May 2024 – Played Colorado Golf Club as part of an American Cancer Society charity event. So the event was a shotgun scramble. We started on the fourth hole and decided to play our own ball instead of participating. My buddy Erik and I both made personal contributions to play as we (or at least I) didn’t want anyone to think I milked a company contribution just to play CGC. Our company does support the ACS but again felt the cause was worthy and the course was as well so ponied up the contribution myself. I don’t do preachy but the ACS is a great cause so contribute: Donate.
Generally I hate shotguns as you don’t play the course in the manner it was designed – kind of like starting a book in the fourth chapter and going back to the beginning after you complete it. It was also a shotgun and we wanted to play our own ball but I was playing like shit and the guys we were with were worse so we finally succumbed after about seven holes and just played the scramble – as such I can’t give you the usual hole-by-hole drudgery that is my game.
CGC gets some decent love from the golf mags…Golf Digest has it both in its Best in State (4th) and Top 200 rankings. Golfweek has it tied for 29th in its modern course ranking along with another great course I played – Kinloch in the Richmond, VA area. I put it just outside (and I mean just outside) my top 100. While GD ranks it above Sanctuary in Colorado, I found Sanctuary to have a little more “wow” than CGC so I had to rank it below that and at around the bottom of my top 100 (as of 2024) was the Concession outside Bradenton, which I also give a slight nod over CGC owing to the overall vibe so had to rank CGC below that as well. All of this is not to denigrate CGC as it’s a great course – just ‘splaining why you won’t find it in my Top 100.
CGC is on a huge tract of land – like over 1,700 acres. As of now, there aren’t homes smashing up against the course. You get some nice views of Pike’s Peak and the Rockies from various points along the course. And there is great movement throughout though nothing as crazy as Sanctuary. It’s definitely a tough golf course, even the whites play to a ball-busting 130 slope. There are a lot of forced carries and you will go through some golf balls if you’re not on your game – or suck like me. Our caddie (I am bummed I forget his name as he was awesome) was great and went through the native areas to generally retrieve what we were sending out there or was finding replacements for the other guys.
I visit the Denver area a ton and my buddy Erik likes to play different courses like me so you’ll see a ton of reviews of courses throughout the blog. On this trip out we also played the Pinery in Parker which was a good solid notch below its sister course, Pradera. To be fair, the clubhouse was being remodeled so that impacted my perception and ranking a bit. We were going to try Ballyneal (through Thousand Greens) but didn’t want to take the 3+ hour drive. I tried but struck out on Cherry Hills (golfed with a member when I played Ohoopee), tried Denver CC (not a peep back), tried Ravenna (heard back from a couple of members and is a future possibility) and finally Bear Creek (Men’s Club) and almost put it together but will have to do so later.
To the course. I read on some blog that some dude puts this in his top 10 most underrated courses. I agree it’s great but I think it gets enough lovin’ from the mags and Coloradoans so as to not make it underrated. Shit, 29th in Golfweek would have put it in the top 100 if they did a combined ranking. It’s definitely a tough track! It has hosted some pretty big events – the 2010 Senior PGA Championship and 2019 Mid-Am among others. CGC definitely has the space and course chops to handle one of the PGA majors as well.
The conditioning was great. Clubhouse was awesome but we were restricted from truly exploring as it was a Monday, closed-day tournament. Again I have this right at 101 in my own rankings around such other notables as Garden City (men’s club) and The Bear’s Club. I guess it’s a good thing that I’ve played enough travel golf so that a course as good as CGC doesn’t hit my top 100, right?
The map is from the ACS program. What you don’t see is on one of the holes they had professional hecklers. One saw my Phillies cap and Eagles towel and noted he was a Philly guy so I told him I expected big things out of him. Told the three of them I beaned Jimmy Johnson in the head with a snowball at Bounty Bowl II so when I put my shot in the water they said they bet I missed him too. Pretty good heckle there.
The first is a downhill 538-yard (all measurements are from the whites) par 5 to open your round. If I did indeed play this as one, this might be in one of the better opening holes in golf.
Two is the only par three I think I got a photo of and is the image I also opened up the blog with. Since all of the par threes had some kind of big charity thing going, I didn’t want to be snappety-snap on the tee boxes.
I wonder how the “F” the third is only the number 7 handicap. It’s 408 yards from the whites with this intimating tee shot. By the way, whenever I replace fuck with “F” this scene from Ted comes to mind…
This is three from the fairway. So even after the intimidating drive, you have a brutal approach across a creek and into a slippery, elevated green that slopes down to a nasty bunker right.
Here’s four. This is where we started. It’s the number three handicap but the whites here are way up at 374 yards. The championship tees play to 499 yards. For a par four.
Five is the #1 handicap. It’s just under 400 yards from the whites. Bunker, bunker, bunker, bunker all the way up to the green.
Missed the par-three 6th – we teed off with CU coach Tad Boyle and this is the par-five, 515-yard 7th. Played this with my own ball and just got my approach beyond the creek after my best hybrid shot to get me to within 100 yards. Bogey.
Seven from Erik’s drive.
Eight is short and uphill, just 273 yards from the whites. Hit my drive of the day but skulled my approach. Luckily ended up right, pin high on the fringe. So even though we were now scrambling, this was the best approach and I got a nice putt down the hill but one of our partners sank the putt before I could get my natural par.
I must have been giddy from my nearly natural par on the previous hole, so here on nine (388 uphill yards from the whites) I pulled my drive into the shit left and don’t think we used one of my shots the entire hole.
Ten is yet another 400-yard par four but here with a blind drive to a ridge which then drops down to the green. We actually used my drive which was on the right side of the fairway just at the crest of the ridge. I skulled my second again.
Missed 11 as that was the heckle hole that I described above. Twelve is another 400+ yard par four (533 yards from the Championships).
The approach on 12. As Ronnie Van Zandt says, “Oak tree you’re in my way.” Though that isn’t an oak tree but you get my drift.
Thirteen is a shortish par four – 300 from the whites.
Thirteen from our approach.
Fourteen is an uphill blind little par four. I think we all crushed it and put my second nicely onto the green where I didn’t even get the chance to hit a natural birdie as it was made for me. 239 yards and the 18th handicap so you better get your birdies here.
The approach on 14. And below is the obligatory flag shot I always try and take.
I missed fifteen and for sixteen we had this long drive champion guy crushing it out there and I took a big swing and hit my drive of the day. This is a neat par 5 that is bisected by a creek. Would be an awesome hole to play as is but we had to approach from the above area on a mat as they were trying to let the approach area and fairway heal from some damage.
This is the 139-yard par-three 17th.
Eighteen would make a tough closer: 400 yards, par four, and tight. Below is the clubhouse from the fairway. All in all a great course and one you should try to add to your Denver-area Rota if you have the chops to get on.
Golf Scrapbook 