May 2018 Colorado AvidGolfer

R E P O R T: W H Y C O L O R A D O G O L F I S H E A LT H I E R T H A N E V E R

Elevating the Game.

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HAILEY’S COMET

HEALTH, FITNESS & WELLNESS

Her star burning brighter than ever, HAILEY SCHALK fuels up for another spectacular summer

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HEALTH, FITNESS & WELLNESS

CONTENTS | May 2018

54 Fueling the Fame

16-year old Hailey Schalk’s meteoric rise owes in no small part to her commitment to proper food and fitness. Plus: FULE Cart Snacks. By Jon Rizzi

21

DEPARTMENTS 8 Forethoughts

A First Time for Everything.

By Jon Rizzi

10 ’net Score

Last call for the Schomp BMW Cup, Amazon gear deals, more

16 The CGA

Welcome to Open Season

21 The Gallery

Columbine’s Art Collection, City Park’s Renovation Refugees, Jennifer Kupcho, Bill Buckner, more

“SATURDAY MORNING” PAINTING BY MICHAEL LYNCH, PHOTOGRAPH BY EJ CARR

58 Garden of the Golf Gods

38 Fashion

Mother’s Day Gift Ideas

By Suzanne S. Brown

SIDE BETS 42 Getting Home

Cherry Creek Country Club and The Club at Ravenna

By Martin Yaeger

46 Nice Drives

Dodge Durango SRT 392, Infiniti QX50 and a preview of next year’s hot cars from the New York International Auto Show. By Isaac Bouchard

The Colorado Springs resort’s International Health and Wellness Center will add TPI training to its expansive offerings. By Jon Rizzi

61 Perturb Your Enthusiasm Perturbations can increase your body awareness and balance. By Neil Wolkodoff

62 “Oh those Planks!”

Doing them correctly yields tremendous core benefits. By Dee Tidwell

64 The Fountain of Youth There’s no magic bullet to improve your game, but hormone pellets can help.

By Taska Campbell

66 Who Says Golf Is Dying?

Golf in Colorado weathered the downturn better than it did in most states, and now the sport’s outlook borders on the bullish. By Andy Bigford

72 Blind Spot

Cart Popper Hailey Schalk

PLAYER’S CORNER 27 Travel

Hail to Michigan. By Andy Bigford

Special Section 50 NEW MEXICO TRAVEL

Dial in your game in the “505” golf resorts of Sandia and Buffalo Thunder.

30 Instruction

A Biomechanic Putting Lesson.

By Richard C. Olshock, M.D.

34 Profile

“Punch” Bohn and the Pig ‘n’ Whistle.

By Scott Nelson Gardner

COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | May 2018

ON THE COVER Hailey Schalk at Colorado National Golf Club in Erie. Photograph by Chad Chisholm.

2

50 coloradoavidgolfer.com

Set against the iconic red rocks of the Dakota Hogback near Waterton Canyon in Littleton, The Club at Ravenna offers access to one of Colorado’s premier residential communities and private golf courses amidst an unusually stunning backdrop and features a gorgeous collection of custom and semi-custom homes, designer specs, golf villas and home sites.

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LAND ROVER

May 2018 | Volume 17, Number 2

DENVER

publisher

A llen J. Walters editor

Jon Rizzi SALES, MARKETING & ADVERTISING associate publisher

Chris Phillips

digital and social media manager

A lex J. Rajaniemi

office and operations manager

Cindy Palmer

projects and special events manager

Melissa Holmberg ART & EDITORIAL art director

Jani Duncan Smith editor - at- large

Tom Ferrell

automotive editor

Isaac Bouchard real estate editor

Mar tin Yeager editorial interns

A lec Barr y, Drew Kor t contributors

Sam Adams, Andy Bigford, Suzanne S. Brown, E.J. Carr, Clarkson Creative, Tony Dear, Denny Dressman, Sue Drinker, Dick Durrance, Chris Duthie, Scott Gardner, Gar y James, Ted Johnson, Kaye W. Kessler, Kim D. McHugh, Phil Mumford PRINCIPALS Ray L . Baker, C. Don Baker, Dick B. Baker advertising inquiries : cindy@coloradoavidgolfer.com editorial inquiries and letters : jon@coloradoavidgolfer.com customer service and subscriptions :

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mailing address : 7200 S. Alton Way #A-180, Centennial, CO 80112 fax : 720-482-0784 newsstand information : 720-493-1729

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Colorado AvidGolfer (ISSN 1548-4335) is published eight times a year by Baker-Colorado Publishing, LLC, and printed by American Web, Inc. Volume 17, Number two. 7200 S. Alton Way #A-180, Centennial, CO 80112. Colorado AvidGolfer is available at more than 250 locations, or you can order your personal subscription by calling 720-493-1729. Subscriptions are available at the rate of $17.95 per year. Copyright Š 2018 by Baker-Colorado Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is prohibited.

Postmaster: Send address changes to Colorado AvidGolfer, 7200 S. Alton Way #A-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. magazine partner of choice :

Colorado Section

Like us on Facebook: Facebook.com/LandRoverDenver Every Land Rover and Range Rover vehicle comes with a 5-year, 100,000 mile limited warranty and a 165-point inspection. Original in-Service date is the earlier of new-vehicle retail sales or in-use date, as reported to or by Jaguar Land Rover North America, LLC. See your local authorized Land Rover Retailer for complete terms and conditions of the limited warranty and service coverage.

COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | May 2018

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Forethoughts

PHOTOGRAPH BY MIC CLIK

A First Time for Everything

COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | May 2018

I ATTENDED my first Masters last month, accepting an invitation to join my buddy, Bob Cohen, who won tickets to Tuesday’s practice round.

As a card-carrying member of the Golf Writers Association of America, I’m somewhat loath to admit I’ve never attended the Masters in a professional capacity. However, given our publication’s frequency and lead time, I always believed it was synthetic for me to say I would be covering the event, although that coverage wouldn’t appear until a month after the winner had slipped on the green jacket.

Of course, our website and social media channels have changed that calculus somewhat, but if I’m not convinced there’s a justifiable reason for granting me a press pass to the most media-saturated event in golf, am I really going to convince the gatekeepers at Augusta National Golf Club?

Besides—and I’m not dipping my company in the grease here—we don’t exactly have the travel budget for it.

Anyway, the experience exceeded every expectation I had. The immaculate grounds exploded with blooms of every color in the crayon box, and even the pine straw appeared glassy and groomed. The tightly mown grass shimmered no matter the sun’s position in the sky. You really do get change back from a $10 bill when you buy two scrumptious pimento cheese sandwiches, chips, craft beer and a peach ice-cream sandwich. Every comestible is privately branded “Masters,” and the absence of any sponsor logos or hospitality tents warmed my traditionalist’s heart. The merchandise area was a well-oiled example of logistical and operational excellence.

Given all the prohibitions regarding cellphones, yelling and running, Bob and I both marveled at the incredibly solicitous behavior of volunteers, staff and security. Smiles and welcomes and offers of assistance abounded. About the only negative thing I can say about it is that when people ask me who won the first time I went to the Masters, I have to hold my nose and say Patrick Reed, easily the most unpopular pro golfer since Rory Sabbatini or Ian Poulter.

But hey, we weren’t around to watch him win. Among many highlights, we followed Tiger, Phil and Freddy as they played the back nine; watched Jason Day’s caddie keep his boss’s head still as he practiced using a putting mirror from Colorado-based EyeLine Golf; wondered whether that kid Dough Ghim had a GHIN (and then marveled at his play both on Tuesday and on television all four days of the tournament); and filled the memory cards of our cameras with photos of Amen Corner, Butler Cabin and Magnolia Lane.

The respect with which the Masters treats patrons explains the deference people have for the event. Bob and I, New Yorkers by birth, tipped our green Masters caps to this apotheosis of Southern hospitality and vowed one day to return.

Back in Denver bright and early Wednesday morning, the issue you’re holding came together in what seemed like record time.

With a fun cover feature on prep phenom Hailey Schalk (page 54) and Contributor Andy Bigford’s report on the vigor of Colorado’s golf scene (page 66), this issue focuses, as it has the last three Mays, on health, fitness and wellness—three qualities exhibited by just about every Masters competitor. Except maybe the guy who won. — ­ JON RIZZI

8

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S S E’ N ER ZI D N A N G AR WI A M AW LUE ER Y A LF G V O AG UB G C L C D 8 VI 01 TE A 2 A IV PR T S BE

TWO IS BETTER THAN ONE Double your pleasure with access to two of Colorado’s finest clubs

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Be the one of the first eight people to mention Colorado Avid Golfer and receive free cart rentals through Labor Day. Contact us today to schedule a tour of both clubs and see Pinery’s new swim complex with our heated family pools and slide.

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’net Score INFO | BLOGS | DIALOG

LAST CALL WE’VE MOVED the Schomp BMW Cup down to the Denver metro area this year as the renowned Club at Ravenna will play host to this year’s two-day event.

If you didn’t already know, the Schomp BMW Cup takes place June 4-5 and spots are extremely limited. Only a few remain, so act now before you miss out on an opportunity to win a trip to Bandon Dunes, Ballyneal or Pinehurst No. 2! Visit our website for your chance to register your twosome and compete in the foremost golf event in the state!

Check out our event page for the latest updates on player gift bags, contests, prizes and more.

COLORADO’S PREMIER GOLF EVENT: coloradoavidgolfer.com/cag-events/schomp-bmw-cup

Spring Cleaning IF YOU’RE A loyal reader of the best weekly newsletter in all of golf, you surely know by now that we’re proud to bring you the very best in Amazon Golf Deals—complete with some of the best savings you can find.

Check the CAG newsletter each week to see how you can save on everything for your game!

Highlights from April include 20% off Garmin’s S20 GPS Watch, 20% off TaylorMade Project (a) balls and 12% off Cleveland’s BRAND NEW HB Launcher Driver.

Mid-season Form THE 2018 GOLF season is here and that means you’re taking advantage of the 64 courses available on Colorado’s top golf discount program with our 2018 Golf Passport. Every Wednesday we provide some insight about our exclusive courses to help you shoot the lowest score possible. Don’t go blind to your next Golf Passport course. Know before you go and subscribe to the newsletter today—or keep a sharp eye on the Colorado Travel page for weekly course-management tips!

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COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | May 2018

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experienceThe Ridge

Enjoy The Ridge’s Newest Dining Experience

The Ridge, located in Castle Pines, Colorado is excited to announce that we will be re-launching our restaurant this Spring! Newly named Park Place, the restaurant is named after Grace Park, a 12-year LPGA Tour Player who collected a total of six victories and one major. New items will include enhanced ambiance, western theme, new menu and fresh BBQ selections!

Visit www.playTheRidge.com or call 303.688.4575 for reservations today.

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64 COLORADO COURSES ALL PRICES INCLUDE CART

GOLF COURSE

1/1- 5/31 6/1-8/31 9/1-12/31

AVAILABLE TEE TIMES WEEKENDS ROUNDS

Antler Creek, Falcon EXCLUSIVE

$28

$35

$35

M-Th any time, F-S-S after 12

Yes

3

Applewood, Golden

$30

$30

$30

M-Th any time, F-S-S after 1

Yes

3

$36/$43

$36/$43

$36/$43

M-F after 1, S-S after 1

Yes

1 P/S = 3

Breckenridge, Breckenridge*

$75

$99

$75

SS: M-Sun any time, PS: S-Th after 12

Yes

3

The Bridges, Montrose*

$35

$49

$35

Any day after 11

Yes

3

Broadlands, Broomfield

$40

$45

$40

SS: any time, PS: M-Th after 12

Yes (SS)

3

Broken Tee, Englewood

$34

$34

$34

M-Th after 12

No

3 P/S = 9

Buffalo Run, Commerce City

$41

$41

$41

M-F any time, S-S after 2

Yes

3

Cedaredge, Cedaredge

$35

$40

$35

Any day, any time

Yes

Unlimited

Cheyenne Mountain Resort, Colorado Springs EXCLUSIVE

$75

$98

$75

M-Th any time, F-S-S after 1

Yes

3

Coal Creek, Louisville, EXCLUSIVE

$40

$50

$40

M-F after 11

No

3

Colorado National, Erie

$45

$49

$45

M-Th any time, F-S-S after 1

Yes

3

CommonGround, Aurora EXCLUSIVE

$50

$50

$50

M-Th any time, F-S-S after 12

Yes

3

Country Club at Woodmoor, Monument EXCLUSIVE

$36

$45

$36

Any day after 11

Yes

2

$31/$36

$36/$41

$31/$36

Any day after 10

Yes

2

Eagle Ranch, Eagle EXCLUSIVE

$35

$55

$35

Any day after 11

Yes

2

Eagle Trace, Broomfield

$30

$30

$30

M-Th after 11, F-S-S after 12

Yes

3

EagleVail, Avon*

$59

$59

$59

SS: any time, PS: any day after 1

Yes

3

Family Sports, Centennial

$19

$21

$19

M-Th any time, F-S-S after 11

Yes

Unlimited

$36/$51

$36/$51

$36/$51

M-Th before 8 or after 1, F-S-S after 1

Yes

4

Four Mile Ranch, Cañon City

$35

$38

$35

M-F any time, S-S after 1

Yes

3

Fox Acres, Red Feather Lakes

$50

$60

$50

M-Th any time, F-S-S after 11

Yes

Unlimited

Fox Hollow, Lakewood

$48

$48

$48

M-Th after 1, F-S-S after 2

Yes

Unlimited

Golf Granby Ranch, Granby

$35

$55

$55

M-Th any time, F-S-S after 11

Yes

Unlimited

$32/$39

$45/$54

$39/$45

M-Th after 11, F-S-S after 12

Yes

1

$35

$55

$40

Any day after 12

Yes

3

$39/$49

$49/$59

$39/$49

Any day after 12

Yes

1 P/S = 3

$67

$87

$67

Any day, any time

Yes

Unlimited

Heritage Eagle Bend, Aurora

$34/$40

$50/$56

$34/$40

M-Th any time, F-S-S after 11

Yes

3

Highlands Ranch, Highlands Ranch

$49/$60

$59/$70

$49/$60

M-Th any time, F-S-S after 12

Yes

SS:2, PS:1 = 5

Homestead, Lakewood

$38

$38

$38

M-Th after 1, F-S-S after 2

Yes

Unlimited

The Greg Mastriona at Hyland Hills Gold Course, Westminster EXCLUSIVE

$45

$45

$45

M-Th any time, F-S-S after 12

Yes

3

The Greg Mastriona at Hyland Hills Blue Course, Westminster EXCLUSIVE

$24

$24

$24

Any day, any time

Yes

Unlimited

NEW Aurora Hills, Aurora EXCLUSIVE

Devil’s Thumb, Delta

Foothills, Denver

Grand Elk, Granby Grand Lake, Grand Lake Green Valley Ranch, Denver EXCLUSIVE Haymaker, Steamboat Springs

20 EXCLUSIVE OFFERS Visit coloradoavidgolfer.com for complete details.

GOLF COURSE

1/1-5/31 6/1-8/31 9/1-12/31

AVAILABLE TEE TIMES WEEKENDS ROUNDS

The Greg Mastriona at Hyland Hills Par 3 Course, Westminster EXCLUSIVE

$12

$12

$12

Any day, any time

Yes

Unlimited

Indian Tree, Arvada EXCLUSIVE

$38

$38

$38

Any day after 12

Yes

3

Inverness, Englewood* EXCLUSIVE

$60

$80

$60

M-Th any time, F-S-S after 12

Yes

3

NEW Ironbridge, Glenwood Springs

$69

$79

$79

M-Th any time, F-S-S after 11

Yes

4

Keystone Ranch, Keystone*

$80

$110

$80

Any day after 11

Yes

Unlimited

King’s Deer, Monument EXCLUSIVE

$25

$40

$25

M-Th any time, F-S-S after 12

Yes

2

Legacy Ridge, Westminster

$45

$45

$45

M-Th any time, F-S-S after 1

Yes

Unlimited

The Links, Highlands Ranch

$36/$41

$40/$45

$36/$41

M-Th any time, F-S-S after 12

Yes

1 P/S = 3

Littleton Golf & Tennis Club, Littleton

$29/$31

$34/$36

$29/$31

M-Th after 11, F-S-S after 1

Yes

3

$58

$68

$55

M-Th after 11, F-S-S after 12

Yes

Unlimited

$40/$54

$40/$54

$40/$54

M-Th before 8 or after 1, F-S-S after 1

Yes

4

M-F after 12, S-S after 1

Yes

1 P/S = 3

Lone Tree Golf Club & Hotel, Lone Tree The Meadows, Littleton Murphy Creek, Aurora EXCLUSIVE

$38.50/$46 $38.50/$46 $38.50/$46

Omni Interlocken, Broomfield*

$60

$72

$60

M-Th any time, F before 12, S-S after 12

Yes

3

Pelican Lake Golf Club, Windsor*

$45

$60

$50

M-Th any time, F-S-S after 12

Yes

3

Perry Park Country Club, Larkspur EXCLUSIVE

$79

$79

$79

T-Th after 11:30

No

2

Pole Creek, Tabernash

$58

$58

$58

M-Th after 11, Su after 11

Sunday

Unlimited

Quail Dunes, Fort Morgan

$20

$25

$20

Any day, any time

Yes

4

Raccoon Creek, Littleton

$39/$45

$39/$45

$39/$45

M-Th any time, F-S-S after 12

Yes

4

Raven at Three Peaks, Silverthorne*

$55

$99/$50

$55

SS: any day after 12 PS: M-Th after 12, F-S-S after 4

Yes

Unlimited

Redlands Mesa, Grand Junction

$55

$55

$55

Any day after 11

Yes

3

The Ridge at Castle Pines, Castle Rock* EXCLUSIVE

$54

$65/$79

$54

M-Th any time, F-S-S after 1

Yes

1 P/S = 3

The River Course at Keystone, Keystone*

$80

$110

$80

Any day after 11

Yes

Unlimited

M-F after 12, S-S after 1

Yes

1 P/S = 3

Saddle Rock, Aurora EXCLUSIVE

$40.50/$48 $40.50/$48 $40.50/$48

South Suburban Par 3, Centennial

$9

$9

$9

M-Th any time, F-S-S after 12

Yes

Unlimited

Sumo Golf Village, Florence

$25

$30

$25

Any day after 12

Yes

2

Tiara Rado, Grand Junction

$40

$45

$45

M-Th any time, F-S-S after 11

Yes

3

Todd Creek, Thornton EXCLUSIVE

$40

$45

$40

M-Th after 10, F-S-S after 12

Yes

Unlimited

Vail Golf Club, Vail

$59

$99

$69

M-Th any time, F-S-S after 1

Yes

2

Walking Stick, Pueblo

$36

$36

$36

M-Th any time, F-S-S after 12:30

Yes

Unlimited

Walnut Creek Golf Preserve, Westminster

$45

$45

$45

M-Th after 11, F-S-S after 1

Yes

Unlimited

Yampa Valley, Craig* EXCLUSIVE

$30

$30

$30

M-Th after 11, F-S-S after 12

Yes

2

CommonGround offer: Must be CGA, CWGA or Golf Passport Plus member to get rate.

Family Sports: 9 Hole Executive Course South Suburban:Par 3- Cart not included

M-Th = Monday-Thursday; F-S-S = Friday-Sunday; Sun-Th= Sunday-Thursday; S-S= Saturday-Sunday P/S= Per Season; SS= Shoulder Season; PS= Peak Season SS= Shoulder Season; PS= Peak Season * Some seasons may vary

The CGA

FINDING THE OPEN MAN: John Elway will try to qualify for the U.S. Senior Open on May 28 at The Broadmoor.

SERVING ALL COLORADO GOLFERS

CGA qualifiers play a key role in USGA championships—including the opens that eventually crown national champions.

MAY IS A BIG MONTH for USGA qualifying tournaments in Colorado. Which makes it a big month for the Colorado Golf Association. And it’s become even bigger this year. With the CGA and the Colorado Women’s Golf Association now integrated as one USGA-sanctioned Allied Golf Association, the CGA will oversee five USGA open qualifiers in May alone. The following events advance players into the fields for some of the most prestigious championships on the top three U.S. tours—the PGA Tour, LPGA Tour and PGA Tour Champions: MAY 7: U.S. Open local qualifying (18 holes), Walnut Creek Golf Preserve in Westminster MAY 9: U.S. Open local qualifying (18 holes), the CGA-owned CommonGround Golf Course in Aurora MAY 14: U.S. Women’s Open sectional qualifying (36 holes), The Ranch Country Club in Westminster MAY 15: U.S. Open local qualifying (18 holes), Collindale Golf Course in Fort Collins MAY 28: U.S. Senior Open sectional qualifying (18 holes), The Broadmoor Golf Club (East) in Colorado Springs Looking ahead, on June 12, CommonGround will also host qualifying for the inaugural U.S. Senior Women’s Open, which will take place July 12-15, at Chicago Golf Club.

As the one USGA-sanctioned Allied Golf Association in Colorado, the CGA administers the state’s USGA Handicap and Course Rating COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | May 2018

Systems and functions as Colorado’s primary resource for USGA services such as governance, golf-facility support and programs that help grow and improve the long-term health of the game.

The CGA’s responsibilities also include running USGA championship qualifiers, both amateur and open. “They’re the pinnacle of the game for men and women in the world,” said CGA Executive Director Ed Mate, speaking primarily about the U.S. Open and the U.S. Women’s Open.

For the U.S. Open, there are 112 local qualifying sites around the U.S., with three in Colorado. The top finishers from there—usually five from each Colorado site—advance to 36-hole sectional qualifying tournaments, of which there are 10 in the U.S., all taking place June 4. The best performers there will earn the coveted spots in the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, N.Y., June 14-17. Last year, 21 golfers who competed in both local and sectional qualifying advanced to the U.S. Open.

“The Allied Golf Associations are an integral part of the conduct of the championship,” Mate said. “In my mind, without us they don’t have a championship. The prestige is that they’re open and anyone can qualify,” but they need qualifying tournaments and people to run them.

For almost 30 years, the CGA also ran a U.S. Open sectional qualifier at Columbine Country Club, site of the 1967 PGA Championship. That run ended after the 2010 qualifying process, but not before such big names as Tom Kite, Craig Stadler, Brandel Chamblee, Gary Hallberg, Mike Reid and Kevin Stadler tried to qualify there.

Colorado has hosted a U.S. Women’s Open sectional qualifier each year since 2011. It also hosted the U.S. Women’s Open championship in

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1995 (The Broadmoor), 2005 (Cherry Hills) and 2011 (The Broadmoor). This year, The Ranch will be one of 25 sectional qualifying sites, including 21 in the U.S. The top finishers in the 36-hole sectionals will earn berths in arguably the world’s most prestigious women’s championship, May 31-June 3 at Shoal Creek in Birmingham, Ala. “The U.S. Women’s Open is the ultimate test in women’s golf, and sectional qualifying is the first step in that journey,” said Stuart Francis, USGA Championship Committee chairman. “Our partners at Allied Golf Associations throughout the country, as well as several international organizations, play an important role in helping determine a worthy champion. We thank them for their efforts.”

As for the U.S. Senior Open, the prize is close to home this year. The Broadmoor will not only host one of the 34 sectional qualifiers in 2018, but the championship itself, June 28-July 1. It marks the third time Colorado has hosted the event, with Cherry Hills (1993) and The Broadmoor (2008) previously doing the honors.

Among those attempting to qualify at the East Course on Memorial Day will be Pro Football Hall of Famer John Elway, an honorary chairman for the championship.

CGA staff and volunteers will work at each of the qualifiers, but their responsibilities extend beyond the day of the event. In advance, the staff keeps in contact with competitors and works with the host facility on course marking and set-up—rough height, fairway width, green speed, etc. In this way, the CGA lays the foundation for some of the top championships in the world.

For more information, visit cogolf.org. coloradoavidgolfer.com

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF COLORADO GOLF ASSOCIATION

It’s Open Season

Making a Positive Difference in the Lives of Others Through the Game of Golf

Please consider joining us as we strive to grow the game of golf through our three pillars Youth Development Diversity and Inclusion Supporting Our Military For more information, visit ColoradoPGAREACH.com.

Colorado PGA REACH Invitational July 19, 2018 The Golf Club at Bear Dance

The Colorado PGA REACH Invitational, the largest annual fundraising event for the Colorado PGA REACH Foundation, is quickly becoming a can’t-miss event in the state.

This one day, all-inclusive event at The Golf Club at Bear Dance partners a team of three amateurs with one of our Colorado PGA Professionals in a fun, casual environment.

Format 3-2-1 Net Team (Am’s at 80% of handicap) Teams Teams will be comprised of three Amateurs and one Colorado PGA Professional.

Who can register The event is open to anyone Team Entry Fee $2,499 For more information and to register, visit ColoradoPGAREACH.com!

The Colorado PGA REACH Foundation is proud to partner with the Mile High Golf Trail to award a mortgage free home to a Combat Wounded Veteran at the Colorado PGA REACH Invitational

2018

M O N DAY & T U E S DAY

J U N E 4 & 5, 2018

An Exclusive Golf Tournament held at THE CLUB AT RAVENNA • Pairings Party May 31, 2018 at Perry’s Steakhouse & Grille • Two-Person, Best Ball, USGA handicap required • Après-Golf and Dinner Party • On-course Food, Cocktail Stations, Prizes and much more • Hole-In-One Prizes • $50,000 Shoot-out • Two year lease on a Schomp BMW • Club Car Golf Cart • Bandon Dunes Stay & Play • $10,000 Park Meadows Shopping Experience

A two-day Colorado Golf Experience like no other!

ONLY A FEW SPOTS REMAIN

To reserve your twosome, please contact Melissa Holmberg | 720-493-1729 ext.15 | melissa@coloradoavidgolfer.com

coloradoavidgolfer.com/cag-events

Colorado Section

We are proud to support Colorado PGA REACH and its goal of making a positive difference in the lives of others through Youth Development, Supporting Our Military and Diversity and Inclusion – a 501(c)(3) organization.

The Gallery NEWS | NOTES | NAMES

MEMBERS OF THE GALLERY: Displayed Colorado artists include (clockwise): Kristin Moore, Michael Lynch, Maura Allen, Clyde Doney and (below) Anita Mosher.

BUILT AS PART of a $30 million project, Columbine Country Club’s new 56,000-squarefoot clubhouse has utterly transformed the 63-year-old club. Its architecture, amenities, appointments and flow suggest a five-star resort rather than a suburban retreat.

As former club president, David Henry, puts it, “The clubhouse is meant to be a timeless place. It was designed to express a little bit of West-ern heritage, a little bit of Colorado, and some Mediterranean influences to give it some flair.”

While the structure is impressive from the outside, much of that flair comes from the exquisite interior—from its beautiful skip-troweled wall texturing and faux-suede paint finishes to the custom lighting and dark wood trusses and floors. But what further distinguishes these surroundings is the artwork featured throughout.

In total, 32 pieces have found their way into Columbine’s new clubhouse—and what a fine collection they make. Illuminated by museum-quality picture lights, these paintings and sculptures—all by Colorado artists such as Jeff Koehn, Michael Lynch, Anita Mosher and Kristen Lynch—complement the clubhouse’s ambience and educate those inside about Colorado art’s unique and historical roots.

But where did the art come from?

Last October, Columbine Country Club hosted The Gift of Art Gala as the first function held in the new clubhouse. More than 150 members and non-members attended the black-tie soiree, which culminated with a grand fireworks display viewed from the enormous new patio.

By the end of the evening, the Gala generated coloradoavidgolfer.com

more than $200,000 in art placements, ticket sales and cash donations for the Columbine Endowment for the Arts (CEA)—a local 501(c)(3) non-profit organization committed to Colorado art and its promotion. The CEA acquires, owns, conserves, maintains and displays original works of art of historical significance.

Henry, who serves as president of the CEA, helped to explain the donation process for the collection. Donors give a cash donation designated for the CEA to purchase a donor-cho-

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sen piece of art. The CEA, in partnership with Columbine Country Club and the Town of Columbine Valley, then agrees to display the endowment-owned pieces in the clubhouse and select locations in town. All donated pieces are recognized with a donor plaque from the CEA and the charitable individual(s).

With the help of Marsh & Associates and Debbrah Courtney, the curator at the Denver Art Company, Henry and Columbine’s General Manager, Michael Bratcher, assembled quite a sprawling collection. The pieces span a variety of genres—from landscape, portraiture and abstract paintings to stunning sculptures and assemblages—that certainly depart from the aesthetic monotony found in other clubhouses.

Joyce Coco’s Earth Bubbles that hangs over the main bar fireplace and Kristen Moore’s Horse and Bird are among favorites. Walking the halls one can find Maura Allen’s Bountiful Blue or touch Clyde Doney’s Cornered Courier sculpture sitting on a tabletop.

Other pieces will soon join them. The clubhouse is vast, and the CEA has only just begun its collection. Future galas will take place, and participation is by no means exclusive to club members or Columbine Valley residents. As the CEA Board puts it “anyone can donate money or art—donated art must first be screened by the Arts Council, recommended for acceptance to the Trustees and subsequently approved.”

“It’s an ongoing endeavor,” Henry explains, “and the vision is still young, but will evolve over time.” ceart.org —By Alec Barry and Alex Rajaniemi May 2018 | COLORADO AVIDGOLFER

PHOTOGRPAHY BY EJ CARR

The Columbine Collection

The Gallery

PHOTOGRPAH BY RICK SHARP

Putting on a Clinic ATTENTION, WOMEN

City Park’s Renovation Refugees WITH DENVER’S CITY PARK Golf Course closed for renovation until next year, regulars and recreational golfers alike face a problem of where to play now. The club’s women’s leagues and men’s club developed workable solutions.

“Willis Case Golf Course has been very welcoming and accommodating in trying to replicate what we did at City Park,” explained Galynn Tagg, the Women’s Golf Association President and member of the Thursday league at City Park. “So, we’re going to play there this year and probably next year as well.”

But, the choice to relocate some seven miles northwest and across Denver’s two major highways poses logistical and group challenges. “We call ourselves City Park Women, and trying to maintain our economy and camaraderie as a group will be difficult.”

The men’s club has taken a slightly different approach to the unique situation. They plan to be a traveling group until their home course reopens.

“We’re basically going around hat in hand and telling people we don’t have a course to play on,” explains Mark Churchill, the Vice President of the City Park Men’s Club. The club will play at nearby city courses and occasionally plan outings to clubs outside of the Denver area as well. “Regardless of the current situation,” Churchill says, “the City Park Men’s Club is always looking for new members.”

But, the circumstances surrounding the historic and beloved course have forced players such as Tagg, Churchill and other group members to adopt a certain outlook. “I am watching the progress with bated breath thinking: ‘how can one improve on perfection?’” explains Alruth Toney, an avid City Park golfer since 1953 and head of the Monday women’s league. “Nevertheless, I find encouragement in what’s to come.”

Churchill echoes this sentiment. “On paper it looks like the design is decent,” he says. “I don’t think they’ve gutted the character of the course. As golfers, we are always optimists anyways. Otherwise, we wouldn’t take up the game.”

The moral of the story: You can take the golfer out of City Park, but you can’t take City Park out of the golfer.

In two short years, they’ll be right back where they’ve always been. cppcgolf.club

Recovery Shots IN THE SPAN OF one week this month, Wake Forest University junior Jennifer Kupcho of Westminster will be looking for a repeat and redemption. On May 14, her 21st birthday, she’ll be at a course she knows well, The Ranch Country Club, for the sectional qualifier for the U.S. Women’s Open—an event for which she’s qualified the last two years and came in 21st in 2017 as amateur runner-up.

Three days later, she’ll look for a measure of redemption when she competes in the NCAA DI Women’s Golf Championship May 18-23 at Oklahoma State University’s Karsten Creek Golf Club. At last year’s championship Kupcho came in second after a triple-bogey on the penultimate hole dropped her out of the lead. Ranked third in the World Amateur Golf Ranking as of April 7, Kupcho finished the regular season with momentum, notching a victory in the Bryan National Collegiate at the Bryan Park Golf Championship Course in Browns Summit, North Carolina.

COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | May 2018

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golfers! On Monday, August 13, Valley Country Club in Centennial will host a full-day Golf Clinic for Women led by some of the most respected and experienced PGA/LPGA Teaching Professionals in the country. You’ll receive total game instruction, from putting and chipping to full swing and course management, as well as a minimum of three hours of on-course instruction.

Participants will be paired with women of equal abilities, or, if requested with clients or business associates.

Enjoy breakfast, lunch and a fabulous post-instruction networking reception. Started more than 25 years ago by 27-time LPGA champion and Legends Tour founder Jane Blalock, LPGA Golf Clinics for Women recently joined forces with the PGA of America. The full day runs $400. pgagolfclinicsforwomen.com

coloradoavidgolfer.com

FRED COUPLES DAVIS LOVE III

TOM WATSON

Be A Part Of Golf History The U.S. Senior Open Championship returns to Colorado Springs during The Broadmoor Centennial Celebration.

Don’t miss your chance to see the greatest champions in golf, such as Fred Couples, Davis Love III and Tom Watson along with Honorary Chair John Elway.

Order today at 2018ussenioropen.com 39TH U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP | JUNE 25 - JULY 1 | THE BROADMOOR

The Gallery

Golf by Numbers

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of these limited-edition Callaway Mack Daddy wedges were etched with The Broadmoor Centennial logo to commemorate the resort’s 100th Anniversary, highlighted by the upcoming U.S. Senior Open (June 28-July 1). Available in the Centennial Shop in the Retail Plaza just south of the Main Building, the wedges come in different lofts and grinds, but they’re clearly more suited for a collector than the course. $175 while they last. broadmoor.com

© 2017

high-school players, aged 17 and under, representing 12 Western states, two Canadian provinces and Mexico, will compete in the Girls Junior Americas Cup July 23-27 at Hiwan Golf Club in Evergreen. The Junior Golf Alliance of Colorado’s points list will determine who’ll represent the state in this year’s competition. The pageantry, traditions and performances make this a must-see event, especially as it celebrates its 40th anniversary. gjac.org

Owned by the Colorado Golf Association, and designed by world-renowned architect Tom Doak, CommonGround Golf Course lies at the intersection of Mission and Masterpiece.

Photo: EJ Carr, ejcphoto.com

commongroundgc.com | 303-340-1520 COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | May 2018

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coloradoavidgolfer.com

520

miles separates Salt Lake City from Denver, but a drive of 350 yards could be all that separates you from qualifying for the Amateur Long Drive Championship. The ALDC qualifier takes place June 1 at the Mulligans Range in Jordan, 16 miles south of Salt Lake. The finals take place August 16-18 at Barefoot Resort in Myrtle Beach. amateurlongdrive.com

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courses, including the soon-to-be-opened TPC Colorado in Berthoud, now comprise the PGA Tour’s TPC Network.

The latest member is TPC Danzante Bay located near the Islands of Loreto on the Baja Peninsula.

We featured the spectacular Rees Jones course in the Spring issue.

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May 2018 | COLORADO AVIDGOLFER

• More than 100 Doctors and Healthcare Providers have referred patients to us Dr. Barbara Jenkins Au.D., BCABA Colorado’s first board certified Doctor of Audiology

• 85% of our patients come from physician and patient referrals • Ethics and Integrity Award Winner Denver BBB Torch Award 2015

Dr. Matthew Gebing Au.D., BCABA, CCC-A Castle Rock resident

• Humanitarian Practice of the Year (National Sivatos Aspire Award 2015)

Billy Buck Stops Here REMEMBERED, unfairly, for his critical error as a member of the Boston Red Sox in the 1986 World Series, former Major League first

• A+ Rated by the BBB

baseman Bill Buckner accumulated

• Saturday appointments available

a batting title in 1980, and is one

over 2,700 hits in his career, won of only four players with 200-hit seasons in both leagues. He’ll be

Dr. Tonya Genazzi Au.D., BCABA, CCC-A Parker resident

this year’s baseball celebrity at the Volunteers of America’s Legends Golf Tournament held August 2 at Sanctuary in Sedalia. A partnership with Colorado Rockies Charities gives this tournament a distinctly baseball theme. The event runs $5,000 for a foursome, though a number of $100 tickets are available for non-golfers who want to get their photo taken with Buckner and bid on baseball memorabilia at an August 1 pre-event party at the ChopHouse & Brewery in Denver. voacolorado.org

COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | May 2018

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coloradoavidgolfer.com

Player’s Corner TRAVEL

Hail to Michigan Enhancements at Arcadia Bluffs and Belvedere Golf Club make golf even greater in the Great Lakes State.

By Andy Bigford APPEARING ANNUALLY alongside the Pebbles, Bandons and Pinehursts in the rarified air of the national Top 15 “Courses You Can Play” rankings, Arcadia Bluffs is the most beloved and busy public-access course in golf-mad northern Michigan.

Perched 225 feet above Lake Michigan with views worth paying for, golfers happily shell out $195 per round in the summer high season to ride this Rick Smith- and Warren Henderson-designed rollercoaster. So expectations ran high when Arcadia announced it would build a second course—albeit “across the street” on an apparently feature-less apple orchard with no lake views and just 60 feet of elevation change.

Arcadia owner Rich Postma found the right man for the job in ascendant architect Dana Fry, fresh off global acclaim from his design role with the 2017 U.S. Open course, Wisconsin’s Erin Hills. Among many business endeavors, Postma is the co-founder and CEO of U.S. Signal Co., the largest privately held fiber-optic carrier in the Midwest, while Fry has been immersed in golf design since the 1980s (most notably with Dr. Michael Hurzdan) and now partners with Jason Straka.

Postma and Fry quickly bonded over their shared passion for the linear legacy of the circa-1894 Chicago Golf Club, the oldest club in the country and a timeless tribute to the design stratagem of C.B. Macdonald and Seth Raynor.

Postma and Fry knew they had to create something special as an Arcadia Bluffs “encore,” and Postma was willing to take a risk to get there.

The South Course at Arcadia is not a copy or replica of the legendary Chicago Golf Club, but boldly emulates its old-world style and feel; Arcadia calls it “complexity veiled by simplicity.” When coloradoavidgolfer.com

it opens on Aug. 1, golfers will be exposed to something entirely new, yet classically old: rectangular tees with 90-degree corners; straight-lined fairways bordered by fescue; Raynor-inspired elevated greens with square corners; and rectangular bunkers with steep grass faces and flat bottoms.

Viewed from high above, the right angles appear harsh, but from the ground, with its contours and swirls, the canvas is natural, fresh and fun. Designed to play hard and fast, fairways average 52 yards in width, with 18 yards of rough before the tall fescue. The huge green complexes average a stupendous 9,400 square feet (get ready for 115foot putts) and overflow with swales, ridges and slopes.

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HARD BY THE SEA: Highly ranked Arcadia Bluffs (top) is adding the Chicago Golf Club-inspired Arcadia South (seen during construction and at completion).

May 2018 | COLORADO AVIDGOLFER

Player’s Corner TRAVEL

JOY IN CHARLEVOIX: Belvedere’s restoration warrants the compliment of “Crystal Downs Lite.”

Fry found plenty to love about the South site, beginning with a massive 310 acres of subtly rolling terrain with no development in sight.

While you can’t see Lake Michigan and there is no water on the course, you will feel the wind, averaging 10-15 mph and up. With holes routed in all four directions of the compass, golfers will be fully tested by the breezes. Macdonald, a pupil of Old Tom Morris, saw no benefit from trees on a golf course, reasoning that they just block the wind and views. So after clearing the site of trees except for one (and transplanting more than 450 to the course’s perimeter), Fry was left with a pure sand base in which to ply his trade. “This is God’s country for building golf courses,” Fry enthused on a tour of the course in late August, “and the best grow-in I’ve ever seen.”

The par-72 layout, designed to be easily walkable, features five sets of tees ranging from 5,261 to 7,412 yards. Green fees are set below the Bluffs at $150 in high season, with appealing deals for twilight and replays. There will be a clubhouse and driving range, but no other development is planned. Meanwhile, Arcadia has unveiled the new 16-unit Bluffs Lodge at the main course, to complement existing accommodations in The Lodge and The Cottages.

“Nobody’s done this before,” Fry says of South (other than Macdonald-Raynor, that is). “I think we’ve got something here.”

From Arcadia, the picturesque lakeside town of Charlevoix is a scenic two-hour drive to the north, with the Alister MacKenzie-designed Crystal Downs roughly halfway in between. For the vast majority of golfers who can’t get on the exclusive Downs, the affordable, accessible and wonderfully playable alternative is Charlevoix’s semi-private Belvedere Golf Club. It was built four years before the Downs, in 1925, by the acclaimed William COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | May 2018

Watson of St. Andrews, whose sterling résumé includes San Francisco’s Olympic Club, Chicago’s Olympia Fields and Minneapolis’s Interlachen.

An effort to return Belvedere to its roots gained momentum in 2016 when Watson’s original course drawings were discovered in a former print shop destined for demolition in downtown Charlevoix. Armed with the blueprints, renowned

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restoration architect Bruce Hepner and superintendent Rick Grunch led an effort that eventually removed 5,000 trees, returned strategic bunkering and restored all 18 greens to their original shapes.

The work included cutting tree stands between Nos. 2 and 3, opening views of a creek that meanders through the front nine, and removing a pine tree that had popped up in the middle of the par-5 9th (along with the trees that lined the left side of that hole). When completed for the 2017 season, the work revealed a delightfully fun and challenging course, a “Crystal Downs Lite” that invokes the MacKenzie masterpiece without the punishment (including lighter winds).

The first hole, sited on a high bluff with views of the lake, is eerily reminiscent of Crystal’s opener. The iconic hillside 16th, a short par 4 with a devilish green, is a classic that was loudly praised by Gene Sarazen, Walter Hagen (who won the first Great Lakes Open here) and Tom Watson, who played here regularly as a youth while summering in Charlevoix and remains an ardent member.

Belvedere head pro Dennis “Marty” Joy II is a local who oversees a quaint pro shop lined with historic photos and is writing books on both architect Watson and Belvedere, which has roots as an exclusive Midwestern vacation enclave going back to 1878. Rates for 18 holes are exceedingly reasonable, ranging from $50 to walk in the slow season up to $99 for 18 holes with a cart in high season, with a variety of specials, including multiday rounds.

Andy Bigford is a Michigan native who has returned annually for three decades to play Crystal Downs, Arcadia Bluffs, Belvedere and many other northern Michigan courses. For more information, visit ArcadiaBluffs.com, BelvedereGolfClub.com

coloradoavidgolfer.com

LET

N AT U R E P L AY THROUGH

P L AY A L L DAY O N 27 B R E AT H TA K I N G H O L E S Set against a spectacular backdrop of towering spires, balancing rocks and lush mountain valleys, discover the true challenge of Kissing Camels Golf Club. Part of the Garden of the Gods Collection, this 27-hole course is just one of every luxury you can experience here – from the spa, health and wellness to world-class cuisine.

Come play and stay for a weekend or enjoy a lifetime of privileges as a member of The Club at Garden of the Gods.

Colorado Springs, CO | 719.632.5541 | gardenofthegodsclub.com

Player’s Corner LESSON

Back with the Right, Forward with the Left A simple biomechanics lesson will help you sink more putts.

Richard C. Olshock, M.D. AFTER YEARS OF watching instructors work, it became apparent that most of them have limited or no knowledge of biomechanics. They were asking students to do very difficult movements, when simple muscle movements would be easier to learn and more reliable under pressure. Learning simple, muscle movements by an individual muscle rather than complex movements by multiple muscles reduces your risk of injury and improves your technique in every phase of the game—including putting.

• The shoulders should be rounded such that the chest is as parallel to the ground as possible. This will also facilitate a straight-path putting stroke.

• Put your eyes directly over the ball.

• A line across the forearms should be parallel to the line of the putt.

• Push your elbows out toward the ball until you feel pressure.

• Shift your weight toward your heels and distribute it evenly.

• Place the ball just forward of the belt buckle on the line of the putt.

Now you are ready to make a very simple and repeatable putting stroke.

SETUP You cannot underestimate the importance of the setup in both the golf swing and the putting stroke. Muscles move arms, legs, and other body parts based on their position. When we introduce a putter or golf club into the mix, position becomes even more important, making a correct setup crucial to the process.

The grip (Fig. 1) determines whether the putter will move in an arc or a straight line. My preference is to move the putter in a straight line, because it is much simpler biomechanically and allows the golfer to make a bigger mistake and still make the putt.

The setup for good putting is almost the opposite of the setup for a good full swing.

(Fig. 2)

BIOMECHANICS

FIG. 2 The setup is almost opposite of the full swing.

Steve Stricker has long advocated making the backstroke with the right arm and the forward stroke with the left arm. Biomechanically, this makes a lot of sense; it takes a single muscle to make the backstroke and a single muscle to make the forward stroke.

The beauty of it is that the deltoid muscle can only do one thing. Alternatively, if one uses a combination of muscles, many things can go wrong, as the movement is much more complex.

The main heads of the left and right deltoid muscles are what I call straight-line muscles (Fig. 3). When the muscle contracts, it is only capable of moving the upper arm in only one direction.

This is based on the position of the elbow.

Continued on page 32

FIG. 1 Put the club in the lifelines of both hands, with the shaft in line with both forearms.

COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | May 2018

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Right Deltoid main head

FIG. 3 Right and left deltoid muscles viewed from the back. coloradoavidgolfer.com

PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF JAKE'S ACADEMY

Left Deltoid main head

Player’s Corner LESSON

Stan Fenn & Doug Perry

FIG. 4 Correct elbow position (left), incorrect elbow position (right).

If the right elbow is in the correct position (left side of Fig. 4), contracting the right main head of the deltoid muscle will produce a backstroke that has a relatively straight path. If the elbow is too far away from the line of the putt (right side), an inside path is created. As you would expect, if the right elbow is too close to the line of the putt, the backstroke will be to the outside.

The forward stroke is similar and based on the position of the left elbow. (Fig 5.) By now you can predict what will happen based on the position of the elbow.

Listen online or on your radio

EVERY SATURDAY 7-9 a.m.

FIG. 5 Correct elbow position (left), incorrect elbow position (right).

DRILL Do this drill on the golf course while you are waiting for your shot. It will teach you the feel of the correct muscle movements. Place the club on FIG. 6 Correct setup position the ground and place the putter in the middle of the shaft with a good for drill. set up, with the elbows in the proper position. (Fig. 6).

FIG. 7 1. Pull the putter back along the shaft with only your right hand on the club, and keep your right wrist firm. 2. Then follow with the left hand. 3. Next, pull the club forward along the shaft with your left hand. Follow with the right hand. 4. Repeat this drill until you get the feeling of “back with the right, forward with the left". Let the opposite hand follow, without letting it influence the stroke.

Richard C. Olshock, M.D. is the Director of Sport Science and Biomechanics at Jake’s Academy in Lone Tree (jakesacademy.com; 303-708-1090). Watch this presentation on video at bestgolfdrills.com/ avidgolfer. There is also an additional drill.

COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | May 2018

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Player’s Corner PROFILE

When Pigs Whistled in Denver An unusual history lesson in golf, boxing and celebrity. By Scott Nelson Gardner

RECONNECTING WITH PUNCH One memory in particular involved Eddie’s son, Eddie “Punch” Bohn Jr., who, despite his nickname, was not a boxer but a golfer.

Punch Bohn was a successful realtor and a member at Lakewood Country Club when I caddied for him in 1977 during the Schrepferman COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | May 2018

for some of the best amateurs and professionals in Colorado, and that shot stands out in my mind for its sheer audacity.

With a modicum of audacity myself, I decided to catch up with a man whose life and legacy are as large as he is.

I arrived at Punch’s north Denver address and entered a code that activated the retractable iron mesh gate, revealing a sprawling compound that includes everything from old military jeeps to a large lake situated behind a wood-framed, three-story house. I rang the doorbell and Punch, who’s stature still impressively fills a doorway, opened the screen door, allowing his four purebred hunting dogs (two Chesapeake Bay retrievers, a German shorthaired pointer and an English Setter) to scamper onto the porch. Carol Anne, his wife of 33 years, ushered me in past a gauntlet of wagging tails and brought me a cup of coffee.

Punch enthusiastically led me into a back room with walls covered with pictures and memorabilia of family patriarch Eddie Bohn Sr. with long-forgotten boxers and, of course, the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world from 1919 to 1926, Jack Dempsey.

HOMETOWN HERO: A former DU football player, avid golfer and outdoorsman, “Punch” Bohn sports a bolo tie from the Pig ‘N’ Whistle, the Denver landmark owned by his father, who sparred there with good friend Jack Dempsey (above).

matches that annually pit the best players from Lakewood, Denver and Cherry Hills country clubs against each other.

Punch won 2½ points for Lakewood on the final Sunday, as the club’s ten-man team dominated the squads from Denver and Cherry. However, it’s what transpired from tee to green on Lakewood’s 420-yard 12th hole (currently the 18th hole) that remains forever imprinted on my brain.

After popping up an anemic tee shot of 180 yards, Punch faced a daunting second shot of 240 yards to an elevated green fronted by a pond.

The six-foot-seven, 240-pound Bohn snatched a persimmon 4-wood as if it were a toothpick and launched a towering moon-ball that soared over hill and dale, eventually landing on the green with backspin—a shot that surely defied at least one of Newton’s Laws of Motion. As a youngster, I looped

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BOHN OF ATTENTION Those photographs chronicle the life of a boxer who rose from the ring to the higher rungs of celebrity in Denver, ultimately becoming a State Senator.

Born in 1902, Eddie Bohn Sr. grew up on Larimer Street and began boxing at the Westside Neighborhood House. With help from local pugilists including Eddie Egan, Bohn eventually jabbed and uppercut his way to Rocky Mountain coloradoavidgolfer.com

PHOTOGRAPHS BY E.J. CARR

AT THE INTERSECTION of West Colfax Avenue and Wolff Street, on a section of road Playboy magazine described in the early 1970s as the “The Most Wicked Stretch of Highway in America,” an old weather-beaten sign stubbornly clings to a colorful slice of Denver history.

The neon letters once beckoned travelers to the Pig ‘N’ Whistle Motel and Restaurant, which boxer-turned-entrepreneur Eddie Bohn built on the same lot where he’d opened a gas station on June 24, 1924, the 29th birthday of his best friend and one-time sparring partner, heavyweight boxing legend and Colorado Sports Hall of Fame inductee Jack Dempsey.

Over time, the sign advertised a motor court, a restaurant with attached bar under a stylish California tiled roof, and forty neatly packed motel rooms surrounding an aquamarine swimming pool. In addition to Dempsey, a Who’s Who of boxers, politicians, professional athletes and movie stars frequented “The Pig.” Alas, the times and traffic patterns changed.

Driving by the property recently, I noticed the sign that once led people to the hotel now landmarks a marijuana dispensary arrogating the Pig ‘N’ Whistle name. But just the sight of the old sign triggered a flood of memories.

Player’s Corner PROFILE

Roy Rogers, Yogi Berra, Clint Eastwood and many more.

Regional champion and could boast of never having been knocked out in the ring.

In 1920 Eddie straddled his Kiwi Indian motorcycle and headed to California to seek his fortune. He found it on a flyer advertising for sparring partners for Dempsey, the man known as the “Manassa Mauler.”

Dempsey was born 1895 in Manassa, in Colorado’s San Luis Valley, and as a young man would hop freight cars and travel to mining camps and small-town saloons looking for work and prizefights. Upon hearing Bohn was from Colorado, the champ signed him. The kid from Denver earned $100 a round to spar with the ferocious Dempsey, eventually logging hundreds of rounds.

Four years later, a considerably richer Eddie returned to Denver. He bought the property at Colfax and Wolff and built a gas station, which he soon expanded to include a restaurant-bar and motel, naming the complex the Pig ‘N’ Whistle, after a restaurant he frequented in California.

Room 39 at the motel was the Jack Dempsey room, where not only Dempsey would stay on his visits to Denver, but also where boxing legends like “Two-Ton” Tony Galento, Max Baer and Carmen Basillio stayed, as did celebrities such as COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | May 2018

PUNCH SHOTS Between 1959 and 1962, Punch played football, basketball and baseball at DU. He also played golf, a sport that brought him into contact with a cast of characters that any movie director would envy.

He was the men’s golf coach at Regis University in 1968 when Bill Murray stepped onto the first tee at Willis Case Golf Course for golf team tryouts. “Murray had a nice swing and the other guys on the team really liked being his teammate,” Punch remembers.

Murray, who left school after only a year, has since received a Doctor of Humanities degree from the university. When he returns for reunions, he doesn’t miss the opportunity to tell Bohn, “Coach, did I ever tell you that getting kicked out of Regis was the best thing that ever happened to me?”

One of the best things that ever happened to Punch occurred around the same time. At the invitation of Eddie Ott, owner of the now-extinct ninehole Aviation Country Club in Lakewood, Punch played in the club’s pro-am with none other than Walter Hagen, winner of 11 major golf championships.

Punch remembers those nine holes with Hagen—who would die in 1969 at age 76—as being “something special. After the round I climbed the back stairs of the building to the residence suite where Ott was living to thank him. I turned the corner and there were Ott and Hagen in silk robes with their gout-swollen feet elevated atop an ottoman exchanging colorful stories.”

Punch tells a colorful story of his own about a wager he made with his Regis golf team during the shaggy days of 1973. He would pay each player $25 if they could break 75 at the Denver Country Club. Any higher, they would have their unruly locks cut after the round.

Bohn had Denver head pro Fred Wampler move the tees back and tuck the pins so the course played like a bear coming out of hiberna-

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PUNCHING OUT The hotel closed shortly after Eddie Bohn, Sr. died in 1990, and the sign that still bears his name has remained dark ever since.

Yet it led me on a journey with Punch Bohn, who remains connected to that colorful era in Denver history, when life was not as smooth around the edges as it is now. The Pig ‘N’ Whistle—a pre-interstate landmark on the city’s principal east-west arterial—exposed him to “every celebrity from every walk of life,” he said. “I was so lucky growing up around all that.”

For this he credited his father, who, like so many men from that generation, made a name for himself without much formal education. “I’ll admit I didn’t learn much in school,” Eddie Bohn, Sr. was fond of saying, “but I sure learned a hell of a lot going to and from it.”

Scott Nelson Gardner is a CAG contributor. coloradoavidgolfer.com

PHOTOGRAPHS BY E.J. CARR

MEMORY LANE: A vintage shot, above, of Eddie Bohn’s Pig ‘N’ Whistle recalls its pre-interstate heyday, as does the sign that remains on West Colfax, 28 years after the Pig closed for good.

tion. At the end of the round, all five Regis players trudged into a golf cart-turned-barber’s chair next to the 18th green. When asked to sum up the day, Regis player Gary Cummings deadpanned, “It was hairy out there.”

Through his father, a young Punch got to know both wrestler-promoter George Zaharias, aka “The Weeping Greek from Cripple Creek,” and his wife Mildred “Babe” Didrikson Zaharias, who captured five women’s golf majors, two gold medals in the 1932 Olympics and was named the greatest female athlete of the 20th Century by the Associated Press.

Didrikson had taken lessons from Bill Jelliffe in Los Angeles and followed him to Lakewood. “She would practice in the morning under the tutelage of Jelliffe, break for lunch and then play 18-hole money matches with the club’s male members in the afternoon,” Punch recalls.

But the club’s women members—who were restricted to certain tee times—took exception to Babe having full run of the course, and eventually she graciously resigned. Punch smiled as he showed me a framed award of her posthumous induction into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame and a Lakewood scorecard from 1965 showing Bohn shooting 70 to George Zaharias’ 74.

Punch, who now prefers hunting to golf, garnered some interesting highlights as a player, including shooting a 64 in the 1961 Denver Muni Links qualifier to become medalist. He would eventually lose 3 and 2 in the finals to Gary Backstrom at Wellshire. In the 1974 State Match Play at the Air Force Academy, Bohn won his opening match and then sprinted across the parking lot in his golf shoes, jumped into his car and raced back to Denver to win the state doubles trap-shooting championship.

An avid outdoorsman from a young age, Punch taught authors Ernest Hemingway and Robert Ruark the finer points of duck hunting and became a dove-hunting and golf partner of Bing Crosby, who in 1966 asked Punch to escort Jane Fonda to the premiere of the movie Stagecoach in Denver.

He annually hosts an Opening Day fishing event on Lake Carol Anne—the private 14-acre lake behind his house named for his wife—that’s regularly attended by Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch. Punch and his hunting dogs make sure cormorants and other fishing birds don’t compete.

JACK DANIEL’S TENNESSEE RYE

Player’s Corner GEAR

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IN THE BAG Emily Haythorn of Denver spent a decade as a golf pro, teaching as well as handling the merchandise side of the business. One thing she heard repeatedly from her women students was that they liked the sport but not always the product selection. So in 2009 Haythorn created Sassy Caddy, a line of golf bags in fabrics that were not only fashionable but in durable, waterproof, stain- and faderesistant fabrics. The line has grown to also include bags for travel and tennis, purses, messenger bags, head covers and totes. Spring cart bags in such kicky prints as polkadot-and-floral Siesta Key, and graphic blue Holland are $284$298; a set of headcovers is $48. sassycaddy.com

Do Unto Mothers

Gift ideas for the lady golfer who has done right by you. By Suzanne S. Brown < SKIRTING THE ISSUE Like many golfwear entrepreneurs, Susan Hess started making her own apparel for the course when she couldn’t find the colorful printed skorts she craved.

Soon other women were asking her to make them similar styles, and Golftini—so named when Hess was enjoying cocktails with a friend one evening—was born. The boutique line specializes in printed skorts in exclusive fabrics, including stretch cotton with such details as ribbon trim and embroidery, soft-to-thetouch performance material and stretchy pull-on tech blends.

All have such functional details as deep side pockets for a ball or tees and back pockets roomy enough for a scorecard. Skorts are $110-$128, polos are $80-$90, and the company also offers vests and jackets. golftiniwear.com

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FEET FIRST Golf shoes these days fall into a couple of broad categories.

There are the classics with kiltie tops and saddle designs, and then there are styles that look like sneakers but have the function needed for golf. The latter group has been coming on strong and among the standouts for 2018 is the Sport SL Boa from Footjoy, $170. The design is lightweight, waterproof and breathable.

Featuring lightweight outsole pods for traction, cushioning underfoot and mesh uppers, the shoe has a heel-mounted Boa lacing system that draws the foot down and back for a customizable and consistent fit. footjoy.com < COMES IN HANDY A golfer’s glove is an indispensable part of her gear. So why aren’t they offered in more fashionable colors? Zero Friction addresses that with its Cabretta Elite leather designs that come in lavender, hot pink and blue in addition to white and black. The one-size-fits-all design has mesh Lycra inserts in the fingers, palm and back of the hand for better fit and breathability.

There are also such features as a leather patch on the first finger to improve grip and a detachable tee and ball marker, $18. zerofriction.com COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | May 2018

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coloradoavidgolfer.com

GEAR

WEATHER OR NOT A round of golf can be challenging enough on a sunny day, but when it’s cold and wet, your game can go to pieces. That’s where a company like Galvin Green and its products come in. Based in Sweden, the brand about a decade ago began working on its layering concept. New additions this spring for women include the Interface-1 shell jacket and vest in a polyester blend that is windproof, water-repellant and breathable while also incorporating stretch elements so a golfer can swing fully and freely.

The Lara (pictured) full-zip jacket has contrasting upper-body inserts and an elasticized bottom and cuffs. The Luna vest and Leia full-zip jacket, both with PrimaLoft padding, have clean lines with contrasting collars and cuffs, plus two front pockets and drawstring adjusters at the bottom edge, $350 to $390. trendygolfusa.com <

Player’s Corner

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THE BOLD ONES Women who are looking to shake up the status quo rather than blend in with the country club crowd are the customers for Jamie Sadock’s New Yorkbased golf and resort wear line. The namesake designer, who started her company in 1994, shuns safe for showstopping, using bold prints and colors as well as highly textured fabrics in her collections for ladies. Among the looks available starting in June are the silveraccented white signature “crunch” fabric jacket, $90, with slimming “knee capris,” $110; and the “Tigre” print crunch shirt, $90, and Airwear skort, $115. jamiesaddockstore.com CANADIAN CHIC Nivo & Sligo sound like they could be a couple of cartoon characters, but the name actually refers to a Montréal-based golf brand for women (Nivo) and men (Sligo), owned and operated by Lanctôt Ltd. Focused on stylish sportswear created in performance fabrics with stretch, UV protection, moisturewicking and quick-dry properties, Nivo offers mix and match groupings.

For spring, the pink and green Whimsical collection has tops and skirt accented with a tropical leaf print.

The red, white and black Rebel line, available starting in June, features a graphic print and swirling lines. Prices range from $70 to $100. nivosport.com <

Suzanne S. Brown is the former fashion and features editor for The Denver Post. She also contributes to Mountain Living and Colorado Expression.

COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | May 2018

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Side Bets | GETTING HOME

URBAN OASIS: Cherry Creek Country Club’s course is as lush as the homes surrounding it.

REAL ESTATE | CARS

PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF CHERRY CREEK COUNTRY CLUB

Glory Behind the Gates Stunning architecture, exceptional golf and resort-like amenities enrich the private communities of Cherry Creek Country Club and The Club at Ravenna.

By Martin Yeager THIS MONTH, we highlight not one, but two of the metro area’s most impressive gated golf communities. Cherry Creek Country Club and The Club at Ravenna offer a vibrant, community-centered experience to complement their championship golf courses. While both communities present entirely different settings, both clubs feature a collection of heirloom

COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | May 2018

homes, creating a unique opportunity for exceptional club living.

CHERRY CREEK COUNTRY CLUB As you pass through the gates at Iliff and Yosemite, you immediately exit the noise and pace of southeast Denver for the luxurious serenity of an Old World oasis, replete with lush landscaping, fountains, a Nicklaus-designed championship golf course, European-style stone architecture and all the appointments and amenities of a first-rate resort, including a spa and fitness center. Credit for this paradise belongs to club owner Karen Hart, whose vision to create a world-class experience for members and residents has influenced every detail of the 16-year-old community’s development.

Her personal commitment to the entire community is simply contagious. Although her family has been in the golf business for three generations, Hart makes sure her entire Cherry Creek Country Club staff “is committed to letting our members guide us, instead of pushing back to protect our heritage. We always look forward to hearing about new ways to enhance our members’ experiences.”

Since opening in 2002, the enclave of homes was designed to include only 220 resi-

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Looking Ahead THERE IS A TRENDING interest for communities that are focused on providing a well-rounded lifestyle experience to complement their signature golf experience. Both private and public courses are investing in expanding their collection of amenities to improve the overall experience, attracting a wider range of buyers. Expect an increased demand for premier golf properties through 2018. Locations such as the Cherry Creek Country Club illustrate the diminishing number of available home sites while other communities such as the Club at Ravenna are able to present additional options as they move forward. dences, ranging from the Villas—a collection of extraordinary patio homes—to the Estates, featuring expansive 10,000+-square-foot lots with fairway views. With all the Villa models completed a few years ago, a limited number of homes are available for resale. Currently, the community has only two residences available as new homes and less than five remaining lots for the Village and Estate properties. Additionally, a select number of current residences are available for resale in the Village and Estate collection. coloradoavidgolfer.com

LA DOLCE VITA: Ravenna’s landscaping and architecture reflect Tuscan inspiration.

Side Bets | GETTING HOME

PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF THE CLUB AT RAVENNA

Architecturally, Cherry Creek Country Club offers a collection of heirloom residences reflecting traditional craftsmanship as well as a selection of homes with a more contemporary appeal. The meandering streets add to that perfect balance of open fairways bordered by extraordinary properties.

Kate Converse of Cherry Creek Country Club Realty lives within the community and shared her impressive knowledge of it. While Cherry Creek Country Club is reaching its final stages of new construction, Converse says “ninety percent of our homeowners are members of the club, which allows me to stay connected with their real estate interests. We recently saw one of our estate homeowners shift to the Villas while another resident decided to move up into the Estates. It’s that genuine sense of community that defines the lifestyle here.”

Current home prices range from $1.4 million to $2.2 million. There were only 13 existing homes sold in 2017, another indication of the homeowner’s appreciation of the Cherry Creek lifestyle.

Potential members have the unique opportunity to visit with Karen Hart personally to ensure their interests align with the club’s extensive lifestyle options. Membership is now just shy of the 400 mark with approximately 50 memberships remaining. For an urban country club with only a 16year heritage, Cherry Creek CC is already setting the standard for providing a world-class experience. cherrycreekcountryclub.com; 303-489-5505

THE CLUB AT RAVENNA Situated among the ravines, red rock formations and wooded slopes near Waterton Canyon and Pike National Forest, The Club at Ravenna is quickly growing into the premier golf enclave along the southwestern metro corridor. The club, COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | May 2018

which opened in 2006, presents an exceptional balance between its natural beauty and the elegant architecture that borders the Jay Morrish-designed golf course. GolfWeek rated The Club at Ravenna as one of the top 100 golf communities in the country—a standing that should only improve when the Fitness Center & Pool facility, complete with a portfolio of resort-inspired amenities and a rooftop Sunset Terrace, opens this summer. The foundation is currently in process on the new clubhouse.

Managing Partner Kevin Collins and the Managing Director and Listing Broker Dale Schossow of Liv Sotheby’s discuss how their original vision has become a truly exceptional club experience. Just two years ago, there were 30 homes in the community with only 50 members. Today, there are over 72 homes completed with an additional 18-20 now in construction. Membership is on the fast track as well, with 265 currently in place.

When completed, Ravenna will be limited to approximately 230 residences, ranging from villas to extraordinary estates. “We often are asked by potential home buyers to see our models,” Schossow explains. “The first step is actually learning about and seeing Ravenna at large… then looking at homes.” Working with Ravenna’s custom homebuilders directly enables him to show both available spec homes as well as open home sites, allowing the buyers to select the perfect setting.

With a handful of select builders, the community reflects a cohesive, yet individualized architectural style. The Tuscan influences are prominent throughout with addition of some more contemporary architecture to complete the distinctive ambiance. Collins’s personal objective is to instill a serene, welcoming impression. “I like to think of it as a sense of arrival, that moment you instantly begin to relax by just driving past the

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gatehouse.” There is a unique beauty to Ravenna, a compelling balance of the natural, rugged landscape with the impeccably maintained fairways— all home to wandering herds of deer. The entire enclave presents a resort-like ambiance where details matter and is a truly thriving, engaging community that is growing daily.

Ninety-five percent of the current homeowners are members of the club and enjoy unlimited access to its exceptional golf course.

New home sale prices start at a little over $1 million, presenting a wide array of options and views. Last year, the average sales price for Ravenna was $1.572 million. As the community grows, the extraordinary collection of amenities will certainly add to the rising home values at Ravenna. ravennagolf.com; 720-956-1600 Martin Yeager, Colorado Avid Golfer’s Real Estate feature writer, is a realtor with the Colorado Fairway Home Team at Keller Williams DTC. He is available at Martin@FairwaysColorado.com and 303-668-9373. coloradoavidgolfer.com

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Side Bets | NICE DRIVES

What’s Up the Road?

As the New York International Auto Show previews next year’s models, Dodge and Infiniti show that the future is now. By Isaac Bouchard THE 2018 New York International Auto Show served as a wrap-up of the past season’s debuts, while previewing notable models for the coming year. Highlights include:

class, and its turbocharged 272hp 2.0L should provide ample thrust at our elevation. A return to the company’s Super Handling AWD means the RDX should also be agile and responsive.

Acura RDX

2019 CADILLAC XT4 The drought of new product ended at New York (Cadillac’s HQ) with the XT4, which is based on a thoroughly updated platform that gives its small footprint excellent interior room, a turbocharged 237hp engine which gives it more power than most competitors, active suspension that—based on recent Cadillac vehicles—should outhandle the competition, and a pleasing cockpit with revised instruments and CUE infotainment controller, which will make interfacing with its systems much easier and safer.

2019 ACURA RDX Acura is back, baby, if this all-new RDX is any indication. Artful surfacing hides how commodious the cargo area and back seat are; the front end is sufficiently aggressive for a modern SUV substitute without turning people off in the way prior Acuras—and many current Lexi—do. The interior’s design, materials and infotainment interface look fully competitive with the best in the

Subaru Forester

Lincoln Aviator Concept

2019 SUBARU FORESTER Subaru showed its brand new Forester next to the prior generation, and sometimes it was hard to tell which one is built on its new Global Platform architecture. Perhaps the lesson was “Why mess with success?” Regardless, the 2019’s upgraded interface and interior materials should keep ’em buying. This component set (already used on the Crosstrek) drives much better, and the updated boxer engine now has direct fuel injection, boosting power to 182hp. Shed a tear though for the demise of the rocket-box XT Turbo, gone for good.

Cadillac XT4

2019 LINCOLN AVIATOR CONCEPT Situated directly across from the gorgeous Range Rover Velar, the equally compelling Aviator Concept (wearing near-production sheet metal) serves notice that Lincoln isn’t messing around in the automotive world’s most important segment. Proportions, stance and detailing of this luxurious midsizer were spot-on, and the production maCOLORADO AVIDGOLFER | May 2018

chine, which will arrive in both twin turbo rearand all wheel drive form, or as an AWD hybrid, shows how serious Lincoln is about being ready for an unpredictable future. Whether electric or high performance gasoline, the Aviator appears to have it covered.

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2019 TOYOTA RAV4 The outgoing RAV4, despite being well behind the curve dynamically, was the company’s best-seller.

That bodes well for the new one, based on the superb TNGA platform and packing new powertrains in conventional and hybrid form. Much more coloradoavidgolfer.com

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Side Bets | NICE DRIVES

Toyota RAV4

aggressive looking, it successfully blends cues from the classic 4Runner and Tacoma outside, and interior quality and electronics take a major leap forward.

For those who don’t want to wait for 2019 models, the following two excellent crossovers are available right now...

need to use the satisfyingly large, metal paddles and rear-baised AWD system that can be adjusted for street or track use. Our altitude neuters straight-line performance to some degree, but the Durango still runs hard and those Brembos insure excellent deceleration. What really charms is the honing to all the controls; the SRT team is the equal of any of the fabled German engineers in its ability to create a cohesive, communicative, highperformance utility vehicle.

Inside, leather and faux suede upgrades to the Durango’s already well-built and commodious interior bring it up to the level buyers in its price class expect, and the heavily bolstered front seats serve notice of its intent. The second row is comfy too and even the third row will actually fit adults— or, with seats folded, the SRT 392 becomes a very high-speed cargo jet. Dodge’s touchscreen UConnect interface is fast and intuitive, and the latest active safety suite means you can let the Durango

fundamentally utilitarian shape with sufficient dynamism to attract a broad cross-section of buyers.

In top-spec form, the interior is gorgeous, all lovely quilted leather and swaths of ultrasuede.

Roomier than most segment competitors, the QX50 is quiet, comfortable and well appointed.

The infotainment system suffers from being divided between two screens whose graphics don’t match, but you can’t find fault with the responsiveness of the chipset. Likewise the latest suite of Level 2 autonomous hardware and software, dubbed ProPILOT. Now a top-rank system, careful coding means it provides lane keeping and traffic jam assist in a transparent, pleasing manner.

It integrates well with the latest (fifth-generation) version of Infiniti’s fly-by-wire steering. No longer a deal breaker, it is accurate and precise enough to exploit a chassis that is the unsung hero of the QX50. Employing a really sophisticated, amplitude-sensitive damper design, the Infiniti re-

Infiniti QX50

2018 DODGE DURANGO SRT 392

0-60mph: 4.6sec Price as tested: $72,265 EPA ratings: 13/19mpg; 15mpg combined Now that the Dodge brand has found its footing as the home of honest, affordable performance within the Fiat-Chrysler firmament, it was logical that the excellent Durango should get the full-fat SRT treatment. While not (yet) available with the 707hp Hellcat motor, even with “only” 475hp it becomes both the value champion for those looking for seven-passenger crossover performance and a compelling alternative to hotrod SUVs costing tens of thousands more.

Riding the same basic platform as the Mercedes GLS550 and 63 models, it boasts superb moves, with direct, accurate steering and excellent body control. That it also rides so well is quite amazing; dial the dampers’ stiffness down and it is almost luxurious.

The SRT is never retiring, however; a widebody kit, giant hood scoop and monstrous Brembo brakes peaking from behind the gorgeous rims ensure abundant visual menace, and the exhaust system is gloriously old-school. There’s almost enough go to match the show, too. 6.4 liters of honed V8 muscle means that at sea level the SRT 392 is a rocket, with 0-60mph dispatched in 4.6 seconds and a low-13s quarter mile time.

It channels 470lb-ft through an eight-speed auto that shifts so intuitively there’s no actual

do the herky-jerky of stop-and-go traffic almost by itself. That the SRT 392 still has an 8,700 towing capacity just insures it’s in a class of one for its breadth of practical abilities and driver-rewarding performance at an almost affordable price.

2019 INFINITI QX50

0-60mph: 5.8sec (est.)

Price as tested: $58,995 EPA ratings: 24/30mpg; 26mpg combined Infiniti’s most important new vehicle comes out swinging, sitting atop an all-new platform and boasting an engine that is the first of its kind in the production car world. This evolution of the company’s fluidic styling works really well on the QX50, with cohesive sweeps of metal imbuing the Dodge Durango SRT 392

solves big suspension hits with nary a shrug; they pass by almost without notice and body control is superb. It hustles through twisties with more aplomb than all but the most sports-oriented crossovers. There’s no head-toss either, something that blights many high-cg vehicles, who use thick antiroll bars to minimize body sway.

The QX50’s party trick is the first production, variable compression ratio engine ever made. Decades in development and transparent in operation, this turbocharged four-cylinder can vary the ratio of gases to fuel that get squeezed by the pistons over a 8:1 to 14:1 range, maximizing performance or economy. The 2.0-liter VC-Turbo outputs 268 horsepower and 280lb-ft of torque, competitive in its class, and has a superb, 26mph combined EPA fuel economy rating for the AWD model.

Real-world numbers seemed to corroborate the tests, too. VC-Turbo also makes the use of a CVT gearbox less objectionable; boost builds early and the faux gears programmed into the tranny means it sounds sweeter in operation than most powertrains of this type. The QX50 is a fully competitive member of the first tier of crossovers in its size and price range, ably demonstrating Infiniti’s ability to blend the best of the car and truck worlds.

Automotive Editor Isaac Bouchard is the owner of Englewood-based Bespoke Autos (303-475-1462). Read more of his writing on coloradoavidgolfer.com and bespokeautos.com.

COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | May 2018

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ALBUQUERQUE Sandia Resort & Casino “The 505,” Albuquerque’s area code, not only brands a line of tasty Hatch Green Chile products, but the city’s distinctive Southwestern culture. Albuquerque is strolling Old Town, Central Avenue and Nob Hill. It’s taking in the International Balloon Fiesta, Sandia Peak Tramway, Breaking Bad RV Tours, Isotopes baseball games and the Museum of Art and History. It’s inhaling a Blake’s Lotaburger and dining at El Pinto, Frontier, MÁS Tapas and Scalo.

And it’s playing golf. The Duke City and surrounding area boast such highly regarded layouts of Paa-Ko Ridge, Twin Warriors, COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | May 2018

Santa Ana, Isleta Eagle and the University of New Mexico Championship Course.

You’ll find Albuquerque’s top golf offering on the north side of town at the Sandia Resort & Casino. The Sandia Puebloowned resort—which takes its name from the beautiful watermelon-colored Sandia Mountains that dominate the resort’s eastern views—continues to set the standard for luxury in Albuquerque.

The resort’s Sandia Golf Club boasts a challenging Scott Miller-designed layout that stretches from 5,112 to 7,755 yards and rolls through the rugged high desert landscape, incorporating 48 bunkers, water features, washes and multi-tiered green complexes.

The facility sports an ample putting and short-game practice area, and this September Sandia will again sponsor and host the $85,000 New Mexico Open.

The club operates from the stunning Sandia Golf Event Center, a sprawling facility appointed with modern New Mexican décor and high end finishes. Its 5,300-squarefoot ballroom divides into as many as four separate spaces, with an all-glass north wall facing the Sandias. Another collapsible glass

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Sandia

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The Event Center spills onto a dramatic private lawn, making for an especially memorable tournament or wedding venue.

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All 228 of Sandia’s lavishly decorated rooms and suites showcase views of the city skyline or the Sandias. The resort’s plush, 140,000-square-foot casino features myriad gaming options, and the 4,000-seat outdoor Amphitheater has scheduled a hopping summer lineup featuring the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Buddy Guy, The Charlie Daniels Band and Trace Adkins. On May 27, Sandia will also kick off the 7th Annual ABQ Beer Week with the ABQ Blues & Brews festival, featuring four blues bands and pours from more than 70 breweries.

Other outdoor pleasures await at Sandia’s fabulous pool and, nine stories above, at the lively rooftop patio and lounge connected to the resort’s five-star restaurant, Bien Shur. Specializing in steaks, chops and glorious views, Bien Shur also makes a number of savory appetizers—including the New Mexico Lobster Roll and Tequila Spiked Shrimp Cocktail—available in the lounge.

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SANTA FE Hilton Santa Fe Buffalo Thunder Resort and Casino An hour’s drive northeast from Albuquerque lies the 505’s cultural and historic capital of Santa Fe, an adobe wonderland of restaurants worthy of San Francisco, culture on par with New York’s, stores with Dallas prices and a population comparable to Loveland’s.

Santa Fe has world-class credentials, and thanks to Hilton Santa Fe Buffalo Thunder Resort and Casino, golf has entered that conversation. Named “New Mexico’s Best Golf Hotel” in 2017 by the World Golf Awards, COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | May 2018

Hilton Santa Fe Buffalo Thunder Resort and Casino also earned the organization’s 2015 honor as “North America’s Best Golf Hotel.”

One visit to the property, located 14 miles north of Santa Fe’s bustling plaza and framed by the Sangre de Cristo and Jemez mountains, will tell you why.

The resort’s Towa Golf Club boasts one of the most picturesque golf facilities anywhere.

It sports three nines—Boulder, Piñon and Valley—that undulate dramatically through surreal rock formations and vegetation, affording expansive vistas combined with separation between holes.

The Boulder nine, designed by William Phillips in 2001, features a 10,000-square-foot island green—the only one in New Mexico— on the par-3 4th, and closes with another one-shotter that plunges 100 feet from tee to green. “It’s all carry and it can be a four-club difference depending on the wind,” says PGA Director of Golf David Johnson.

He also loves the opening hole on Piñon, a Hale Irwin-designed nine of the same 2001 vintage. A canyon yawns across the 631-yard

Red Sage

par 5, dictating your tee shot and setting the tone for the eight scenic holes that follow.

And speaking of scenic, Irwin also designed the newest nine, Valley, which presents magical panoramas of the Jemez mountains from every hole.

As Santa Fe’s only golf resort—and a AAA Four Diamond one at that—The Hilton Santa Fe Buffalo Thunder brings the art and cuisine of Santa Fe into a place far from the crowded Plaza. Owned by the Pojoanque pueblo, the resort proudly displays more than 400 works—including pottery, paintings, sculpture, mosaics and weavings— representing every Tribe within New Mexico.

Pueblo pride radiates from the resort’s traditional architecture to the detailed, handmade valences and headboards in the 395 lushly furnished rooms and suites—all of which have keyless smartphone entry. Swirls,

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Towa Golf Club

so predominant in New Mexican Pueblo culture, manifest themselves in the curving lobby that brings you to the 70,000-squarefoot casino, the décor of which echoes the curvilinear forms. They also appear in the swirling staircase leading to Wo’ P’in Spa, a sanctuary of indigenous healing, serenity, health and balance.

Featuring mouthwatering meals by newly appointed Executive Chef Klaus Happel and a wine list worthy of Wine Spectator Award of Excellence, Red Sage tops the list of Buffalo Thunder’s six restaurants. A more casual option—as well as a fabulous breakfast buffet and Iggy’s killer margarita—awaits at the Iguana Café. The Wine Buff at Buffalo Thunder offers a wide selection of liquor, beer, cigars and, of course, wine by the bottle or glass.

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H E A LT H , F I T N E S S & W E L L N E S S

Fuel ing the Fame 16-year-old HAILEY SCHALKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S meteoric rise owes in no small part to her commitment to proper food and fitness.

By JON RIZZI Photography by CHAD CHISHOLM

BODY BAR SPLIT STANCE: The lower body is responsible for stabilizing and grounding a golfer in the backswing. Using a 12-pound bar, Hailey is performing a slow split stance loaded backswing to develop a strong foundation to her swing.

COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | May 2018

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coloradoavidgolfer.com

ON MAY 20, at its annual induction dinner at Sanctuary in Sedalia, the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame will present one of its two inaugural Future Famer Awards to Hailey Schalk.

Like fellow Future Famer Davis Bryant, Schalk convincingly won every Junior Golf Alliance of Colorado ( JGAC) major in which she competed and captured the Colorado State High School individual championship.

Both juniors also happen to have as a father a PGA Professional named Matt.

But unlike Bryant, who’ll be graduating this month from Eaglecrest High School

Schalk of Colorado National Golf Club, sees her dedication in the three hours a day she devotes to practice and physical training.

He coaches her and the Holy Family girls’ team, but, he explains, “With Hailey, I’m just one of her coaches. My role has been to help her understand the on-course side of things, to know the competitive game and all the different shots that come with it, to expand on her knowledge so that no situation surprises her.”

Not surprisingly, one of Hailey’s other golf coaches is Trent Wearner, owner of Trent Wearner Golf at Englewood’s

lifestyle to nutrition to sports psychology.

“Since I started coaching her when she was so young, I wanted her to focus on being a well-rounded individual,” Johnson explains. “She’s very driven, and if you don’t create guidelines to follow for a balanced life, driven people are not going to have longevity. They burn out or get injured.

The more you can create a comprehensive well-rounded athlete, the better they will develop.”

So in addition to all the planks, medicine-ball throws, plyometrics, squats, BOSU-ball balancing and strength workouts

SINGLE-LEG REACH AND ROW: Hinging properly at the hip and maintaining posterior strength and stability are key to a proper setup and keep Hailey in an ideal posture throughout her swing. To master these abilities, Hailey is performing a single-leg reach and row, alternating with her opposite arm and leg.

and heading to Colorado State University in the fall, Schalk’s accomplishments in 2017— including winning last July’s prestigious AJGA Hale Irwin Junior—all came as a 15-year-old freshman at Holy Family High School.

As a matter of fact, the morning after the Hall of Fame gala, she’ll start the defense of her 3A high school title at Elmwood Golf Course in Pueblo.

“I’m not into chasing trophies as much as I am into seeing improvement,” she said at the beginning of last year. And while it would be hard to improve this year on the historic season she had, complacency simply isn’t in her DNA. Her father, PGA General Manager Matt coloradoavidgolfer.com

Meridian Golf Club. Renowned for his work with hundreds of elite juniors, Wearner has instructed Hailey for almost four years.

“She’s a phenomenal young lady,” the teacher says. “More college coaches have contacted me about her than about any other student I’ve had—it’s not even close.”

What is surprising about Hailey is that her other coach since the age of 12 has been PGA Professional Dillon Johnson, a Level 3 Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) fitness professional and co-owner of RallySport Health and Fitness Club in Boulder. Their relationship has resulted not only in greater strength and endurance and 100 mph swing speeds, but also in a comprehensive approach to health that embraces everything from

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he puts Hailey through, Johnson also mandates planned rest and fun periods.

Perhaps most critically, he focuses on nutrition. “I’d bug her about it,” he remembers. “I still coach her on what she’s eating and when she’s eating—before, during and after she plays.”

In Johnson’s opinion, what undermines Hailey and other golfers are the lack of sound food choices at courses. “Right now, if she goes into a pro shop or grill at the turn or before her round, there’s nothing she can get that tastes good and provides the proper nutritional balance of fats, protein, carbs and sugars,” Johnson explains. “Her choices are a crappy snack, like chips, or a whole meal that just sits in her stomach—neither of May 2018 | COLORADO AVIDGOLFER

A KNACK FOR SNACKS Recognizing a lack of sound on-course nutritional options available at golf courses, Boulderbased PGA Professional Dillon Johnson, a Level 3 Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) fitness professional, decided to fill the void. “I wanted to provide a product that was real food—a perfect mix of carbs, fats and proteins that would deliver a steady flow of energy.”

FROG JUMP: The lower body is responsible for a huge amount of the power produced in a golf swing. Dillon is demonstrating a frog jump for Hailey; it’s a great exercise to work on her lowerbody explosivity.

With the help of a “dream team” of golfer investors, Johnson came up with FULE (pronounced fuel, an acronym for “Fuel Up, Live Easy”) Cart Snacks, an ingenious combination of delectable flavors and performance-based nutrition delivered in utterly functional packaging.

FULE Cart Snacks come in four varieties: The Alabatross (cashews, pistachios and almonds— the “premium nuts people like”); The Ace (chewy apple cinnamon granola balls bonded by agave); The Gimme (satiating peanut butter-filled pretzel nuggets); and Country Club Jerky (easy-to chew grass-fed, grain-finished bites of lean, protein-rich beef).

He suggests buying the snacks in “performance pairings” of proteins and carbs for the perfect taste and nutritional combination. The Country Club Jerky and The Gimme go together and feature dark green labels; The Albatross and Ace cups sport light green labels.

Sourcing his ingredients from organic vendors, Johnson ensures additive-free nutrition and has put great thought into providing “real food” quality.

For example, the granola balls aren’t a crunchy, loud, crumbly mess, and the jerky isn’t leathery but tender. None of the products leave your hand greasy.

A great deal of consideration went into the packaging as well. “Ninety percent of golfers will take a golf vehicle with a cup holder,” Johnson explains. “And our product fits perfectly in one of those.” The waterproof container holds bite-sized items to promote snacking throughout a round, instead of slamming it all down on one hole, and the re-sealable plastic lids prevent spillage and keep out thieving birds.

The containers also display well on golf beverage carts and fit neatly into holderequipped pushcarts and in the pocket of a walking bag.

FULE isn’t just about nutritional noshing; it’s also about educating golfers around the country by providing them with free regular video content in all areas of golf performance.

In addition to fitness and nutrition videos, fulecartsnacks.com (right) offers Swing Fundamentals and Instruction sections featuring Matt Schalk that will be updated regularly with new videos and articles.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, visit fulecartsnacks.com. Readers can get 50% off retail for The Cycle, a box containing six of each product (code: avidgolfer). Courses can get 20% off wholesale for an Opening Round package of 30 of each product (code: agwholesale).

COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | May 2018

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which a premier athlete should have.”

On his advice, Hailey prepares ahead of time by packing healthy foods such as peanut butter, pretzels, jerky, bananas and granola on which she can nibble for a consistent, steady flow of energy. This summer will bring an even better option in the form of FULE—an assortment of four perfectly portioned, nutritionally sound golf-specific snacks that prevent blood sugar surges and slumps. (See Box.) “Blood sugar spikes result from hydration too,” he warns. “So I remind Hailey to avoid the sugary sports drinks.

The best setup is a pinch of pink Himalayan salt or a no-sugar electrolyte mix shaken in a bottle of water.”

She’ll likely be packing that bottle at this month’s CHSAA 3A High School Championship. The event begins a summer of tournaments across Colorado and the country, where she’ll test her game against some of the country’s best players. She could very well qualify for the U.S. Girls Junior or the U.S. Women’s Amateur, and there are the IMG, AJGA and Optimist events, plus numerous invitationals.

It’s fair to say that with the same diet, motivation, attitude, practice habits and dedication she has exhibited thus far, fame will remain squarely in Hailey Schalk’s future. coloradoavidgolfer.com

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H E A LT H , F I T N E S S & W E L L N E S S

Garden of the Golf Gods

ROCK STEADY: Kissing Camels Club at the Garden of the Gods Collection takes its name from the adjacent sandstone formation.

A forthcoming program at the august Colorado Springs club adds some MEDICAL MUSCLE for golfers.

By JON RIZZI EVER SINCE 1961, when Garden of the Gods Club founder and owner Al Hill’s golf-loving friends convinced him to build what became Kissing Camels Golf Club, the Royal and Ancient Game has flourished near the rugged and ancient outcroppings that give the facility its name.

And ever since 2013, when an investment group led by healthcare executive Judy Mackey and accounting executive Brenda Smith bought the club, the Garden of the Gods Collection (as it is now known) has made health and wellness a priority for club members and guests of its plush 53EVENING EDEN: The Garden of the Gods Club

COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | May 2018

room resort, opening in 2016 a spectacular 28,000-square-foot International Health and Wellness Center (IHWC) that specializes in integrative medicine.

Now, by the end of 2018, the Garden of the Gods will have fully merged its dual emphases on golf and wellness. The club’s “20/20 Optimal Performance Program” will apply the same comprehensive, 360-degree diagnostic approach used in the IHWC to golfers looking to get the most from their games.

“When you think about PGA Tour pros, they have a team—a fitness coach, a physician, a golf coach,” explains Dr. Shane Wells, a Doctor of Chiropractic Medicine at the IHWC who specializes in Applied Kinesiology and Functional Neurology. “We’re giving the average golfer the resources the Tour pros have.”

The process, he explains, will be based on the TPI (Titleist Performance Institute) model of assessing swing mechanics and biomechanics, physical fitness, movement quality, current health, client history, and then creating a fitness plan for that particular golfer.

“That’s the golf and fitness connection,” says

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GOOD READ: Dr. Shane Wells of the IHWC

Wells, who has achieved Level 3 TPI Certification. “What distinguishes us is that we also have capability to satisfy the medical aspect— the wellness.”

“Wellness is the third leg of the stool,” concurs Kissing Camels’ PGA Director of Golf Rich Parker, one of the club’s three TPI-certified staff members and the leader of the 20/20 initiative. “The TPI protocols for the golf and fitness screenings quantify, validate and inform our golf and fitness instruction and equipment recommendations, coloradoavidgolfer.com

but the data also can indicate issues that may benefit from medical intervention.”

For example, one of the 16 TPI screening assessments is the ability to do a deep overhead squat. If a golfer can’t do one, it can indicate lack of pelvic stability requiring exercises to strengthen the core. “But it can also indicate a neurophysiological problem, which is where I come in,” says Dr. Wells. “We have the resources to go deeper when the testing reveals biomechanical flaws that exercise alone may not correct.”

Those resources include everything IN THE MIX: Naturopath Karly Powell prepares a remedy at the IHWC.

from traditional medicine to chiropractic adjustments to IV nutritional therapy to naturopathic remedies, massage and halotherapy.

For diagnostics, the IHWC even has a BOD POD Gold Standard to gauge body weight, body volume, body density, body fat, fat-free (bone and muscle) mass, and lung volumes.

A lifelong golfer from Nebraska, Wells says he knows of no other TPI program associated with a wellness center. However, he adds, “The Wellness Center will be a support staff for the golf program.”

The initial appointment will last approximately three hours and involve a the comprehensive and integrative diagnostic process including swing analysis, biomechanical assessment, functional analysis, fitness review and an integrated assessment of both the client’s physical fitness and structural alignment.

On the golf side, Parker will enhance the 20/20 Optimal Golf Performance Program with not only FlightScope and Trackman, but also with the K-Vest 3D-motion capture and analysis system that uses inertial sensors located on your pelvis, upper body and hand to measure real-time body movements in your golf swing.

Combined with video capture, it will

SWEAT EQUITY: Golf performance workouts in the Fitness Center.

produce an abundance of infinitesimal information about posture, dynamic movement and the body sequencing that will contribute to optimize the development of a performance plan.

Integral to that plan are Parker, Garden of the Gods Collection’s TPI-Certified Fitness & Lifestyle Instructor Tracy Iverson and the club’s Holistic Human Performance Coach Steve Thompson.

Their coordination will result in equipment, instructional and exercise recommendations as well as potential medical solutions to swing-inhibiting pain, injury or discomfort. “We can even do a deep dive with blood analysis,” says Wells. “But that takes more time.”

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A HEALTHY DESTINATION

POOLED RESOURCE: A sunset dip in the Garden

Speaking of time, Parker anticipates having the program up and running well before the 2019 golf season begins. There’ll be beta versions this fall. “We certainly can facilitate the assessments right now,” he says, “but this program needs to be every bit as great as the Wellness Center and Spa,” he says, referring to the IHWC, which ultimately took about three years to come together. “We want to deliver a performance program the likes of which the golf industry has never seen.”

For more information, visit gardenofthegodsclub.com.

Colorado Springs’ association with health and wellness dates to the late 1800s, when tuberculosis patients from all over flocked to breathe in the clean mountain air, prompting the construction of dozens of sanatoriums, many of which have evolved into the city’s current hospitals. The International Health and Wellness Center (IHWC)—part of the Garden of the Gods Collection but open to all members of the public—carries on the city’s tradition as a wellness destination.

The IHWC medical team integrates the latest innovations in traditional medicine and complementary (also known as “alternative”) healthcare to deliver what Medical Director Mike Barber, M.D. calls “a unique, fully integrated model of personalized treatments to transform and empower clients to live and perform at their fullest potential.”

A board certified cardiologist, internist and electrophysiologist, Barber has assembled an allstar team of medical professionals with complementary areas of expertise.

World-renowned alternative health-care expert Dr. Robert Blaich serves as Barber’s holistic counterpart. Naturopathic Doctor Karly Powell specializes in functional medicine, therapeutic nutrition and herbal medicine to treat autoimmune conditions, digestive dysfunction, weight issues, hormone imbalances and cardiovascular disease. Chiropractic Doctor Shane Wells utilizes stateof-the-art testing and treatments from the fields of functional neurology, applied kinesiology and chiropractic.

The IHWC team also includes trainers and therapists, dieticians and nutritionists. “We all have at least two significant areas of expertise,” Barber says. “We all overlap nicely.”

The IHWC overlaps with the spa and salon to provide medical massage, dermatological and other types of therapies, including toxin-removing salt-spa treatments. The fitness center and golf clubhouse—the other two spokes in the 20/20 Optimal Performance Program are located in separate buildings. ihwcwellness.com

Country Club feel with a public course price.

LakewoodGolf.org COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | May 2018

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H E A LT H , F I T N E S S & W E L L N E S S

Perturb Your Enthusiasm A little perturbation will increase BODY AWARENESS and BALANCE.

By NEIL WOLKODOFF IN GOLF, awareness of your body in space and time is crucial to controlling and replicating the golf swing. Knowing if you are in balance—and how to get back into balance—is essential to maintaining a robust and rhythmic swing.

In both physical therapy and sports science, using mild movements termed “perturbations” to get the body out of balance or control has shown positive benefits in both everyday activities and sports performance. In fact, many of the World Cup racers in alpine skiing use this form of training to increase their body awareness and balance to maintain optimal position and avoid falling.

Most commonly, an athlete will stand on a balance device in an optimum position, and the therapist or strength coach will use

small movements to push him or her out of balance. The goal is for the athlete to be aware he or she is out of balance, react, and then get back in balance and position as fast as possible. Perturbations are also used as rehabilitation and strengthening exercises on most joints and muscles as a final phase of athletic preparation. Perturbation force is typically applied with a cable, manual pressure, band, foam roller, or another device to disrupt balance and posture.

Because golf involves a set position in one plane of motion (front to back), but movement in the other two planes of motion (side to side and rotational), perturbation exercises increase balance and body awareness in these two dimensions. It doesn’t take a large number of exercises for this to improve your body awareness, balance and,

therefore, your golf consistency. Ideally, one or two exercises per training session are a good start.

However, unless you have consistent access to a therapist or strength training professional who understands how to use perturbations, then you are best off doing these simple exercises on your own. The following exercises are good starting points to understand and apply these performanceenhancing capabilities quickly at the gym or home.

Neil Wolkodoff, Ph.D. is the Medical Program Director of the Colorado Center for Health & Sports Science. The CCHSS provides medical fitness assessments, gait analysis and orthotics, sensory/sports vision training and athletic performance training programs. cochss.com; 303-596-6519.

USING A FITBALL, assume a back bridge position akin to being a coffee table. Take a small, 2-3 pound medicine ball, and while trying to maintain that bridge position, slowly move the ball in a half circle motion from one side to the other. Various parts of the core will have to fire to keep you in position, and you will be aware of getting out of and back into position. For added difficulty, you can take the medicine ball slightly overhead and also pointed to the side. The best way to start is three sets of 20 seconds of this exercise, then progress to 30 seconds per set. For more awareness and core challenge, narrow your stance. For even more challenge, try being slightly to one side or the other with your shoulders on the ball.

IMPROVED GOLF POSTURE can be a result of a similar perturbation exercise application. Stand on any balance device (Bosu, Step360 or individual balance disks). With knees bent slightly, use the same, slow, half-circle movements with the medicine ball, keeping the ball the same distance from the floor. For additional challenge, you can raise and lower the ball with one arm, and slightly speed up or slow down ball movement. As with the Fitball version, note body position and how you get back into balance. Those small adjustment abilities will translate positively to your golf performance.

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May 2018 | COLORADO AVIDGOLFER

H E A LT H , F I T N E S S & W E L L N E S S

“Oh, those planks!”

I hear it frequently as a golf fitness coach, but doing them right yields TREMENDOUS BENEFITS.

By DEE TIDWELL YES, THERE ARE BETTER and worse exercises than planks, but here are a few things I like about them: 1. Your abs have the “mechanical advantage” of holding up your upper and lower body with your navel as the “center point” where gravity is pushing down the most. Understanding this allows you to “push back against gravity” to hold a strong plank.

2. The plank position can help with “body feedback” and getting to understand how to stabilize your core.

3. They work. Like bridges for the glutes, planks build endurance, which is crucial for good posture on and off the course.

4. You can do them anywhere and most anyone can do them. I’ve started people out just standing in front of a wall, placing hands on it and doing a leaning plank. It’s

super simple but people can start from this position and progress.

5. They are highly progressive. Like some of the examples below, there are many ways to increase the difficulty and awareness to keep challenging the brain and body.

So let’s learn how to do them right.

All planks must start from an optimal neutral spine and pelvis. Without this starting position, the exercise becomes way less valuable.

Think about your “perfect posture”— feet hip width, middle of knees over front of ankle joint, middle of hip joint over the middle of the knee, middle of shoulder over middle of hip and middle of your ear hole the middle of your shoulder.

Now that you know how to have “perfect posture” in normal life and in your plank position, let’s go through some plank

progressions with the following parameters:

PARAMETERS • Start where you can with as long a hold as you can while maintaining this perfect posture. Stop before you lose it.

• Work up to 60 secs on all holds.

• Don’t sacrifice form!

• Think about your abs, body position, head position and creating tension between your elbows and your toes.

Dee Tidwell owns the Colorado Golf Fitness Club in Greenwood Village. He is a Level Three Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) Certified Golf Fitness Pro, Golf Fitness Instructor, Junior Coach and Medical Coach. A three-time CAGGY Award winner, he recently ranked as one of Golf Digest’s 50 Best Golf Fitness Professionals.

Reach him at dee@coloradogolffitnessclub.com or 303-883-0435.

HOW TO PHOTOGRAPHS BY EJ CARR

PLANKS: On forearms without hands touching, elbows under shoulder joints.

Head neutral, spine neutral and err with butt to ceiling, not core sagging to floor.

PROGRESSIONS: 1. ONE ARM UP: Holds or reps.

2. ONE LEG UP: Holds or reps.

3. ALTERNATE ARM AND LEG UP: Holds or reps.

SIDE PLANKS: Elbow is under shoulder, head neutral, feet stacked. Too hard? Bend bottom knee to 90 degrees to start. Keep body straight by imagining straight lines, horizontally, from your nose to toes and top shoulder to heel.

PROGRESSIONS: 1. ONE ARM UP: Hold.

2. ONE LEG UP: Holds or reps.

3. GET ON HAND. Position hand under shoulder and bottom leg in front of top leg with feet parallel.

COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | May 2018

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H E A LT H , F I T N E S S & W E L L N E S S

The Fountain of Youth

There’s NO MAGIC BULLET to improve your game, but hormone pellets can help.

HORACE WESTERLY is a pseudonym for for the bioidentical hormones—non-synthetic a man who doesn’t want his real name used— plant-based replications with the same monot because he’s shy about getting hormone lecular structure of the hormones his body treatments, but because he doesn’t want to let produces—that he would receive subcutanehis golf opponents in on his secret. ously via pellets inserted into a small incision The 66-year-old former executive, who in a buttock. The dissolvable pellets deliver a never had much time for golf before retire- steady amount of hormones as the blood flow ment two years ago, now plays virtually every picks up what’s needed. day, walking the courses at Lone Tree, South Westerly returns every six months for a Suburban, and even Breckenridge.

“I feel like I’m 50. My index has gone from 26 to 18,” he says.

“And I’ve added 40 yards to my drives. Part of that improvement comes from having more time to play, but it absolutely started after I went to see Dr. Engsberg.”

Hope Engsberg, M.D., is the president and founder of AgeWellMD, an anti-aging functional medicine clinic in Denver’s Cherry Creek. She specializes in bioidentical hormone replacement and hormone pellet therapy. She’s no storefront medicine woman promREJUVENATOR: Dr. Hope Engsberg ising to “T Up” golfers, but a highly of AgeWellMD decorated cardiac anesthesiologist who six years ago rededicated her skills to regenerative medicine. As she puts it, dosage, at which time Dr. Engsberg checks “I went from resuscitating to resurrecting.” his body fat and muscular percentages (“I’m Westerly’s resurrection began 18 months already 77 percent to my goal of losing 36 ago after witnessing the effects Dr. Engs- pounds of fat and gaining 50 percent more berg’s treatments had on his wife, Linda, who muscle,” he boasts). She also gets his blood sought treatment for her postmenopausal levels tested to make sure his body isn’t confunk. “She suddenly felt full of energy and felt verting testosterone into DHT and estrone, great,” he says. “I wanted to keep up with her.” metabolites that contribute to prostate canA consultation with Dr. Engsberg fol- cer. Were those levels elevated, Engsberg lowed. Extensive blood and thyroid panels re- would counter with natural supplements or vealed hormonal imbalances and deficiencies prescribe an aromatase inhibitor. related mainly to testosterone, the producWesterly has had no complications. tion of which in men declines annually by 5 Neither has Cheryl Wilkenson, a 10-handipercent after the age of 35. She also put West- cap at Fox Hollow who has played golf for erly through a body composition analysis more than half of her 65 years, the last two that indicated the typical high body-fat, low and a half as an AgeWellMD patient. “I inimuscle-mass and low bone-density percent- tially went to see her because of a low libido, ages associated with low testosterone levels. but within a few months I also had so much A metabolic detoxification involving di- more energy,” she reports. “I always walk the etary supplements primed Westerly’s body course and can keep up with a lot of players COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | May 2018

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who have lower indexes than I do.”

As a woman, Wilkenson represents the majority of AgeWell’s patients. Hormone replacement therapy has been associated with women’s health far longer than it has with men’s. Dr. Engsberg treats both sexes of all ages and from all over the country.

Her professional journey allows her to connect personally with her patients. “I realized I didn’t just want to keep people alive,” she says. “I wanted to help and heal them.”

Plus, she adds, “as an anesthesiologist, you bring people close to death, cradling their lives during surgery, so you never want to know them. So, I decided to do a complete one-eighty. Instead of putting anonymous patients to sleep, I now wake up conscious people I have the privilege of listening to, getting to know and helping lead more fulfilled lives.”

Dr. Engsberg now holds advanced medical degrees in anti-aging, regenerative medicine and nutrition. The diplomas squeeze onto the credential-filled “wall of wood,” an aesthetic anomaly in a suite brimming with enough Southwestern art to fill a Canyon Road gallery. “The degrees establish an emotional trust; the artwork shows patients who I am.”

She is not only AgeWellMD’s sole practitioner, she’s also a beneficiary of bioidentical hormone replacement therapy. So is her spouse, Kathy Vieth, who serves as office manager and patient concierge. Vieth and their Great Dane, Wilhm Dakota, warmly greet patients. The office also recently added peptide therapy and intravenous nutritional therapy to complement and enhance the effects of the supplements and pellets. As Dr. Engsberg says, “We want to give patients the most options to be their optimal selves.”

For more information, visit agewellmd-denver.com or call 720-361-8080. coloradoavidgolfer.com

PHOTOGRAPH BY EJ CARR

By TASKA CAMPBELL

Raccoon Creek Golf Course Flying Horse North

Applewood Golf Course

The Club at Ravenna

Castle Pines Country Club

Vail Golf Club

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Lake Valley Golf Club

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Who Says Golf is

Dying?

Nobody told Colorado, which weathered the downturn much better than most states did. Now, THE OUTLOOK HERE and even nationwide borders on the bullish. BY ANDY BIGFORD THE DOOMSDAY headlines have been hard to miss: “Death Wish: How Much Longer Can Golf Survive?” “Five Reasons Golf is in a Hole.” “Why America Fell Out of Love with Golf.” “America’s Golf Courses are Burning.”

Recent nationwide golf metrics, still mired in fallout from the Great Recession of 2007-09, are indeed sobering at first blush. Roughly 800 courses were shuttered in the past decade and participation plummeted, with the National Golf Foundation reporting that total participation dropped 20 percent from 2005 to 2016, from 30 million down to 23.8 million. The retail side was bludgeoned by the bankruptcy of Golfsmith, billed as the world’s largest golf retailer. Before the rocket-like relaunch of Tiger 5.0 this spring, TV viewership for PGA golf was getting older, grayer and smaller. Even Jack Nicklaus joined in the chorus on the sport’s underlying ills: Takes too much time, too expensive, too difficult, and not cool with kids, most of whom prefer a 3-by 8-inch screen to 7,000 yards of green grass.

While not all Fake News, reports of the death of golf are greatly exaggerated, in no small part because even while its peak popularity has faded, a core group of avid golfers (who comprise one-third of participants but play coloradoavidgolfer.com

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two-thirds of the rounds) stayed steady and strong. And meanwhile, here in Colorado, the game on most all levels is not just evolving but arguably even thriving.

The spate of headline-grabbing course closures is actually a natural correction, a right-sizing that followed the unprecedented and reckless real estate-driven building boom of the 1990s and early 2000s. More than one course was being built every day, with the total number soaring by 25 percent, from 12,846 in 1990 to more than 16,000 by 2005. The reset hit particularly hard in overbuilt states such as Michigan, which saw more than 200 courses close in the last few years.

In Colorado, the boom-and-bust was much less dramatic. Construction did peak in the 1990s (52 new courses) and 2000s (46), but wasn’t extreme compared to the two previous big decades, the 1970s (43) and ‘80s (37). High-profile venues like Colorado Golf Club in Parker and The Golf Club at Ravenna in Littleton confronted and overcame serious financial obstacles, while just five courses actually closed over the past decade. The RIPs included Fitzsimons in Aurora, which had opened in 1918, and Denver’s historic, circa-1920s Green Gables Country Club. Park Hill, founded in 1931 near Colorado Boulevard and I-70, is unlikely to survive past 2018.

Coloradans might bemoan the bumperto-bumper traffic, but the state’s heady population and economic growth helped it weather the storm better than most. Since 2010, population surged by 577,000, an annual increase of 12 percent, ranking it sixth in the country in growth. Meanwhile, Colorado’s GDP for the past decade has grown at 50 percent higher than the national average.

Colorado Golf Club

“Golf in Denver is much stronger than it is nationwide,” reports Scott Rethlake, who as director of golf for the City of Denver says rounds have been up 5 percent overall at its eight facilities for each of the past three years.

“A lot of people are moving to Denver,” he adds.

“Denver was one of our best performing stores in the country in 2017,” chimes in Matt Corey, the chief marketing officer for PGA TOUR Superstore, which opened its Greenwood Village location in 2011—and in 2017 saw it outperform the average 15 percent increase it enjoyed at its 40 stores in 14 states. “We’d like to see at least one more store in the Denver area. We think Colorado is a great state for golf. “ This summer, for the first time since

Glacier

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the Colorado Golf Association’s Tom Doakdesigned CommonGround Golf Course opened in 2009 (it was actually a total redo of Aurora’s Mira Vista), the state will welcome a new facility. It’s been worth the wait: The semi-private TPC Colorado in Berthoud, opening to the public Aug. 1, is special in many ways, ranging from its intriguing Art Schaupeter design to hosting Web.com tour events beginning in 2019 (along with the unspoken expectation that someday it will become home to annual PGA Tour stop, filling the void left by the 2007 exit of The International after a 21-year run). The TPC will be bracketed geographically in 2019 with the grand openings of the Fred Funkdesigned RainDance National Golf Club in Windsor and Flying Horse North, 10 miles northeast of the original Club at Flying Horse in Colorado Springs.

Ed Mate, the 18-year executive director of the Colorado Golf Association, is cleareyed and data-driven in confronting golf ’s challenges and realities. He can quickly recite the many mistakes of the past and the very real barriers to success on the horizon.

He notes that, according to CGA surveys, public-access golf rounds played along the Front Range have been “stable” for the past 25 years, toggling between 1.6 and 1.8 million annually depending on the weather. He’s also bullish on the future. “I think we are about to enter the Golden Age of Golf,” he says.

NOT WARD CLEAVER’S COUNTRY CLUB Even before the Great Recession, Colorado’s Front Range private clubs got scared straight, largely because a plethora of new clubs had opened recently and suddenly there was an abundant over-supply. The only waiting lists back then and were to get out of clubs, not in.

“Maybe we just paid a little more attention,” says Mark Condon, who is the general manager of The Ranch Country Club in Westminster, which also serves the rapidly growing northern communities of Broomfield, Thornton, Louisville and Lafayette. Condon, who has run clubs in the Denver area for 35 years, has enjoyed a front row seat at the evolution, as clubs transformed from male-dominated refuges for low-handicappers to social assets for entire families. Today’s typical member profile is a dual-income family, often led in wage-earning by the female, that has little precious free time and wants to spend it together in a “third place” (after home and work) that will appeal to everybody.

The quality of the golf course still coloradoavidgolfer.com

matters, and clubs have spent millions of dollars renovating their tracks. But The Ranch and many others have also poured their resources into expanded new clubhouses and put an emphasis on non-golf amenities: a multitude of kids programs, fitness centers, expanded swimming pools and indoor/ outdoor tennis facilities.

Another common theme is re-orienting facilities to embrace the outdoors, with sprawling patios—dubbed Golfer’s Perches— re-imagined to take full advantage of sunsets and mountain views. “Bringing the outdoors in, or the indoors out,” Condon calls it.

There are wine tastings (and wine lockers), poolside happy hours, themed dinners, and regular live music. Dining has evolved from white tablecloths for the parents to relaxed casual for the family, and Condon says The Ranch now does 200 dinners on busy nights, more than doubling past activity. After spending $5.5 million to renovate and expand the clubhouse, The Ranch has added 100 new members, and rounds have jumped from 25,000 to 32,000 (partly because the entire family is involved).

Variations on the traditional four-hour, 18-hole round abound, with shortened tees and 6-hole loops. At Fort Collins Country Club, 25 to 30 percent of the members don’t even carry USGA handicaps, roughly a threefold increase from previous trends.

“It’s more about just playing golf than competition,” says GM John Stebbins, who adds that an eye-popping 65 percent of the rounds are walkers. Particular attention has been paid to practice ranges, where new features, games and competitions are critical.

“Rather than a place to warm up for 10 minutes before a round, the practice range has become a destination,” Condon says.

The breathtaking $25 million clubhouse at Columbine Country Club in Littleton is the shining star of this diversification trend in Colorado, and arguably the most significant clubhouse upgrade in the entire country.

Similar investments of note have also been made in the last decade at Glenmoor, Red Rocks, the Country Club at Castle Pines, Castle Pines Golf Club and Glacier.

Glacier, in Durango, also brought its hole total to 36 last year with a new nine designed by Hale Irwin and Todd Schoeder; Lakewood is undergoing a course redesign

by Gil Hanse; and both Castle Pines courses have had many recent modifications by Jack Nicklaus’ team.

The reinvention is hardly limited to private clubs. Three miles west of Columbine, Littleton’s Raccoon Creek Golf Course coloradoavidgolfer.com

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Discover Heather Gardens

The most beautiful executive 9-hole public golf course you’ve never seen.

Heather Gardens Executive 9-hole Golf Course is a hidden treasure.

It’s close to the junction of Parker Road and I-225, and near Yale Avenue – yet it’s hidden from traffic, nestled in the exquisite urban enclave of Heather Gardens.

The par 32, 2,461-yard course’s traditional design is enhanced by its lush, treelined fairways, elevated greens and well-positioned bunkers.

Heather Gardens is a public course, open to golfers young and old.

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pumped roughly $4 million into a bigger, better clubhouse that will open this month.

The City of Arvada’s West Woods Golf Club spent $7 million to rehab and expand its clubhouse and improve its golf course.

Thorncreek shut down in 2017 so it could complete its own $7 million in course and clubhouse upgrades. South Suburban in Centennial did a $3.5 million project and now sports a 7,772-square-foot clubhouse with mountain and course views.

A $12 million project transformed Vail Golf Club’s modest clubhouse into east Vail’s premier event center, the glorious Vail Golf and Nordic Clubhouse. By August, Green Valley Ranch Golf Club in Denver will have demolished its clubhouse and replaced it with a neighborhood restaurant and Oakwood Life Center (the golf shop moved into the Golf Academy building in April). After a major stormwater retention job, Denver’s City Park will reopen in spring 2019 with a relocated clubhouse and a full driving range.

While private clubs have been working to transform themselves into the community gathering place for members, public courses such as Applewood in Golden have long been the essential fabric of their communities.

Neighbors around Applewood actually voted overwhelmingly in 2015 to tax themselves so the land would remain as open space rather than become a housing development. “The community saved us,” Applewood GM Brian Melody says. The facility is not just 18 flags in the grass, but the go-to place for weddings, wakes, anniversaries, graduations and, just recently, 400 guests for Easter Brunch.

PROGRAM IT AND THEY WILL COME

LEARN MORE AT DENVERSCHOLARSHIP.ORG/GOLF COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | May 2018

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Efforts to ensure a brighter future for golf need to start at the beginning, and that’s with junior programs and learn-to-play initiatives, especially those targeted at traditionally tough demographics such as women and minorities. While the industry took its eye off grassroots programs during the gogo years of overbuilding, there’s been an unprecedented emphasis on junior programs nation- and statewide—including the teamconcept PGA Junior League, Drive, Chip & Putt, the flourishing LPGA USGA Girls Golf, and a host of others.

The stunning First Tee program at Rethlake’s Denver city courses is the secondlargest in the world, growing from 2,000 to 7,500 participants since 2011; it’s on track to reach a goal of 10,000 by 2020. The CGA’s CommonGround is the poster child for junior coloradoavidgolfer.com

The Ranch

programs, and home to the life-changing Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy (statewide, caddie rounds continue to grow, reaching almost 40,000 in 2017, according to a CGA survey). Lake Valley Golf Club north of Boulder had virtually no junior program in 2015 when head pro Cameron Morton arrived, and now sells out each of its three sessions for kids ages 4-7 and 8-13. At Applewood, juniors pay $29.95 for a membership card, entitling them to play rounds for just $4 each.

A main goal of the PGA TOUR Superstore in Greenwood Village is to educate kids about golf, starting with its 2,000-square-foot indoor putting green, so they will fall in love with the sport (in much the same way The Home Depot, also founded by Arthur Blank, taught kids how to build birdhouses so they would become lifetime DIYers). TopGolf, with a location in Centennial and another coming in Thornton, might be more about cocktails than golf, but it undoubtedly advances the cause. At The Ranch in Westminster, all new members get free lessons, and GM Condon is considering expanding that to include all members.

The bottom line is that despite national headlines to the contrary, Colorado golfers have much to be excited about. The state is a nationwide leader in junior programs. Golf clubs are working hard to play a larger role in your lifestyle. After watching Tiger and Phil battle the young guns on TV, you have the pick of the litter at courses both public and private that have spent tens of millions of dollars tweaking their facilities—and are even getting savvy with digital media to keep you excited and informed.

In the final analysis, it seems Colorado golf is closer to a boom than it is to a bust— perhaps even entering Mate’s Golden Age.

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Blind Shot

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THE UNSEEN GAME

I LOVE BEING behind the lens, whether on a golf course, in a hotel lobby, or deep in an equatorial rainforest. I always try to capture the essence of my subjects—and Hailey Schalk and Dillon Johnson were no exception.

Hailey’s winning smile and genuine laugh made for a lighthearted environment. Even as golf balls whizzed by and wind whipped away equipment, both she and Dillon kept their focus and we all accomplished some great shots at Colorado National Golf Club. I especially loved her energy as she spontaneously popped from this custom Shelby Cobra golf cart kept at the course.

—Chad Chisolm

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