Player’s Corner PLAY AWAY
Golf...By Design “Colorado’s Golf Sculptures” tells the story of the design and vision behind some of our state’s most beautiful golf courses. In this issue, we feature Pole Creek Golf Club in Tabernash. By Chris Wheeler PHOTOGRAPH BY WHEELER GOLFSCAPES
WORKING THE LAND: Pole Creek Golf Course was built on a former working ranch. The nine-hole Ranch layout (the green on No. 4 pictured here) is where the ranch’s structures were located.
IT BEGAN WITH a dream as grand as the mountain peaks that tower over Winter Park. In the 1970s, a Grand County native named Wendell Ley donated a spectacular tract of land along Pole Creek to the Fraser Valley Metropolitan Recreational District. Local businessmen envisioned a golf course that would be a summertime counterpart to Winter Park Ski Resort. “Back then, there wasn’t a lot going on here in the summer,” says Mary Moynihan, Pole Creek’s Clubhouse Manager. The Fraser Rec District went big, hiring the esteemed design firm of Kirby, Player and coloradoavidgolfer.com
Associates (yes, golf legend Gary Player). The architect assigned to create the new course outside of Winter Park was a rising star named Denis Griffiths. “During our first trip in 1979, we looked at 3–4 potential sites,” said Griffiths. “As soon as we walked the (Pole Creek) land, you realized it was the perfect place for a golf course.” The future Pole Creek Golf Course had been a working ranch since 1895. “What is today The Meadow Course was an open area where they grew hay,” remembers Moynihan. “The Ranch Course is where the old ranch structures were located.”
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Bisecting the land was the meandering Pole Creek. In the distance were majestic James and Parry Peaks, along with Devil’s Thumb. “The east/ west orientation of the valley certainly identified the course focal point: the Continental Divide,” recalls Griffiths. “Having the ability to take the holes back and forth is part of what made the site so good.” Griffiths and his team approached the Pole Creek job with the idea of honoring the land’s ranching heritage while embracing its natural beauty. “First time I saw that land, you could see May 2021 | COLORADO AVIDGOLFER
