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Breaking Trail at Saddleback

‘Not normal’ and proud of it: Northern Front Range course is No. 1 for fun, innovation. By Andy Bigford

CHEERIO: The opening hole at Saddleback Golf Club is the start of an experience at one of Golf Digest’s Top-10 “Most Cheerful” places to play.

WHEN SADDLEBACK Golf Club in Firestone launched its “Old Turd Tuesdays” back in 2012, the $29 offer included range balls, 18 holes and cart—plus an “all-you-can-eat” prune bar with a pint of Metamucil to wash it down. After a supposed Health Department intervention nixed the prune bar—along with an alleged Metamucil shortage—the course quickly substituted a hot dog and a “sodee pop” instead. There were a few grumbles from those who didn’t follow along with the joke, but rounds among the 60-and-older set immediately increased threefold, and this on a day of the week, at least pre-COVID-19, that is universally slow at golf courses (the cost is now $42, and OTT regularly draws 200 players). This is all par for the course at a club which bills itself as “not normal,” whose scorecard declares “USGA rules apply only some of the time,” and which was named by Golf Digest as one of the country’s Top 10 “Most Cheerful” places to play. “We are not pretentious people,” says Lanna O’Malley, who along with her husband Tom (everyone calls him Whitey) are anomalies in Colorado as hands-on owner-operators. The two met in college at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, and with partners built and operated a popular course there called Kilkarney Hills (they still own a share). Looking for opportunities to the west, they eventually partnered in the late 1990s with Vern Hamilton, a cash-crop farmer who had weathered one too many hailstorms and was ready for a change (he passed away in 2016). All the marketing studies said golf would continue to boom (wrong) and that the Northern Front Range would see dramatic population growth (right).

X MARKS THE SPOT: A sign on the fourth hole commemorates a disagreement between a married couple that ended up with a cart being driven into the bottom of a lake at the island green par-3. It’s one example of how the course refuses to take itself too seriously, preferring lighthearted conversation to corporate-speak.

“There was nothing here back then,” she recalls of the Firestone-Frederick area, noting there wasn’t even a grocery store and they had to drive 12 miles east to Longmont to “buy a bolt.” “We had to trust it,” she says, and indeed the growth has come, with the Frederick-Firestone corridor now dotted with businesses, including a Safeway and Ace Hardware, and the region continuing to experience one of the highest growth rates in the country. The O’Malleys hired veteran Colorado-born architect Andy Johnson to design Saddleback, which looks west to the mountains and features wide, rolling fairways; large, undulating greens; and plenty of wetlands and water. Saddleback stretches to 7,041 yards from the tips, with four more tee box options at 6,492, 6,054, 5,484, and 4,855 yards. Two man-made lakes bookend the south portion of the property, with a creek connecting them as it meanders through the back nine. It is fair and friendly, but with some bite, including three tough par fours: the split fairway

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7th, the hazardous, well-bunkered 12th, and the long, narrow uphill 15th. For signatures, you could include two: The island par-3 4th and the drivable (over water), 322-yard dogleg par-4 16th, which highlights a strenuous four-hole closing stretch. An expansive range beckons with fresh balls pyramided at each station, not fetched from a finicky code- or token-operated ball dispenser. Most daily fee courses see the range as a revenue stream, but not Saddleback, which includes it in the price of the round. The club actually experimented five years ago with using Titleist Pro V1s on the range, getting three local businesses to sponsor (and pay for) the 13,000 new balls. Saddleback knew there would be substantial theft, so besides featuring the sponsor’s logo the balls were boldly marked “Stolen from Saddleback Golf Club.” Still, 8,000 disappeared in the first summer, and the club returned to using normal range balls. Another innovation, at least in non-COVID times: the bunkers feature buried vertical tubes as rake holders, taking the four-foot

handle out of sight and play. The superintendent, Rob “Grass Whisperer” Flemming, is still ironing out the kinks, but it’s another example of Saddleback refusing to lay down on the job. Initially operating out of a “temporary” double-wide trailer, Saddleback held off for 15-plus years on building its handsome, stoneand-timber 5,000-square-foot clubhouse, finally opening it in 2016. Meanwhile, they were expanding an adjacent pavilion, which also looks out on a small lake, perfect for weddings and events, though it has been dark this summer. Like courses in Colorado and across the country, Saddleback is seeing unprecedented play in the COVID era, with increased rounds making up for the decline in Food and Beverage sales and the loss of weddings and events. Besides the nearby tri-towns (Firestone-Frederick-Dacono), the course draws from north Denver, Boulder, Longmont and Loveland; a few semi-regulars even make the trek down from Wyoming. Driven NO DOUBLE-WIDE: After operating out of a “temporary” double-wide trailer for 15 years, in 2016 Saddleback Golf by Whitey, Saddleback is the first course in the Club opened a 5,000-square-foot, stone-and-timber clubhouse. An adjacent pavilion, envisioned for weddings and state to employ dynamic pricing, provided by beta events, has been shuttered this summer because of the novel coronavirus pandemic. software designed by a French company. Besides offering discounts for earlier bookings, the system through Black Monday and its aftermath in the tee commemoration of Arnold Palmer driving the goes beyond the “capacity pricing” used by Golf late 1980s. Missing Links began as a range and green on the way to winning the 1960 U.S. Open. Now and other tee times consolidators, factoring grew to include three, then nine holes. When they At Saddleback, the legendary historical marker in historical trends as well. Demand during those sold the course in the late 1990s and Saddleback (it’s actually just a cheap sign) at the island green periods is so high that the system wants to raise opened, Finley became the O’Malleys’ jack-of-all 4th memorializes the time “the husband was weekend and peak prices to $120 a round, but trades. Tired of sending out pablum media mes- actually right.” He had forbid his accident-prone they capped it at roughly $83. sages on stereotypical golf events, he and the wife to drive the cart, she ignored the warning, While few readers likely have made the O’Malleys decided they’d talk to their customers and the cart ended up at the bottom of the lake drive 32 miles north of Denver on I-25 to play as if they were sitting together at a bar, rather than on the island par three. The couple’s cell phones Saddleback, many have probably seen it on in marketing doublespeak. and wallets were ruined, as were the cart’s transTV. It’s virtually the only course in the state to The non-normalcy is evident throughout mission, engine and battery. advertise regularly on the Golf Channel, with its Saddleback’s messaging, and perhaps includes “I’ve always admired Saddleback, and it’s alquirky, 30-second spots starring the O’Malleys’ lessons for other courses. When Saddleback ways in great shape,” says Ed Mate, the executive laid-back daughter, the blonde, wavy-haired Alex sought to compete against chain discounters with director of the Colorado Golf Association, which (she manages the pro shop). The latest series its own equipment sale, the email subject line held its state women’s match play championship (“Let’s get you to the No. 1 tee”) was shot with read, “We are not Dick’s.” From the scorecard: there in July (Saddleback has hosted various CGA an iPhone to convey a mellow atmosphere. Hav- “No one cares how good you play. Everyone cares events over the years, and co-hosted the Coloraing featured proctologists, knitting bikers, Ninjas, how fast you play. Keep up with the group in the do Open in 2007). Colorado is a rarity with its shirtless firefighters, dinosaurs, ship captains, front of you.” Buried in the website is a plug for abundance of municipally owned courses, which sleepwalkers and hobo golfers in the past, all the course’s corporate membership, “the ultimate function by a different government playbook, enthe commercials tend to be pretty informal...and little kissy-butt thing you can purchase to really joy deep pockets, can afford to discount greens somehow memorable, which is the whole idea. impress clients.” Alas, in spelling out the various fees, and don’t, for example, have to pay property The creative spark comes from Rob “Robbo” perks, it also concedes, “Since the raid, we no taxes. Saddleback must promote entrepreneurial Finley, who along with his dad, a former Denver longer offer the massage.” Youth pay their age to creativity, and financial discipline, to survive and firefighter, founded the nine-hole Missing Links play, but “if your child becomes a nuisance, we thrive. When asked why he and Lanna share a course and driving range a mile away from Sad- will feed them a bowl of sugar and give them a broom-closet-sized office in the corner of the pro dleback back in 1992 (it is now called Bella Rosa puppy before we send them home.” Touching all shop, Whitey says, “Offices don’t make money.” and owned by the town of Frederick). Finley was a demographics, Saddleback even offers Husband During the initial COVID outbreak in March, stockbroker who opted for a change after working Sitting: “Just leave a credit card for alcohol and Saddleback was one of the few courses in the golf.” The standard testimonial vid- state and country that never closed. Its social eo praising the club’s lender, the distancing guidelines are both extensive and readlocal First National Bank branch, ily enforced. One of COVID’s gloomiest impacts, is titled “Lanna and Whitey beg Lanna believes, is the loss of the day-to-day for a bank loan.” It’s actually the interactions with customers that are so central to only normal video among dozens the Saddleback experience. During an interview on their site, many of which feature on the expansive clubhouse patio, she excuses Saddleback regulars. herself to check in on business, then returns with With the backing of the a just-met golfer who happens to hail from their O’Malleys, who have a healthy sense former home in Wisconsin. He has played their of humor, Finley is always testing Kilkarney course there several times and has deep boundaries, though he admits the ties in the community; the three immediately response to his “Karaoke-Trivia- launch into a long reminisce on River Falls. Things Fireworks Night” was “mixed.” are starting to return to normal, or not normal, at IT’S A STEAL: Five years ago, Saddleback used Titleist Pro V1s on the Augusta has its plaque on the Saddleback. driving range, attaching the label “Stolen From Saddleback Golf Club.” 15th honoring Gene Sarazen’s albaNevertheless, about 8,000 of them somehow disappeared. tross, and Cherry Hills has its first Andy Bigford is a Colorado AvidGolfer contributor. COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | Fall 2020