I T ’ S OK AY TO G ETAWAY • FA N TA ST IC F LE N N I K E N
coloradoavidgolfer.com
Elevating the Game.
A HEAD IN THE GAME NOT IN A BIG HUFF
How healthcare workers have set golf aside for a new obsession—battling COVID-19
BECCA HUFFER plans to regain her LPGA tour card
Don’t
SLEEP
Pre-Dawn Tee Times in Iceland
think it THROUGH Improving Your Mental Game
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CONTENTS | June 2020
DEPARTMENTS 8 Forethoughts
A (Contactless) Thank You By Anthony Cotton
10 The CGA
“C” Stands for Caddie... By Erin Gangloff
12 #coavidgolfer
Getting Back on Course 17 The Gallery Changes afoot for local tournaments dealing with COVID-19; U.S. Open memories
72 Blind Shot
The new-look PGA TOUR returns this month. By Anthony Cotton
PLAYER’S CORNER PHOTOGRAPH BY JAMIE SCHWABEROW/CLARKSON CREATIVE
46
27 Play Away
Living the good life, Steamboat-style, at Alpine Mountain Ranch. By Jon Rizzi
30 Profile
Carol Flenniken dominated women’s amateur golf. By Andy Bigford
32 Lesson
Playing “Open” Golf. By Elena King
37 Fashion
Celebrating with red, white and blue fashion. By Suzanne Brown
FEATURES
46 Zooming in on a Cure
58
While golf isn’t at the forefront these days, some health care workers say there are links between the game and their work fighting COVID-19. By Anthony Cotton
After reading (and writing) herself the riot act, Becca Huffer is ready to rebound from a troubling 2019 season—whenever the pandemic allows. By Anthony Cotton
SIDE BETS
“Dear Diary...”
39 Fareways
The secret to a memorable spaghetti sauce isn’t the recipe. By John Lehndorff
42 Nice Drives
Rolls-Royce Cullinan, Kia Niro EV Premium, Mini SE. By Isaac Bouchard
52
ON THE COVER
During an Icelandic summer, the sun never sets on your game. By Chad Chisholm
last year’s Masters at home in Stapleton. Photograph by Jamie Schwaberow/ Clarkson Creative
Dr. Ryan Lutz relaxes while watching
Nonstop Golf
SPECIAL SECTIONS BUFFALO THUNDER A Resurrected Golf Course, Sports Book and Gaming in New Mexico
COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | June 2020
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COLORADO GETAWAYS Grand County, Steamboat, Colorado Springs, a road trip and more.
2
PHOTOGRAPH BY E.J. CARR
14
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HAVEN'T EXPERIENCED COR SEE FOR YOURSELF WHAT EVERYONE IS TALKING AB
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June 2020 | Volume 19, Number 3 president and group publisher
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Jon Rizzi
SALES, MARKETING & ADVERTISING associate publisher
Chris Phillips
senior sales directors
Mike Car ver, Craig Hitchcock digital strategist and content manager
Ben Champion
office and operations manager
Cindy Palmer
GOLF 4 A PRECIOUS CHILD TOURNAMENT
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Jani Duncan Smith art director
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Colorado AvidGolfer (ISSN 1548-4335) is published eight times a year by Baker-Colorado Publishing, LLC, and printed by Publication Printers Corp. Volume 19, Number three. 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 © 2020 by BakerColorado 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.
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THE COUNTRY CLUB AT CASTLE PINES B R I N G I N G WO R LD - C L ASS A M E N I T I ES TO A WO R LD - C L ASS GO L F L I F EST Y L E The Country Club at Castle Pines is beginning a multimillion-dollar transformation project to bring stylish new dining, bar and patio features to the clubhouse, as well as cliffside amenities to include the region’s most picturesque pool, fitness center, paddle tennis, pickleball and tennis courts. Golf members will further benefit from new amenities designed to enhance their golf experience both before and after their round.
To inquire about an invitation to Golf or Social Membership, contact: MARK LEWICKI, Director of Membership
303.660.6807 mlewicki@ccofcastlepines.com 6400 Country Club Drive
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GOLF’S HIDDEN HEROES
Forethoughts
A (Contactless) Thank You
You might also see the Superintendent or their Assistant, giving directions or attending to a problem. Perhaps you’ll come across the Irrigation Tech watering the course. But the one employee you rarely see is the “Hidden Hero” of golf maintenance: the Equipment Manager. Rarely out on the course, EMs can be found in their shops, adjusting reels, sharpening blades or fixing hydraulic issues for the following day’s mowing.
Their “sharp” work is key to the success of the courses that you play. And they all deserve a THANK YOU.
Brandon Smith, Saddle Rock Golf Course
Thanks, Golf Course Equipment Managers!
PHOTOGRAPH BY JAMIE SCHWABEROW/CLARKSON CREATIVE
When you play golf, chances are you’ll encounter an employee mowing a green, fairway or rough.
IT IS SAID that the origin of the handshake dates back to the fifth century B.C. in Greece. One popular theory is that the gesture began as a way of conveying peaceful intentions. By extending their empty right hands, strangers could show that they were not holding weapons and bore no ill will toward one another. I’ve been thinking about handshakes a lot lately—I don’t know if Aristotle, Plato, Socrates and Pythagoras engaged in a hearty clasp at the conclusion of the Athens Club Championship (rumor has it that the Socratic Method was the end result of trying to figure out why Plato was such a sore loser), but, of course, it’s long been an essential part of golf etiquette. Until now. The esteemed Ed Mate, executive director of the Colorado Golf Association, says that in the wake of the novel coronavirus and its insidious spread, he may never shake hands out on the course again. He’s right; it’s easy to envision where a wave and a bow (Namaste? Wakanda Forever?) may indeed become the new post-round norm. While that’s totally understandable, in several ways, it’s a shame. A hearty clasp, of course, has also long been a sign of respect, a way of saying thanks. And, there are a lot of people whom I’d love to be shaking hands with (and giving great big bear hugs to) right now. If you’re reading this, it means I’m ecstatic on any number of levels, the first and foremost being that in my first effort as editor, Colorado AvidGolfer actually made it to print! For 18 years, beginning with its very first edition, CAG has been shepherded by Jon Rizzi; if you saw his final issue last month, a paean to his tenure, then you understand why being his successor is such a daunting proposition. Jon has been the guiding light, the heart and soul of this magazine from Day 1—but he would also be the first to say he didn’t do it by himself. Golf is often a solitary pursuit; but in this case, like Rizzi, I’m comforted by the knowledge that I’m not taking this walk alone. In the brief time I’ve been aboard, I’ve already witnessed firsthand the commitment of the staff—Allen, Chris, Ben, Chelsea, Cindy, Craig, Drew, Hillary, Jani, Kendall, Melissa and Mike—to Colorado AvidGolfer, and in turn, to you, its readers. From horrific personal sorrow to unexpected economic adjustments, like many of you, the coronavirus has wreaked havoc inside our collective home as well. Despite this adversity, the team I’m proud to say that I’m now a part of has shown an unwavering dedication to their craft. Yet, of course, that pales in comparison to the real artisans, champions who deserve much more gratitude and respect than could ever be expressed in a handshake. Since the beginning of the pandemic, countless health care professionals in Colorado have devoted their lives to battling COVID-19 and seeking a path back to normalcy. As it turns out, for some of them, in one form or another, that includes golf. On page 46, we look at the work they’re doing, and why they—like you, like me, like every golfer—can’t wait for the day when their biggest worry is grinding over a double-breaking 20-foot putt on the 18th hole. Let’s hope that day is coming soon—even without the post-round handshake. — Anthony Cotton
Jeff Thal, Legacy Ridge Golf Course
COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | June 2020
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The CGA SERVING ALL COLORADO GOLFERS
“C” Stands for Caddie… ...That’s good enough for me!
By Erin Gangloff, Managing Director of Programs, CGA
COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | June 2020
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PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF COLORADO GOLF ASSOCIATION
THE “C” IN CGA doesn’t only represent Colorado—it also stands for Caddies. The Colorado Golf Association has held caddies in high esteem since an early partnership with the Western Golf Association and the establishment of the Eisenhower-Evans Scholar House at the University of Colorado-Boulder. Over the years, that dedication to caddie programs has become a pillar of the CGA’s mission. The CGA hosts an annual Caddie Summit with caddie clubs from across the state; in March, more than 18 clubs participated. The primary purpose of the Summit is to share ideas and best practices focusing on youth-based caddie programs. These 18 clubs are giving 430 young men and women the opportunity to caddie. For many, it’s not only their first exposure to the game of golf, but also their first job. The experience of caddying teaches valuable lessons of hard work, self-reliance and perhaps, most importantly, how to carry on a conversation over four hours with that odd DIALED IN: Ed Mate, executive director of the Colorado Golf Association, works with an aspiring caddie. The CGA species better known as “an adult!” has made training programs for youngsters hoping to learn the craft a central part of its mission. Besides scholarship It can also be a path to a college opportunities, trainees also learn how to interact and converse with others. scholarship and a means of supporting their families financially. So, what happens when a pandemic strikes right before the summer caddie season? ing intimidated with a one-on-one caddie,” said money at a time when many of the minimum-wage summer jobs traditionally filled by teens have On May 1st, the CGA hosted a special COVID-19 Ed Mate, CGA Executive Director. Other clubs will be doing hole-specific evaporated. Caddie Summit to address the unique challenges Those who have experienced taking a caddie brought on by social distancing and other health caddying, where caddies will be assigned to a hole can attest that nothing beats the conversations requirements we now face. All caddie clubs in at- with defined duties such as providing yardages, bunker raking, ball spotting and attending to play- held with a young caddie during a round of golf. If tendance received information from the Western you want to experience playing with a caddie, the Golf Association on strategies for different forms ers on the putting green. This will be the method used at the new Broadmoor Caddie & Leadership CGA has recruited another great stable of caddies of caddying that have been developed to protect Academy. at our Academy chapters at CommonGround Golf both caddies and players. “The Broadmoor Caddie & Leadership Acad- Course, Meridian Golf Club and in Grand Junction For many programs, such as the Colorado emy fully anticipates, and is looking forward to, at Tiara Rado and Lincoln Park Golf Courses. Golf Association’s Solich Caddie & Leadership This summer, the CGA will hold its annual Academy at CommonGround Golf Course, a new implementing (hole specific) caddying to a large form of caddying known as “Forward Caddying” extent for the 2020 golf season,” said program di- fundraiser for its caddie and junior golf programs rector Mark Keibel. “That method will bring many through its Dream Golf Vacation Raffle. Prizes will be used as an alternative to bag carrying. include six Grand Prize Stay-and-Play packages Caddies will be armed with a rake, range finder benefits to the Academy kids and the Broadmoor as it will get the Academy kids familiar with their to courses, including Bandon Dunes, Whistling and facial masks and will walk with the group to provide yardages, repair divots and ball marks, responsibilities and it will help the Broadmoor im- Straits, Sand Valley and Teeth of the Dog. In mensely with pace of play.” addition to supporting junior golf programs in rake bunkers and otherwise assist the group and After months of Zoom and video learning, Colorado, a portion of this year’s proceeds will care for the course during the round—all while also be directed to Colorado’s COVID-19 relief efmaintaining a safe distance with no direct contact there has never been a more important time to provide young people with the opportunity to get forts. Learn more at coloradogolf.org. with a player’s equipment. “I believe this way of caddying might open outside for fresh air and exercise. Equally importpeople’s eyes to the value of a caddie without be- ant, caddying will provide the opportunity to earn
#coavidgolfer DIGITAL | SOCIAL MEDIA
Getting Back on Course
Tee Off with Technology
WHAT A TIME we’re living in! As COVID-19 has swept across the globe, golfers around the nation have been subject to “shelter in place” orders and course shutdowns. No gatherings. No get-togethers. No public events. And worst of all in some places...no golf! But you already know this. If you're like us, most of you have started feeling a little stir crazy. However, what we’re facing is not all bad. We can use the extra time to grow closer with family by being more present at home. And many of us have been forced to find a new cadence—slowing down, maybe hitting an unexpected reset button. Any true sports fan knows that endless reruns of golf tournaments and at-home putting drills just won’t cut it. We need the real thing to get our fix. We need fresh-cut Kentucky Bluegrass, wideopen skies and a subtle Google calendar reminder, pinging us that we have a tee time set for the next morning. The good news is that golf is slowly coming back. Colorado courses are safely reopening again. In fact, the qualities of the greatest game ever played makes it one of the best activities to safely play during pandemic-induced restrictions. With this exciting news, we wanted to leverage our digital platforms to see what courses our followers were playing. We asked our Facebook fans to show us their pictures from the course. Below are some of our favorite submissions of avid golfers getting back out there and experiencing the joy and relief that comes with a round of golf. Who knows what the future will hold? But for now, we can get out and compete—safely—and start working on our short game again. (Sheesh, we all know we need it!)
THE USGA AND World Golf Tour kicked-off the “Virtual Open: Best of Challenge.” This digital tournament, played on your smartphone through the WGT Golf app (available on iOS and Android), caught our eye. What a unique way to provide an at-home option for golfers looking for competition. You may be thinking: “Playing golf on an app. No thank you!” But maybe this will change your mind. The winner of the virtual tournament wins a $500 USGA Shop gift card and a VIP trip to the 2021 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines. Nothing virtual about that! A trip to Torrey Pines... yes, please! This virtual tournament pushes the cusp of online entertainment and competition during a time when we may be more inclined to explore that realm. Check it out for yourself! The tournament play ends June 11th.
Let’s Be Social IF YOU HAVEN’T done so already, come be a part of the Colorado AvidGolfer digital community by following our social media accounts. Tag and share your golf related content with us. We’d love to see it! Joining our newsletter for all the latest golf news. Sign up for our newsletter by going to: www.bit.ly/CAG-Newsletter.
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ALWAYS SHOW GOOD SPORTSMANSHIP. PREFERABLY WITH A ROUND OF JACK.
PLEASE DRINK RESPONSIBLY. JACK DANIEL’S, OLD NO. 7, and GENTLEMAN JACK are registered trademarks. TENNESSEE HONEY and TENNESSEE APPLE are trademarks owned by Jack Daniel’s Properties, Inc. ©2019 Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey 40% Alcohol by Volume (80 proof). Gentleman Jack Double Mellowed Tennessee Whiskey 40% Alcohol by Volume (80 proof). Single Barrel Tennessee Whiskey Alcohol 47% by Vol. (94 proof). Whiskey Specialty, 35% Alcohol by Volume (70 proof). Distilled and Bottled by JACK DANIEL DISTILLERY, Lynchburg, Tennessee.
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Top Picks: Buffalo Thunder Resort & Casino Makes an Ideal Weekend Getaway Great Golf, Great Steaks and a Great Casino Make This New Mexico Destination a Must AFTER THE LAST few months of home hibernation, many Colorado residents are looking for a quick getaway—preferably a weekend retreat that’s far enough away to feel like you’re on vacation and close enough to get there by car. That’s what makes Buffalo Thunder Resort & Casino an ideal destination for those who want to golf, play, dine, relax and unwind.
GREAT ESCAPE: Set amid the Pojoaque Valley, Towa Golf Club is a challenging course that features endless panoramas.
ISLAND JEWEL: Day or night, the 186-yard fourth hole on Towa’s Boulder course is something to behold. The par-3 has a 10,000-square-foot island green—the only one in New Mexico.
Less than a six-hour drive from the Denver metro area, Buffalo Thunder Resort & Casino is New Mexico’s largest entertainment complex, located just 12 miles north of Santa Fe. It promises an abundance of energy and excitement for guests who want to do it all, while also providing space and serenity for those who seek a more tranquil ambiance. Situated under the picturesque Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Buffalo Thunder Resort & Casino is a 58-acre oasis well within reach as a long weekend getaway. From the relaxing ambiance of the resort, guests can enjoy a variety of activities and entertainment including seven restaurants, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, 27 holes of golf at Towa Golf Club and of course the Buffalo Thunder Casino with its Las Vegas-style gaming and sports betting. There is also a 24-hour fitness center and full-service spa offering full body massages, nail services and skin and body treatments. And golfers, take note: Towa Golf Club is an award-winning championship course with three independent Hale Irwin-designed courses. This stunning setting includes The Boulder Nine, The Pinon Nine and The Valley Nine—dramatic elevation changes and extraordinary scenery characterize each course. Towa’s first-class service and amenities include a clubhouse with an indoor simulator, golf shop, restaurant and bar.
Guests may choose between two beautifully appointed Hilton Hotels: The Hilton Santa Fe Buffalo Thunder upscale rooms and suites feature elegant, Native American-inspired décor as well as all of the modern luxuries for which Hilton is
COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | June 2020
Highlights • Conveniently 15 minutes from the historic Santa Fe Plaza in downtown Santa Fe, NM • Views of the spectacular northern New Mexico countryside
world-renowned. Alternately, Homewood Suites offers spacious one- or two-bedroom suites with full kitchens and living rooms. An art museum in itself, the Pueblo of Pojoaque’s Buffalo Thunder Collection of Art is home to hundreds of pieces of unique art, sculptures and architecture. Every room offers hand-designed furnishings and work by local and internationally renowned Native American artists. With everything that it has to offer and its close proximity to Colorado, isn’t it time to start planning your own getaway? Visit Buffalo Thunder Resort & Casino online at HiltonBuffaloThunder.com or call 505-455-5555.
• 61,000 square foot casino with Las Vegasstyle gaming action • 1,200 Slot Machines • Table Games and a dedicated Poker Room • Thunder Race and Sports Book • Award-Winning 27-hole Towa Golf Course • Wo’P’in Spa featuring Native Americaninspired treatments • On-Site Wedding Chapel and 66,000 sq. ft. of Meeting Space • Seven terrific Dining and Entertainment options under one roof
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Getting There: Located 12 miles north of Santa Fe, NM on Highway 84/285. From Denver: Go South on I-25 to exit 282B for US-84 N/US-285 N / St. Francis Dr. Stay on US-84 N/US-285 N 17 miles to Buffalo Thunder Road, Exit 177. Turn Left onto Buffalo Thunder Trail. To Book a Stay and Play Golf package: Call 505.455.9000 www.HiltonBuffaloThunder.com/Golf.html coloradoavidgolfer.com
Play.
Savor.
Win.
Stay.
BUFFALOTHUNDERRESORT.COM | 877-THUNDER | SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO
The Gallery
NEWS | NOTES | NAMES
Open Season at GVR PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHIP BROMFIELD, PRO-MOTION/COURTESY OF COLORADO OPEN GOLF FOUNDATION
LIFE’S A BEACH: 2019 CoBank Colorado Open winner Sam Saunders
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responsible for tending the flagstick as well as sanitizing it after each group plays through. While each player will also carry their own rake, the attendants will also be responsible for raking the green side bunkers at their hole. Another major change in rules is that each player will go out in carts, which can be shared with the caddie if the two are sheltering in the same place. The biggest reason for that is in the event of a weather delay; should that happen, instead of massing together in a shuttle van to return to the clubhouse, each player will drive themselves in. Once they arrive, they’ll have to wait in their cars instead of the clubhouse.
And when the delay ends, the players will have to immediately return to the course and resume play without a warm-up. “It’s all going to be very well policed,” Laura says. “I hate to use that word, but that’s pretty much how golf is being run now anyway.” The CoBank Colorado Open is scheduled for July 23-26, with the CoBank Colorado Senior Open slated for August 26-28. Both events are well after May 8, the date (as of this printing) that Denver was expected to end its stay-at-home order. Laura added that he hoped some of the rules created for the women’s event would be relaxed for the subsequent tournaments. firstteegreenvalleyranch.org
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF COLORADO OPEN GOLF FOUNDATION
BY NOW, CHANCES are Denver has ended its stay-at-home orders and, at least as far as tournament golf is concerned, some semblance of normalcy has returned. But that wasn’t expected to be the case for one of the first major competitions in Colorado since the coronavirus struck. The 2020 CoBank Colorado Women’s Open is slated to go off for June 3-5 at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club—to pull it off, a number of precautions and rules were established in the interest of safety. Kevin Laura admits that the event will be a “different” kind of championship, but in his mind, different is infinitely better than not at all. “Our mission is to run three championships,” says the Colorado Open Golf Foundation’s chief executive officer. “And it’s my mission to give the pros playing in them the ability to make a living.” One of the biggest is that spectators will not be allowed to attend the tournament; even the number of people following the players will be limited: Going off in threesomes, each participant will be allowed two “guests,” one of whom can be a caddie. Before their rounds, the players can’t arrive at the course more than 30 minutes before their tee time, to ensure that they’re spaced out under social distancing guidelines on the driving range and around the facility. At the conclusion of their rounds, when their scores are official, players have to leave the premises. Unlike the way most golf is being played these days, with raised cups or sponges in holes to make sure people aren’t touching flagsticks, the CoBank Colorado Women’s Open will feature traditional holes—the difference is each one will be manned by a dedicated attendant, who will be
CHECK IT OUT: 2019 CoBank Colorado Women’s Open winner Becca Huffer
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The Gallery
A ‘Ferry’ Different Event PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF TPC COLORADO CHAMPIONSHIP AT HERON LAKES
MEANWHILE, THE SECOND iteration of the Korn Ferry Tour’s Colorado event, the TPC Colorado Championship at Heron Lakes, is also making adjustments because of the coronavirus. Originally scheduled for the week of July 6-12, the tournament will now take place in Berthoud June 29-July 5. In another change, players will actually compete from Wednesday through Saturday, instead of the traditional Thursday-Sunday. The date change was made, in part, in order to facilitate all the travel and logistics involved in operating a tournament—with the previous week’s event taking place in Utah, it made sense, says Drew Blass, tournament director for the Colorado event, to move his up. And, over the first six weeks of the revised Korn Ferry schedule, every other tournament will be played WednesdaySaturday. Blass says that will also help the tour navigate whatever issues might arise in an unprecedented season. “Everybody is just trying to make sure the players, volunteers—everyone connected with the event is safe,” Blass says. “We’re all—us, the Colorado Open, the PGA TOUR—just working through all of this, and we’re all looking to each other for good ideas and best practices in order to run a safe tournament and give these players the chance to earn a living.” Like the CoBank Colorado Women’s Open, fans won’t be allowed to attend the TPC Colorado Championship at Heron Lakes. The tournament field is set at 156 players; last year’s inaugural event was won by Nelson Ledesma—this year’s field is expected to include Mike Weir, the 2003 Masters champion. Blass says a number of players with Colorado ties, like George Cunningham of Louisville, and Zahkai Brown, of Arvada and Colorado State University, will also participate. pgatour.com/korn-ferry-tour
RICO SUAVE: A native of Manila, Philippines, Rico Hoey finished tied for 19th in last year’s inaugural TPC Colorado Championship at Heron Lakes, tied for his second-best finish on the Korn Ferry Tour.
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Owned by the Colorado Golf Association, and designed by world-renowned architect Tom Doak, CommonGround can be found in Aurora at the intersection of Mission and Masterpiece. commongroundgc.com | 303-340-1520 COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | June 2020
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A Helping Hand
PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF KJUS
WHEN THE NOVEL coronavirus struck, a number of companies sprang into action to help with the relief effort. One of them was Boulder-based sportswear company Kjus. Named for one of its founders, Lasse Kjus, a Norwegian Alpine ski racer and winner of 16 Olympic and World Championship medals, Kjus moved from the slopes onto the links in July of 2019 when it was acquired by Acushnet Golf. The Acushnet brand houses a number of very familiar golf names, including Titleist, Scott Cameron, Vokey and Footjoy. That helped with some of the charitable initiatives launched by Kjus. Beginning in early April through the end of the month, 15 percent of all sales from the company’s website, kjus.com, was donated to the Center for Disaster Philanthropy COVID-19 Response Fund. Similarly, 15 percent of all purchases made on Titleist.com, ScottyCameron.com, Vokey.com and Footjoy.com also went to the fund. At the end of the month, a second initiative was launched. This time, the public could bid in an auction featuring 11 “once-in-a-lifetime” golf experiences, including playing golf with Ian Poulter or Justin Thomas, or getting lessons from Butch Harmon or Peter Kostis. At the end of the auction, the highest bid, $55,000, went towards a Pebble Beach experience— featuring breakfast with CBS sportscaster Jim Nantz. Afterwards, Nance would “announce” each member of the foursome as they teed off at the first hole at iconic Pebble Beach. In the first week of May, Kjus added a sweepstakes, with a grand prize of a round of golf at Pinehurst with Webb Simpson. That raised more than $50,000 in just one week. Kjus plans to tailor relief efforts to local causes in the near future. “It’s all exciting stuff; we’re just trying to do our part to help in the crisis,” said Jasmine Evans, a member of Kjus’ relief committee. “We love golf, we love Colorado—we’re just here to help.” kjus.com
HELLO, FRIENDS: As part of its COVID-19 charity efforts Kjus gave auction bidders a chance to have breakfast with and hear CBS announcer Jim Nantz’s signature call before a round of golf at Pebble Beach.
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The Gallery
Brush With Greatness Phil Mickelson came out for some pre-round practice. He was near the lead and teed off about an hour after I did. Being a lefty, and apparently liking the patch of turf I was using, he set his golf balls down within a foot or two of mine. As I was looking down at the balls I was hitting I could see him hitting balls as well. They were featuring him on the Golf Channel preround, and lots of folks have told me GOING THE DISTANCE: After making the cut at the 2010 U.S. Open that is where they were able to catch at Pebble Beach, a chance encounter on the driving range showed me on TV. Jason Preeo what it takes to be a PGA TOUR superstar. “When I was wrapping up my warm ups I hit a few fairway woods out to a green at the end of the range, about 250 far that ball had flown. That was my first real look yards away. I had hit a pretty good one and as I at how far some of the guys can hit the ball.... was watching mine, I heard Phil hit one right af- Later that day I got an even better taste…. On ter. It made a different sound than any of the oth- 18, I hit my drive into the left rough, laid up with ers he had hit, and I knew he had hit it perfect. I a 6-iron, and hit a wedge onto the green. Dustin also knew he was hitting some kind of a long iron Johnson, playing in the last group, had hit his drive in the same direction that I was, so I held the on 18 into the rough too. He took out a 6-iron as pose on my shot a little longer than normal trying well, but instead of laying up, he knocked it right to see if I could spot his ball. onto the green. That was eye opening! There’s ob“Mine had landed on the green and I caught viously a reason he’s leading the US Open (Johnhis, still in the air with an iron, sailing a good 15- son would eventually finish T-8) and I’m giving 20 yards over the green. I was amazed at just how golf lessons.”
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coloradoavidgolfer.com 3/1/16 12:08 PM
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF JASON PREEO
THIS IS THE time when, normally, the excitement would be building for the second major championship of 2020, the U.S. Open. However, because of, you know what, the PGA TOUR calendar has been upended. Now, the event, being played at Winged Foot Golf Club in suburban New York, is still the second major of the year (following the PGA Championship instead of The Masters)--it’s just been pushed back to September. As we featured last month, one local golfer, Jason Preeo, was especially looking forward to trying to qualify for the major. It was 10 years ago that Preeo, an instructor at Metagolf Learning Center in Sheridan, not only successfully qualified for the U.S. Open, but also made the weekend cut. Besides sitting in the Top 20 following the opening two rounds of the tournament, which was played at picturesque Pebble Beach, Preeo says one of the highlights of the weekend came, oddly enough, on the driving range, where he had a brush with greatness that pointed out the difference between the really, really good golfer and a PGA TOUR superstar. “Being in a tie for 16th after day 2 I had a late tee time on Saturday,” Preeo says. “While I was warming up on the range for the third round,
Golf by Numbers COMMONGROUND IS the home golf course of the Colorado Golf Association, which says that part of its mission is to serve as a leading resource for all of golf in the state. As such, it may be an ideal representative to show how the coronavirus impacted play in Colorado. Let’s look at some numbers from this past April compared to a year ago:
4,782 Total Rounds Played in 2020
Revenues From Greens Fees in 2020 vs. 2019
days the course was closed in 2020 (4 specifically attributed to the coronavirus)
3,144 Total Rounds Played in 2019
8 +44% -95% 6 -3.5% Revenues From Cart Fees in 2020 vs. 2019
days the course was closed in 2019
Overall Revenue in 2020 vs. 2019
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Proud Sponsor of Great Drives Golf Passport Member Conditions: 2020 Member Privileges. All rates include a cart. Visit coloradoavidgolfer.com/golf-passport for complete details regarding rates, available tee times, number of rounds and reservation policy. Tee time requests are on a space available basis to Golf Passport members and participating courses’ rain check policies will apply. Unless otherwise stated, the golf offers are good from January 1, 2020 – December, 31 2020, excluding holidays, special events, tournaments or closure to environmental or economic conditions. Mountain seasons may vary slightly. The Golf Passport is limited to one per person and is non-transferable. Prices do not include sales tax. Some courses may require a credit card to secure a tee time prior to play. If a tee time is cancelled, the golf course may charge for its discounted fee. Colorado AvidGolfer reserves the right to make reasonable modifications to the Golf Passport, effective upon notice by e-mail or first class mail to the Golf Passport member. A Golf Passport member may reject any such modification by responding in writing to Colorado AvidGolfer and returning the Golf Passport within ten (10) days. The Golf Passport member will receive a prorated refund. However, no refund will be given if the Golf Passport Member received the Complimentary Two-Night Stay at CasaBlanca Resort and Two Rounds of Golf at CasaBlanca or The Palms Golf Club. The Golf Passport member agrees that he or she is not entitled to any additional compensation. Colorado AvidGolfer disclaims all liability for damage or loss of property or injury to any person occurring while using the Golf Passport. If ordered online, please allow up to 10 days for delivery of your Golf Passport. Golf Passport membership includes a digital subscription to Colorado AvidGolfer with the option to opt-in to the mailing subscription for an additional fee. Members will also be subscribed to the Colorado AvidGolfer weekly newsletter list and can unsubscribe at any time.
Player’s Corner PLAY AWAY
Rockin’ the ’Boat Living the good life, Steamboat-style, at Alpine Mountain Ranch. By Jon Rizzi
THROUGH THE FIRE: Regular events like Food & Wine dinners and campfire “Steak Rides” are part of the Alpine Mountain Ranch experience.
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PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF ALPINE MOUNTAIN RANCH AND CLUB
ON THE EVENING of March 6, as a mantle of fresh snow blanketed the rolling acreage of Steamboat Springs’ Alpine Mountain Ranch and Club, 32 members gathered in the property’s intimate Owner’s Barn for a rare treat: a five-course Spanish feast featuring the first U.S. tasting of the Artadi 2016 Viña el Pisón, a single-vineyard Rioja tempranillo that had earned a perfect 100 points from the influential wine critic James Suckling. Welcomed by an epic Spanish charcuterie and cheese board, the members adjourned to a long table. Over the next few hours, they would listen, taste and drink while seven different Artadi releases—each described by 4th-generation Artadi vintner Carlos López de Lacalle and Dustin Chiappetta of Stolen Figs, the Denver-based portfolio manager for Artadi wines—accompanied fare flawlessly prepared by Steamboat’s acclaimed Aurum Food & Wine. The 100-point headliner naturally stole the show, as the impeccable balance of pure fruit and tannin texture of the 2016 El Pisón paired flawlessly with the succulent roasted lamb (pisón does mean ram, after all) that had been aromatically turning for hours on a spit outside the Barn’s entrance. Applause and gratitude followed the feast. Afterwards, behind the barn, a bonfire warmed those who lingered to savor Artadi’s Viñas de Gain—the last sweet sips of an extraordinary evening.
HAVING IT ALL: Alpine Mountain Ranch and Club is bordered by national forest and wildlife preserves and is less than 10 minutes by car to Steamboat Ski Resort.
BETTING ON THE RANCH The tasting event marked the latest in the Food and Wine Dinner series at Alpine Mountain Ranch and Club (AMRC), the exclusive private community of 63 five-acre homesites situated on 1,216 acres—900 of which are glorious open space. Bordered on the west by U.S. 40 and by national forest and wildlife preserves to the east and north, AMRC sits less than 10 minutes by car to the champagne powder of Steamboat Ski Resort and the cowboy flair of downtown Steamboat Springs. And it’s even closer to the club’s own 1.5 miles of private fly-fishing along the Yampa River, which flows to the west of the property. “It’s convenient for everything,” AMRC homeowner Steve Speer said. “Skiing, fishing, hiking … we can do it all in just minutes.” In 2012, Speer and his wife, Karen, built the very first home in Alpine Mountain Ranch and Club. After retiring 10 years ago, they’d visited numerous spots around the American West, but kept returning to Steamboat Springs, a place they’d loved since the 1980s. After looking at several developments in the area, they found exactly what they wanted at AMRC—wide open spaces while still close to downtown and the ski hill, and unparalleled amenities. “I took one look at the homesite we’re on and said, ‘If we’re going to do this—actually move to Steamboat—this is where I want to be,’” Karen Speer said. “There was no doubt about it.” While the Yampa Valley views and resident wildlife continually remind the Speers they’re
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living in the mountains, they also appreciate their home’s proximity to outdoor activities— including golf, which the couple has been fanatical about since their daughters left for college a few years ago. The Speers’ Mountain West-style home overlooks Catamount Golf Course, which neighbors AMRC to the south, and the Speers are members. “We have a cart out in the garage,” Steve says. “We hop in and drive over and play several times per week. There’s a cart path that connects the Ranch to Catamount–it takes exactly six minutes to get from our house to the clubhouse.” David Dacus, an avid golfer who’s finalizing the completion of his home at AMRC, takes that sentiment a step further, calling the path to Catamount “the deciding factor” in purchasing his homesite. THE GOLF NEXT DOOR The 20-year-old Tom Weiskopf layout rollercoasters 7,088 yards through ranchland, hayfields and groves of aspens, stands of firs and numerous rock formations. The designer’s love of reachable par 4s expresses itself consecutively on the fifth and sixth holes, but both carry severe penalties for wayward shots. From its elevated tee, with views of Rabbit Ears Pass, Flat Top Wilderness and Walton Creek, the photogenic 211-yard eighth plunges to a green 80 feet below. The back nine’s longer holes present no shortage of challenges, especially a par-5 finisher that pushes 600 yards. “Playing the Catamount course never gets June 2020 | COLORADO AVIDGOLFER
Play Away
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF A.J. FLEMING
POTENTIAL CATASTROPHE: Adjacent to Alpine Mountain Ranch, Catamount Golf Course’s 16th hole provides a pretty view—and stern challenge.
old,” Dacus said. “It’s challenging, yet fun.” For variety, the Speers, Dacus and other residents of AMRC head to the municipal Haymaker Golf Course, just across US 40 from the AMRC entrance, and up to Rollingstone Ranch, north of the ski resort in the Mountain Village. One of the few truly walkable mountain courses, Haymaker’s 7,308-yard Keith Foster design ranks among the state’s foremost public layouts as well as one of its most biodiverse and environmentally friendly, receiving the state’s first Audubon International Signature certification. Most holes command views of Mount Werner and the surrounding passes, while the holes themselves abound in beauty and wildlife. Built in 1974, Robert Trent Jr.’s Rollingstone Ranch, née Sheraton Steamboat Golf Club, is the oldest 18-holer in the area. Its proximity to the Mount Werner ski hill adds to the “mountain effect” on the greens, while more than 70 bunkers and ubiquitous water—in the form of lakes and the meandering Fish Creek—dictate strategy throughout the highly scenic and memorable round. “Our social circle has really grown,” Karen Speer says. “We’re great friends with a ton of people from the club and from playing golf around town.” A YEAR-ROUND UTOPIA Easy access to golf is just one of many stellar amenities at AMRC. No matter the season, the Ranch provides what’s necessary to take in the best Colorado has to offer. During the summer, in addition to flyfishing on the Yampa, anglers can cast into an onsite lake, on which members can also boat or COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | June 2020
paddleboard. Equestrian facilities include a community barn, tack room and staging area. The ranch’s wood-post fenced pastures house ranch horses that are available for trail rides and to stable residents’ horses. More than five miles of trails perfect for hiking or biking meander the property, with some leading to the adjacent Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest. Membership includes concierge services and use of the grand, timber-framed Owners’ Lodge, where owners gather and can entertain guests outside of their home. Guests of Alpine Mountain Ranch & Club owners can stay in a three-bedroom Guest Cabin, which owners also may use during construction of their mountain residence. Come winter, even more amenities abound. One of the best, as the Speers attest, is the membership option at the Alpine Mountain Summit Club at One Steamboat Place, the premier slopeside spot at the resort. “Karen and I go out skiing almost every morning for a couple of hours,” Steve Speer said. “That’s become a great benefit. We drive up, and they park our car. We’re in the locker room and on the gondola just like that.” Back at the Ranch, the 220-acre pasture transforms into a winter wonderland, with groomed cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and sledding just out the door. STAYING PUT Access to these unparalleled amenities became even more vital to the Speers when the COVID-19 pandemic struck. “We have never felt more grateful to call
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AMRC home,” said Steve Speer. “Our daughters returned home from college, and we were still able to enjoy the freedom of nature and the outdoors, while respecting the guidelines in place at the time. These unprecedented times really magnified the value of our investment.” As with many folks who call Steamboat home, the Speers initially came for winter, stayed for summer, and now choose to live here yearround. “Everyone is so down-to-earth,” Steve Speer said. “That’s why we live in Steamboat. It’s real people who have that cowboy heritage and seek the Western lifestyle. And it’s authentic.” To the Speers, events like the regular Food & Wine Dinner, guided hikes, “Steak Ride” (a sunset horseback ride to an alpine meadow for an outdoor steak dinner with drinks around a campfire) and other activities only enhance that authenticity and the value of AMRC. “There are some very successful people in Steamboat,” he added. “You would never know it because they don’t seek the limelight. Everybody treats everybody the same here. And that’s what’s really cool about it.” INFO TO GO: Alpine Mountain Ranch & Club alpinemountainranchsteamboat.com; 970-875-1200 Custom market homes from $4.2 million Homesites from $1.5 million
Jon Rizzi is the founding editor of Colorado AvidGolfer. coloradoavidgolfer.com
G O L F A S I T WA S M E A N T T O B E Bandon Dunes is proud to host the 2020 U.S. Amateur Now taking reservations, please call (855) 417-1853 or visit BandonDunesGolf.com
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Player’s Corner PROFILE
Still The Most Fantastic Flenniken With laser iron play, Carol Flenniken dominated women’s amateur golf, then brought her gifts to Colorado. By Andy Bigford
HAPPY DAYS: Flenniken and her young caddie were pictured in an article highlighting her win at the 60th USGA Women’s Amateur in Tulsa, Okla.
COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | June 2020
sota amateur who had befriended Flenniken before they both ended up in Colorado—and in the Colorado Golf of Fame. “If you can hit your 2-iron perfect, hitting the rest of the clubs is pretty easy. She could stick it, all the time, every hole, 5 or 10 feet.” Today, that track record would tee up any golfer for a lucrative career on the LPGA tour. “I thought about it,” Flenniken says. “I think I could have made it out there.” But this was a different era; she didn’t want the travel or the lifestyle, and the purses were paltry. The total payout for U.S. Women’s Open in 2019 was $5.5 million; back in 1964, it was $10,010. The LPGA’s loss would be Colorado’s gain. After she marRESPECTFUL RIVALS: Carol Flenniken (left) and Sharon Fladoos ried Bill Flenniken and moved to competed against each other multiple times, including the Women’s Colorado in 1966, she won 11 Western National Junior in 1959 and the USGA Women’s Amateur in of the 20 state stroke or match 1960—both final matches in which Flenniken won. plays contested by the CWGA from 1968-77 (while missing more than a handful). She also dabbled at higher a distinct size disadvantage relegated her to the levels, taking medalist honors in the 1972 U.S. sidelines. With only field hockey and half-court Women’s Amateur and leading after the first- intramural basketball available to girls at the time, round in an LPGA event that was held in Denver she channeled her energy into golf. It helped that back in the 1970s. her father, Ted, who ran the local school system’s But mostly she played “just for fun,” physical education department and coached the and for the camaraderie. high school golf team, had introduced her to the “She’s a great person to play against. game at age 6, meticulously following Byron NelNo attitude, a good sport. We always laughed son’s Winning Golf, first published in 1946. at our bad shots,” recalls Zmistowski. At the Janesville Country Club, founded in Flenniken’s resume includes three 1894, the members took Ted’s daughter under wins in the early 1970s in the state their wing, granting her unlimited playing privilegscratch best ball with her mother, Hazel, es and drafting her into their $2 Nassaus. “They an 18-handicapper. “She helped on the were so good to me,” says Flenniken, and the hilly par-3s,” recalls Flenniken, who was named layout provided the perfect training ground, with the Colorado Women’s Golf Association every kind of awkward lie imaginable. She won the (CWGA) Player of the Century in 2016 at Janesville city title at age 10, collected the first the CWGA’s 100th anniversary, recognizing of two Wisconsin girls titles at age 13 and then her then-record 25 state titles. Flenniken reeled off four wins in the women’s state amateur. was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall She arrived on the national scene in 1959 of Fame in 1975, and has been similarly when she won the Women’s Western National Juhonored in Wisconsin. nior, then won the U.S. Girls Junior the next year Growing up a “tomboy” in the south- when it was held at Oaks Country Club in Tulsa. ern Wisconsin town of Janesville, Flennik- The field included Sandra Haynie, who would go en played all sports “with the boys” until on to win 42 LPGA titles. Flenniken was extended about 7th grade, when organized teams and to extra holes in four of the five matches in Tulsa.
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PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF CAROL FLENNIKEN
HALL OF FAME quarterback Bart Starr had a solid year back in 1964, leading the Green Bay Packers in the runup to what would become a record-setting five NFL and Super Bowl titles under Vince Lombardi. The season was good enough to earn honorable mention in the media voting for Wisconsin Athlete of the Year—an award that went to a feisty, 5-foot, 3-inch golfer named Carol (née Sorenson) Flenniken. “Little ol’ me,” laughs Flenniken, now 77 and a Colorado resident for roughly the past 50 years. It is hard to imagine what 21-year-old Flenniken accomplished on her first trip abroad in that fall of 1964; let’s just call it the “Sorenson Slam.” First, she scored the clinching point in the U.S. team’s Curtis Cup win over Great Britain and Ireland at Royal Porthcawl Golf Club in South Wales. Next, she became the youngest player to win the British Ladies Amateur (now called the Women’s Amateur) at Royal St. Georges in Sandwich, England, going 37 holes in the final match. From there she crossed the channel to score medalist honors in the inaugural Women’s World Amateur Team Championship outside of Paris, where she tied at 294 with World Golf Hall of Famer Catherine Lacoste (hailing from the crocodile family dynasty, three years later she would win the U.S. Women’s Open as an amateur). Back on home soil, Flenniken had won the prestigious Trans-Mississippi title earlier that summer to round out the Slam. “She was the absolute best with long irons,” says Lynn Zmistowski, a nationally ranked Minne-
This summer marks the 60th anniversary of the win, and the event was fittingly set to be played in July at the Eisenhower Blue Course in Colorado Springs, but was canceled due to the coronavirus. The Girls title helped propel Flenniken to Arizona State University, where she won the 1962 national individual championship and led four national title teams. It was a different time, when ASU only had two women’s golf athletic scholarships to grant. She first landed there on an academic scholarship, then took Joanne (Gunderson) Carner’s spot when she graduated; Flenniken’s also in the ASU Sports Hall of Fame. While in Tempe, she also met her husband, who was working as an assistant pro at Arizona Country Club; when they moved to Colorado, A PAIR OF CHAMPIONS: Flenniken at home with dog Bubba. Bill held various club pro positions at Pinehurst Country Club, The Club at Rolling Hills, and Windsor Gardens (now often walking with just three clubs (no putter). She still carried an 8.1 index up until a few years called Emerald Greens). They also spent three ago but battles a bad back, which has required years at the challenging Eugene Country Club in Oregon, host to numerous USGA and NCAA tour- three surgeries. When Flenniken starts to tell stories, they naments, where Carol recalls shooting 67—from cover the progression of world-class women’s the men’s tees. Working alongside Bill, Carol usually han- golf, from her encounter as a wide-eyed 12-yeardled the books and did all the buying for the pro old with Babe Zaharias in 1953, to competing shop, which included overseeing a dramatic re- successfully against the likes of World Golf Hall invention of the business model as discount golf of Fame inductees Mickey Wright, Patty Berg, Carner, Haynie, Lacoste, and Judy Rankin, and shops emerged. even into the next generation with Nancy Lopez, Both passionate bird hunters, they found Amy Alcott and Hollis Stacy. land in Hillrose, northeast of Brush, to build “There is no other sport where you bond as a home. They made the move permanently in 2001 along with their bird dogs. Bill helped out much as golf,” says Flenniken, as she unspools at the local course in Brush, now city-owned and another tale. known as the Course at Pettey Park. He passed Andy Bigford, a Colorado AvidGolfer contributor, away in 2013. Carol still hunts duck and pheas- is working on the third installment in the Ski Inc. ant “with the guys,” and plays golf at the 9-holer, book series with Chris Diamond.
Stan Fenn & Doug Perry
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EVERY SATURDAY 7-9 a.m.
SORENSON SLAM: Flenniken (then Carol Sorenson) competing in the finals of the 1964 British Ladies Amateur (above); with her trophy after winning the competition—part of her dominating year in amateur golf.
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June 2020 | COLORADO AVIDGOLFER
Player’s Corner LESSON
Playing “Open” Golf Tips for improving your game, wherever you tee it up By Elena King
ILLUSTRATIONS BY DAVE PALMER
GREEN VALLEY RANCH is the home of the CoBank Colorado Opens, where golfers must overcome pressure—and a number of daunting shots—to succeed. But that’s really no different than the jitters you face out on the course every weekend. Here is a look at some of the toughest decisions players at GVR have to make—and how to apply them to your game, no matter where you’re playing. NO. 1: FIRST TEE NERVES Do you get nervous on the first tee? Notice your heart rate speed up and hear those evil voices in your head saying negative things, like Don’t mess this up, What if I embarrass myself?, or Hope I get it over the junk, don’t top it? If this happens to you, guess what? You are a normal golfer! I tell my students that I would be concerned if this didn’t happen to them. The doubt, fear and anxiety all show up in your swing as tension and a quick tempo, inhibiting your ability to make a natural swing and causing errant shots. COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | June 2020
At Green Valley Ranch, the opening hole can be a daunting shot right out of the gate. It’s a par-4 that can range in length from 226 to 426 yards. As you stand on the first tee, you are staring at a long carry over native grass at eye level; this can get your mind and heart racing quickly and raise your anxiety. Here are ways to improve your shots when you are feeling nervous or anxious: • Stretch and make sure your body is warmed up before you get to the first tee. • Slow down your walking pace. • Most importantly, slow down your breathing—take long inhales through your nose then exhale through your mouth. • Focus your mind on something in the present: look to your target, listen to the wind or birds, stand on one foot to feel your balance, sing a song—anything that you can hear, feel or visualize to bring
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Lesson you back to the present. This is important to practice on a regular basis, so you can access it quickly. PAR-3 TEE HEIGHT WITH AN IRON A common question instructors get asked is: Should I tee it up on a Par-3, and if so, how high should I tee it? In my opinion, if you can have perfect lie, why wouldn’t you take it? So yes, I recommend you tee it up on a Par-3. A mistake we see while coaching is that students tee the ball up too high, causing it to hit too high on the club face. This causes ball speed loss due to not hitting the center of the club face (the sweet spot). It also launches the ball too high up into the air, what I like to call the “poof ball.” Instead, tee the ball up so it’s resting even with the top of the grass or slightly above. Experiment on the range with different heights for you! Everyone is different and how you practice can set you up for better distance control on Par-3s and better scoring overall.
TOURNAMENT SERIES LINEUP
June 22nd, 7:30 am $110/player, Scramble
July 27th, 8:00 am $110/player, Shamble
August 24th, 10:00 am $125/player, Shamble
NO. 12: BIG HOG, LITTLE PIG Aggressive or conservative, when is the right time to be a big hog or a little pig? No. 12 at GVR is a Par-5, dogleg right that tempts the aggressive player. It has a large angled lake to carry and bunkers on the far side. If you do not have the right angle and carry combination, the numbers can add up! The shape of the lake is deceiving from the tee box, and the more right you aim, the farther you must carry the ball. The more left you aim, you bring the fairway bunkers into play. As you stand on the tee box, it is very tempting to aim right to cut yardage and be too aggressive. No. 12 at GVR tempts us on numerous occasions, but on any hole, the question you have to ask yourself is: What is the risk vs. the reward? To answer that, here are some questions you should ask yourself on the tee box: • Where is the pin placement and where is the best place to approach from for that day’s pin placement—remember each day is different! • If you take the aggressive line, what benefit does it give you? Can you get there in two? Or is it a 3- or 4-shot hole for you anyway? • Which way is the wind blowing and how strong? Most players underestimate how much the wind affects ball flight. • How confidently are you swinging today? • Do you really know how far you need to carry the ball and are you capable of doing it today with plenty of room to spare? What instructors find is that people take unnecessary risks on the course that result in big numbers. If you are feeling good and you can get there in two, it may be worth the risk that day. If it will not benefit you to be more aggressive, then play it safe and do not waste shots. If you play it safe, play it way safe! There is nothing more frustrating than playing it safe and still having extra shots! The key is to decide and be 100 percent committed to it!
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September 16th, 2:00 pm $125/player, Scramble
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REGISTER TODAY & GET $25 OFF! coloradoavidgolfer.com/ tournament-series June 2020 | COLORADO AVIDGOLFER
Lesson
NO. 13: CLUB SELECTION AND PIN PLACEMENT GVR has some of the toughest par-3s in the state, and No. 13 is a perfect example of the importance of having the proper club and distance. No. 13 is a beautiful hole from an elevated tee box, over water and surrounded by bunkers with a narrow landing area, whether the pin is up front or in the back. From the tips, it measures 171 yards; not the longest of holes, but it can be one of the most challenging— especially when the wind is blowing. There are so many factors to consider other than just the yardage to the middle of the green when choosing the appropriate club for that day: • Where is the pin? Most golfers just look on the ground or the card and see the yardage to the middle of the green, never considering pin placement, wind, temperature, altitude, etc. • What tees are you playing? At GVR, the depth of the greens on No. 13 is 30 yards…if the pin is either front or back it can become a 3- to 4-club difference! For example: If the card says it’s 125 yards to the middle of the green and the pin is 15 yards back of center, the tee markers could be 5 yards back of the yardage marker and now it is all carry over the bunker. So, your 125-yard club just turned into 140-yard carry and we haven’t even factored in wind or temperature yet! There is a huge difference in club selection when landing it on the front of the green, rolling the ball up to 125 yards or carrying it another 25-30 yards for a total of 140-150 yards. • When in doubt, take an extra club—most golfers play the club that measures out to their best shot. We recommend you know your average carry distance and choose that club vs. choosing the club that you hit once for your Sunday best! These are all things you can practice on the driving range. Your practice sessions need to have a purpose instead of just beating balls aimlessly: • Pick a target and vary your clubs and target regularly. • Practice your routine of being present by focusing on your breath or listening to the sounds around you, something you can stay present to and focused on. • Experiment with tee height of your irons on the range, find where you make the best contact. • Visualize being on your own Par-3s and measure how far you carry each club on average, or find your favorite teaching professional who owns a launch monitor. Good luck and have fun!
Elena King is President and Founder of ExperienceGolf and Director of Instruction at CommonGround Golf Course. She is an LPGA Top 50 teacher and has been named one of Golf Digest’s Best in State. Reach her at 303-503-0330 or www.experiencegolf.biz COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | June 2020
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Player’s Corner FASHION
Seeing Stars–and Stripes With Flag Day this month and Independence Day in July, it’s time to celebrate the red, white and blue. By Suzanne Brown
PATRIOTIC PATTERNS Donald Ross apparel can be counted on for country club-approval and is (usually) far from flashy, but the company designers were feeling festive when coming up with its summer prints for their three-button placket polos. Styles include a fireworks pattern, a flag print, patriotic micro-stripes and mini stars. The shirts are made from moisture-wicking micro-polyester yarns that offer comfort, breathability and wash-and-wear durability. Polos are $115 each at better green-grass facilities such as the Broadmoor Hotel & Resort.
PORTABLE POWER While golf carts often feature charging ports, if you carry your bag you usually don’t have the option of powering up your phone or other mobile device. Montana-based Sun Mountain has added that feature to its 4.5 LS Supercharged carry bag, which has an external USB port wired to a portable power pack that can recharge a mobile phone three times or stream music. The power pack has two ports, one standard and one rapid-charging. The bag has a lot of other features, including a 14-way top and putter well and numerous pockets, and comes in several color combos including red, white and blue, $280; a cart version is $300. sunmountain.com
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IN STEP A lightweight shoe that’s water-resistant and built for all-day performance is the promise of Callaway’s Coronado. It comes in a variety of color combinations, but we’re partial to the style with a white forefoot and navy blue and red stripes and stars at the heel. The company’s SLIM-Lok removable cleats and a TPU Fusion-Lite outsole help the golfer get lower to the ground to improve power and swing stability. Inside, the Opti-Soft EVA midsole works with the foot’s arch to complement a natural gait, while a mesh liner allows for breathability and heat management, $155. callawayapparel.com
GLOVED ONES Zero Friction uses patented compression technology to create gloves that fit everyone, taking the guesswork out finding the right size. The company’s styles for men, women and youth are a combination of cabretta leather and synthetic materials and they come in a wide range of colors, as well as featuring logos from your favorite baseball, football and hockey teams. Special for the patriotic golfer this season is the Americana men’s glove detailed with stars and stripes. It is available in red, white or navy blue, $19. zerofriction.com
June 2020 | COLORADO AVIDGOLFER
Fashion
TIE ONE ON Foray’s Dream Weaver collection is inspired by tie-dye craftsmanship, but the trippy patterns also remind us of fireworks on the Fourth of July. The multicolored skort is made of wrinkle-resistant four-way stretch Italian jersey. The shorts underneath have a front pocket and there’s a smaller one in the back for keys and tees. It is available in two lengths and is sized from XXS to XL, $160. foraygolf.com
HAT TRICKS An indispensable part of a golfer’s wardrobe is his or her hat, and the choice of a topper offers myriad opportunities for self-expression. Popular for some time now are designs by Black Clover, with their prominent clover embroidery and the company’s “Live Lucky” message. For the summer season, they’ve got several variations on the flag theme, including a red, white and blue vintage fabric style with a flag in clover on front and a mesh back, $29, and a heathered version in gray, $32. blackcloverusa.com
COLORADO PROUD If you want to wave the state flag to show your pride, Travis Mathew is offering a number of Colorado-specific products to let you do that, including hats, T-shirts and polos. The 720 Polo features a small, subtle flag on the chest pocket, $90, while the red, yellow and blue Thin Air T-shirt is emblazoned with a big C, mountains and the Travis Mathew logo and name on the chest, $35. travismathew.com
SEEING STARS Embroidered white stars, pinstriped knit shafts and pompom toppers on Just4Golf’s headcovers will keep your favorite driver, fairway woods and hybrids protected while showing your patriotic side at the course. A little spandex keeps the fit secure and size markers on the fairway and hybrid covers let you personalize the clubs to fit a 3, 4, 5 or 7. Driver headcovers are $29, fairway and hybrid styles are $25 each, or get a set of 3 for $71. just4golf.com
DRINK UP If you consume a lot of liquid refreshment during your summer rounds of golf and the beverage cart never seems to come by when you need it, Boulderbased Ecovessel’s new Boss Growler might be just what you need. The 64-ounce container is triple-insulated and also has an insulated lid so drinks are kept cold for up to 150 hours. It also has an infuser that can be filled with wedges of citrus fruit, $58. ecovessel.com
FANCY PANTS Never a company to shy away from making a statement, Loudmouth Golf offers bold patterns and prints for golfers to wear during spirited tournaments or just a Saturday round. For those who want to show their patriotic pride, the Stars & Stripes StretchTech pant is in a wrinklefree polyester fabric and features trouser styling with a two-button front closure, two front and two back pockets and belt loop waist, $110. loudmouthgolf.com CAG Style Editor Suzanne S. Brown is a former editor for The Denver Post and contributor to Colorado Expression.
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Side Bets
THE SAUCE IS BOSS: Tomatoes may be the base, but there are a world of spices out there to help bring zest and flavor to your homemade spaghetti sauce.
FAREWAYS
Getting Sauced The secret to a memorable spaghetti sauce isn’t the recipe.
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When push has come to shove in my life, I have often turned to spaghetti. However, until I cooked at an Italian restaurant years ago, I didn’t understand how to build a great tomato sauce. HOW TO THINK ABOUT A SPAGHETTI SAUCE I told Bill that I would send him a recipe—my problem was that I don’t cook using recipes. In order to get Bill a recipe, I needed to make a batch and take notes. To start the sauce, I put extra virgin olive oil in the bottom of a heavy pot and heated it over a medium flame. Next up was garlic. My thoughts turned to the prison dinner scene in the film Goodfellas. Henry, the narrator, says: “Paulie was doing a year for contempt and had this wonderful system for doing the garlic. He used a razor, and he used to slice it so thin that it used to liquefy in the pan with just a little oil.” I sliced and chopped several large cloves of fresh garlic. I never use pre-peeled or chopped bottled garlic. Adding finely chopped sweet yellow onions, I sautéed them until they turned soft and translucent. It’s easy to get lost in supermarket canned tomato shelves with fire-roasted diced tomatoes, peeled and sliced tomatoes and tomato puree, paste, juice and sauce. I choose canned crushed tomatoes for spaghetti (and pizza) sauce because
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it provides some texture. Sometimes I add a can of diced tomatoes to enjoy a chunkier sauce. Even the best imported canned tomatoes are relatively inexpensive, so I grab the best I can find. The same goes for dried spaghetti. I stirred the crushed tomatoes into the onions and garlic and added a little red wine and some of the dried herbs. I like a lot of basil and oregano, but also smaller amounts of sage, thyme, marjoram, tarragon and rosemary. It depends on what is in the pantry. I love ground fennel seed and red chile flakes because they echo the flavor of Italian pork sausage. Salt is always used sparingly until the sauce is almost done.
“Everything you see I owe to spaghetti.” –Italian actress Sophia Loren THE MEANS TO MAKE IT MEATY OR MEATLESS There is a toolbox of tomato sauce ingredients that make it taste more savory or meaty. In Japan, the fifth taste is called “umami.” I add smoked June 2020 | COLORADO AVIDGOLFER
PHOTOGRAPH BY E.J. CARR
“MY SPAGHETTI SAUCE doesn’t taste right.” That’s what an old friend told me recently as we “met” on Zoom for happy hour. I had asked Bill what he and his wife had been cooking during the stay-at-home time. They were trying to recreate old favorites. “The tomato sauce is okay I guess, but it’s missing something. I can’t ever make my sauce taste like I remember it. Got a recipe?” I asked him what had made that sauce special. It wasn’t his mother’s marinara—she didn’t cook Italian, but he loved the red sauce dished at family-run Italian-American eateries and pizzerias all over Southern New England. Whether it is labeled tomato sauce, marinara, Sunday gravy or ragu, I know that taste, aroma and craving. My mom’s parents were Sicilian immigrants, so spaghetti was on our menu. On Fridays she poached eggs in the sauce to serve over noodles as a go-to meatless meal. Mainly, Mom looked forward to those rare meals when we could all go out for Italian food. The waitress would deliver a white china plate, mounded with long thin noodles coated in meaty sauce crowned with a meatball or a spicy sausage link. There were always shakers of grated Parmesan and red chile flakes on the table. The scent was three parts tomato, two parts garlic and oregano and one part pure nostalgia.
By John Lehndorff
Fareways
THE RIGHT WAY TO SERVE SPAGHETTI Here are the rules for serving spaghetti. To prepare the spaghetti, bring a lot of heavily salted water to a boil in a big pot. Don’t put the spaghetti in the water until the table is set, the wine is poured, and everyone is ready. Don’t overcook the pasta because it will further absorb liquid from the sauce before it is eaten. When you drain the noodles, do not rinse them. Put them immediately into a warmed serving bowl. Add ladles of hot sauce and toss briefly until the spaghetti is coated. Garnish the pasta with freshly grated Parmesan and chopped fresh basil or flatleaf Italian parsley. Serve spaghetti immediately with extra sauce and Parmesan on the side and meatballs, sausage links, chicken thighs, etc. on a platter. A loaf of Italian bread is nice for sopping up all the great sauce.
PHOTOGRAPH BY E.J. CARR
paprika, a couple of finely chopped kalamata olives or some roasted mushrooms–either shitake or cremini. Other “secret” ingredients include anchovies, miso paste and Worcestershire sauce, but only in tiny amounts. You have to simmer, tweak, taste and repeat. To add meat later to some of the marinara, split the sauce between two pans. Pan-cook the meats in olive oil separately and then add them to half of the sauce for simmering before serving. It could be ground veal for melding into the sauce or Italian sausage links, pork belly or meatballs to dish on the side. This time I used boneless skinless chicken thighs for a chicken cacciatore meets chicken Parmesan effect.
TOASTING A GREAT SAUCE: Onion, garlic, cheese, maybe a bit of vino—don’t skimp on the ingredients and you’ll likely end up with a delicious sauce.
I FOLLOWED THE RECIPE, HE SAID I sent the recipe to Bill and halfway through cooking his first batch he called. He sounded disappointed. He had tasted the sauce, but the flavor was still “blah,” he said. I asked how much garlic, basil and wine he had added. He admitted it had been minimal. Like
Sauce Advice You Can’t Refuse “You see, you start out with a little bit of oil. Then you fry some garlic. Then you throw in some tomatoes, tomato paste, you fry it; ya make sure it doesn’t stick. You get it to a boil; you shove in all your sausage and your meatballs.” –Peter Clemenza’s cooking lesson for Michael Corleone in The Godfather. The recipe was from director Francis Ford Coppola’s family.
The Scoop on the Sauce Ingredients • 1 pound spaghetti • 5 tablespoons or more extra virgin olive oil • About 4 to 7 large cloves fresh garlic • 1 large yellow onion, chopped (approx.) • 2 28-ounce cans crushed tomatoes • Six ounces or more red wine (whatever you have) • Vegetable or chicken broth, as needed
COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | June 2020
• At least 3 tablespoons dried basil, 1 tablespoon oregano, plus marjoram, ground fennel seeds, red chile flakes as desired • Salt, black pepper to taste
For Serving: • Freshly grated Parmesan • Chopped fresh basil or Italian parsley
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a lot of folks, Bill’s roadblock is fear of spicing or, more precisely, overspicing. My reassurance was simply: “Add more.” I asked him to visualize one tablespoon of dried basil next to a pan full of sauce infused with other flavorings. There’s not enough basil there to make a flavor impact. I told him to triple or quadruple the amounts of all the seasonings (except salt). I didn’t want to get all Obi-Wan Kenobi on him, but there comes a time when you put aside the recipe and taste the sauce. More importantly, you sample the sauce repeatedly until you serve it. Seasoning in stages adds layers of flavor and the sauce keeps evolving taste-wise. It will tell you whether it needs more wine, garlic, basil or meatiness. It’s very hard to “ruin” a sauce unless you burn it. If it is too thick or if the seasoning is too intense, thin it with broth, water or tomato juice. One truth is that spaghetti sauce always tastes better the next day as all the flavors fuse. That’s why you might as well make a double batch of sauce while you are messing up your kitchen. A few days later, my friend Bill let me know that he and his wife both loved the sauce. “It tasted right,” he said. I got to twist my fork in a plate of spaghetti, too. Whether your linguini is made with semolina or zucchini and whether your meatballs are veal or Beyond Meat, spaghetti is designed to gather people around a table, even if some of the family and friends join from a computer screen. John Lehndorff is the former Dining Critic of the Rocky Mountain News and Food Editor of the Boulder Daily Camera. His food writing has appeared in the Washington Post. He is a selfproclaimed pie expert.
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Side Bets NICE DRIVES
The Wheels Roll(s) Round and Round If a possible economic recession doesn’t apply, Rolls-Royce has a car for you. By Isaac Bouchard
ROLLS-ROYCE CULLINAN EPA Ratings: 12 /20/14mpg 0-60mph: 4.5 sec (indep. test) Price as tested: $394,275
Piloting a Rolls-Royce can seem surreal during normal times; in the middle of a pandemic it takes on a whole new level of otherworldliness. What keeps one grounded is knowing that the company is built to endure; through its 116 year history it has endured the Spanish Flu pandemic, the Great Depression—sandwiched betwixt World Wars— the downfall of the British automotive empire, and now, another global pandemic. The venerable company’s latest (and first SUV) is the Cullinan, and since its introduction last year it has proved very successful, basically doubling Rolls-Royce sales. Time spent within its ultra-luxurious confines illustrates why; everything one lays eyes upon or touches is not only gorgeous, but also seems to have come from another era. Forms are solid and the finish exquisite. Most every single item rewards touch; the tactile feedback of cow skin that is beyond mere hide, of wood finished as on the finest of custom-made furniture, of leather-
COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | June 2020
wrapped radio and climate knobs, of chromed metal bullseye vents with their organ stop-style controls. Even the woolen carpets and inch-thick floor mats, which will have occupants taking their shoes off to run their toes through them—there is nothing inside the Cullinan that doesn’t bespeak pride in design and craftsmanship. The seating is suitably regal, front and rear; the second row is reached via reverse-opening coach doors (with the requisite Rolls-Royce emblazoned umbrellas hidden inside); buttons inside the cockpit allow one to close them without unseemly stretching. Rolls-Royce denizens sit very high, as the Cullinan’s bespoke aluminum architecture has two floors, the upper of which is flat, not being blighted by anything as gauche as a transmission tunnel. Windows are large and comprised of double-paned glass; this and the generous amount of sound deadening that three tons of mass allows grant the kind of library-like quiet at speed that only the finest motorcars can provide. Combined with ride quality that makes the term pillow-like actually make sense, the Rolls-Royce devours miles and speeds with imperious disdain; the only downside is that it is so serene and powerful that triple-digit speeds are all too easy to achieve and maintain. Thankfully, light traffic and lax enforcement during late April meant that it was possible to enjoy such with the kind of impunity that the lords and ladies of yore might have had access to. Thrust is provided by a 563 horsepower, twin-turbo V12, whose 627 pound-feet of torque are routed through eight nigh-on imperceptible gear ratios and all-wheel drive. Able to dispatch the 0-60mph dash in 4.5 seconds and clear the quarter mile in under 13, the Cullinan is indeed fast; while other potent SUVs are also capable of such exploits, the experience—like so much about a Rolls-Royce—is more singular. Watching the Spirit of Ecstasy, perched all the way out at the front of the long, angular hood, rise up as
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the Cullinan squats slightly on its air springs and rockets off, accompanied by a silky, turbine-like roar from its twelve cylinders is gloriously unique. That the Cullinan will also cruise along, getting over 20mpg, is quite amusing in the context of something so large, heavy, powerful and expensive. It will also go around a corner with more than a modicum of grace. Pushed harder, its suspension hunkers down and its electric anti-roll bars stiffen up, giving it the ability to tackle the high speed twists and turns of mountain passes at velocities that would shock the ignorant. Its Parthenoninspired grill and tank-like aspect also clear leftlane squatters like few other conveyances. When one cannot exploit the Cullinan’s prodigious dynamics, its technological sophistication provides blessed respite. The adaptive cruise control obviously studied at the same school that the best chauffeurs graduated from: it mitigates brake dive with commendable subtlety no matter what the distracted drivers around the Rolls-Royce attempt. Multiple high resolution screens—including two 12-inch ones that power out atop gorgeous wood paneled picnic tables for back seat drivers, WiFi, 1300 watts of audio power channeled through 18 speakers and the most suave navigation voice commands ever recorded insure that even the kind of traffic we all endured, pre-COVID-19, is tolerable. And while one could describe the Cullinan’s interior as a splendid isolation chamber, occupants are never left without contact to the outside world. For everywhere one travels, pedestrians and other drivers can’t help but stare at the stately Rolls-Royce. Reactions are overwhelmingly positive, too, which was something of a surprise considering the benighted times we are living through. But whether it is mere fantasying, or just the desire to escape reality, perhaps one thing most all share is an appreciation for those things that are the pinnacle of their respective class, and the Cullinan is certainly that. coloradoavidgolfer.com
2020 KIA NIRO EV PREMIUM EPA ratings: 123/102 /112MPGe 0-60mph: 6.5sec (indep test) Price as tested: $47,155
The Kia Niro comes in normal hybrid, plug-in hybrid and now full electric flavors. The EV is a genuine Tesla Model 3 rival, with 240 miles of range, a roomy interior that is chockful of desirable features like heated and ventilated leather seats and an intuitive infotainment system that doesn’t require you to drill down through multiple menus to get to simple functions—unlike the Tesla. The Niro has a decent cargo hold, reached via a practical hatch and the kind of solid construction a Model 3 owner can only dream about. While there is little excitement to be had from behind its wheel, the Niro feels robust and well built. It is also quieter than the Tesla and rides better over most surfaces. It even has the better suite of semi-autonomous drivers aids—and they aren’t misleadingly labeled “Autopilot.” Like most modern EVs, the Niro is quick, too, dispatching 60mph in 6.5 seconds. Its 64kWh battery pack can be recharged to 80 percent of its range in an hour on a 100kW fast charger. The Niro only comes in front wheel drive and because it runs
low rolling resistance tires, it needs dedicated winter rubber to be safe in snow. For more money you can get an AWD Tesla with over 300 miles range, but for the $47,155 Kia charges for a Niro
EV Premium you can only get a basic Tesla with rear drive. Also, the Model 3 no longer qualifies for the federal tax credit of $7,500, though its buyers should still get Colorado’s $4,000 break.
What’s the Deal on Deals? Many folks seem surprised at the lack of amazing deals available on vehicles despite the devastation COVID-19 has inflicted on the economy at large. There are multiple reasons for this. To begin with, almost all new car production ceased in March, and much had already been suspended in countries like China, where many parts come from. This is a very different scenario than the Great Recession, when companies kept pumping cars into a market were sales had dropped 40 percent. Combined with strong sales in some segments— new, full-size truck sales were actually up this March as compared to 2019—and inventories of many desirable vehicles has dried up. In the used market, most of the lenders that give dealers their lines of credit, called floorplan financing, cut what they would pay for used cars by over 20 percent in April. This had a direct impact on what dealers could offer for trade-ins, since their cash reserves were needed for operations and payroll. And, since the pandemic hit so quickly, the used cars, trucks and SUVs dealers bought in January and February were now overpriced. Selling them at the updated, lower prices, necessitated taking a loss on each one, something many dealers were unwilling to do. Going forward, production of new vehicles will begin to resume mid-May, but inventory levels won’t return to whatever the “new normal” is until fall. And unless lenders allow dealers to floor the entire wholesale cost of used vehicles, it will be hard for them to offer fair trade-in amounts or stock many used vehicles in their inventories.
2020 MINI SE
EPA ratings: 115/100/108 MPGe 0-60mph: 6.9sec (indep test) Price as tested: $37,750 Not everyone needs the kind of range a Tesla or Kia driver delivers. If that is the case, the Mini SE electric makes lots of sense. It is fast, fun and frugal. Mini calculates the average driver will save an average of $2,000 in fuel over three years of motoring; combined with federal and state tax breaks, the Mini nets out as low as $17,500. Its 32.6kWh T-shaped battery pack, which is placed amidships, gives the SE the kind of handling a Mini deserves, with sharp turns and quick reflexes. You could call the Mini zippy too, since it will hit 60mph in under 7 seconds. It feels even faster in surface street-level traffic, where its 199lb-ft of instant torque thrust it through traffic in a much more potent manner than its 181hp suggests. With a range of only 108 miles, however, it’s made for those with shorter commutes. That said, many households will still contain a gasoline-powered vehicle for years to come, and as a second vehicle the Mini SE has much to recommend, especially for those who still enjoy the kind of simple pleasures that a good handling, nimble and quick car like this allow one to indulge in.
Automotive Editor Isaac Bouchard owns Denver-based Bespoke Autos (isaac@bespokeautos.com; 303-475-1462). Read more of his automotive writing, reviews and recommendations on coloradoavidgolfer.com and bespokeautos.com. coloradoavidgolfer.com
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June 2020 | COLORADO AVIDGOLFER
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Colorado Section
Zooming
in on a
Cure
COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | June 2020
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While golf isn’t at the forefront these days, some health care workers say there are links between the game and their efforts fighting COVID-19.
By ANTHONY COTTON Photographs by JAMIE SCHWABEROW/CLARKSON CREATIVE | Photo Illustration by CHELSEA OGLESBY coloradoavidgolfer.com
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June 2020 | COLORADO AVIDGOLFER
Like anyone who’s made the invariably ill-fated decision to pick up a golf club, Shannon Sovndal has at times found himself obsessed with the idea of finding his true, authentic swing. To the point where he’s reached out to discuss the concept with Steven Pressfield—as in the guy who gave life to the term in his novel, The Legend of Bagger Vance. “We had this communication back and forth...I essentially live by that—the concept of trying to find your own authentic swing,” says Sovndal, an emergency room physician at Boulder Community Health, and an EMT. “There probably aren’t a few days that go by without me thinking about it...it’s a moving piece and an analogy that I find very dear.” As it turns out, apart from taking a few swings at a golf-sized whiffle ball in his backyard, these days Sovndal hasn’t had much of an opportunity to embrace the physical side of the metaphysical quandary posed in the novel. While he agrees with the idea that golf is an acceptable, even exceptional, way of coping with the coronavirus pandemic—“You need to have stress relief...golf is one of those things; getting outside, smelling the fresh air, taking a moment to pause, reset your brain and get back to work”—he hasn’t played an actual round in months. Something about the 80-hour work weeks he’s been logging as a frontline healthcare provider and first-responder battling COVID-19. His involvement started as a curiosity—as part of his first responder training, Sovndal spent time at Ft. Detrick Army Medical Command in Maryland. That facility shares research and information with a lab in Wuhan, China— the same one suspected of being at the root of the outbreak.
GEAR HEAD: Shannon Sovndal says his personal protective wear is uncomfortable—but essential.
COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | June 2020
“It definitely caught my attention,” Sovndal says. “That was around the end of January; by the end of February, I remember getting ready mentally, thinking, ‘This is gonna make my life difficult…’” Now, the days when Sovndal and his wife, Stephanie, would stroll out of their former home on the grounds of Coal Creek Golf Course at the end of the day and sneak in a few holes are just a fond memory. “I’ve played in places like Hawaii and Las Vegas, but that’s my favorite course,” he says of the Louisville standard. “We would just take time and unwind together.” With the coronavirus, the idea of scrambling has taken on an entirely different meaning for the family. Stephanie, who was working as a paramedic, has shifted to the full-time pandemic duties of running a household with four children, two of them under the age of four. And Shannon, instead of rocking some fashion-forward golf attire, is donning an entirely different outfit when he arrives at Boulder Health: Hospital scrubs underneath a protective yellow gown. That’s accompanied by an N95 mask, safety glasses, a biotronic face shield (to protect him during aerosolized procedures) and gloves. Sovndal wears the same pair of shoes each shift—they stay at the hospital; he never brings them home or puts them in his car. While not particularly heavy, Sovndal says the outfit is hot and annoying, not surprising given that he wears it for around 12 hours each day. He’s also in the market for a mask that doesn’t dig irritatingly into the back of his ears and all around “my bald head.” “There’s not like a break, where you go and sit at your desk and you can sip your coffee,” he says. “I’m putting that gear on and I’m kind of wearing it for the whole shift, which definitely adds an extra layer of stress and workload.” And like other physicians around the world who are seeing mutations, such as blood clots leading to strokes in younger patients, or even the purplish discoloration that has become known as “COVID-feet,” Sovndal says that stress is exacerbated by the uncertain, impossible-to-put-a-fingeron-what’s-happening nature of the virus.
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“We just assume every patient that comes into the ER has COVID,” he says. “This was apparent to me early on—in one of my shifts I saw two patients in a row: one had kidney stones and another needed back surgery, two totally unrelated complaints. They were not coughing, they didn’t have flu-like symptoms, no COVIDlike symptoms. But as I worked them up, I saw their lungs had all the telltale signs of COVID-19. “So this just proves the point that every patient that comes in the ER, you don’t know, and they potentially can infect you.” MAKING THE PUZZLE PIECES FIT The obsessive desire to hit the perfect shot, let alone conquer the game, is what drives the masses to the course; but while golf can seem trivial in comparison to the reallife tragedies taking place, in some ways it’s the oft-unattainable nature of the game that speaks to some of the healthcare workers as they seek answers to the unexplainable riddle that is the coronavirus. Throughout his youth, playing at his local high school in Branson, Mo., and then in college, Chuck Henry thought about making a career in the golf industry. While he rarely matched the prodigious distances seen in today’s professional game, Henry nonetheless was able to compete, often succeeding because of his ability to think his way around the course. But the entire time, even as he worked his way to becoming a club pro, Henry realized that he loved science in ways that went beyond the best approach angles to the green. The head pro at the club he was working at knew it too, telling Henry that he had to make a choice between part of a game and perhaps something much bigger. “I think for me, at the end of the day, the element that science gave me that golf didn’t was creativity—you can shape shots in golf, but really you’re restricted to the dimensions of the course,” he says. “In science, I saw that you could go further than that; pushing boundaries there go way beyond a golf course. “I felt that was more important than being a club pro.” coloradoavidgolfer.com
Eventually Henry put his clubs aside, and indeed, today he finds himself pushing boundaries. A professor in the chemistry department at Colorado State University, Henry is part of a team that’s working on COVID-19 from a pair of different angles. In some ways, he says, his work reminds him of his days out on the links. “To me, golf is kind of a puzzle game; it’s not just how far are you going to hit the ball. It’s figuring out how to play the course and set yourself up for the next best shot,” he says. “It’s, ‘I could hit a driver off the tee, but the fairway is a lot narrower there and it’s not that much of an advantage relative to laying up off the tee.’ “It’s just thinking through the different aspects of the different possibilities and trying to decide what makes the most sense—moving forward to get the best result. Science, the kind of science I do, it’s often figuring out, how do we know? Maybe we understand this piece of the chemistry, maybe we don’t, so how do we understand that better? And then, how do you use that to solve a problem?” In one of the initiatives he’s working on, Henry’s team is developing diagnostic tests for the coronavirus: someone wondering if they had the virus would take a finger prick, swab or saliva sample and eventually put it in a container that resembles a home pregnancy test. In a few minutes, the kit would show whether the person was infected. One important factor in the efforts to solve the mysteries of the coronavirus is serology; studying blood serum in an attempt to determine antibodies that might indicate whether a person has been infected, and if so, when it occurred. That’s the nature of the second project Henry is working on; as with the first test, the patient would mix his or her blood with a solution into a test kit that would show the presence of two different antibodies and ideally, reveal the history of infection. Henry says that test, while driven by COVID-19, could be applied to a number of areas; previously, it’s been a component of testing for the West Nile virus, along with Zika and yellow fever. He adds that CSU is collaborating with a team in Australia that hopes to use it in connection with detecting heart failure. The hope was that by the end of May, sample usage would have started with patients. “I think we’re probably the only ones in the world right now taking the approach that we’re doing,” Henry says. “We think that if we can get this to work, it will actually have coloradoavidgolfer.com
ER ACTION: Normally involved in routine, elective surgeries, Ryan Lutz has been drafted into lending his expertise in acute care cases involving COVID-19. At times, his team only has seconds to respond after being called.
a lot of impact, not only with coronavirus, but with other things going on down the road. I mean, I’d love for it to go faster, but I’d also like to be a scratch golfer again, so there you are.” Meanwhile, the diagnostic test may not reach the point where it can be sampled in patients until later this summer; the difference in timetables is part of the nature of science—and golf as well, for that matter— according to Henry. “That’s where they overlap and flow together,” he says. “In golf, when you play like I do, you’re always trying to figure out how to get yourself out of the trouble you got yourself into—you’re always trying to figure out how to solve that problem. And in science it’s ‘How do we [solve] this COVID stuff?’ How do we actually build something where, you can take a drop of blood, prick your finger, and I can tell you whether or not you’ve had this bug—they’re both issues of trying to figure out a problem that you don’t know the answer to when you initially walk up to it.” WHAT WE SIGNED UP FOR On a wall in Ryan Lutz’s Denver home, just before one descends into a man cave— complete with a widescreen television, ping pong and foosball tables and so many other goodies that it would be easy to imagine, under normal circumstances, his biggest concern being the horror of an empty potato chip bowl—there is a sign. It reads: “Let whatever you do today be enough.” Three months ago, “enough” for Lutz, an anesthesiologist at Lutheran Hospital in Wheat Ridge, might have been lending
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his expertise to a number of garden variety procedures: a knee surgery one day, maybe an appendectomy the next. All of that has changed because of COVID-19, which has drawn Lutz into a sphere that he says he never could have anticipated. Now he’s part of a team that provides acute care, often in emergency situations, for patients in need of assistance because of complications due to the coronavirus. “What our hospital, what a lot of hospitals across the country have done is create a kind of intubating team; a lot of doctors in intensive care units are being overwhelmed right now—our skill sets can be used to help those providers in their situations,” Lutz says. “I never thought in a million years I’d be doing something like this...we’re crazy busy. It’s a lot of patients who need our service urgently, as they suffer from the disease in ICUs or needing to be placed on ventilators or needing lines for IVs or central access—that sort of thing.” Lutz recalled a story of a weekend in April, when he had to assist in placing a breathing tube into the airway of an obese patient suffering from COVID-19; normally a challenging proposition because of the body mass. In this case, the team—Lutz, a second anesthesiologist, a respiratory therapist and an ICU nurse—had about 45 seconds to accomplish the feat before there would be a critical drop in oxygen levels. In a second case, Lutz acted more as an assistant, but the story speaks to the frantic nature that healthcare workers are facing amid the pandemic. “We were called for another intubation; there were rooms after rooms after rooms of June 2020 | COLORADO AVIDGOLFER
in the sports he enjoys most. A former tennis player at the University of Denver, Lutz says he’s more intimately familiar with that sport, but has always appreciated golf. Early in the pandemic, when courses in Colorado were shut down, Lutz, who comes from a long familial line of golfers, said he’d get periodic text messages from an uncle in Aurora, asking him to come out and practice on the “driving range” he’d constructed on an open space adjacent to his backyard. “I do miss it, absolutely,” he says. “Probably watching it more than playing it.”
ON FIRE: Shannon Sovndal hosts the Match on a Fire podcast with his wife Stephanie, a paramedic.
patients, some being placed on ventilators— you could just see all the people running around; doctors and nurses would write instructions on the glass doors so they wouldn’t have to open and close them, minimizing any possible exposure and spread of the virus. People in face shields and hazmat suits...it’s amazing. “I think every job has its risks, like the airline pilot flying into a storm—this is one of our riskiest times to be a healthcare provider. We signed up for it, but I think innately, doctors and nurses want to help people, and you’re seeing that over and over again.” Lutz says one of the reasons he went into anesthesiology is because the hand-eye coordination needed in his work mimics that
A FRAGILE EXISTENCE As much as he loves golf, the idea of Sovndal actually taking the time to sit down and watch a tournament seems laughable. Besides his time in the ER, Sovndal is responsible for training about 400 paramedics in numerous locations around the Front Range. Trying to educate them on the latest training techniques inspired him to launch a podcast, Match on a Fire: Medicine and More, which airs twice a month with Stephanie. Sovndal has also recently written a book, Fragile: Beauty in Chaos, Grace in Tragedy, and Hope that Lives In Between. Released in May, the memoir, according to Goodreads “examines [Sovndal’s] tenuous
balance between trying to compartmentalize the trauma of tragedy while also preserving his own humanity.” Which, clearly, is something that might come in handy these days—and also brings us back to Bagger Vance and Steven Pressfield. When he wrote Fragile, Sovndal says, they provided the inspiration. “It’s beauty and chaos; tragedy and the hope that lies in between,” he says. “We knew that life is fragile—people would have a heart attack or get into a car accident— but now we’re living in a pandemic, and it’s not just people in Boulder, or Colorado, it’s the entire world that are experiencing these feelings. “We’re having these experiences and it can ruin you—you can be overwhelmed by your circumstances. But if you can manage to kind of stay on the event horizon and not get drawn in...it is hard, but the moment will change—we’ll find our new normal and life will go on.” And when that happens, Sovndal says, look for him to be one of the first people back out on the golf course, resuming that quest for his true, authentic swing. Anthony Cotton is the editor of Colorado AvidGolfer.
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Nonstop Flights and
(N)ICE, (N)ICE BABY: There are only 66 golf courses in Iceland, one for every 5,518 people—but most of them have breathtaking views.
COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | June 2020
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Nonstop Golf
During an Icelandic summer, the sun never sets on your game. By CHAD CHISHOLM
ICELAND—THE LAND of fire and ice, geysers and sagas—is also a hotbed of golf. With 66 courses and a population of 364,134, you’re talking about more golf courses per capita than any other country in the world: one for every 5,518 people. By comparison, there’s one course for every 10,000 Scots. Granted, only 15 of Iceland’s courses have 18 holes, but the ratio of holes to golfers (470-1 versus 570-1 in Scotland) still greatly favors the Frónbúi. As in Scotland and Ireland, many of those holes hug the coastlines. But in Iceland they also perch atop cliffs and traverse spectacularly rugged volcanic terrain. And while the Old Course at St. Andrews may have the Old Course at Reykjavík Golf Club beat by about five centuries, what Icelandic golf lacks in history and heritage, it more than makes up for with the uniqueness inherent to playing at a latitude 600 miles north of the British Isles. Plus, unlike Scotland, Iceland features regular direct flights from Denver.
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June 2020 | COLORADO AVIDGOLFER
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF GOLF ICELAND
ARRIVING IN ICELAND Less than seven hours in the air brought us to Keflavík International Airport, and a glorious 40-minute coastal drive rewarded us with Reykjavík, a capital city of charming low-lying buildings, walkable cobblestone streets and the bustling town square known as the Austurvöllur. There, at the Café Paris, we opted for Aperol instead of shots of the local akvavit Brennivín and admired the architecture of the Parliament Building and the Lutheran Cathedral next to it. A statue of Jón Sigurðsson, the father of Icelandic independence, watches over the square, casting his benevolent gaze at tourists strolling in newly acquired Icelandic wool sweaters, peering into stalls selling handmade jewelry and reading displayed menus outside of popular restaurants. The culinary scene in Iceland is notable, with some world-renowned chefs and restaurants. Casual cafes and bars
AND A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT: The idea of water hazards can take on new meaning in Iceland, like on the Korpa course at the Reykjavik Golf Club.
PLAY ALL NIGHT Imagine playing five rounds of golf consecutively. What nighttime skiing did for the alpine industry, Iceland does for golf. The country’s location just south of Arctic Circle means as many as 22 daylight hours between May and July, leaving plenty of time for late-night rounds with perfect visibility. Most courses are relatively uncrowded early mornings and late evenings COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | June 2020
and those are often some of the most exciting times to play. Wind speeds tend to drop at nighttime, and golfers can experience some amazing sunrises and sunsets. Most of the courses require advance arrangements (and higher fees) for those early-morning tee times. One place that has made the most of its location is Akureyri Golf Club, the world’s northernmost 18hole course. Located in the country’s Island Fjord (Eyjafjörður) region, the 80-year-old club has welcomed as many as 120 players a year from all over the world for the twonight Arctic Open Golf Championship. The handicapped event began in 1986 and— pandemic pending—this year’s tournament runs June 24-27. NOT JUST A NOVELTY Beyond the uniqueness of teeing off at 3 a.m., the attraction of golf in Iceland lies in the country’s incomparable topography. Shaped by volcanic eruptions and perpetual geothermal activity, the land bristles with lichen-covered igneous boulders, lava fields, rich farmland, spouting geysers (the word is etymologically Icelandic) and the worldrenowned bioactive waters of the Blue Lagoon spa. Dramatic land makes for dramatic courses, including some of the six- and 12hole variety. One of the latter, Brautarholt Golf Club, is truly unforgettable, with views across Faxa Bay to Reykjavík and
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Snæfellsjökull glacier. Designed by Iceland’s iconoclastic Edwin Roald (author of Why 18 Holes?), Brautarholt’s holes hang precipitously above waves lapping black sand beaches and snake through tuff, marshes, ponds and hardy fescue. While Reykjavík Golf Club, which dates to 1934, is the birthplace of the Icelandic game and now features the Grafarholt and Korpa courses, the “Old Course” at Grafarholt has only occupied its current location since 1968. Complicating matters, the two courses sit four miles apart and have different clubhouses. Both pose great challenges and have hosted numerous national and European amateur championships. Designed by Sweden’s Nils Sköld, Grafarholt’s front nine swoops through a volcanic bowl before flattening out on the back. The exception comes on the plunging 600-yard par-5 15th, which sports a spectacular city view and a 210-yard carry from the back tee before doglegging towards a small green ringed by water. Four miles north in Korpúlfsstaðir spreads the 6,800-yard Korpa course, which native son Hannes Thorsteinsson designed in 1997. The linksy front nine runs along the Atlantic Ocean coastline with stunning views of “the Esja,” Reykjavík’s signature mountain. The Korpa River winds through the back nine. Few bailout areas make the course a stern test, especially on the narrow par-4 12th. coloradoavidgolfer.com
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF GOLF ICELAND
with excellent food balance the Michelinstar offerings at Matur og Drykkur, Dill, Nostra and VOX Brasserie. For a special treat, head to the Restaurant Renaissance. Located in the Hotel Holt—which houses Iceland’s most extensive privately-owned art collection—the Renaissance treats diners to a guided preprandial art walk every Friday and Saturday at 5:30. (Reservations obviously required.) Lamb and every conceivable preparation of cod, salmon and other North Atlantic fish dominate the menus. Exotic fare such as reindeer, whale and shark also appear. You’ll find puffin, too, though you may shy away after seeing these feathered friends when you head to Heimaey island to play Vestmannaeyjar Golf Club. And once you’ve encountered a diminutive Icelandic horse— and you will at one of the country’s ubiquitous horse farms—you might think twice about ordering the foal meatballs or íslandshros steaks served throughout the country.
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PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF GOLF ICELAND
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species that flock to Heimaey. And no star shines brighter than the delightful puffin. The island boasts the largest Atlantic Puffin (one of four species of the bird) colony in all Europe. Thousands of the wee, friendly birds congregate along Heimaey’s northern shore, where the golf course finishes. They alight atop the emerald green cliffs and breed in burrows all along the coast. No relation to penguins, puffins can fly as well as dive for fish. The viewing season runs from April to early September, and guided tours are plentiful. MORE THAN A STOPOVER A week in Iceland will expose you to a golf culture that took root in some of the wildest terrain on earth. With the copious amounts of time available on the courses and the readily available golf options, the pace of play is significantly lessened, allowing for time for the perfect shot setup or a selfie with a glacier in the background. When asked if he has been to Colorado, Loffsson laughed: “As a short hitter, I would love to play golf in Colorado as I’ve heard the ball goes further.” With flights to and from Reykjavik, he can certainly pop by any time. Chad Chisholm is a freelance photographer and travel writer. Contributing to outlets such as Justluxe, AvidLifestyle, Robb Report and Cowboys & Indians, he always looks forward to the next destination he has the opportunity to explore. Staying on the Star Pride by Windstar Cruises enabled him to see several parts of the country in a relatively short amount of time.
PHOTOGRAPH BY CHAD CHISHOLM
of all who stray into the adjacent outcroppings. You go from lava to links on the inward nine, which occupies a small peninsula at the entrance to Hafnarfjordur harbor. These more forgiving holes are a delightful DAY OR NIGHT? There are 22 hours of romp, highlighted by the daylight between May and July in Iceland, providing a chance for endless play. par-4 14th, which curls along the coast, and the brutally beautiful par-3 that follows it. With sod-faced bunkers “LOFT” ADJUSTMENTS To get an inside view of Iceland’s version covering the left side and the ocean on the of the Royal and Ancient Game, we caught right, it stretches 207 yards from the tips, up with Ólafur Björn Loftsson, who as an but “only” 152 from the golds. Either way, amateur in 2011 became the first Icelandic precision is paramount for a chance at par. player ever to compete in a PGA TOUR event, missing the cut by a stroke at the PUFFIN’ IT “Vestmannaeyjar Golf Club on the small Wyndham Championship. Loftsson—who also won the 2009 island Heimaey is definitely a course I’d NCAA Division III individual and team recommend everyone to visit,” explains championships as a member of the Loffsson “It’s certainly worth a day trip and I Oglethorpe University Stormy Petrels— guarantee that golfers won’t be disappointed. currently helps aspiring Icelandic teenagers Make sure you arrive with a fully charged follow his footsteps to U.S. collegiate golf phone as you’re going to want to take a lot of photos and videos.” programs. Accessible by ferry from Landeyjahofn “I love how passionate Icelanders are for golf,” he said with a wide grin. “That (85 miles from Reykjavík) and anglicized passion equates to great atmosphere, quality to Westman Islands Golf Club, the and devotion all over. Our playing season stirring layout begins in the crater of an might be shorter than in many other places extinct volcano and culminates with holes in the world, but we certainly make up for it. that tightrope along the sea. While the It’s always easy to find enthusiastic playing breathtaking course is short on yardage (just partners and get a good game going, and shy of 6,000) and long on photo ops (you can you can always find something different, as spot the island’s famous Elephant Rock and most of the golf courses are special in their ocean caves from a number of holes), the main attraction are the dozens of seabird own way.” Born to a big golf family, Loftsson’s father is a former Icelandic National Champion and his grandfather a co-founder of the nine-hole Nesvöllur Golf Club, which plays as a 6,590-yard par-72 for 18 holes. “I grew up on Nesvöllur and that place will always bring special emotions to me,” said Loftsson, who once carded an 11-under 61 there. But “with regards to design, condition, and views, I would say the Keilir Golf Course is my favorite.” You can see why. Conveniently situated off the road connecting Reykjavík and the airport, Keilir was originally conceptualized by Skjöld in 1967, with the new front nine completed in a lava field 30 years later. The volcanic landscape plays a major role on the front nine, with contoured fairways and greens—and no bunkers and scant rough— FERRY CROSSING: Some courses in Iceland, slithering through the pitch-black fields like like Vestmannaeyjar Golf Club on the island of Heimaey, are only accessible by ferry. a volcanic dragon ready to torch the chances
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“Dear Diary…” After reading (and writing) herself the riot act, BECCA HUFFER is ready to rebound from a troubling 2019 season—whenever the pandemic allows it to happen. By ANTHONY COTTON
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season that—with one glorious/trainwreck of an exception—didn’t go as planned, Becca Huffer, pen in hand, sat down for a little chat. With herself. “I can hit it to 15(ft) + in always, just trust and believe it,” she wrote, in what one can only imagine was a self-flagellating, noholds-barred battle with her journal. In the next breath, angry end-of-the-season Becca went for the knockout over timid, 2019 Becca, imploring her to change in 2020 and be “out for blood/taking no prisoners—no doubt that I can win and I deserve to.” So, all in all, not a really good LPGA Tour debut. Some might suggest Huffer, the Denver native who has captivated golf fans in Colorado with her play seemingly since birth, shouldn’t be so hard on herself. After all, how many “prodigies” flame out before high school? That wasn’t the case for Huffer, who went on to win a pair of state championships at Littleton High School. Then, after scuffling through numerous, pesky injuries during her collegiate career at Notre Dame (most notably a gnarlysounding ganglion cyst), and years toiling in women’s golf ’s minor league circuit, Huffer managed to break through in 2018, finishing 10th in the qualifying tournament to earn her shot at the big time, a berth on the LPGA Tour. What followed wasn’t pretty—Huffer missed the cut in the first 12 events she played. When she finally broke through and played over the weekend—at the almost mockingly-named Marathon Classic—she finished 76th, dead last in the field. Perhaps not surprisingly, Huffer was unable to build on that slight glimmer of hope, missing cuts in her final two events of the season, which ended with just $3,298 in official earnings. But what disgusted Huffer more than the unblinking harshness of those numbers was the process that led to them. It wasn’t that Huffer felt overwhelmed by the competition—“It wasn’t like people were being weird and trying to intimidate you out there; everyone hopes that you play well; they’re just also hoping that they play better”—or discovered that the golf ball somehow didn’t carry as well at the LPGA stop in Australia as it did a year earlier in Auburn, Ala. out on the Symetra Tour. No, the problem was more internal, and try as she might, Huffer could never get a grip on it. For the season, Huffer shot just four rounds under par. As a result, whenever professional golf can safely resume amid coloradoavidgolfer.com
the novel coronavirus, Huffer will find herself back on the minor-league Symetra Tour. “I am better than that,” she chastised herself in the journal.
Batter Up
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF COBANK COLORADO OPEN
After a 2019
“You keep going out there, but golf is brutal,” says Huffer’s brother Zach, who caddied for Becca for most of the season. “You gotta keep (picking yourself ) up, but you also keep putting more pressure on yourself, and it’s not like baseball, where you get so many chances every day if you go into a slump—in golf you’ve only got the first two days of a tournament to try and get yourself out of it.” PUMP HER UP: A birdie on the first playoff hole gave Huffer As Huffer wrote in her journal, the 2019 CoBank Colorado Women’s Open win—and a check putting the ball near the hole on her for $50,000—far more than she earned on the LPGA tour. approach shots has always been her strength. But last season, what was normally Ranch Golf Club, Huffer was having the a 15-footer for birdie stretched out to 25 feet, “good tournament” that proved so elusive on an exponentially more difficult proposition, the LPGA Tour. Even so, it seemed Huffer, especially when she knew she had to make the 2013 tourney champ, was destined for said putt to put herself inside the cutline. And a runner-up finish—she trailed 17-year-old then on the next hole, she wondered why her Yealimi Noh of Concord, Calif. by three approach was offline on the previous one. shots entering the final hole in the third and So instead of just settling over the ball and final round. striking it pure, her mind was consumed by “Zach was caddying for me, and I laid approach angles and club positions—which up on the last hole (a 545-yard par-5), and often resulted in another shot that, while not I’m going, ‘Okay, this is nice, I had a good screaming over the green or endangering round, second’s nice, whatever…’ I was very spectators in the gallery, nonetheless wasn’t content; she was playing great—and then all good enough to pay the rent. of a sudden, balls are going into hazards and “I definitely got in my own way; just you’re looking around going, ‘What the heck trying too hard, and thinking too much out is going on?’ It was very unexpected.” on the course and hovering around cutlines In what can only be described as a way too much,” Huffer says. “It was one Twilight Zone flashback to Jean van deVelde’s of those things where I knew what I was 1999 British Open in which he blew a threedoing but it was hard to get out of the habit. shot lead on the final four to lose the Claret I would be, ‘Okay, here’s your chance,’ but Jug, Noh—to the astonishment of everyone I knew I needed to play well, so there was on the grounds—would eventually finish more pressure going on. the hole with a quadruple-bogey 9. Those “It wasn’t the best situation. You absolutely flabbergasted by the experience hoped for that one good tournament—I included Huffer—who actually could have know a couple of the girls out there that won the tournament in regulation but holed were rookies, and they had their good out with a bogey. tournament and now they’re all set for this The subsequent playoff put both year. That would have been great obviously, players back on the 18th hole. This time, but it didn’t happen.” Noh reached the green in regulation—as did Huffer. But unlike her woes on the LPGA An Empathetic Experience Tour, this time around, Huffer’s approach Huffer says she enjoyed life on the LPGA ended up just five feet from the cup. After a tour, especially the travel, which, besides miss by Noh, Huffer sank her near-gimme, Australia, led her to “really cool” places like and with it, won the tournament—and a Los Angeles and San Francisco. But the best check for $50,000. week of her year actually took place last Ironically, Huffer’s 2013 CoBank May, back home in Denver. At the CoBank Colorado Women’s Open victory came in a Colorado Women’s Open at Green Valley similar manner.
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PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF COBANK COLORADO OPEN
HUGS ALL ROUND: After winning her second CoBank Colorado Women’s Open title, Huffer prepares for an embrace with her brother (and caddie) Zach (left) before consoling runner-up Yealimi Noh.
“It’s kind of scary how they mirrored each other,” she says. “Not only was it a playoff, it was also the same score...it was just weird...and (the 2013 win) came at a time when I hadn’t gotten through Q-school and I was thinking, ‘Okay, I’m done,’ but then you come out and win the Colorado Open and it’s, ‘Okay, maybe I can play.’”
At T he Crossroads?
Indeed, seven years later, Huffer finds herself having a similar internal conversation. As strange as it may seem for those who remember the adorable little girl who belted drives out into the nether regions of local golf courses, Huffer is about to turn 30. The CoBank Colorado Women’s Open win,
COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | June 2020
coming eight events into her string of 12 straight missed cuts on the LPGA Tour, was a welcome oasis amid the parchedness of her Mad Max-level drought, both financially and competitively. But how likely is it that lightning will strike a third time for Huffer at GVR? Short of that, angry words aside, is she ready for the challenge of clawing her way back (when the global pandemic hit she had no status) onto the LPGA Tour, or is it, as the Bible verse says “time to put away childish things?” Asking Becca Huffer if she indeed is at the crossroads of her career draws a mixture of emotions: a little wistfulness, some anticipation—and enough passion to make you feel like you were the latest entry to be
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blistered in her journal. “It’s funny,” she says, “That’s one where, I have to say, if I were playing on the PGA TOUR, would that ever be a question? The women’s game is so much younger; I guess if you get up towards 30, it’s like, ‘If you’re not in the Top 10 in the world you might as well quit.’ But I look around, and there are so many people who I see out there who are around my age and in my situation, and you’re going, ‘You’re a really good player— you’re just not making it work.’ But then it just clicked in and they got it going. “If I looked at last year and thought I couldn’t compete, or that there were too many things in my game that I couldn’t improve, maybe, but I don’t think that— it was, “Here’s five shots that you lost just because you were being dumb.’ If I thought I couldn’t compete against the best, that would change my mind completely, but I don’t think that...the part that I like the best is competing—now I’m just hoping that I get the chance to go out there and play.” And when that happens, she’s hoping it will be her clubs that have the final word. Anthony Cotton is the editor of Colorado AvidGolfer.
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GRAND COUNTY • STEAMBOAT • CORTEZ RED FEATHER LAKES • COLORADO SPRINGS PRESENTED BY
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Koelbel’s Mountain Majesty
Grand Elk Golf Club
FIND YOUR BLISS
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WINTER PARK PLEASED TO MEET YOU At capacity, Lake Granby is 221 feet deep and has 7,280 surface acres with 40 miles of shoreline. Among the fish just waiting to make your acquaintance are Kokanee Salmon, Rainbow, Cutthroat, Brown and Mackinaw trout. After fly-fishing, eat your catch at a nearby picnic. granbychamber.com
BREAKING FROM THE PACK Winter Park calls itself “Mountain Bike Capital USA”—and it’s got the trademark to prove it. With 600 miles of trails, chances are, from the adventurous to more family-friendly, you’ll find a path or course to your liking. playwinterpark.com/bike-winter-park
THE HILLS ARE ALIVE
come and say howdy
After “holding out for a miracle” that wasn’t answered, Winter Park officials admit that this summer will be a bit different, due to the novel coronavirus. But the fun and games, as Sherlock Holmes might say, are still very much afoot. The reopened Rocky Mountain National Park is always a draw for the entire family, and hiking and biking are also there for the taking. Not much more than a
stone’s throw from Koelbel Grand Elk sits Lake Granby. At press time, the marinas were slated to be open, which means access to a wealth of activities at facilities like the Beacon Landing and Indian Peaks Marinas. For those desirous of a different kind of motoring, perhaps check out one of the many ranches nearby for a chance to get your gallop going. playwinterpark.com
GETAWAY—NO REALLY, GET AWAY A Moment of Bliss Clearly, most everyone you know (that most certainly includes you!), is dealing with the daily stress associated with the pandemic. That’s why it’s important to take the chance to get away and perhaps re-center yourself, find a moment of peace—and just chill. In Winter Park, you’ll likely find just what you need. Sign up for a three-day retreat that includes spas, Pilates classes, Colorado hot springs and more. playwinterpark.com/relaxing-three-day-itinerary
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WINTER PARK
Grand Elk Golf Club
A FOURSOME Even while getting your chill on, there’s every chance that the competitor in you may still want to come out and play. Luckily, there are four options that will give you all you want and more. Whether it’s the 6,570-yard Grand Lake Golf Course (designed by Dick Phelps); the 7,101-yard Pole Creek Golf Course (Denis Griffiths); or a pair of courses designed by former Masters champions: the 7,144-yard Grand Elk Golf Club (Craig
for everyone
Stadler) or the 7,260-yard Granby Ranch Golf Course (Jack Nicklaus), you’ll be tested by rolling fairways and subtle, undulating greens, all while taking in panoramic mountain views. Speaking of which: if it turns out that, in the competition between man and nature, nature has the upper hand, just give in—you can always make a detour to nearby Rocky Mountain National Park and reacquire your sense of zen. visitgrandcounty.com
Some Spirited Options
Grand Lake Golf Course
COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | June 2020
Idlewild Spirits Distillery
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COURTESY IDLEWILD SPIRITS DISTILLERY
It’s Up to You While most group activities have been curtailed because of the coronavirus, you can still design itineraries and activities covering one day or a full week. playwinterpark.com
One of the calling cards at Fraser Valley Distilling is its “Indecision Whiskey,” a blend of single-malt bourbon and rye, that’s perfect— natch—for when you just can’t decide what you want. After piquing your interest (and taste buds), you can also head over to Idlewild Spirits Distillery. It features the aptly-named “Idle” and “Wild” Series—the first is more traditional; the second has treats like hibiscus-infused gin. Down the hatch! fraservalleydistilling.com; idlewildspirits.com
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STEAMBOAT SPRINGS BOTANIC BEAUTY A six-acre gem comprised of over 50 gardens with ponds, benches and sculptures, the Yampa River Botanic Park is a great opportunity for self-reflection and serenity. Each garden has a different focus, allowing visitors the chance to find something that might complement their home garden. The Park is free and open to the public. yrbp.org
Haymaker Golf Course
Do It Yourself
Steamboat Springs says the community will be ready to welcome you “when the time is right.” And while those days are certainly approaching, officials say the best course of action—at least early in the summer—is to engage in “self-powered adventures.” One of the most self-powered activities that’s available for anyone (with the necessary internal fortitude) is golf—and there’s no better place to test yourself than Haymaker Golf Course. The 7,308yard layout was voted one of the top five in the state by Golfweek. haymakergolf.com
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Yampa River Botanic Park
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Like A Rolling Stone
Built along the flanks of nearby Mt. Werner, Rollingstone Ranch Golf Club combines tumbling streams and dramatic tee shots. The 6,730-yard Robert Trent Jones II design is well-fortified—70 fairway and greenside sand bunkers come into play on all 18 holes. After navigating those desertlike hazards, perhaps you’ll consider the seven holes that feature the scenic Fish Creek as something of an oasis. rollingstoneranchgolf.com
The Crooked Key
SPRINGS, YOU SAY? It really wouldn’t be Steamboat Springs if there weren’t actual mineral-rich thermal waters bubbling about. Why not take a walking tour—a one-mile jaunt lets you pop in on five of the town’s seven different springs. steamboatsprings.net
Key to the City Tired of finishing that 1,000-piece puzzle for the 17th time during your forced stay-at-home existence? The time may be right to experience a real-life challenge. The Crooked Key provides “a live-action physical and mental adventure” where your group works together searching for clues and solving puzzles—all within an hour or less. crookedkey.com Rollingstone Ranch Golf Club
AT ROLLINGSTONE RANCH GOLF CLUB AT THE SHERATON STEAMBOAT RESORT
Experience one of the best courses in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains A spectacular 18-hole course, designed by Robert Trent Jones II, features incredible views of the Yampa Valley, while Fish Creek winds its way through seven of the holes. The 70 bunkers and large, undulating bent grass greens make this a truly championshipcaliber course to be enjoyed by players of all skill levels. For these reasons, Rollingstone Ranch Golf Club received the “2019 CAGGY Winner, Best Mountain Courses in Colorado” by Colorado AvidGolfer. 12 3 0 S T E A M B O AT B LV D, S T E A M B O AT S P R I N G S , C O 8 0 4 87 R O L L I N G S T O N E R A N C H G O L F. C O M | 9 7 0 . 8 7 9.13 9 1
CALL 970.879.1391 OR VISIT rollings toner anchgolf.COM FOR THE BEST AVAIL ABLE RAT ES
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ROAD TRIP
HEADS OR TAILS
If there’s a fork in the road...take it GO NORTH, CHASE A FOX BREAKAWAY—THE TIME HAS COME FOR YOU (PART 1) The sun is out, the sky is cloudless and ever-so blue, the gas tank is full and you’ve decided the time is right to free yourself from the shackles of your self-imposed stay-at-home banishment. The open road is beckoning and there are decisions to be made. You’ve hopped on I-25... now what? The golf clubs are nestled in the trunk, also yearning to be free—answering the call, you head north to The Golf Club at Fox Acres. At 8,300 feet above sea level, your head will be clear and ready to take on the beautiful, 6,500-yard John Cochran-designed course, spread out over 460 acres. golfclubatfoxacres.com Speaking of acreage, after your round, here’s another appealing option—hit the backcountry at the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests. Available exploration options include Cache la Poudre and the Santiago Mill. More adventures are being added daily; the U.S. Forest Service has an online story map with the latest info. fs.usda.gov
The Golf Club at Fox Acres
Photos: Tyana Arviso
SOUTHWEST AND CONQUER: BREAKAWAY—THE TIME HAS COME FOR YOU (PART 2) Perhaps easing into your getaway isn’t your thing—when it’s time to go, it’s time to go! Perhaps the spirit will move you to take a longer journey; in that case, one possibility would be an escape to the Four Corners, that almost mystical region of the country where Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico meet. On your way, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t get a round of golf in—one very appealing option is Conquistador Golf Course in Cortez. A 7,152-yard Press Maxwell/Bill Stroud design, the greens are small, but the vistas are expansive, with views of the La Plata Mountains, Mesa Verde and the Ute Mountain. It’s all so captivating, you’ll be tempted to not come back to reality. fourcornersgolf.com Conquistador Golf Club
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STAY & PLAY RED FEATHER LAKES, CO
THE GOLF CLUB AT FOX ACRES GOLF OUTINGS, COUPLES GET-AWAYS, WORK REMOTELY WITH WIFI, SOCIAL DISTANCING AT ITS FINEST ALWAYS KNOW WHATS HAPPENING ... FOLLOW US! @thegolfclubatfoxacres
1700 County Road 67J, Red Feather Lakes, CO 80545 970.881.2574 | dkennedy@golfclubatfoxacres.com
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COLORADO SPRINGS
Kissing Camels Golf Course
KISS A CAMEL
walk amongst Gods
While the Garden of the Gods Visitor & Nature Center was still closed as of press time due to the coronavirus, there are still plenty of activities available at Garden of the Gods park, including Jeep, Segway, E-Bike and rock climbing tours. At the nearby Garden of the Gods Resort, guests still have access to the STRATA Salon as well as the Medical Center. There, visitors can immerse themselves in a multitude of wellness activities, including mindful meditation, IV nutritional therapy and health discovery sessions. After becoming the best you that you can possibly be, you’ll want to celebrate with a round of golf at Kissing Camels. Featuring 27 holes designed by J. Press Maxwell and Mark Rathert, the course spans more than 7,000 yards. gardenofthegodsresort.com
Royal Gorge Zip Line
GORGE YOURSELF SILLY
Begin with zip-lining for a mile over 100 acres of hillside along the Royal Gorge plateau, then settle down in a riverside yurt. If you’re game, Royal Gorge Rafting and Zip Line Tours can create a memorable package. royalgorgerafting.net
MAKE YOUR OWN HISTORY
The Broadmoor
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The Broadmoor has hosted eight USGA national championships and numerous other major tournaments, including the Curtis Cup and NCAA championships. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t walk in the same footsteps as Jack Nicklaus and Annika Sorenstam—The East Course, designed by Donald Ross, plays at a taxing 7,355 yards, with magnificent views abutting almost every hole. The legendary hotel is expected to be open for overnight guests beginning on June 28. broadmoor.com coloradoavidgolfer.com
P L AY HARD
/
rest easy
Discov er the Be n efits of Me mb ership Life is not meant to be rushed. It is something to savor. To sip. To enjoy. That’s why we built Garden of the Gods Resort and Club in a one-of-a-kind setting, surrounded by natural wonders. Because when you’re lucky enough to live in a place like this, you need to make sure it’s properly experienced in every sense. We invite you to claim your home away from home with a Garden of the Gods Club Membership. Choose from a variety of membership categories to fit your needs and patterns of usage. And enjoy world-class activities and amenities, our full social calendar of events and parties, luxury accommodations for you and your guests, and countless other exclusive benefits. Become part of our social community at Garden of the Gods Resort and Club and leave no sense unturned.
OUR MEMBERSHIP TEAM IS HERE FOR YOU. PLEASE CONTACT TRACEY KALATA AT 719-520-4980 OR TKALATA@GARDENOFTHEGODSRESORT.COM
3320
Mesa Road
Colorado Springs
CO
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Blind Shot THE UNSEEN GAME
A Shot in the Dark? With a new, topsy-turvy schedule and uncertainty about how things will actually play out, the PGA TOUR is slated to return this month.
HOW ABOUT THAT finish at Winged Foot? After watching Phil and Monty chop it up back in 2006, you didn’t think it would be possible for anyone else to butcher the 72nd hole like so much ground chuck, did you? And coming off of that youza of a Masters at Augusta National in April, you’re now no doubt salivating at the prospect of what’s going to happen at The Open Championship next month at Royal St. George… If only… If all goes to plan, by the time you’re reading this, the PGA TOUR should be ready to resume play, beginning with the Charles Schwab Challenge in mid-June. And while the restart comes with a battery of questions—How will players perform without fans in the gallery? Will international players be able to return to the U.S. and participate? How will on-site testing work?—one thing is certain: the novel coronavirus has rendered this golf season into something unlike any other. Of course, the British Open was canceled way back in April; the U.S. Open, scheduled for this month at Winged Foot, didn’t take place—it’s been postponed until September. And that’s not even the wackiest change to the calendar—how about The Masters taking place in November? Makes you wonder what kind of flora will be blooming on the hallowed grounds then? And speaking of galleries—ahem, excuse me, patrons— will the “new normal” have progressed enough by then that they’ll be allowed out on the course? Sigh...so many questions...While it (hopefully) will be great moving from the “back in the day replay” phase of golf to actual competition, here’s to the idea that what results is more than a blind shot. —Anthony Cotton
COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | June 2020
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DOH!: Phil Mickelson (inset) was a tough-luck loser in 2006, the last time the U.S. Open was played at Winged Foot (top). It returns there in September.
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