The Club at Pradera
Played the Club at Pradera in July of 2021. Pradera is a nice private club in Parker, CO right outside of Denver. For the most part, I do a page on each course I play in the scrapbook and when I post 2021, will do so for Pradera. I limit the blog write-ups though to the top 150 to 200 courses. Is Pradera a top 150 or 200 course? Nah. It’s very nice and I like Jim Engh (Fossil Trace and Sanctuary) as a designer. However, this is outside the top 200 IMO. So why am I writing it up? Well, for every course I’ve ever gotten a hole-in-one on, I do a blog write up on. Since I’ve only had one so far, I’m doing a write up of Pradera.
So my buddy Erik just joined Pradera and invited us to play. So how do I rate Pradera? Take the hole-in-one out and I still really like the course. Pros: the elevation changes and views on a lot of the holes are great. Cons: I take points off for the houses that line a lot of the holes. There’s not a lot out on the web on course reviews for here but the one or two I did find, knock the design for the green complexes. Quite a few are laid out in a bowl that feeds somewhat errant approach shots onto the green. Now if the pin is in the right position and you play the wild undulations, you can get the ball pretty close without pinpoint accuracy on your approach shots. But you still have to execute the shot.
We also played Cherry Creek Country Club this time out and that is a really underrated course. We avoided downtown but did go to the Buckhorn Exchange which I discuss in the Sanctuary write-up and where we enjoyed Rocky Mountain Oysters and snake dip. But I digress.
To the course. Whenever we come out to Denver to play, we always get tee-shamed into playing way back. You know, we get the old, “C’mon it’s Colorado and the elevation adds yards.” True, true but 6,700 yards from the Ram tees is still a lot of golf course and it meant we played the 16th from 628 yards!
One is an uphill short-ish par five. I actually warmed up before the round and even had a couple of nerve busters – a bloody and Tito’s screwdriver. Usually that relaxes me and I have a good first. Here, I hooked my drive into the schmeggies left. Dropped in the rough. Tried to hit hybrid. Wrong move. The rough was really brutal even from a drop. Advanced the third shot about fifty feet. Finally got one to the fairway on four, 200 yards out. then had a nice shot to about 20 yards out. Nice little flip wedge. Rimmed out the double bogey putt and a tap in for an eight. Really figured this was gonna be a long round. For the next four holes, had the bogey train going that absent the eight I took on one, wouldn’t be bad for a 15 handicap.
So I am on six, already eight over. I blame the slow start on the Bloody Mary I had. It sucked. Went to Early Bird in the DTC. Way too much olive juice. Tasted like a dirty sweat sock and had the taste in my mouth until I washed it out with Miller Lites. So by the sixth, the bad taste is gone and I par six. Seven is a great par five which I just missed a chip in birdie and we come to eight. Pin up front. Down hill. A little breeze in the puss. 160 yards. My buddy Erik tells me to play it right and let the hill behind the front pin bring me back to the hole. I hit a seven iron right to where he told me, it did just what he said it would. And we watched in slow motion as it rolled into the hole. Real Men Don’t Kill Coyotes by The Red Hot Chili Peppers was the song playing from my cart for the moment!
Teed up the same ball on nine and crushed it – avoiding the water right. At that point my buddies picked up the ball and made me save it. I bogeyed nine for a 42, then played the next seven holes at even par (one bogey on 10 and a birdie on 14). So not only do I get a hole in one but I am two bogeys or less from breaking 80. With an eight on one! Of course I double both of the final holes but all-in-all a great time. Of course, I bought drinks after the round and met a lot of the members who were great and if you go to Pradera, my name is going up on a plaque.
I was previously really close (sub-three inches) on two occasions from holes-in-one. The first at my club (Commonwealth National) on the twelfth during our member-guest for a free Jaguar and the second when I was playing solo at Portmarnock. I forget which hole but only remember thinking if I hit a hole-in-one solo and no one was there to witness it wouldn’t have counted. I just missed but a grounds crew member was there and witnessed it.
Golf Scrapbook 