky Golf Club

Colorado AvidGolfer | July 2013

Cordillera

Ironbridge Golf Club 430 Ironbridge Drive Glenwood Springs 970-384-0630 Lakota Canyon Ranch Golf Club 1000 Club House Drive New Castle 970-984-9700 Roaring Fork Club 100 Arbaney Ranch Rd, Basalt 970-927-9000 roaringforkclub.com Snowmass Club 239 Snowmass Club Cir, Snowmass Village 970-923-5600 Sonnenalp Golf Club 1265 Berry Creek Road, Edwards 970-477-5372 sonnenalpgolfclub.com Vail Golf Club 1778 Vail Valley Drive, Vail 970-479-2260 vailgolfclub.net

colo r ado avidgo lf e r.c o m

the art of

BR AGGING RIGHT S Take one championship Robert Trent Jones Jr. Golf Course with lush rolling fairways and cobalt skies, a handful of old friends, a long anticipated re-match and you’ve got the recipe for a legendary vacation. Here, the decks are sun-drenched, the filet is prime, the live music is way over par and the potential for bragging rights for the entire next year beckons. Come play, we’ll handle the details. Stay and Play packages from just $270 pp a night.* Book at beavercreek.com/golf, or (866) 829 4432.

be av ercr eek .com

*Based on double occupancy at Pines Lodge, A RockResort, and 1 round of golf pp at Beaver Creek Golf Club. Valid through June 15 – September 15. Restrictions may apply.

19HOLES th

Balata (Sonnenalp Golf Club) Wash down a mahi taco with an icy brew and savor the sunset from one of the best perches in the valley. 970-477-5353; balatarestaurant.com Grouse on the Green. (The Club at Cordillera) Does it get more authentic than a pub designed in Ireland and shipped to Colorado? 970-926-5788; cordilleralodge.com Happy Valley Grill (Vail Golf Club) Great finger food (crispy wings, pork belly steamed buns) and a solid beer list put an exclamation point on a round. 970-4797321; happyvalleyvail.com

Saddles Bar and Grill Grouse on the Green at Cordillera

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Colorado AvidGolfer | July 2013

colorado avidgo lf e r.c o m

Park Hyatt Beaver Creek

Best Westin

Lodging | Where to Stay

23

The luxe Park Hyatt Beaver Creek houses the Allegria Spa, offering 23 treatment rooms.

Guests also get preferred tee times at Beaver Creek and Red Sky golf clubs and can partake in a daily s’mores happy hour. U.S. News named it one of the Best Hotels in the USA for 2013.

The name of the Westin Riverfront Resort & Spa at Beaver Creek Mountain be a mouthful, but this four-year-old hotel’s list of awards is growing just as long. Condé Nast Traveler named it to the “Hot List 2009” as one of the 140 hottest new resorts worldwide, and last year the magazine honored it as the #1 Resort in the Western United States. Additionally, Parents ranked The Westin second among the “10 Best Snow Resorts for Families 2010.” Home to the 27,000-square foot rejuvenating Spa Anjali and a raft of amenities and activities, this Starwood property has consistently ranked high among Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) Members’ Favorite Resorts.

Vail Valley Aspen FEATURED PROPERTIES

The Arrabelle at Vail Square 675 Lionshead Place, Vail 888-688-8055; arrabelle.rockresorts.com The Lodge and Spa at Cordillera 2205 Cordillera Way, Edwards 800-877-3529; cordilleralodge.com The Little Nell 675 E Durant Ave, Aspen 888-843-6355; thelittlenell.com The Lodge at Vail 174 East Gore Creek Dr., Vail 888-328-1005; lodgeatvail.com The Osprey at Beaver Creek 10 Elk Track Lane Beaver Creek 888-605-3405 ospreyatbeavercreek.com Park Hyatt Beaver Creek Resort & Spa 136 E. Thomas Place Beaver Creek 970-949-1234; beavercreek.hyatt.com The Pines Lodge 141 Scott Hill Road Beaver Creek 855-279-3430 pineslodge.com The Sky Hotel 709 E. Durant Ave., Aspen 970-925-6760 theskyhotel.com (cont. on p. 56)

Local Knowledge t VRBO (Vacation Rentals

by Owner) is one of the more popular choices for condo and home rentals in Vail, Beaver Creek and Aspen/ Snowmass. It’s convenient for larger groups or if you’re just looking for a nice place to crash. vrbo.com 54

Colorado AvidGolfer | July 2013

t Vail Mountain Lodge & Spa ’s Vitality Center of-

fers free yoga on the Solaris lawn every Saturday at 9 a.m. Summertime Community Yoga lasts 75 minutes and is geared towards all levels of practitioner. 970476-7721

t Beaver Creek Lodge,

a 72-room boutique hotel, features the Grand Bohemian Gallery, a dramatic atrium brimming with artwork from the collection of art connoisseur Richard C. Kessler, who owns this and nine other hotels. beavercreeklodge.net

For more information go to

coloradoavidgolfer.com

|

The Osprey

Hotel Bars Maya Modern Mexican Kitchen & Tequileria (Westin Riverfront) Linger on the patio with a pepino and assortment of Mexican tapas called bontanas. Sangria, margaritas and more than 100 types of tequila complement Richard Sandoval’s authentic cuisine. 970-790-5500; richardsandoval.com/mayabc 8100 Mountainside (Park Hyatt Beaver Creek) The same firepits that cook s’mores from 4 to 5 gather guests for drinks at night.

Tavern on the Square (The Arrabelle) The après-ski hotspot provides slopeside summer fun into the wee hours.

39 Degrees Lounge (The Sky Hotel) Aspen’s hippest lounge serves wickedly creative cocktails on a sundeck featuring mountain views, heated pool and hot tub.

Osprey Lounge (The Osprey at Beaver Creek). Wine, tapas and plenty of atmopshere.

co lo r a d o a v i d g o l f e r. c om

Maya Beaver Creek at the Westin Riverfront

July 2013 | Colorado AvidGolfer

55

Vail Valley Aspen

|

56

Inspired by a Belgian chateau, the Lodge and Spa at Cordillera comprises 56 discerningly appointed rooms, the superb Mirador Restaurant, a 20,000 sq. ft. spa and fitness center, indoor and outdoor heated pools and jetted hot tubs, steam rooms and saunas and Orvis guided fly-fishing on its own private stretch of the Eagle River.

Cordillera

t

Sehr Schön The ersatz European flavor of Vail Village owes in part to its alpine climate and in part to the presence of such lodging institutions as Vail’s elegant Sonnenalp Hotel (866-284-4411; sonnenalp.com) and Hotel Gasthof Gramshammer (pepis.com; 800-610-7374). Both have restaurants that can satisfy cravings for Weinerschnitzel, Kasespätzel or fondue. The Gasthof (better known as Pepi’s) has a rocking all-season deck, while the Bully Ranch, Swiss Chalet and King’s Club keep the Sonnenalp hopping.

Between Vail & Aspen

FEATURED PROPERTIES Vail Marriott Mountain Resort 1715 W Lionshead Cir, Vail 800-648-0720; marriott.com Westin Riverfront Resort & Spa at Beaver Creek 126 Riverfront Lane, Avon 888-627-8099; westinriverfrontbeavercreek. com The Arrabelle

t Hotel Colorado

526 Pine St. Glenwood Springs 800-544-3998; hotelcolorado.com t The Hotel Denver

402 Seventh Street, Glenwood Springs 800-826-8820 t Viceroy Snowmass

130 Wood Road, Snowmass Village 877-235-7577; viceroysnowmass.com 56

Colorado AvidGolfer | July 2013

color ado avidgo lf e r.c o m

PAR IT AT THE PARK

and watch your drives soar record distance.

Relax in luxurious accommodations for two at the Park Hyatt Beaver Creek and then take in 18 holes of golf each at the Beaver Creek Golf Club.

Rates starting at:

$

343 per night

For reservation information, please visit our website at www.parkhyattbeavercreek.com or call 1-970-827-6636 Refer to code: PLAY13 Reservations are subject to availability and must be made at least 7 days in advance. Tee times must be set up in advance by contacting our Concierge at 1-970-827-6610.

Package includes lodging for two, 2 rounds of golf including cart. Rate shown is based upon double occupancy, per room, per night, for standard room accommodations.

Additional charges apply to room-type upgrades. Additional guests may be subject to additional hotel charges. Guest is responsible for all charges not included in package.

No refunds for any unused portion of package. Promotional blackout periods may apply due to seasonal periods or special events, and normal arrival/departure restrictions apply. Hyatt reserves the right to alter or withdraw this program at any time without notice. Hyatt Hotels & Resorts® encompasses hotels managed, franchised or leased by subsidiaries and affiliates of Hyatt Hotels Corporation. The trademarks Hyatt®, Hyatt Hotels & Resorts®, Park Hyatt®, Andaz®, Grand Hyatt®, Hyatt Regency®, Hyatt Place®, Hyatt Summerfield Suites®, Hyatt Gold Passport®, and related marks are trademarks of Hyatt Corporation. © 2013 Hyatt Corporation. All rights reserved.

SPA + WATER SANCTUARY = PURE HAPPINESS

Enjoy our 5-step water sanctuary, complimentary with any spa treatment.

100 East Thomas Place, Beaver Creek 970-748-7500 | www.allegriaspa.com

Whoever said money can’t buy happiness simply didn’t know where to go shopping.

Happiness awaits in Vail’s two base villages, Lionshead and Vail Village, where attractive, pedestrian-friendly outdoor shopping areas lead to hundreds of shops, boutiques, restaurants, galleries and more. Men and women can find unique apparel, jewelry, sporting goods, kid stuff, souvenirs and art. Convenient in-town bus routes allow you to explore both base villages within a matter of minutes.

Activities | Dining

2 t

One Up

Vail Valley Aspen FEATURED ACTIVITIES

Bravo! Vail Summer Music Festival Gerald Ford Amphitheater, other locations bravovail.org; 877-812-5700 Minturn Farmer’s Market (Saturdays only) minturnmarket.org Riverwalk at Edwards (Shopping/Dining) edwardsriverwalk.com Bol (bowling alley/restaurant) 141 E. Meadow Dr, Vail 970-476-5300; bolvail.com Restaurant Kelly Liken 12 Vail Rd #100, Vail 970-479-0175; kellyliken.com Crazy Mountain Brewing Company 439 Edwards Access Rd, Edwards 970-926-3009; crazymountainbrewery.com Sweet Basil/ Mountain Standard 193 E. Gore Creek Dr, Vail 970-476-0125/970-476-0123 sweetbasilvail.com/ mtnstandard.com

RESOURCES

This marks the first summer of Gondola One, Vail’s 10-passenger, WiFi-enabled replacement for the aging Vista Bahn quad. The One whisks you from Vail Village to Mid-Vail in 7.5 minutes. Bike or hike the latticework of wildflower-lined trails—some of which lead to the covivial Eagle’s Nest and kid-friendly Adventure Ridge at the top of the Eagle Bahn Gondola, which connects to Lionshead—or linger in Mid-Vail and enjoy a drink at the Tenth or a burger hot off the outdoor grill at Sarge’s Shelter BBQ.

visitvailvalley.com vail.com hubofaspen.com stayaspensnowmass.com

Local Knowledge t Lakota Guides does

t VISTA at Arrowhead

river sports right. The outfitter can get you whitewater rafting, kayaking and standing up on a paddleboard in a matter of minutes. Bonus: a coupon for a free beer next door at Crazy Mountain Brewery. lakotaguides.com

is one way to get “inside the gates” at the Country Club of the Rockies. Just make a reservation at the posh restaurant. It’s open to the public and as good as it gets. vista-arrowhead.com

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t Nova Guides is a one-stop shop for mountain biking, ATV riding, whitewater rafting fly fishing and much more. Based at Camp Hale, Nova displays 10th Mountain Division memorabilia throughout its lodge and restaurant. novaguides.com

.

For more information go to

coloradoavidgolfer.com

Colorado’s Premier Mountain Playground e Private Tom Weiskopf designed golf course e 100% refundable membership deposits e Most complete package of family amenities including spa, fitness center, private fishing, member cottages, swimming, family sport court, hiking, tennis and mountain biking e New Custom Homes starting at $1,050,000 e Wide variety of 4+ Acre Homesites

Home of Adam’s Mountain Country Club Located 12 miles south of Eagle/Vail Airport adamsribranch.com 866.520.2622

Each Office is Independently Owned and Operated

Beano’s Cabin

t

Ride and Dine Horse, shuttle or tractor-pulled wagon—any of these transportation methods will deliver you to Beano’s Cabin in the White River National Forest. While the restaurant is remote, it’s certainly not unknown. So be sure to reserve early (reservations are required) for the stellar 5-course dinner prepared by Executive Chef Bill Greenwood, live musical entertainment and an unforgettable culinary experience. 970-754-3463; beanoscabinbeavercreek.com

Morning Dos

t Northside Coffee and Kitchen in Avon serves superb breakfast, lunch and dinner—and the best java in the Vail Valley. It’s Blue Bottle Coffee, it’s roasted daily, flown in from San Francisco and goes perfectly with Northside’s fresh baked pastries, breads and donuts. 970-949-1423; northsidecoffeekitchen.com

ASPEN EATS • Cache Cache 205 S. Mill St. 970-385-2100; cachecache.com • Matsuhisa 303 E. Main St, Aspen 970-544-6628 matsuhisaaspen.com • Syzygy 308 E. Hopkins Ave. 970-925-3700; syzygyrestaurant.com

t Westside Cafe hides behind a Holiday Inn on the north side of I-70, but that doesn’t keep the crowds from coming for the Cap N’ Crunch French Toast, awesome Egg Benedicts and what locals have voted the top Bloody Mary in Vail. The lunch and dinner is pretty awesome too. 970-476-7890; westsidecafe.net

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Golf | Where to Play

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As the first course built in Summit County 33 years ago, Keystone Ranch embraces the pioneer spirit of the early settlers by retaining many outbuildings on the property.

Designer Robert Trent Jones Jr., says he incorporated three different styles—parkland, mountain and marsh— “because the land requested it.” The Ranch has a more rugged feel than the River Course, Keystone’s second 18, which opened in 2000.

Keystone Ranch

Altitude Adjustments

Local Knowledge t Mount Massive Golf Club in Leadville is techni-

Nest Golf Club in 1986. A 1999 overhaul by Tom Lehman and Hurdzan/Fry turned it into one of the region’s top layouts. Roads still bear the original name, and an eagle still nests by the third hole.

note—100 feet above the fairway—and roller-coasters around and across the Snake River and through thick stands of lodgepole pines. The fairways are wider than they look from the elevated tee boxes.

cally in Lake County, but its 1939 layout, proximity to Copper along Highway 91, and its 9,640-foot elevation between Mounts Massive and Elbert makes this 9-holer a fun detour.

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Colorado AvidGolfer | July 2013

Breckenridge Golf Club 200 Clubhouse Drive, Breckenridge 970-453-9104; townofbreckenridge.com Copper Creek Golf Club 104 Wheeler Place, Copper Mountain 970-968-3333; coppercolorado.com/ golf Keystone Ranch Golf Course 239 Keystone Ranch Road, Keystone 800-464-3494 keystoneresort.com The River Course at Keystone 155 River Course Drive, Keystone 800-464-3494; keystoneresort.com

TIP FROM A PRO

Summit County’s five courses all perch around 9,000 feet, with one 9,863-foot tee box at Copper Creek touted as the highest in North America. That’s at least one club difference from what you’d play on the Front Range. Also, a higher lofted driver can get you more yards off the tee, and so will a golf ball with a higher spin rate. Go with the different driver, but play your usual ball because the extra spin can play havoc with your short game.

t The River Course at Keystone opens on a high

FEATURED COURSES

Raven Golf Club at Three Peaks 1929 Golden Eagle Road, Silverthorne 970-262-3636; ravenatthreepeaks.com

t

t The Raven at Three Peaks started as Eagle’s

Summit County

For more information go to

coloradoavidgolfer.com

“On any golf course—and especially the expansive River Course at Keystone—one of the biggest problems I see is golfers tend to aim their body where they want the ball to travel. Doing this will result in hitting the ball well right of the intended target. To correct this, put the clubhead behind the ball. When you aim the golf club first and build the stance around that position,you’ll hit more fairways.

– Philip Tobias, Head PGA Professional, The River Course at Keystone

19HOLES th

Keystone Ranch Enjoy some of the best views in Summit County on the deck overlooking the back nine on the Ranch.

The River Course Grill The sunny patio at Keystone’s second course makes for a memorable après-golf experience.

The Clubhouse Restaurant.

Breckenridge Golf Club’s lakeside deck affords awesome vistas, cocktail and food selections and live music Thursdays and Saturdays.

Breckenridge. The Perfect Summer.

Up to 30% Off Lodging!* *Some restrictions and blackout dates may apply. Not valid with other discounts.

27 Hole Jack Nicklaus Golf Course The Spa at Beaver Run Restaurants and Bars Pools and Hot Tubs Fitness Room Sauna and Steam Rooms Group and Meeting Facilities Weddings Family Reunions Complimentary Town Shuttle Activities Galore

800.265.3527 · BeaverRun.com co lo r a d o a v i d g o l f e r. c om

July 2013 | Colorado AvidGolfer

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Located in Lakside Village, Keystone Lodge & Spa earned Four Diamonds from the AAA. In addition to the Vail Resorts lodging property, there are hundreds of condos, homes and townhomes for rent along Keystone Lake and in the River Run area. Recommended condos include The Pines, Northstar, Starfire and Soda Spring I and II.

Keystone

t

Lodging | Where to Stay

4

Golf In/Golf Out The ski in/ski out concept so popular at winter sports meccas like Breckenridge, Keystone, Aspen and Vail doesn’t translate to golf in Summit County, known as “Colorado’s Playground.” The closest approximation is Copper Mountain Resort, a half-mile from the clubhouse at Copper Creek. However, most resorts work closely with courses. For example, Keystone Resort offers great discounts for attendees of the Nancy Lopez Golf Clinic August 17-25 at Keystone Ranch (970-496-4118).

Summit County FEATURED PROPERTIES Beaver Run Resort & Conference Center 620 Village Rd Breckenridge 970-453-6000 beaverrun.com Copper Mountain Resort 209 Ten Mile Circle Copper Mountain coppercolorado.com 888-219-2441 Grand Timber Lodge 75 Snowflake Dr, Breckenridge 970-453-4440 grandtimber.com Grand Lodge on Peak 7 1979 Ski Hill Road, Breckenridge 866-664-9782 grandlodgeonpeak7.com Hotel Frisco Colorado 308 Main Street, Frisco 800-262-1002 hotelfrisco.com Keystone Lodge and Spa 22101 US Highway 6, Keystone 800-328-1323 keystoneresort.com Mountain Thunder Lodge 500 Mountain Thunder Dr, Breckenridge 970-547-5725; breckresorts.com Ski Tip Lodge 21966 US Hwy 6, Keystone 800-328-1323; keystoneresort.com

Local Knowledge t Beaver Run Resort & Spa in Breckenridge brokers

t Grand Lodge on Peak 7 in Breckenridge,

all kinds of deals with area attractions: Stay and plays at The Raven and Breckenridge, summertime gas rebates, free transportation to the Breck Beer Fest and more. Don’t miss happy hour at Base 9.

has added 27 new residences, two seven-person theaters (3-D and Blu-Ray) and a putting green.

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Colorado AvidGolfer | July 2013

t Ski Tip Lodge, a

bed-and-breakfast perched on the edge of the White River National Forest, is the coziest gem in Vail Resorts’ Keystone crown.Housed in a 19th Century cabin, it also specializes in four-course gourmet dinners.

For more information go to

coloradoavidgolfer.com

Beaver Run Resort

REALLY REALLY EASY TO GET TO

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STAY

mi

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HOP

AND

PLAY

KEYSTONE SKIP

AND SAVE 33%

JUMP

GOLF

(REALLY)

AVERAGE SUMMER

TEMPERATURE

-RIVER COURSE-

-RANCH COURSE-

WHAT

THINKS

(THANK YOU)

(THANK YOU VERY MUCH)

THINGS TO DO (WHEN YOU’RE NOT GOLFING)

HIKE

Sc enic

ALPINE HOLES

GOLF CLINIC TALK ABOUT GOLFING

FISH

DINE

SAVING STROKES DAILY

AVERAGE DRIVE IN YARDS

9,300 FT ELEVATION

MOOSE

SEA LEVEL

EAGLES

MTN BIKERS

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STAY & PLAY STARTING AT $90* PER PERSON :

A mountain of possibilities. *Restrictions apply. Call for details.

Sc enic

ALPINE HOLES WHAT

THINKS

-RIVER COURSE(THANK YOU)

-RANCH COURSE(THANK YOU VERY MUCH)

Activities | Dining

GOLF

Summit County

Between the two ski meccas of Breckenridge and Keystone sits Frisco, where history, shopping, live music and outdoor fun happily coexist. 800-424-1554; townoffrisco.com

t

Party Time Summer brings a full calendar of happenings to “Colorado’s Playground.” Keystone’s 17th Annual Bluegrass & Beer Festival (Aug. 3-4) features pints and pickers from all over.

Throughout the summer, ride the River Run gondola to the Summit House for Keystone Resort’s Friday Afternoon Club—an evening of live music, drink, food, fun and games. The free Sunset at the Summit Concert Series draws music lovers carrying blankets and picnic baskets to Lake Dillon, just steps from the Tiki Bar, every Saturday evening (970-468-2403; lakedillon.co).

STAY AND

PLAY

AND SAVE 33% (REALLY)

AVERAGE SUMMER

TEMPERATURE

THINGS TO DO

2

(WHEN YOU’RE NOT GOLFING)

GET OUT • Frisco Bay Marina rents sailboats, kayaks and pontoon boats outfitted with a grill.

800-424-1554; townoffrisco.com • Keystone Lake features paddleboating, canoeing and fly-fishing for lake trout. 888-9632624; keystoneresort. com • Snake River flyfishing at Keystone can land you rainbow and brook trouts. 888-963-2624; keystoneresort.com

HIKE TALK ABOUT GOLFING

FISH

Pedal Mettle

DINE

t Vail Pass Bike Path , the 8.7-mile ribbon of asphalt connecting Copper Mountain to Vail’s Gore Creek Campground, gains almost 2,000 feet of elevation and rewards bicyclists with postcard worthy views at every switchback.

STAY & PLAY STARTING AT $90* PER PERSON:

t Circle The Summit , the annual A mountain of possibilities. *restrictions apply, call for details.

For more information go to

coloradoavidgolfer.com 68

fundraiser for Summit County bike path improvements, takes place August 17. Pick from one of four distances, ranging from 21 to 100 miles. circlethesummit.com

Colorado AvidGolfer | July 2013

colora do avidgo lf e r.c o m

FOOD SPOTS

Ski Tip Lodge

co lo r a d o a v i d g o l f e r. c om

Ski Tip Lodge Elegant prix fixe dining in a secluded 19th Century cabin that’s also a Keystone Resort B&B. 764 Montezuma Rd, Keystone. 800-354-4386. skitiplodge.com Le Petit Paris Bistrot Easily the finest, most authentic French food in the area.161 East Adams Avenue, Breckenridge; 970547-5335; lepetitparisbistro.com Tuscato Ristorante A cozy spot for delectable Italian fare and affordable wines to pair it with. 307 Main Street, Frisco 970-668-3644 Pizza on the Plaza Colorado-style pies and Cadillac Margaritas on a patio overlooking Keystone Lake. 22080 U.S. 6, Keystone; 970-468-9501; pizzaontheplaza.com

July 2013 | Colorado AvidGolfer

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THINGS

TO DO Let the Children Play Bring the family to the Saturday Kidtopia Kidz Fest at River Run: free village train rides, Zorbing Balls, caricatures, face painters, balloon artists, bounce houses and much more. keystoneresort.com Ride the Snake Bike the scenic paved trail that circles Lake Dillon and follows the swiftflowing Snake River into Keystone.

Kick It at Kickapoo Après-anything, nothing beats a brew and burger on the deck of this River Run institution.129 River Run Rd., Keystone; 970-468-0922; kickapootavern.com SUP, Dude Catch the stand-up-paddleboard wave on Lake Dillon. Rent a board, oar and lifevest at the Frisco Marina.

970-668-4334; townoffrisco.com

Tee off for kids!

Join us for the second annual Kempe Classic Golf Tournament at Cherry Creek Country Club. Enjoy a great day while helping abused and neglected children.

Mon., Sept. 16, 2013, 1:30 p.m. Shotgun Start Cherry Creek Country Club, 2405 S. Yosemite St., Denver, CO Foursomes: $2,000 • Individuals: $500 • Corporate sponsorships are available.

For more information and to register, visit kempe.org/golf or call 303.864.5300.

Benefiting

Support The Kempe Foundation to make a difference in an abused child’s life.

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Colorado AvidGolfer | July 2013

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April 02

May 02

“

There are no mulligans in magazine publishing.

You’ve got to pierce the x fairway right out of the bo r you ld fie the w sho d an game. —Jon Rizzi, Premier Issue, April 2002

”

June 02

July 02

Aug 02

Sept 02

Oct 02

Think you’ve got issues ?

“Only at Punta Mita, can you play golf and snorkel at the same time.”—Turk Pipkin (Winter 2002)

“Designing a golf course is my total expression. My golf game can only go on so long, but what I have learned can be put into a piece of ground and that will last beyond me.”

— Jack Nicklaus on Cherry Creek Country Club. (Sept 2002)

We have 100 of them.

In honor of the 100th edition of Colorado AvidGolfer, we provide a highly selective highlight reel.

John Elway makes the first of two appearances on the cover of Colorado AvidGolfer. (June 2002) d of Colorado AvidGo a presenting sponsor, (Aug 2002) stepped up to the plate.

“Taking five bucks off Arnie (Palmer) at Isleworth on a hole he built.” —Rick Reilly describing the best thing that ever happened to him on a golf course. May 2003 Open in nee With the Colorado lfer

Spring 03

April 03

May 03

June 03

July 03

Winter 02

Photographer Dick Durran ce refers to his sh ot Ranch’s par-5 of River Valley se mother of wow! cond as “the ” (July 2002)

For this cover shot of Castle Pines Golf Club founder Jack Vickers, photographer Barry Staver poses him with the 1935 MacGregor pitching wedge and putter he continues to use. (Aug 2003)

Aug 03

Sept 03

coloradoavidgo lf e r.c o m

Oct 03

Winter 03

Spring 04

April 04

May 04

June 04

July 04

Aug 04

Sept 04

July 05

Aug 05

U.S. Senator Mark Udall’s 2 handicap is the lowest among elected officials.Photographer Erik Lars Bakke’s image takes first place in the International Network of Golf Media Awards (Fall 2005)

Little Courses on the Prairie (Sept 2004) “Mrs. Liniger can hit it 150 yards. She’s very strong and has a beautiful rhythm to her swing.” Sanctuary PGA Professional Rudy Zupetz. (Oct 2003)

“I saw it all at City Park. Nothing shocks me on a golf course anymore. I saw shootings, stabbings. I saw money games were there was $50,000 in a briefcase chanined to a golf cart…If you were going to play out there, you couldn’t afford to lose focus.”

—Jonathan Kaye (April 2004)

Appropriately, in honor of the 2005 U.S. Women’s Open at Cherry Hills, our first perfect-bound edition (with a spine) features a woman known for plenty of backbone, Annika Sorenstam. (June 2005)

Fall 04

Winter 04

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April 05

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Spring 06

an elementary P.E. teacher for 19 years, but is best known for 35 years of leadership with the North Boulder Little League. Among her legendary accomplishments, she was the first female west of the Mississippi to be named president of a state Little League organization.

Bohn was exposed to college athletics as a 12-year-old hawking Cokes at Folsom Field, financial May 06 a job he needed for familyJune 06 reasons. He was an exceptionJuly 06 al athlete who assumed all the leading roles at Boulder High School: drop-back passer in football, center on a basketball team that won the state championship his senior year, and talented pitcher. CU showed some interest, but Bohn wanted to broaden his horizons and accepted a football scholarship to the University of Kansas, partly because the school let him play baseball.

He describes his gridiron career as “all-league clipboard.” He started just one game, a 52-0 drubbing at the hands of the University of Nebraska. Bohn was constantly buried under a pile of red shirts; the Huskers’ linemen felt so sorry for him that they frequently offered a hand after mauling him, but Bohn wouldn’t have any of it. He fared better on the diamond and was a part of the KU starting rotation. Liking what he saw of big-time Division I athletics, he pursued a master’s degree at Ohio University in sports administration, which he earned in 1984 while working as a graduate assistant football coach for the university.

Bohn’s career then began its impressive ascent: athletic-department posts at the Air Force Academy and Colorado State University; marketing director with the College Football Association (precursor to the Bowl Championship Series [BCS]);

April 06

ike Bohn and his partner are two down on the eighth tee and he’s giving a clinic on how to handle adversity. The day has featured swirling 25 mph winds, sideways rain and ominous dark clouds. On this tight, tree-lined 427-yarder at Boulder Country Club, Bohn’s partner—me—has responded to the pressure by hooking two balls into someone’s backyard.

Our situation seems dire, if not quite as extreme as the challenges Bohn faced in taking over the embattled University of Colorado athletic department two years ago, or in watching his new head coach lose 10 football games last season.

This is just a friendly little Nassau with an unspecified wager, yet Bohn wants to prevail—or at least go down fighting. A left-hander with a 10-handicap and a tall, athletic stance, Bohn has a takeaway that is smooth, and he doesn’t overswing, especially notable for someone who stands 6-foot-3, 220 lbs. His low-fading drive pierces the fairway, and he coaxes a mid-iron to within 25 feet of TheGallery the hole. En route to the green, he needles our opponents—his 20-year-old son, Brandon, and Mark Magaldi, a Boulder business A golf owner and longtime Buffs booster—telling them Wormburner: they ball that skims the ground are going down. Bohn two-putts to win the hole, wefor a significant distance. take the ninth with a birdie, and—miraculously—we push on the front side.

Bohn might have the toughest, most thankless job in the state of Colorado, reclaiming a program beset by a debilitating football scandal, deep financial woes, declining morale and poor on-field performance in the marquee sports of football and basketball. He is tasked with reinventing the culture of CU sports, and I want to know how he perseveres, how he slogs through 70-hour work Define weeks, battles the red tape and red ink, and stays so damn upbeat.

Wormburner “You’ve got to have an attitude, so why not be To the uninitiated, the argot of golf can be as positive? People are going to indecipherable take away as what you the muffled mutterings of emphasize,” he responds. “If everything wasthegreat, Kenny McCormick, hooded fourth-grader

“People ask, ‘I’d like to take lessons from you. How much do you charge?’ It’s like the old saying: If you have to ask, you can’t afford it and I haven’t got the time.” —David Leadbetter, on his new academy at Red Sky Golf Club (Sept 2005)

The International?

What happened to

By Kaye W. Kessler

tional’s What does The Interna indeed, is to blame? tournament? Who, ional golf? the future of profess the dust demise presage for Tour event to bite isn’t the only PGA The Western The International Cup restructuring.

FedEx Pines Golf Club new m’s heads figas a result of Finche anybody hear it? and one many wiser clap drives, would 16th hole at Cas-oldest tournament out of its aced the unthinkable Open, the second has been booted in If Kevin Sutherland have been a major, Tiger Woods wasn’t the Booz Allen and ured should always of 21,000 fans and r is history as are tle Pines in front little double roots. The 84 Lumbe o care? y dandy a Chicag anybod though the field, would the strange state in Washington, The and “no,” you hit capital, possibly at the old Kemper events on nation’s ck the to If you answered “yes” headlo returned golf spot. Tiger has a dealing disco has smack on the sweet minds . of pro golf today table fixation in the International’s expense s: remaining an indomi r the fan is six handfuls of grenade the golf world today, ent or not, whethe Syndrome): the Blame exploded like r he’s in the tournam (Tiger Deficiency called it the TDS of every fan whethe others) head many wise so One · (and not. ent or Tour g The International 1999; attending the tournam last month told PGA World’s No. 1 scornin Pines in 1998 and Jack Vickers, who community to appearances at Castle Deeply disappointed else Tiger whole PGA Tour since his only two here and everywhere Finchem and the ve or had gone to hell Commissioner Tim e, refused to be vindicti · TV ratings that tournament goodby ent after 21 mostly milkiss his International doesn’t play; rs to support an $8 the plug on the tournam too to attract sponso efforts Club. He was far ch acrimonious for pulling Golf last-dit Pines · Failed splendid Castle plethora of othbrilliant years at his Rather he cited a lion package; International; to blame Woods. tournament dates offered to The tactful and discreet included having his —the ever-smiling, Impracticable new · They duelists te valid. tly inan obdura between two er reasons, all indirec declining TV ratings, Finchem—that scram· A power struggle by the Tour, steadily te sponsor, and and the ever-grimacing dates jerked around long-term corpora ever-grinding Vickers an omelet of things; minute to land a could even make not measure ability at the last tournament that did bled the eggs so nobody refusal to stage a a staunchly proud you Tiger Woods · All of the above. ngor a Steinberg to tell up to the very best. shot the colorful hummi require an Einstein Who doesn’t It tional?

Interna and the So what killed The Pines Golf Club do AvidGo lfer 53 classy logo for Castle April 2007 |Colora birds that were the

I

E HUMA N AT CASTL S WAS THE ONLY rF TIGER WOOD of his patented thunde and launched one

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lfer | April 2007 Colorad o AvidGo

Kenny McCormick from South Park appears on page 26. (Aug 2007)

who gets killed in every episode of South Park.

So it’s oddly apt that the real-life inspiration for Colorado AvidGolfer | Sep tem b er 2007 Kenny, Steve Chapleski—a childhood friend of the cartoon’s co-creator, Trey Parker—has produced with his father, Greg, a pocket dictionary containing more than 1,000 one-sentence golf definitions. From aboard (“landing a golf ball safely on the green”) to zoomie (“an unusually long drive for a golfer who rarely hits the ball that far”), Golfinitions quickly explains terms both common and arcane, letting you at least talk a good game. “We’re already on our third printing in less than a year,” boasts Greg Chapleski, who cites endorsements from the USGA, PGA and other organizations. Golfinitions ($5.95) is the same size as the Rules of Golf, and the Colorado Section PGA has integrated it into all its new-golfer programs.

To order, visit edimples.com/index.php or call 303-284-1331.

l went belly-up, “Th e Int er natio na fade away by and dry to out ironically hung , by raising nce elle exc its own standard of Kaye W. Kessler ”— ce. gan ele ve abo the bar (April 2007)

w w w.coloradoavi dgolfer.com

CU Athletic Director Mike Bohn has fun at Folsom Field. (Sept 2007)

Photographer Barry Staver wins the ING Award for “Open-Minded at The Broadmoor” (Aug 2007)

MOUNTAIN DO

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I l lu s t r at I o n C o u rt e s y o f C o m e dy C e n t r a l

Tee it up with a “who’s who” of Colorado skiing, including Olympians, resort pioneers and industry VIPs, Sept. 17 at the Jim Engh-designed Snowmass Club Golf Course in the 6th Annual Colorado Ski Museum Ski & Snowboard Hall of Fame Golf Invitational. Support and promote skiing’s rich history in the state— and party in Aspen with the pros.

Contact Andy Bigford at 303-4427064 or awbig@aol.com.

Colorado AvidGolfer | Au g u s t 2 0 0 7

Open-Minded

The first nine holes of the country’s first artificial turf course, Echo Basin, is scheduled to open in 2006. (June 2006)

at The Broadmoor

As Colorado Springs prepares for next year’s U.S. Senior Open, we go behind the scenes to learn what it takes to stage a national championship.

By Lois Friedland | Photographs by Barry Staver

Largest issue ever!

140 PAGES (Aug 2006)

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Garrett Atkins Speaks Softly, But Is He a Stick?

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“Golf is like surfing…When you’re out there surfing, you actually spend very little time on the wave. Most of the time you’re just there in the water. And when the wave comes, it’s this final expression—the wind, created thousands of miles away. You surf at the very last moment of all that buildup, and then it just dissipates…When you’re playing golf, it’s the same way.”

—MICHAEL KANG (Fall 2007)

Editor Jon Rizzi wins The Colorado Open’s Ralph Moore Golf Journalism Award (June 2008) Publisher Allen Walters wins The Colorado PGA’s Todd Phipers Media Award (November 2008)

Amy Van Dyken troke Learns a New S

A visit to the internationally acclaimed Ballyneal Golf and Hunt Club produces an ambitious fashion feature and profile of founder Rupert O’Neal. (Fall 2008)

l U.S. Olympic Hal induction into the mmer is happily On the eve of her e gold-medalist swi rse. tim sixthe e, of Fam the golf cou making a splash on

Nakashima HOLE-BY-HOLE * n WHO Photograph by Todd ruin | WIN DeBMIGHT

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Golf. Life. Style.

Guide to the 2008 U.S. Senior Open

“Recovery Vehicle,” a piece on how golf helps rehabilitate injured soldiers such as Matt Nicodemus, generates enormous positive reader response. (Sept 2008)

We preview the 2008 U.S. Senior Open at The Broadmoor, HealthONE Colorado Open at Green Valley Ranch and U.S. Amateur Public Links at Murphy Creek—all of which take place in the same month. (July 2008)

p057-072_USSO_JR(3).indd 57

“We think we can advance the game if we have our own laboratory. The whole idea is to create new golfers.”

—Colorado Golf Association Executive Director Ed Mate on CommonGround Golf Course (April 2009)

6/11/08 3:40:50 PM

June 08

July 08 FITNESS SPECIAL:

Aug 08

Sept 08

Fall 08

Winter 08

Spring 09

SMART PLAY:: Save $5,000 with the 2009 Golf Passport (see page 14)

Working Out Your Swing Flaws

April 09

PLAY MORE, PAY LESS. See page 8

Golf. Life. Style.

Golf. Life. Style.

GO WEST!

Hot Golf trips to Arizona, Nevada, Utah and beyond

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HealthONE Colorado Open July 23-27 Green Valley Ranch

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2008 U.S. Senior Open July 28-August 3 The Broadmoor

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Discovering Common Ground in Denver

CommonGround, No. 12

May 09

June 09

July 09

Aug 09

Golf. Life. Style.

Golf. Life. Style.

ROBERT WAGNER

Talks Trash in Snowmass

Golf and the Environment

Sanctuary’s

Denver’s

50 Special Tournaments

What’s Cooking at Cherry Hills?

Rudy Zupetz

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One Man, 276 Courses: David Fanning’s Colorado Quest

DU Women’s Golf: Birth of a National Powerhouse

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GOLF

Itineraries to fit every budget

The Course in Winter

A Photographic Essay By Dick Durrance II

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Golf. Life. Style.

Long Drive Champ Mike Gorton

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BEYOND TOURNAMENTS: How to Plan Your Big Event

CRISTIE KERR

The Broncos’ X-Man Attacks Golf

New knee, new swing, new life...

Spring 10

Pay Less, Play More! The 2010 Golf Passport is here. See page 8

Golf. Life. Style.

BRIAN DAWKINS

Makes the Turn

DAVID DUVAL

Make More Putts!

New Mexico: The Golf Next Door

MAY 2009 | $3.95

Golf. Life. Style.

Is He Really Back?

The HealthONE Colorado Open

Winter 09

EXCLUSIVE: Signature Dishes from Ballyneal, Castle Pines & Cherry Hills

ELWAY

Renowned teachers Mark & Kathy Wood set up shop at Cornerstone

Pinehurst No. 1

Fall 09

Golf. Life. Style.

MATCH PLAY IN MONTROSE

DON BAYLOR Back in the Swing

5th Annual Charity Golf Special

Clint Hurdle’s “Puke Zone”

Sept 09 MILE HIGH GOLF AT $52.80 See page 19 for details

The Front Range’s Top Golf Restaurants

2010 Senior PGA: Let the Countdown Begin

Cordillera • Ravenna • Grand County • Parker

Can You Solve “The Games of Golf?”

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Resort Fashion

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Editor Jon Rizzi wins first of two Colorado PGA Todd Phipers Media Awards (2010)

LPGA star and Scottsdale resident Cristie Kerr becomes the first person featured on the cover of our annual winter travel edition. (Winter 09)

“I like Wolverine because he’s real gritty.

He’s not your normal good guy.”

Brian Dawkins (Fall 2009)

COLORADO’S

TURN

GREEN IN REGULATION

How environmentalism is changing the game for the better. By Peter Bronski Last December, members of the Colorado Native Plant Society attended an event entitled “Sound Advice for Prairie Plants” at Denver Botanic Gardens’ Waring House.

After Mary Ann Bonnell, Senior Natural Resources Specialist for the City of Aurora, PowerPointed through images of showy milkweed, wavy-length thistle, phlox, New Jersey Tea and other stunning wildflowers, the final slide popped up: “AURORA NATIVE WILDFLOWERS BROUGHT TO YOU

BY THE OUT-OF-PLAY NATURAL AREAS AT SADDLE ROCK GOLF COURSE.”

Whom to Watch Michael Allen

Paul Azinger

Since winning this event last year he’s been red hot and has been the most successful Champions Tour player on the PGA Tour. Adversity has never fazed him - Can he hold it together for four rounds?

68

Fred Couples

Nobody is more competitive.

He’s a rookie who looks at the Champions Tour as a huge opportunity.

- He needs to convince himself he can win again.

It’s been a long time.

He is on fire on the Champions Tour. His length will allow him to reach the par fives in two and even some par fours in one.

- Three-footers on Colorado Golf Club’s fast and undulating greens are no gimmes and he’s known to struggle with short putts.

Colorado AvidGolfer | May 2010

www.coloradoavidgolfer.com

The arrival of the Senior PGA Championship at Colorado Golf Club occasions a 30-page preview of the event, eventually won by Tom Lehman. (May 2010) Ju n e 2009 | Colorado AvidGolfer

www.co lo r ad o avid g o lfe r.co m

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Colorado AvidGolfer | Fall 2009

This feature presaged the debut of “Elevated Green,” the first regular environmental column in a golf publication. (June 2009)

www.coloradoa vidgolfer.com

Colorado AvidGolfer | July 2010

Contributor Sam Adams caddies for Charles Barkley and lives to write about it. (Fall 2009)

“You can’t let your dad beat you. You never lose to your dad.

You do what you have to do—change the lie, foot wedge.

You never give your dad an edge. He already has an edge.”

—Don Cheadle (July 2010)

CHEADLEMANIA: The star at Pebble Beach and, opposite, in Hotel Rwanda, Brooklyn’s Finest, Ocean’s 13 and Iron Man 2.

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www.coloradoavidgolfer.com/travel

On the 50th anniversary of the 1960 U.S. Open at Cherry Hills, we send Arnold Palmer a replica of the red visor he famously tossed after coming back to win the championship. That Open is widely considered a benchmark event in golf history, and this cover, one of the best in our canon. (June 2010)

April 10

May 10

June 10

Tee Times in Thailand • Glenmoor’s Rare Penny

6th Annual Charity Golf Special

July 10

EXCLUSIVE: Behind the Cuban Curtain

Gary Player becomes the third of golf’s “Big Three” to appear on our cover, as we travel to his Mexican course design at CostaBaja. (Winter 2010)

Aug 10

Who’ll Be the Face of the 2011 U.S. Women’s Open?

Golf. Life. Style.

Golf. Life. Style.

Fall 10

THE CHANGING WORLD OF COURSE DESIGN

Winter 10

Mile High Golf at $52.80. See page 11 for details.

Golf. Life. Style.

DON CHEADLE From East High Angel to A-List

LARRY GATLIN & THE GATLIN BROTHERS Colorado’s Robert Trent Jones Jr. Trail

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Castle Pines Perfects Practice Colorado’s Junior Golf Guru WIN a Trip to Scotland & Ireland (See www.coloradoavidgolfer.com for details.)

coloradoavidgolfer.com

FLOYD LITTLE Comes Home

The

Chauncey Billups Project

New & Improved:

A Legendary Amateur Event

A salute to 1960, Cherry Hills and the greatest U.S. Open ever

Colorado Golf Club welcomes the

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Jerry Rice What’s New at the Old Course?

Private Clubs Want You

HATS OFF TO ARNIE

CRENSHAW’S CLOSE-UP

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Mark and Gunner Wiebe How to “Stack & Tilt” GPS vs. Range Finders

Brady Quinn Crushes It

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Returns to Denver

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Visits to Crested Butte, Durango, Idaho and Nebraska

Golf. Life. Style.

Why

Hall of Famer

Movie Star

Golf in Schools: A plan to save the game

Golf. Life. Style.

Golf. Life. Style.

Golf. Life. Style.

Spring 11

2011 Passport: The Best Deal Ever. See page 18

AUGUST 2010 | $3.95

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How a Private Club Became a College Course Winter Travel Preview Colorado’s Senior Class 0

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Gary Player Loves Mexico YOU RATE COLORADO’S BEST COURSES

La Paz: The Anti-Cabo Portugal: Europe’s Best-Kept Secret Arizona: A Golfer’s Guide to Spring Training

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Gary Hallberg’s Return Jim Engh Takes Your Questions Tucson Puts on The Ritz

It’s Here!

Sign up NOW!

2013 Fan Golf Tour

July 11 July 22 Aug 5 Aug 21

Sept

A place for all and all the game teaches.

Hiwan Golf Club Perry Park C.C. The Ranch C.C. Common Ground G.C. FINALS: Atlantis

Casino Resort Spa Reno, Nevada

Play for a Spot in the Finals

in September at Reno’s Atlantis Casino Resort Spa!

April 11

May 11

June 11

7th Annual Charity Golf Special • Brian Griese’s Broadmoor Bash

C O L O R A D O G O L F C L U B R E -T E E S

•

July 11

FOSSIL TRACE’S UPS & DOWNS

Aug 11 B A L LY N E A L’ S N E W C O U R S E

•

Fall 11

Spring 12

Get Your 2012 Golf Passport Now! See page 9 for details.

Golf. Life. Style.

Golf. Life. Style.

Golf. Life. Style.

Golf. Life. Style.

to

DAVE PELZ

School

Gets Home

GREAT SCOT!

What Women Want

Takes Your Questions

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Timing is everything. Our cover story on CSU alum Martin Laird coincides with his victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill. (Spring 2011)

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Workout Dos and Don’ts

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Cherry Creek Country Club’s Sweet Life

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20 Reasons

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Three Drills:

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The Whoosh • The Gate • The Scatter

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Red Rocks Country Club Goes Napa

Golf Trips to

Father’s Day Gifts

“Golf Saved Her Life” A Teenager’s Heroic Tale

10th Annual Winter Travel Issue

Broncos star?

Steamboat, New Mexico, Vail & Summit Co.

july 2011 | $3.95

BEST

The Sun!

Eric Decker

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Quick Shape-ups for the Season

Awards

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Bring On

Dead Solid Perfect?

Is long-driving wide receiver

• Tips from Top Teachers • Great Garb and Gear • Functional Fitness

Three-Time U.S. Women’s Open Champ Hollis Stacy

TV’s TOM GREEN

Private Club Guide

0

as she defends her u.S. Women’s open title at The Broadmoor

Tim Tebow

Threat

means business

his muse in the rockies

CSU alum Martin Laird shines on the PGA Tour Awarii Dunes • New Mexico APRIL 2011 | $3.95

INC.

Paula Creamer

cU coach Jon Embree gets a read from the great Bill mccartney

Short Game Specialist finds

The

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Golf. Life. Style.

Golf. Life. Style.

Golf. Life. Style.

PINK Deep

Going

Planning the Perfect Tournament

Texas’

Best-Kept Golf Secret

Play More, Pay Less.

SPRING 2012 | $3.95

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Trips to Aruba, Austin and Mexico

Holiday Gimmes & Colorado’s Best Finishing Holes

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Like the rest of the nation, we catch Tebow-mania, as Sam Adams tracks the phenom to the American Century Championship at Lake Tahoe. Wearing two golf gloves and playing with the finesse of a rhinoceros, the QB mentions he shot an 82 with Phil Mickelson at Sawgrass and had his swing timed at 141 mph. (Fall 2011)

Publisher Allen Walters wins the Colorado Open Golf Foundation’s Robert Kirchner Award (Spring 2012)

Editor Jon Rizzi (right, with contributor Sam Adams) wins his second Colorado PGA Todd Phipers media award. (2012) Who are the 24 most powerful people in Colorado golf? Our hotly debated roster of influencers flatters some, frustrates others and foments discussion. (Aug 2012)

BATTLING BRUIN: Urman’s darkest days appear to be behind her.

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P h O T O G R a P h by J O S h Ua d U P l E C h I a N / R I C h C l a R k S O N a N d a S S O C I aT E S

s H o R T- s I d E s T R a T E G I E s

Golf. Life. Style.

After 10 years of “The Best of Colorado Golf” awards, we rechristen them “The CAGGYs” and put them to an online vote. Close to 1,000 people respond. (Spring 2013)

GARY SINISE

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Spring 13 S AV E $ 6 , 0 0 0 + W I T H T H E G O L F PA S S P O RT (see page 17) Presented by

Golf. Life. style.

rAre

With Peyton in place, coach JOHN FOX won’t allow the Broncos to lag this year.

Plug into POWER Colorado Golf’s Most Influential People

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ExclusivE: Old Baldy club’s casting call

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At 32, Josh KroenKe governs 3 pro teams, plays to a 9 and has one tireless work ethic.

Is Golf Course Real Estate Coming Back?

The Broadmoor’s $60 Million Upgrade & Back-Nine Canines

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Elevating the Game.

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Golf. Life. Style.

er.com

shing. first decade of publi tion commemorates our l as the wel as e, tim t tha ing A special collector’s edi dur ments in Colorado golf mo erts give 10 exp top Two . the iod cle per t oni We chr instruction during tha and s rse cou , ent ipm 2) equ evolution of 2. (April 201 at golf will look like in 202 polarizing opinions on wh

p r e v i e w : The 2012 U.S. Amateur at Cherry Hills

F E A R FA C TOR : Color a d o ’s M o s t I n t i m idat ing Hol e s

Colorado AvidGolf

er.com

er | April 2012 Colorado AvidGolf

redemption.

The positive Cancer took Cherry Creek standou t Dani response is almost as powerful as the piece. (June 2012) Urman’s knee and thigh bone, but it left her spirit as indomitable as ever. | By Sam Adams



o AvidGolf er April 2012 |Colorad

Colorado AvidGolf

Nine years after his first appearance on our cover, PGA Professional Mike McGetrick

R I s I n G s Ta R W y n d H a M C l a R K

ive U.S. Open as sweet at two consecut Sixteen was twice In the 2002 event, ne Country Club.

Qualifiers at Columbi Derek Tolan (right) School junior-to-be ThunderRidge High in a first-place last five holes to finish bogeyed three of the the first playoff Mike Zaremba. On and Reid Mike tie with cup to send him chip curled into the hole, his 50-foot birdie year, Cheyenne Black. The following to New York’s Bethpage er (above) rallied from Glissmey Tom Mountain High School’s 141 and punch his gey to shoot a 3-under a first-hole triple-bo er, friendly rivals, Tolan and Glissmey ticket to Olympia Fields. went on to play, cut at the Open. They would each miss the and Southern CaliUniversity of Colorado respectively, at the nal tours. compete on professio to continue both fornia and

ca de of the la st de

“Golf Keptrivets readers with his heart-wrenching tale of personal and professional calamity and Her Aliv e”

8th Annual Charit y Golf Special

Two 16-Year- Old Qualify for the U.S. Open

MOSrTable o MMem OMENTS

Cherry Creek High golfer Dani Urman’s inspiring comeback from cancer garners national attention. (May 2011)

d

2002 & 2003 s

PhotograPh

PLaYERS

n tolan (toP) and joh of ann finke s C o u rt e s y

10

We learn golf course real estate isn’t going to the dogs but golf course maintenance is. (Fall 2012)

Player’sCorner

while recalling a poignant moment during Dani’s recovery period late last summer.

“We’re coming back from the hospital after a post-surgery chemo treatment,” she says. “Dani has the bucket she uses to vomit on the way home. We’re driving behind Denver Country Club. She says, ‘Pull over. I just want to see the golf course.’

“She’s . . . she’s tough.”

Other than a slightly impeding her follow-through, the disease hasn’t done much to hinder Urman’s ability to swing the clubs.

Urman shot 80 for Cherry Creek in a recent competition held at Longmont’s Twin Peaks Golf Club. Standing near the tee box at the par-4 fifth hole, she pulled the Popeye cover off her left-handed driver, hopped to the tee box, laid down her crutches and smacked the ball 250 yards into the center of the fairway. The other players are on their way up the fairway before Urman can grasp her crutches and hop away from the tee box.

The one thing Urman isn’t able to enjoy is friendly banter while walking the fairways with her teammates and competitors.

They walk the course. She rides in a cart.

“Even though I’m playing with everyone, I’m kinda not playing with them,” Urman says. “But it’s better than nothing. What’s weird is, no one I’ve played with has asked why I’m in a cart or why I’m on crutches. I guess they think I’ve got a sprained ankle or something.”

The Colorado Golf Association granted ani urman StartS a round of golf by hopping onto the tee box with Urman permission to be driven around in a the use of crutches. She puts the crutches on the ground—while managing to balance cart during competition. The decision to al12 12 June 12 July 12 the club April of choice against her body. Settled in herMay stance, Urman, a lefty, strikes the low her use of a cart during competition due Playing with a Purpose: ball, picks up the crutches, then hops away to put her club in the bag. She is then driven by cart to permanent physical disability was unto the ball for her next shot. precedented, says Dustin Jensen, director of For the 16-year-old Urman, the tiring ritual is an exercise in patience, poise, perseverance, youth programs for the CGA. and, most of all, passion.

Once the CGA offered a favorable ruling, Two years ago Urman was considered to be one of Colorado’s elite female junior golfers. To- the Colorado High School Activities Associday she is a sophomore on Cherry Creek High School’s girls’ varsity golf team. In between, she ation followed suit. urvived osteosarcoma—a cancerous bone tumor Salutes that can develop during the period of rapid “We’ve received request for carts on walkand America’s growth that occurs during adolescence. ing-only events, for things such as sprained Heroes Last September, doctors at Presbyterian St. Luke at Colorado Hospital declared Urman to be cancer-free. ankles and other injuries. But those requests Club She’s been trying to make up for lost time on theGolf ANCHOR AWAY How top golf pro golf course ever since. It hasn’t been easy.

She were denied,” Jensen says. “The 6-Handicap Newsman MIKE McGETRICK United an’t walk without the use of crutches because her left knee and thigh boneListings for RON ZAPPOLO Lines Up found his true path Keiser’s Roll: werethan replaced with States Golf Association more His Next Challenge uses this same amid a storm of crises poliBandon Dunes’ Plus: titanium rod.

70 th Course cy, so we followed their lead.

• HealthONE Colorado Open “I’ve gotGlorious a nice long scar, Up“One to shoe has anCharity butof I think it’s cool,”Belly Years Golf she says. extra inch so that • Vail Valley and Summit Co. “Because of the permanent Events physical disYour Putter • Alternative Putting my legs are the same length.”

MILESTONES ability, City Park at 100 • Hiwan at 50 Dani was granted use of the cart.

Golf’s DaVinci Code Emotion gets the better of Evelinda Urman’s voice as she conveys Arrowhead at 40 • Slope at 30 Due to the fact that Dani does not have Inside the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame feelings about her aughter’s courageous and successful eight-month fight against cancer.

Colorado AvidGolfer AvidGolfer || July July 2013 2013 her driver’s license, a person who possesses “Golf kept Dani alive,” she says,Colorado unable to hold back tears. Later, her voice chokes up again a valid license is required to drive her at

8

Winter 11

MILE HIGH GOLF AT $52.80. See Page 13 For Details.

A T OA S T T O G R A N D J U N C T I O N

Another reason to double down in Vegas

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What to Give a Golfer • A Sand Lesson • Conestoga

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April 13 M e m be r s On ly : O u r A n n u a l G u i d e t o P r i vat e C l u b s

coloradoavidgolfer.com

Elevating the Game.

AFTER THE GREEN, THERE’S NOTHING LIKE A NICE RED

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May 13

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Elevating the Game.

annual

’s guIde BuYeR pros & cons

THe HelpFul HundRed

on 50+ clubs, balls, tech and more

Broncos Ring of Famer

KaRl MecKlenBuRg’s

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ReacH Tournament heads a list of 100 charity golf events

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Cordillera’s Return to Glory

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Finished S

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July 13

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Oh Billy, Billy, Billy, Billy‌

Underrated by the media but never underestimated by opponents, the legendary Billy Casper now looks to move The Golf Club at Ravenna way up the leaderboard.

By Jon Rizzi | Photograph by Barry Staver 80

Colorado AvidGolfer | July 2013

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utter i n hand, Billy Casper stands out against the flat light of an overcast morning at The Golf Club at Ravenna.

His company, Billy Casper Golf, has just made the stunning private club near Waterton Canyon the first Colorado property among the 150 courses it manages, and he’s working the practice green as “ambassador-at-large and company diplomat.”

A month short of his 82nd birthday, the winner of 51 PGA Tour events and three majors jokingly promises to teach his “full repertoire…of alibis” to the roughly 100 members and guests before demonstrating the putting stroke that once inspired Chi Chi Rodriguez to joke, “Billy Casper could sink a 40-foot putt just by winking at it.”

Chatting avuncularly the whole time, he gives the ball a brisk, wristy pop and lags six 40-foot breakers within a few feet of the hole. As he proceeds to surround a closer pin with bump-and-runs and delicate chips from the fringe, it’s clear he still has what Johnny Miller called “the greatest pair of hands God ever gave a human being.” To put an exclamation point on it, Casper chips a few over a stand bag, and sneaks one under the kickstand for laughs.

It’s an impressive, well-honed yet seemingly spontaneous performance. He knocks in the six putts while regaling the gallery with tales from his playing heyday. There’s the story of the three-footer he holed to win the 1965 Bob Hope Desert Classic that Dwight Eisenhower called “a ‘knee-knocker’ but it really wasn’t,” and a similar putt a few years later at the Carling World Championships that did actually make his knees quaver as he thought about the $18,000 difference —“$6,000 a foot!”—between first and second place. (“I had to back away, stop thinking about

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Three” even though the trio acknowledges “there was a player who was winning as often as we were, a player we kept an eye on and worried about just as much, if not more, than each other. His name was Billy Casper.”

Casper could more than have completed the foursome. During his career he won 51 of the 556 tournaments he entered— a 9.2 winning percentage that ranks second only to Nicklaus (12.3) among golfers whose careers began and ended after 1950. In fact, between 1962 and 1970, Casper and Nicklaus tied for most wins on Tour with 33, while Palmer won 30 times and Player, eight. From 1964 through 1970, Casper won two more times (27) than Nicklaus did and six more than Palmer and Player combined.

Casper’s five Vardon Trophies for the PGA Tour’s lowest scoring average are five more than Nicklaus or Player won and one more than Palmer has. His 23½ Ryder Cup points remain a U.S. Team record. And he won the 1966 U.S. Open and 1970 Masters in 18-hole playoffs.

Despite these accomplishments, however, Casper never received the media attention or recognition that McCormack’s triumvirate got. Maybe, Casper shares later in private, it was because “McCormack was at odds with me for a major part of his life.” Maybe, I counter, it was because the conservative way he played was overshadowed by the idiosyncratic aspects of his life.

Like his conversion to Mormonism.

Like his and Shirley’s 11 children.

Like the allergies that resulted in a rotating diet of buffalo, elk, caribou,

ARM ON ARNIE: After making up seven strokes on the last nine holes to catch Palmer at the ‘66 Open, Casper “told him I was sorry and I meant it.”

hippopotamus and other unusual protein sources.

In many ways, though, Casper played Roger Maris to Palmer’s Mickey Mantle. The popular Palmer had his “army,” the workaday Casper had a huge family to support. “The media and fans thought I was a grump or a grouch on the golf course,” he says, then pauses “.... and I was.” A hearty laugh follows.

“And I was!”

Casper modeled himself after Ben Hogan, the “wee ice mon” who, like him, had endured a hardscrabble upbringing. “Hogan was my idol,” he says. “The way he conducted himself on the golf course, he was in a hypnotic trance so to speak. That’s the way I played. I was in the same trance on the golf course.

So consequently a lot of people didn’t get to know Billy Casper.”

They’d get to know him reading last year’s autobiography,

The Big Three and Me—a stack of which await his signature, as do a pile of Masters flags, in Ravenna’s temporary but wellappointed clubhouse. This is the book David Feherty called “extraordinary” during a recent interview with Casper. The subject of Casper’s son David’s drug addiction and imprisonment made Feherty—a one-time substance abuser—stop filming three times to wipe the tears from his eyes.

The pages of Casper’s book drip with sincerity, humility, and pride without hubris. We learn about a man who, through golf, went from living in a trailer and subsisting on lima beans to dining with U.S. Presidents, movie stars and the King of Morocco, who made him an honorary citizen; starting the second largest golf management business in the country; enduring the struggles with his son;

MASTER CLASS: George Archer jackets the 1970 champ.

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P H O T O G R A P H S C O U RT E S Y O F P G A O F A M E R I C A , C A S P E R recei v e d the 2 0 1 0 D I S T I N G U I S H E D S E RV I C E AWA R D

the money and focus on the fundamentals I used on the practice green,” he says. “What do you think I did then? I stepped up and made it.”)

He center-cuts a three-footer and everyone applauds.

He proceeds to list the choices that made him what he is today: hitting golf balls in the New Mexico cow pastures as a dirtpoor four-year-old; caddying as an 11-year-old in San Diego; meeting and marrying Shirley, his wife of 64 years; joining the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-Day Saints at the height of his playing career in 1966; and starting a golf management company that has grown from seven employees to a “family 6,000 strong.”

One choice he doesn’t mention is the one he made in 1962, three years after winning the first of his two U.S. Opens, to leave Mark McCormack’s fledgling International Management Group. IMG also represented Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Dow Finsterwald, George Bayer and was about to sign Jack Nicklaus. Casper preferred the more individualized representation of H.M. “Dick” Taylor, who had broken off from IMG to start his own agency.

But Taylor soon got out of the agent business, by which time McCormack had branded Palmer, Nicklaus and Player “The Big

OLYMPIC MOMENT: Casper’s putt to win the ‘66 Open drew mixed gallery reaction because of the man he beat.

finding his faith; and orchestrating the hugely successful Billy’s Kids Golf Classic for the Billy Casper Youth Foundation. He is as far from a grump or a grouch as one can get.

Although the book naturally contains a dramatic shot-by-

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shot recap of the 1966 U.S. Open, which he won in a playoff after coming back from seven shots down with nine holes to play in the final round at Olympic, nothing beats listening to the man himself vividly relive how he caught Arnold Palmer

that Sunday.

To this day, golf historians describe the back nine in terms of a Palmer choke instead of a Casper comeback. Yes, Palmer shot a 39 but Casper shot 32.

“You know how many rounds were shot in the 60s that week?”

Casper asks as he finishes his tale. “Fifteen. You know how many I had? Four. So you might say I was playing pretty well.”

The dust jacket for the book features a photograph of Casper exulting after sinking the winning putt. “Look at the faces in the gallery,” he says without bitterness. “More than half of them are upset. They were Arnold’s fans.”

Vanquishing the beloved Palmer, who in 1960 had authored the greatest charge in U.S. Open

history, with an even more dramatic comeback somehow only put him in the category of Jack Fleck, who had similarly defeated Ben Hogan at Olympic in 1955—and with whom Casper appeared when the Open returned there last June.

How fitting, then, that Billy Casper Golf has come to Ravenna to help stage its comeback—a Ravennaissance, as it were.

Highlighted by a dramatic 7,263-yard Jay Morrish layout and 243 spectacular home sites set amid red rocks and conifers, Ravenna debuted in 2007 with a splash, cracking Golf Digest’s list of 10 Best New Private Courses and establishing residency among Golfweek’s Top 100 Best Modern Courses and Best Courses of Distinction.

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TEAMMATES: Ravenna’s Glenn Jacks joins Casper in addressing the membership.

Plans for the 636-acre development called for a 40,000-square-foot clubhouse, stunning Mediterranean homes, full-on concierge services and a vintner’s club.

But the recession hit Ravenna hard. Carrying more than $36 million in project debt, the owner, River Canyon Real Estate Investments, endured three years of hearings, negotiations, innuendo and misinformation about the club’s fiscal health. Managing member Glenn Jacks deftly navigated the treacherous financial and legal waters, keeping his hand on the tiller and the community’s 60 existing members and homeowners informed. “They stood 100 percent behind me as we put Humpty Dumpty back together again,” he says. “We are in the final steps of emerging from Chapter 11 reorganization and proceeding with vigor and pace.”

Earlier this year, Jacks assembled an investment group, appropriately named Lazarus, and signed on Casper’s team to manage all aspects of the golf operation, including course and property maintenance, marketing, membership sales, staffing and training, merchandising, restaurant and banquet activities, special events, golf instruction and financial management.

“Billy Casper Golf ’s management philosophy aligns perfectly with our vision for this golf community,” Jacks says. “Given the stability in the market and a recent resurgence in real estate, we are excited to count them among our team.”

Billy Casper Golf Chairman and CEO Peter Hill, with whom Billy Casper founded the company more than 25 years ago, is bullish on the project. “With a stunning

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mountain setting, excellent golf-course conditions and terrific sense of community, Ravenna is poised for success,” he says.

Construction of a clubhouse significantly scaled back from the original 40,000-squarefoot model should commence this year.

“It’ll be a cooler, more intimate concept, but everything it was meant to be,” says Jacks, referencing such amenities as the concierge service and the pool that will open adjacent to the clubhouse. Plans call for 114 lock-andleave golf villas priced between $650,000 and $1 million.

Ravenna has engaged Fuller Sotheby’s International Realty as the exclusive marketing broker, and interest in a gated community set amid the red-rock outcroppings near Pike National Forest has spiked, according to listing broker Dale Schossow. Of the property’s 243 lots, 166 remain available, with three under contract as of mid-June. Home sites start in the $200,000s and custom homes at $1.2 million.

Those numbers exceed the largest purse Billy Casper ever won. In 47 years on the PGA and Champions tours, he earned a total slightly north of $3 million. “I’m scared to think of what I’d make now,” he says. “We had it good.”

He has no regrets about leaving IMG, a decision that probably cost him millions and a spot in history. When he talks about the

Big Three, he chokes up describing how he recently woke up crying on a flight home to Salt Lake City: “I felt I needed to write letters to Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player, telling them how much each of them meant to my life, and what a humbling feeling it was to have played with such great champions. Knowing them enriched me in a special way.”

At this point in Billy Casper’s life, spiritual enrichment is the measure of his wealth. It’s what he shares with everyone he encounters. After all, as the man universally acknowledged as the most underrated player in golf history says, “the blessing we receive from material things can’t go any further. We take nothing with us.” Cag Jon Rizzi is editor of Colorado AvidGolfer.

For membership information about The Golf Club at Ravenna, call Amy Rome at 866-2556680 or visit ravennagolf.com.

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Then I take my glasses off.

‘BILLY!’ he shouts, hugging me. It’s like I was disguised as Clark Kent or something.”

—Billy Casper

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games Golf

TRIVIA

| PUZZLERS

of

BREAKING 100

W

SERVICE WITH A SMILE: PGA Executive Director Eddie Ainsworth (far right) joins the Pikes Peak Round Table at Eisenhower Golf Club with three of our nation’s heroes (left to right): Army Major General Ron Crowder (age 66), Air Force Brigadier General Don Hartung (86) and Air Force Colonel Ollie Cellini (100).

ant proof that golf is

the game of a lifetime? Look no further than the second gentleman from the right in the above photo. Ollie Cellini, Col. USAF, Ret., celebrated his 100th birthday this year. Col. Cellini predates World War I, piloted a Flying Tiger in World War

1

1913 Name of the President of the United States

_ (_) (_) _ _ (_)

2013 Maker of Staff equipment

2

1913 Surname of U.S. Open winner

(_)_ _ _ (_) _ (_)

2013 Name taken by current pope.

3

1913 Host city of the Open Championship

II and the Korean War, and can sometimes shoot his age at Eisenhower Golf Club in Colorado Springs. On the occasion of our 100th issue, we thought it fitting to salute Colonel Cellini with a bit of centenarian trivia pegged to this month’s Open Championship. The answers to the five questions involving 1913 and 2013 contain letters that combine to answer question 6.

5 _ _ (_) (_) _ _ _ _ (_)

1913 Host course of previous year’s Open Championship 2013 Host course of this year’s Open Championship

6

This month will mark this six-time major winner’s return to the site of two of his three Open Championships.

___ ____ _____ Visit coloradoavidgolfer.com for the answers.

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_ (_) _ _ (_) (_) _

2013 Host city of next year’s Open Championship 88

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