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Adam AIJALA
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Contents 2014
June
In Every Issue 8 Forethoughts
Is This How We Roll? By Jon Rizzi
Features 32 Gear Father’s Day gift ideas. 34 Lesson
10 ’net Score
How to dial up your
12 Off the Tee
36 Lesson
What are Colorado’s swing speed. By Dennis Murray Holes in Fun?
Pinehurst’s infrared
steak; how to buckle up right.
15 The Gallery
Red Rocks gets bigger; so does Hale Irwin’s portfolio; 100 hole tournament; junior golf camps, more.
It’s not hip to pitch. By Larry Rinker Sidebets 39 Fareways
Summit County’s Le Petit Paris, Adriano’s and Sunshine Cafe. By Gary James
96 The Games of 46 Nice Drives Subaru STI, BMW X5 Golf
Tee for Two on No. 2.
Player’s Corner 29 Profile Flatpicking, flatsticking Adam Aijala of Yonder Mountain String Band.
and Cadillac CTS. By Isaac Bouchard
51
COLORADO GETAWAYS Trips to Grand Junction, Grand County, Montrose, Colorado Springs, Durango and beyond
68
Teeing Himself Up
Mark Schlereth has transitioned from an enormous, anonymous lineman into an enormously popular TV and radio personality who counts green chile and golf among his many talents. By Sam Adams
74
Cow Pasture Pool?
What Bruce Maness created on his dairy farm in Cortez is anything but. By Jon Rizzi
76
Into Each Life Some Reign Must Fall
Over the course of 30 days in 1974, unheralded amateur Gary Longfellow became the Colorado Grand Slam champion. By Scott N. Gardner
86
Golf Discovers the New World
With Cabot Links and the forthcoming Cabot Cliffs, Mike Keiser charts a Bandonesque future for Canada’s Cape Breton Island.By Tom Ferrell
On The Cover Mark Schlereth at home. Photograph by Peter Lockley/Clarkson Creative
Cabot Links hole #2
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Colorado AvidGolfer | June 2014
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Clubhouse, Sweet Clubhouse The Club at Ravenna’s 25,000-square-foot “jewel box” will deliver its members the warmth and intimacy of home.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN RESORT: Phase 1 rendering; construction begins in early summer.
By Joe Grant When The Club at Ravenna breaks ground on its first phase of the clubhouse and one of its two pools this month, it will also be breaking a promise to its members. And those members couldn’t be happier. “We originally wanted to have 225 members before we started construction; that was the kickpoint,” says the club’s developer, Glenn Jacks. “However, we are so excited about what this clubhouse will add to our beautiful community and golf course, we simply couldn’t wait.”
SMALL FOOTPRINT, BIG IMPACT
“It’s an intimate, beautiful jewel box,” he says of the 25,000-square4
Colorado AvidGolfer | June 2014
foot Mediterranean structure named “Paradiso” in Dantean reference to the canyon it will overlook and the beatific atmosphere it will evoke. Drawing inspiration from the Santa Barbara mission style, Jacks and Centennial-based architect Bill Wunderlich have drawn up a cozy, exquisitely rendered gathering place that “focuses on the people, not the building,” Jacks says. “It will be like your favorite restaurant or neighborhood bar, a place you’ll never get bored with.”
needs to be warmth and elegance— intimate rooms with low ceilings, pecan floors, Venetian plaster and soft lighting. The intent isn’t so much to impress people but to embrace them and enhance their lifestyle.”
“Everything is on a human scale,” explains Wunderlich, whose experience with high-end residences won him the job over more commercial clubhouse designers. “Glenn and I both realize that this is a house. People want to feel like they’re going home. There
In other words, Paradiso won’t simply be a stylish shortcut to the golf shop and card room. It will house a world of activities: massages in a full-service spa with steam room and sauna; exercising in a fitness center that’s a hub for nutrition, personal training, yoga and exercise classes; volleying
That lifestyle embraces much more than golf on Ravenna’s flawlessly maintained, nationally ranked Jay Morrish design. The club encourages numerous life-enriching activities that Jacks believes will eventually eclipse golf in popularity.
colorado avidgo lf e r.c o m
we’ve addressed that. This isn’t simply a ‘guys’ club,’” Jacks says. “The guys will get what they want, but you won’t see 30 of them sitting in a men’s grill. Paradiso will provide comfortable spaces for everyone— men, women and families—to come together and enjoy life.” To achieve this welcoming sense of inclusion, architect Ann Motokane of Emiko Design will work with Wunderlich. Motokane—whose projects include Nebraska’s Dismal River Club, Scottsdale’s Whisper Rock and the Indian Wells Golf Resort—will lend her considerable experience and design talents to enrich the ambience of Paradiso. Working with the established “Italian village palette,” she plans to appoint the structure “with furnishings, finishes, materials and patterns you won’t see in any other golf club.” Much of this derives from the intimacy of the spaces. “The smaller, more efficient footprint requires more detailed spaces,” she explains, adding that these spaces will be designed for expansion, separated not by modular walls but by beautiful French doors. “It will be tasteful and understated, a backdrop for the members,” she says. “It will be a place to let them shine.”
A SENSE OF COMMUNITY on outdoor tennis courts; swimming laps in one pool while the kids play in the other; savoring gourmet fare prepared in an open display kitchen by the chef from whom you’re taking a weekly cooking class; sipping a smoothie or cabernet on the terrace while watching a fawn graze near sandstones buttered pink by the sinking sun.
A PLACE TO SHINE
Ravenna clearly embraces the concept that today’s families want more than a cavernous clubhouse designed around golfers. Jacks, who has been developing the property since 1998, says it’s not even the same club it would have been 10 years ago, when plans called for a much larger clubhouse. “Our members’ lives are multi-dimensional, and co l o r a d o a v i d g o l f e r. c o m
Motokane is the most recent addition to what Jacks describes as the “great team atmosphere” at Ravenna. In addition to Wunderlich and Motokane’s architectural skills, Allison Rice of Peak Civil Consultants imparts her engineering talents; John Prestwich of PCS brings his vision to bear on the planning and landscape architecture; and Centerra Construction is working shoulder-to-shoulder with all of them to transform sketches, blueprints and renderings into a unique physical structure. “Great design is not a linear process,” Jacks observes. “It’s collaborative.” In many ways, the same cooperative spirit that drives the design of the clubhouse permeates the Ravenna experience. “The value paradigm centers around people and the friendships they build here,” Jacks says. “The success of the club and
clubhouse will come from hearing the laughter of members sharing a story, a great meal or bottle of wine from their own cellar. Our culture has always been about taking an assertive approach to making life better— in whatever form that may take.” The club doesn’t require that members live in the gated community, but those who do benefit from low-density housing on some of the most stunning ground in Colorado—the majority of which (some 350 acres) is a wildlife preserve dedicated to Colorado Open Space. Members also have exclusive private access to premium fly fishing along the Platte River and a concierge who can coordinate everything from travel plans to dry cleaning.
MOVING IN
Homes at Ravenna start at $750,000 and sites at $250,000. Selling those homes is Fuller Sotheby’s International Realty listing broker Dale Schos-
People’s lives are much more complex now, and we’ve addressed that. This isn’t a ‘guys’ club,’” Jacks says. sow, who has lived in The Club at Ravenna for more than four years. Plans call to release 54 luxury paired homes with golf-course and panoramic views, as well as 70 golf villas—also with golf-course and mountain views—designed with the empty nester/lock-and-leave homeowner in mind. The home that has everyone excited right now is the one called Paradiso. Members and prospective members enthusiastically responded to the plans at a February unveiling party. “Building the clubhouse now reaffirms our identity,” Jacks says. “The promise of Ravenna has always been to help its members live life deeply and well, and this clubhouse is a continuation of that promise.” For real estate info, call Dale Schossow, Fuller Sotheby’s International Realty, at 303.919.7176; for membership info, call Amy Rome, Membership Director, at 720.956.1600; or visit ravennagolf.com June 2014 |Colorado AvidGolfer
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June 2014 Volume 13, Number 3 publisher
Allen J. Walters editor
Jon Rizzi associate publisher
Chris Phillips art director
Jeremy Cantalamessa editor-at-large
Tom Ferrell
automotive editor
Isaac Bouchard contributors
Sam Adams, Andy Bigford, E.J. Carr, Tony Dear, Denny Dressman, Sue Drinker, Dick Durrance II, Chris Duthie, Amy Freeland, Lois Friedland, Gary James, Ted Johnson, Kaye W. Kessler, Jake KubiĂŠ, Todd Langley, Kim D. McHugh, Bob Russo, Jerry Walters, Neil Wolkodoff digital and social media manager
Kate Stromberg office and operations manager
Cindy P. Nold projects and special events manager
Vanessa Van Horn p r i n c i pa l s
Ray L. Baker, C. Don Baker, Dick B. Baker Advertising Inquiries: cindy@coloradoavidgolfer.com Editorial Inquiries and letters: jon@coloradoavidgolfer.com Customer Service and Subscriptions: 720-493-1729 Mailing address: 7200 S. Alton Way #B-180, Centennial, CO 80112 FAX: 720-482-0784 Newsstand Information: 720-493-1729
coloradoavidgolfer.com Colorado AvidGolfer (ISSN 1548-4335) is published eight times a year by Baker-Colorado Publishing, LLC, and printed by American Web, Inc. Volume 12, Number Eight. 7200 S. Alton Way #A-180, Centennial, CO 80112. Colorado AvidGolfer is available at more than 250 locations, or you can order your personal subscription by calling 720-493-1729. Subscriptions are available at the rate of $17.95 per year. Copyright Š 2014 by Baker-Colorado Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is prohibited. Postmaster: Send address changes to Colorado AvidGolfer, 7200 S Alton Way #A-180 Centennial, CO 80112.The magazine welcomes editorial submissions but assumes no responsibility for the safekeeping or return of unsolicited manuscripts, photographs, artwork or other material.
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Colorado AvidGolfer | June 2014
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Forethoughts
is this how we roll?
T
ime was, whenever I traveled out of state and mentioned
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Colorado AvidGolfer | June 2014
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F O R E T H O U G H T S P H O T O BY T e d M c I n tyre
I was from Colorado, people would ask if I skied. Now they ask if I smoke marijuana. I do ski. I don’t smoke, but I am guardedly optimistic that Colorado has pioneered a tightly regulated budding industry that’s spawning jobs, new tax revenue and tourism. In my world, pot describes a bunker, not a substance you light up once out of view of the clubhouse. Smoking pot is technically still illegal on public courses, but privately owned facilities can make their own rules—or just let people go on doing what they’ve always done. There’s no denying golf has long had a stoner subculture. We’ve all known someone who likes the occasional toke between shots and have even read news reports about professional golfers who partake. My partner in a recent pro-am told me some of his former Canadian Tour colleagues often hid joints in the shafts of their clubs—that is, until one hit a bad shot and snapped his driver over his knee, spilling its contents across the fairway. You’d think a course filled with stoned golfers would make the game even slower. But as many of you probably saw in the current issue of Golf Digest, on-course pot-smoking “does not generally make it onto the list of things people complain about” according to a spokesman from Denver’s Parks & Recreation. City Park, one of Denver’s seven courses, annually hosts The Clinic Charity Classic, a tournament staged by a dispensary that last August raised $40,000 for Multiple Sclerosis research. The conservative part of me believes golf courses, like the best fairways and greens, should remain weed-free. But then I wonder, is the “wakeand-bake” guy any different than the “double-Bloody-Mary-for-breakfast” guy? To the golf course that sells the Bloody Marys, he is. But would we ever really see cannabis-infused candies sold in golf shops alongside energy bars, mixed drinks and Macanudos? And what about second-hand smoke? Breathing in your cart-mate’s boozy belches may be nauseating, but it’s not potentially intoxicating. I’ve said before that the only change I like in golf is the coin marking my ball. But change is part of the game. You see it in distance-seeking smartphone apps that have replaced the rangefinders that replaced the sprinkler heads. You see it in players cranking tunes in the golf carts that replaced the caddies. You see it in grow-the-game experiments like the 15inch cups advocated by TaylorMade CEO Mark King. You see it on private club members now wearing denim—and caps!—inside clubhouses. Will we see change in the widespread acceptance of marijuana on golf courses? Probably not. But does it really matter? When it comes to pot, tobacco, liquor or any other controlled legal substance, golfers need to exercise moderation and discretion, particularly when in the presence of the next generation of players. Who knows, maybe when those kids grow up and say they’re from Colorado, people won’t ask if they’re skiers or smokers. They’ll ask if they’re golfers. Now that would be a change I’d embrace.
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CAGNation
A HOLE IN FUN
Golfdigest.com rated Fossil Trace’s par-5 12th among the 18 most fun holes to play in America. What Colorado holes would you include on that list? A few Facebook followers chimed in.
Ballyneal #7
Ross Harmon Ballyneal #7 Jack Reynolds 8th hole on the Links course at Fox Hollow. “Par 3, downhill, big ol’ rock in the front of the tee box. Totally blind. Best place to make a closest-to-the-pin bet, because you don’t know who won (or lost) the bar tab till you get down to the green.”
The River Course at Keystone #16
Keysone Ranch #18
Sam Sherstad #16 at The River Course at Keystone Resort and #18 at Keystone Ranch Course. Kass Severson #17 Redlands Mesa. “The tee box is amazing!” Redlands Mesa #17
? oot h S ou Y d ’ t Wha
“
Everyone tells me how awesome this picture is so I thought I would share it. Striker is watching over the course! Number 15. The snow was gone in an hour. Typical Spring.
”
– Ann Finke PGA Director of Instruction, The Country Club of Colorado
Do you have a cool golf-related photo to share? Email it to kate@coloradoavidgolfer. com, along with the story behind it. We’ll post the photos online and publish our favorites in upcoming issues. Get inside deals, stories and more at coloradoavidgolfer.com
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Colorado AvidGolfer | June 2014
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Off theTee
Recipe Veal demi-glace
5 lbs. veal bones 3 Tsp. tomato paste 2 cloves garlic 1 large onion, diced 1 large carrot, diced 2 stalks celery, plus leaves 2 Tsp. thyme 2 cups merlot wine 2 bay leaves 2 qt. cold water
Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
Pinehurst Repast
T
hose fortunate enough to hold tickets either or both of this month’s U.S. Opens will savor both championship golf and championship cuisine. The equivalent holds true at Denver’s Pinehurst Country Club. Its Press Maxwelldesigned golf course, which for years served as the office of World Golf Hall of Famer Paul Runyan, has welcomed numerous regional and national tournaments. Proud of its rich heritage, Pinehurst’s dining room plies members with delectable classics, including the $19.58 Special, the name and price of which suggests the year the club opened.
The $19.58 Special consists of a 6-ounce Sterling Silver Filet Executive Chef Chris Puter has cooked to perfection on a 1,800-degree infrared broiler. The process sears the steak twice as fast as conventional grilling. It locks all the juices into the meat and, Puter notes, “puts a beautiful crust on the steak that’s impossible to get on standard grills.” Puter tops the meat with a veal demi-glace (see recipe) and sides it with Southwestern vegeables and King Crab claw. “We run the $19.58 special all week,” reports Food & Beverage manager Craig Petersen, “Our membership didn’t see us as a steakhouse; now they do.”
Slather bones in 1.5 Tbs. tomato paste and roast in convection oven for 45 minutes. While bones are roasting, sauté onion, celery and carrot with remaining 1.5 tbl tomato paste until vegetables are caramelized. Add garlic cloves, thyme and bay leaves and sauté an additional 5 minutes. Deglaze pan with merlot and reduce by half. Remove veal bones from oven and add to sauce pot, add cold water covering the bones and bring to a boil. Turn heat down to slight simmer, cook for 24 hours, remove from heat and cool overnight. When cooled, remove and discard solidified fat on top. What remains is basic veal stock that is the consistency of Jell-O. Heat desired amount of stock in a saucepan, liquefying and reducing it until it coats the back of a spoon. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Wear to Play by Jim Dandy
Buckle Up
Who would have ever thought rubber belts would become a craze, and in fluorescent colors…with shoes that match! Everybody’s wearing the shoes and belts—on Tour and off. Whatever happened to the country-club combo of surcingle belts and saddle shoes? Today’s golf fashions are better suited for directing traffic on a dark night, but certain rules never go out of style. Pair classic accessories to classic shoes, and synthetics to synthetics. Classic shoes go with classic belts—black saddles, black leather belt; brown saddles, brown leather belt—NOT white. Or spice it with a bit of old-school class: wool surcingle or grosgrain ribbon belts give you blueblood style points.
Do • Wear that white belt with white shoes.
Don’t • Wear that white belt with ANY other color shoes but white (including off-white or mostly white).
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• Wear a belt in the same color family as your shoes, preferably darker.
• Match your belt to your clothing.
• Wear the wild modern colored belts (and matching shoes) if you’re skinny and have never played a fairway wood made of wood.
• Wear a white or wild colored belt with darker clothes, especially if you’re fat. You will look wider and as if you have been sliced across the midsection.
• Match your belt to the saddle on your shoe.
• Match your belt to the vamp of your shoe.
• Wear patterned belts with solid shirts and pants.
• Mix patterned belts and patterned clothing.
Colorado AvidGolfer | June 2014
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the art of
BR AGGING RIGHT S Take one championship Robert Trent Jones Jr. Golf Course with lush rolling fairways and cobalt skies, a handful of old friends, a long anticipated re-match and you’ve got the recipe for a legendary vacation. Here, the decks are sun-drenched, the filet is prime, the live music is way over par and the potential for bragging rights for the entire next year beckons. Come play, we’ll handle the details. Stay and Play packages from just $206 pp a night.* Book at beavercreek.com/golf, or (866) 829 4432.
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*Based on double occupancy at The Pines Lodge, A RockResort, and 1 round of golf pp at Beaver Creek Golf Club. Valid from June 15 to Sept. 15, 2014. Restrictions may apply.
NAMES
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P hotogr a ph c ourtesy of awa rii d u n es
A Boutique Approach
I
rw i n G o l f M a n a g e m e n t abbreviates to IGM, which either sounds like the multinational machine company or the management group that represents some of the biggest names in golf. Both associations suggest pretty heady company. But Hale Irwin’s Denver-based enterprise doesn’t fancy itself the next power player in the golf-management business, although it did recently triple the number of courses in its portfolio—from one (Terradyne Country Club in Andover, Kansas) to three—by taking over the day-to-day operations at Durango’s Dalton Ranch Golf Club and Awarii Dunes Golf Club near Kearney, Neb. “We don’t want to be big,” says Vice President Steve Irwin. “We try to manage like an owner; their interests are in the forefront. That means not bringing the same business model to every course;
c o l o r a d o a v i d g o l f er. c om
GOING PUBLIC: Under IGM, Nebraska’s Awarii Dunes will welcome everyone.
it means being hands-on, seeing what each course needs and providing the best member and guest experiences.” At Dalton Ranch, IGM was brought in last year to consult and the management contract came March 1, following a change in ownership. “Dalton’s always been a great course that’s kept in great shape, thanks to continual capital improvements, and that’s not going to change,” Irwin says. “We’re just looking to build on the foundation that’s already been laid.” To date, IGM has introduced a referral program at the semiprivate club that’s already generated 40 new memberships, and recognizing the lack of dining options in the area, they simplified and upgraded the menu at the clubhouse restaurant. Awarii Dunes presents a different challenge. Principally owned by Colorado Springs attorney Kent Freudenberg, the Jim Engh-designed course received New Golf Course of the Year raves from
both Golf and Golf Digest in 2011. But it opened as an exclusive and private course “at a very bad time in the economy,” explains Irwin. “Our goal is to get bodies out there, for people to see how special it really is.” Rebranding the course as a public facility, IGM is actively courting golfers from the thriving hub of Kearney with leagues, clinics, tournaments and, Irwin says, “some different, fun social events.” Unlike some of the more remote Nebraska sandhills courses, Awarii sits minutes south of I-80 and the Kearney Airport, making it convenient from Lincoln, Omaha, Denver and beyond. Awarii’s corporate and national memberships are a great deal. “It’s a fun, fantastic golf course that’s in great shape, and the facility is world-class,” Irwin says. “As with all our course partners, we are going to do everything we can to help it succeed. ” irwingolfmanagement.com; 720-253-1423
June 2014 |Colorado AvidGolfer
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theGallery TWICE AS NICE: Red Rocks’ clubhouse will double its size.
Red Rocks Is in the House
B
y this time next year, the clubhouse at Red Rocks Country Club in Morrison will enjoy more than twice its current square footage. The club recently approved $4.2 million in renovations that will bring the building to approximately 24,000 square feet. Work will begin near the
end of the current golf season in order to make “the transition as seamless as possible for our members,” according to Owner Construction Manager Bernard Hockenberry. The building will expand north and east, with the main level featuring a greatly amplified bar and grille space with a wraparound terrace, an additional 130 seats of dining space (including a private room), enlarged patio, a new pavilion for outdoor entertaining and an entry lounge gathering
space with a fireplace. The kitchen will also double in size. The lower level will add 3,080 square feet of underground storage for up to 60 golf carts. The clubhouse will also look better. Red Rocks partnered with Denver-based Hyder Construction, whose in-house designers engaged collaboratively with the membership on the interior millwork and finishes, as well on the exterior design. They employed principles of sustainable building—natural materials such as sand and stone, earth and wood—to create a visual analogue to the undulating peaks and valleys of the Front Range, with a graceful roofline that echoes the surrounding landscape. Located two miles west of C-470 amid the worldfamous sandstone formations that give the club its name, Red Rocks boasts a 6,635-yard golf course revitalized by Phelps-Atkinson Course Design, a lively poolside social scene, member-tended community garden, lake fishing, and junior golf and swim programs. “We’ve always been a friendly natural setting to entertain family, friends and clients,” says General Manager Mark Condon. “And this expansion will allow us to accommodate our growing membership from across the Front Range and Denver.” redrockscountryclub.org; 303-352-2030
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America’s Team
A
ustralia has one. So do Sweden, South Africa and other countries that are producing champion golfers. So why doesn’t the United States have a national program to develop the next Annika Sorenstam or Jason Day? Well, it does. The USA Junior National Golf Team Training program started last year with the goal of providing competitive training for kids ages 12 to 18. “The need is there and it’s not being met by any means other than private instruction,” says Steve Patterson, a longtime PGA instructor. Last season at Evergreen’s Hiwan Golf Club, Patterson ran one of the program’s first three sites. This season the program has 16 locations, with Hiwan the only one in the Rocky Mountain region. Founded by Tom Relf, a San Antonio-based PGA instructor who has sent more than 100 students to college golf programs, the USA Junior National Training program focuses on long-term player development. Players move through five “teams” or “levels”—Developmental I and II, Future Stars (10.0-16.0 handicap index), Pre-Elite (4.0-10.0) and Elite. Each team comprises 12 to 16 players. Patterson offers programs at the three most advanced levels and requires a six-month commitment at $299 per month. Each month consists of four three-hour sessions, plus additional instructional support and competitive opportunities with other Team USA programs. A select few Elite players also receive an invitation to compete in matches against other international junior golf teams. One of Patterson’s players, Kyle Peterson, got that invitation. This month in St. Andrews, Scotland, the soon-to-be Colorado Mesa University freshman will be one of eight players representing the USA Junior National Golf Team against the Scottish Golf Union. www.usajrgolf.com; 720-232-7092.
NATIONAL PRIDE: USA Coach Steve Patterson teaches Kyle Peterson at Hiwan.
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AUSSIE RULES: Stearman with pupil Dani Urman.
Terry’s Kids
From the walls of Terry Stearman’s kiosk at Family Sports Center beam the smiles of dozens of junior golfers. Some hold trophies; some stand with a grandfatherly figure; many do both. At 72, Stearman has at one time or another coached some of the state’s best young players. He’s had as many as 12 Colorado Junior Golf Association all-stars in one year. Among them: Chris and Mary Weinstein, Dani Urman, Morgan Sahm, Katy Dyachakova and Amisha Singh. “Everyone knows the old man on the range,” he says in his Australian accent. For 13 years, his affordable golf program has focused on aspiring golfers whose families “don’t belong to country clubs,” he says. Nor do they fit The First Tee profile. “I fill a void,” he says of the middleclass niche. Stearman, who also serves as the swing coach for Regis Jesuit High School’s powerhouse boys’ and girls’ teams, runs group programs at Family Sports that meet three times a week, building players’ camaraderie, skill levels and confidence. He works with each player individually—“personalities are like swings; if you clone them you’re in trouble”—and employs video analysis and the MEGSA machine. “I tell my kids, ‘If I do my job right, you’ll become your best teacher.’” 303-725-2404
“Beautiful colors, vistas, challenging play and value bring me back, time after time.” Brent H., Facebook
13410 W. Morrison Road, Lakewood | 303.986.7888 | LakewoodGolf.org
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Colorado AvidGolfer | June 2014
Monday, August 4
For complete details see page 50.
Wednesday, September 10
College Prep
Do you know a kid with big-time college golf aspirations? He or she can find out what it takes to train for and play Division 1 golf at Denver University’s inaugural college-prep junior camp August 4-7 at Highlands Ranch Golf Club. The only college prep camp in Metro Denver is aimed at 1218 year old golfers who desire to learn about golf at the collegiate level. The DU Coaching staff will offer workshops in full swing, short game, course management and green reading. Also included is on-course instruction and competitions. There will be sessions on NCAA rules and regulations as well as recruiting advice, Division 1 practices and how to choose the right college. DU Head Coaches Eric Hoos and Lindsay Kuhle, as well as past Colorado PGA Section Teacher of the Year Erik Billinger will be on hand to instruct and give insight on how to train for college golf. pioneergolfcamp.com
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GOLF BY NUMBERS 18
Colorado courses—including Denver Country Club (below), Lakewood and the Roaring Fork Club—are among 500 from around the country donating rounds to Rounds 4 Research, an innovative auction to support areas of research grants, education programs, scholarships and awareness of golf ’s environmental efforts. Sponsored locally by the philanthropic arm of the Rocky Mountain Golf Course Superintendents Association, it’s a great way to help keep courses green in every way. Online auctions take place June 9-22 and August 1-10. rounds4research.com
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holes in a day? No problem if you’re playing on one of the longest days of the year. On June 23, Denver’s City Park Golf Course will host the 12th annual Summer Solstice Golf Marathon, which starts at dawn and benefits Denver Kids. Since 1946 the organization has provided longterm, one-on-one counseling and mentoring to Denver Public School students who risk not graduating high school. Players pay no entry fee but must raise a minimum of $500 in pledges or dollars received before teeing off. The goal is $1,000 per player in the 36-player field. Since the event started, golfers have raised more than $217,000. Contact Michelle Maldonado at 720-423-8195 or Michelle_Maldonado@dpsk12.org
experience Colorado High country golf at The Ridge.
The Ridge at Castle Pines North offers golfers an idyllic passage to a high country experience at the foot of Colorado’s infamous Front Range, the former stomping grounds of Calamity Jane and Buffalo Bill. Ample fairways marked by prominent rock outcroppings, sculpted bunkers, gracefully contoured greens and the panoramic views of Pike’s Peak make The Ridge the number one daily-fee golf course in Colorado. Visit PLAYTHERIDGE.COM for special offers and promotions!
OFFICIAL GOLF COURSE OF THE AVALANCHE
14 14 C A s T l e P i N e s P A R k w Ay, C A s T l e R o C k , C o 8 0 1 0 8 | 3 0 3 . 6 8 8 . 0 1 0 0 | P l Ay T h e R i d g e . C o m
Visit PLAYTHERIDGE.COM for special offers and promotions!
THE RIDGE AT C A STLE PINES NORTH IS m ANAGED by TROON GOLf, ® THE LE ADER IN uPSC ALE GOLf COuRSE m ANAGEmENT
Colorado AvidGolfer | June 2014 22 R@CPN_COAG_7x5.indd 1
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It’s not just a membership, it’s a lifestyle. Give your family the premier private club experience in the Denver area with Canongate Colorado. As a Canongate member, your family will enjoy access to 36 holes of breathtaking golf, a variety of social and dining events, fitness and spa services and all the amenities that come with a first-class private club membership. To experience the lifestyle for yourself, call Tiffanie at 800-930-8946.
Golf entry fees as low as $1,500 and monthly dues beginning at $145! Certain restrictions apply and information is subject to change. Fitness, tennis, childcare and spa services available at Blackstone.
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Welcome to Colorado PGA Junior Golf
Menu
CPGA Junior Golf Membership
Colorado PGA Junior Membership is your all access pass to junior golf in Colorado.
PGA/YMCA Summer Camps
The Colorado PGA and the YMCA offer week-long summer camps around the Denver-Metro area in a stress-free, non-threatening, fun environment.
Girl Power Golf
A girls-only developmental program that emphasizes attracting and retaining girls by incorporating fun and engaging instruction and social activities both on and off the golf course.
CPGA Team Golf
Team Golf provides developmental team events to children ages 7 to 14 introducing them to the competitive side of golf in a fun environment.
CPGA Junior Tour
The Junior Tour is a way for juniors to gain competitive golf experience in a relaxed and fun environment. To find more information, please visit ColoradoPGAJuniorGolf.com
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Colorado AvidGolfer | June 2014
NORTHERN LIGHT: As of this month, Fox Acres can be a red feather in your cap.
6
months after announcing it was “suspending operations indefinitely,” The Golf Club at Fox Acres in Red Feather Lakes has entered into a management agreement with Touchstone Golf, which plans to open it to the public June 1. “The members/homeowners have a strong passion for the club and have collected enough dues to lease it from the bank and keep it open,” says Brian Melody, the general manager at Applewood Golf Course, a Touchstone facility in Golden, who is overseeing the transition. The plan is to allow public play until the club reaches enough members to support it with dues. “This gorgeous property simply can’t be one that closes,” Melody says of the lakefilled acreage tucked between mountain ranges 45 minutes northwest of Fort Collins. “However, it has been so exclusive for so long that nobody really even knows it exists.” Touchstone plans to change that with “very affordable” public rates, improved course conditions and promotion of the glorious Red Feather Lakes location. In addition to Fox Acres and Applewood, Touchstone’s Colorado portfolio also includes Pagosa Springs Golf Club, Monument Hill Country Club and Grand Elk Ranch and Club. 970-881-2510
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players are expected to play in the FORE Families First Golf Tournament at Golden’s Fossil Trace Golf Club on June 23. Founded in 1986, Families First provides services which strengthen families, empower parents, nurture children, and end the cycle of child abuse and neglect. Every year it helps nearly 5,000 families across Colorado. familiesfirstcolorado.org. CAG
Got a Gallery item to share? E-mail it to jon@coloradoavidgolfer.com.
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June 2014 |Colorado AvidGolfer
25
SAVE
MORE THAN
$6,000
AT COLORADO’S
ALL PRICES INCLUDE A CART
best courses
Golf Courses
1/1–5/31
6/1– 8/31
9/1– 12/31
Available Tee Times
Weekend Play
Total Rounds
Antler Creek, Falcon
$28
$35
$28
Mon-Thurs anytime, Fri-Sun after 11am
Yes
3
Broadlands, Broomfield
$35
$35
$35
Mon-Thurs after 12pm
No
3
Broken Tee, Englewood
$30
$30
$30
Mon-Thurs after 12pm
No
8
Buffalo Run, Commerce City
$39
$39
$39
Mon-Thurs anytime, Fri-Sun after 2pm
Yes
3
Colorado National, Erie EXCLUSIVE!
$45
$49
$40
Mon-Thurs anytime, Fri-Sun after 12pm
Yes
3
CommonGround, Aurora* EXCLUSIVE!
$42
$42
$42
Mon-Thurs anytime, Fri-Sun after 12pm
Yes
3
Eagle Trace, Broomfield
$30
$30
$30
Mon-Thurs after 11am, Fri-Sun after 12pm
Yes
3
Family Sports Center, Centennial*
$19
$21
$19
Anytime, anytime
Yes
Unlimited
Fitzsimons, Aurora EXCLUSIVE!
$26/$29
$26/$29
$26/$29
Mon-Fri after 11am, Sat-Sun after 1pm
Yes
3
Foothills, Littleton
$34/$47
$34/$47
$34/$47
Mon-Thurs after 1pm, Fri-Sun after 1pm
Yes
4
Four Mile Ranch, Canyon City NEW!
$30
$30
$30
Mon-Fri anytime, Sat-Sun after 12pm
Yes
4
Fox Hollow, Lakewood
$44
$44
$44
Mon-Thurs after 1pm, Fri-Sun after 1:30pm
Yes
Unlimited
Green Valley Ranch, Denver EXCLUSIVE!
$35
$40
$35
Shoulders: Mon-Thurs before 9am, after 12pm, Fri-Sun after 2pm; Peak: Mon-Thurs before 9am, after 1pm, Fri-Sun after 2pm
Yes
3
Heritage at Westmoor, Westminster
$40
$40
$40
Monday-Thursday Anytime, Fri-Sun after 1pm
Yes
Unlimited
Heritage Eagle Bend, Aurora
$34/$40
$48/$54
$34/$40
Mon-Thurs anytime, Fri-Sun after 12pm
Yes
2
Highland Meadows, Windsor
$34
$44
$34
Mon-Thurs after 12pm, Fri-Sun after 1pm
Yes
3
Highlands Ranch GC, Highlands Ranch
$45/$56
$55/$66
$45/$56
Mon-Thurs anytime, Fri-Sun after 1pm
Yes
5
The Homestead Golf Course, Lakewood
$34
$34
$34
Mon-Thurs after 1pm, Fri-Sun after 1:30 pm
Yes
Unlimited
The Greg Mastriona Golf Courses at Hyland Hills, Westminster
$39
$39
$39
Mon-Thurs after 11am, Fri-Sun after 1pm
Yes
Unlimited
Indian Tree, Arvada
$35
$35
$35
Seasons 1& 2 any day after 11am, Season 3 any day, anytime
Yes
3
The Inverness, Englewood* EXCLUSIVE!
$56
$76
$56
Mon-Thurs anytime, Fri-Sun after 12pm
Yes
3
Kings Deer, Monument EXCLUSIVE!
$32
$32
$32
Mon-Thurs after 11am, Fri-Sun after 2 pm
Yes
2
Legacy Ridge, Westminster
$45
$45
$45
Mon-Thurs anytime, Fri-Sun after 1pm
Yes
Unlimited
The Links, Highlands Ranch
$31/$36
$35/$40
$31/$36
Shoulder: Mon-Thurs anytime Fri-Sun after 12pm Peak: Mon-Thurs anytime, Fri-Sun after 1pm
Yes
3
Littleton Golf and Tennis Club, Littleton
$29/$31
$29/$31
$29/$31
Mon-Thurs after 11am, Fri-Sun after 1pm
Yes
Unlimited
Lone Tree Golf Club, Lone Tree
$49
$59
$47
Mon-Thurs after 11am, Fri- Sun after 1pm
Yes
Shoulders: Unlimited Peak: 2
Meadows, Littleton
$38/$50
$38/$50
$38/$50
Mon-Thurs after 1pm, Fri- Sun after 1pm
Yes
4
Meadow Hills, Aurora EXCLUSIVE!
$31/$35
$31/$35
$31/$35
Mon-Fri after 11am, Sat-Sun after 1pm
Yes
3
Murphy Creek, Aurora EXCLUSIVE!
$35/$42
$35/$42
$35/$42
Mon-Fri after 11am, Sat-Sun after 1pm
Yes
3
Omni Interlocken, Broomfield
$55
$65
$60
Mon-Thurs anytime, Fri before 12; Sat-Sun after 12
Yes
3
Pine Creek, Colorado Springs
$39
$39
$39
Mon-Thurs after 12pm, Fri- Sun after 2pm
Yes
9
Quail Dunes, Fort Morgan NEW!
$20
$23
$20
Any day, Anytime
Yes
3
Raccoon Creek, Littleton NEW!
$37/$44
$37/$44
$37/$44
Mon-Thurs anytime, Fri-Sun after 12pm
Yes
4
26
Colorado AvidGolfer | June 2014
coloradoavidgo lf e r.c o m
58 215 55 courses
total rounds or more
courses with weekend play
Go a Pr utomlf Passp e Din Clu fer atica ort m e & b r lly e sav M ed rec mbe ea e e t m m Clie ive rs ore be n a tha rs te n 1 h le 65 ip courses with loca ! tion exclusive golf s!
11
passport offers
1/1–5/31
6/1– 8/31
9/1– 12/31
Available Tee Times
Weekend Play
Total Rounds
The Ridge at Castle Pines, Castle Rock* EXCLUSIVE!
$50
$65
$50
Mon-Thurs anytime, Fri- Sun after 1pm
Yes
3
Saddle Rock, Aurora EXCLUSIVE!
$37/$44
$37/$44
$37/$44
Mon-Fri after 11am, Sat-Sun after 1pm
Yes
3
South Suburban Par 3, Centennial*
$9
$9
$9
Mon-Thurs anytime, Fri-Sun after 11am
Yes
Unlimited
Sumo Golf Village, Florence
$22
$27
$22
Any day after 12pm
Yes
2
Thorncreek, Thornton
$28
$38
$28
Mon-Thurs after 10 am
No
3
Todd Creek, Thornton
$40
$45
$40
Mon-Fri after 10am, Sat- Sun after 1pm
Yes
3
Walking Stick, Pueblo NEW!
$32
$32
$32
Mon-Thurs after 11:30 am, Fri-Sun after 12:30 pm
Yes
Unlimited
Golf Courses
$99 $99 $99 Sun-Thurs anytime 27-holes; Yes 2 Breckenridge Golf Club, Breckenridge* Peak season- Sundays only 18-holes
Mountain Courses* The Bridges, Montrose
$53
$53
$53
Mon-Thurs anytime, Fri-Sun after 11am
Yes
2
Cederedge Golf Club, Cedaredge
$35
$40
$35
Any day, anytime
Yes
Unlimited
Devil's Thumb, Delta
$40
$40
$40
Mon-Thurs after 11am, Fri-Sun after 12pm
Yes
3
Eagle Ranch, Eagle EXCLUSIVE!
$35
$55
$35
Any day after 11am
Yes
2
Eagle Vail, Avon
$55
$70
$55
Mon-Thurs after 11am, Fri-Sun after 12pm
Yes
2
Golf Granby Ranch, Granby
$54
$54
$54
Mon-Thurs anytime, Fri-Sun after 11am
Yes
Unlimited
Grand Elk, Granby
$32/$39
$45/$54
$39/$45
Sun-Thurs after 11am, Fri -Sat 12pm
Yes
3
Grand Lake, Grand Lake NEW!
$39.50
$49.50
$39.50
Any day after 11am
Yes
3
Haymaker, Steamboat NEW!
$50
$79
$50
Mon-Thurs anytime, Fri-Sun after 12pm
Yes
Unlimited
Keystone Ranch, Keystone
$65
$90
$65
Any day, Anytime
Yes
Unlimited
Lakota Canyon, New Castle
$49
$70
$49
Mon-Thurs anytime, Fri -Sun after 1pm
Yes
3
Pole Creek, Tabernash
$45
$45
$45
Sunday-Thursday after 11am
Yes
3
The Raven at Three Peaks, Silverthorne
$55
$89
$55
Any day after 12pm
Yes
Unlimited
Redlands Mesa, Grand Junction
$63
$70
$63
Any day, Anytime
Yes
4
The River Course at Keystone, Keystone
$75
$105
$75
Any day after 11am
Yes
Unlimited
Tiara Rado, Grand Junction NEW!
$30
$30
$30
Mon-Thurs anytime, Fri-Sun after 12pm
Yes
3
Vail Golf Club, Vail
$50
$89
$50
Mon- Thurs and Sun after 1pm
Yes
3
* CommonGround offer: Must be CGA, CWGA or Golf Passport Plus member to get rate * Family Sports: 9 Hole Golf Course * South Suburban: Par 3 - Cart not included * Breckenridge offer: Open - 6/30 $99 (27 Holes); 7/1-8/31 $99 (18 Holes, Sundays Only); 9/1-Close $99 (27 Holes) * Shoulder and Peak seasons may vary
Go to coloradoavidgolfer.com for complete details.
2014 Member Privileges. All rates include a cart. Visit www.coloradoavidgolfer.com 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. The golf offers are good from January 1, 2014 – December, 31 2014, 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. 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 or property or injury to any person occurring while using the Golf Passport. The subscription expires with the Winter 2014 issue. One subscription per household. If ordered online, please allow up to 10 days for delivery of your Golf Passport.
co l o r a d o a v i d g o l f e r. c o m
June 2014 |Colorado AvidGolfer
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New Fairway Boogie Yonder Mountain String Band’s Adam Aijala prefers the flatpick to the flatstick. Either way, the guy can flat-out play. By Jon Rizzi
A
sia-la—that’s how you pronounce the surname of Yonder Mountain String Band guitarist Adam Aijala. “I get Ayhala, Ay-Jala, Ay-ala,” he says. “People think it’s Spanish or Middle Eastern. It’s Finnish, and all three of the as are actually the 27th letter in the Finnish alphabet, which looks like an a with two dots—an umlaut—over it.” So, if we were in Helsinki, he’d be Adam Äijälä, and people might think he’s related to hardcore punker Läjä Äijälä. But we’re in America—where umlauts adorn the names of metal bands like Mötley Crüe and Spi˙nal ˙ Tap, not those of bluegrass flatpickers. And since we’re north of Boulder, ready to tee off at Lake Valley Golf Club, all those tittles in Äijälä would suggest the self-proclaimed “bogey golfer” should receive eight strokes a side. But the 40-year-old musician doesn’t need the pops because we’re not having a
June 2014 |Colorado AvidGolfer
29
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Colorado AvidGolfer | June 2014
TM
match. It’s too chilly, windy—too April—for that. Growing up near Worcester, Mass., Aijala didn’t play golf—or bluegrass music, for that matter. He favored skateboarding and, after picking up guitar at age 13, the songs of hardcore bands like Black Flag. At the University of Massachusetts Amherst, he eventually gravitated to the Grateful Dead and Old & in the Way. By 1995, his senior year, he’d bought a pawnshop banjo and his playlist included bluegrass legends such as Norman Blake and Doc Watson. Following his muse to Boulder and Nederland, he and fellow bluegrass musicians Jeff Austin, Ben Kaufmann and Dave Johnston eventually formed Yonder Mountain String Band in 1998. The subsequent June they headed to the Telluride Bluegrass Festival “just for fun; we didn’t have a gig booked.” Playing on a friend’s porch, they drew such a large crowd that the festival invited them to the Elks Park stage. This month, the band, now with 10 albums to its credit, will play the main stage for the 15th consecutive year. During most of them, Aijala has also played the par-70 Telluride Golf Club, usually with bandmate Johnston and some friends. “A number of the musicians—Jason Carter, the Greensky Bluegrass guys— also play golf,” he says. “One year Michael Kang of String Cheese Incident played through our group. We saw him in the clubhouse later; he shot a 68.” That number won’t appear on Aijala’s scorecard at Lake Valley. “I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I’m as good as I’ll ever be,” he says. “It’s nice not to get upset about not playing as well as you think you should.” This acceptance represents a change from 2010, when he got out 75 times, teeing it up wherever the tour schedule took him. “I started applying the slim margin for error I accept with my music to my golf and realized I was paying to get upset, which
RHYTHM ACE: Aijala calls himself a “feel” player both on the course and onstage.
makes absolutely no sense.” Our round marks only his fourth of the year. After losing his opening tee shot in the marsh right of the fairway—and taking a penalty stroke instead of a proffered mulligan—Aijala stays true to his selfdescription and bogeys the first five holes, including the number-one-handicap third. On the long par-five ninth the guitarist picks it clean with crisp 5-iron from the fairway bunker en route to a well-earned par. His swing is fluid, and once he figures that yes, the putts do break away from the yonder mountains, he strings together a few beauties—which save him because he hits only one green in regulation. Although Aijala understands how rhythm and tempo translate to the golf swing, he doesn’t consider himself “mathematical about golf or music. I’m all about feel with both, not having to think, just doing it.” Given the cold and wind, his final score of 91 stands as impressive. Before heading back to the Boulder home he shares with his wife Julie, Aijala says he’s looking forward to this year’s Telluride festival, Yonder’s first since mandolinist Jeff Austin left the band. A guest musician will take his place. Telluride is famous for “sit in” sets, and Aijala could find himself trading licks with a Sam Bush, Chris Thile or Béla Fleck. “I get more nervous playing golf with different people than I get playing music,” he says, “but I love that both bring people together.” CAG
Jon Rizzi is the editor of CAG and Telluride Bluegrass Festival: The First Forty Years by author G. Brown.
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PHOTO g r a p h s BY EJ CARR ( L E F T s w i n g i n g ) AN D D o r o t h y S t. Cl a i r e
player’sCorner
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POP for pop This Father’s Day give him more than
Volvik Vista iV Golf Balls The four-piece construction ball optimizes distance and spin. Craig Stadler plays it. $45
a couple of strokes.
Puma Sound Chuck Wireless Sport Speaker Bluetooth connects wirelessly to your mobile device for deep, quality sound while doubling as a speakerphone. Its weatherresistant magnetic design makes it an ideal accessory for your golf cart. $130
WinnPro X 1.60 $23
WinnPro X 1.32 $21 WinnPro X 1.18 $20
WinnPro X Grips Uses a less tapered profile to eliminate wrist movement during the stroke and still delivers a comfortable, extremely oversized and tacky feel.
TaylorMade SLDR Mini Driver Steel head is larger than a 3-wood yet smaller than a driver. Low-forward CG promotes low spin for outstanding distance when you loft up. $280
PERSIMMON GOLF TIE Designed and produced by a Colorado couple, these high quality, 100% silk ties come in a variety of fun and inspired themes. $65 (only at persimmonties.com)
Bionic Relief Grip Golf Glove Ideal for arthritic hands, these give great grip and enhanced pads for more relief. $30 CLICGEAR 3.5+ PUSH CART It’s durable, compactible, maintenance-free and looks cool. The tires don’t even need air. $230 Odyssey Tank Cruiser Putter Adjustable Counterbalance Design features modifiable head and counterweights for both head and top of grip for more control. $250
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CAG
All products are available at PGATOUR SuperStore.
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player’sCorner
lesson 1
Dial up your swing speed The secret is in your hands, wrists and arms. By Dennis Murray
E
arlier in my career, as director of instruction at Torrey Pines Golf Course in San Diego, we had access to Biomechanical Research data that analyzed the golf swings of PGA Tour Players. Sophisticated computer analysis factually discovered that 85 percent of club head speed was created by the hands, wrists and arms. So, does this mean the other 15 percent of the swing involving the body is unimportant? Not at all. But it makes sense to master the 85 percent involving the hands, wrists and arms before moving on.
This approach contradicts most modern teaching, which emphasizes the body moving the club rather than the body moving in response to the use of the hands and arms swinging the club. You need to make this distinction to develop a natural, instinctive, effective and repeatable swing with club head speed. With a correct grip, set-up and aim, your effort to swing the club will shift your weight naturally. A conscious effort to shift weight is a mechanical response that destroys feel and makes a repeatable golf swing hard to come by. Learning how to swing the
golf club with your hands, wrists and arms is the key to developing a repeatable swing. What should that swing look like? As Arnold Palmer says, “Swing your swing.” Every golf swing—from Jack Nicklaus’ to Bubba Watson’s to those of the trick-shot artists who hit balls nearly as far off their knees as they do from a normal address position—starts with the hands, wrists and arms. To get you on your way to feeling this, try these two swing drills.
Swing Drills
Feet Together
PHOTOGRAPHS BY JERE M Y CANTA L A M ESSA
The best way to take ownership of a free and fluid arm swing is to hit shots with your feet together, heels touching. This drill requires an efficient swinging of the hands, wrists and arms while maintaining balance on a very narrow platform. The goal is to hit the ball 80 percent as far as you can from a normal stance. After a good deal of practice this drill reduces lunging of the body and makes you a fine arm swinger.
Left Foot Right Toe (for right-handed players) This is a great drill if your body has been out-racing your club head to the ball. If you lunge forward with your body you will fail to make good contact and possibly fall on your butt. With the weight mostly on your left foot and supported slightly with the big toe of your right foot, it is easier to focus on the feel of the hands and arms swinging the clubhead through the ball with your body rotating as a result of the arm swing.
Dennis Murray is head PGA Teaching Professional at Valley Country Club in Centennial and owner of Uncomplicated Golf Instruction (720-940-5007; golfinmurphy@aol.com) Find more lessons and helpful tips at coloradoavidgolfer.com .
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CAG
player’sCorner
lesson 2
= Better Pitches Less Hips The difference between powering the ball and finessing it is about more than just distance. By Larry Rinker
I
nconsistent pitching doesn’t just plague baseball teams. It torments golfers as well. To execute more consistent pitch shots, understand that the kinematic sequence for a finesse wedge is not the same sequence as a power golf swing. In a power swing, the lower body starts the down swing; in a finesse wedge swing, the club head starts the down swing and the lower body remains passive, with the club head fall-
ing down the plane, and the motion controlled by the arms and hands. You want to release the club head earlier in order to have the proper shaft lean and use the bounce of the sand wedge at impact. If you hold the angle and have too much shaft lean at impact, the sharp leading edge will dig into the ground, and if you hit a quarter inch behind the ball you will chili-dip it. You will have more room for error with the finesse
sequence because the wedge sole will bounce or drop kick into the ball and there will be hardly any difference in the distance the ball goes versus a clean strike. Start releasing the club head, hitting down, and feeling the bounce correctly brushing the ground. If you are still having trouble, make sure the club head is on plane coming into the ball. It’s better to be steep with your club head plane than it is to be shallow.
On the left, I am at impact with my weight shifted left, my hips only slightly rotated, with just one to two degrees of forward shaft lean. On the right, after making impact, you can see my hips are only slightly rotated with the club head passing my hands. If this were a power golf swing, my hips would be more rotated in both of these positions and the shaft lean would be more forward.
Here I am at the finish where my hands and wrists have re-cocked the club vertically. The hip and shoulder rotation is involuntary and just moving and rotating to support the swinging motion of my arms, hands and wrists after impact. The pivot is not the engine. Larry Rinker competed in more than 500 PGA Tour events and is Director of Instruction at Red Sky Golf Academy, Red Sky Golf Club in Wolcott. (larryrinker.com; 407-810-7489)
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TIP: To get the feel of this, tee some balls up and hit them with just your right arm and
hand with a nice light grip where you can feel the weight of the club head. You’ll see that you don’t use as much hip rotation and use more arm, hand, and wrist. Now hit some with both hands and try to get that feel. If you are still having trouble, make sure your weight is in your lead side, and the club head is on plane coming into the ball. (see above)
Find more lessons and helpful tips at coloradoavidgolfer.com .
CAG
FOOD
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P h o t o g r a p h c o u rt e s y o f l e p e t i t pa r i s
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FRENCH TWIST: Le Petit Paris’ take on Bœuf Bourguignon.
The Peaks of Flavor Nothing goes better with round at Keystone, Breck or the Raven than high-country cuisine. By Gary James LE PETIT PARIS For those who like to overindulge in French food—or just go hard on relaxing, hearty food and drink—there’s nothing like Le Petit Paris, Summit County’s only French restaurant, located just a half block east of Breckenridge’s historic Main Street. It’s got the warm and friendly atmosphere of an old-fashioned bistro, with mouthwatering aromas wafting from the kitchen. Plus you get the adorable sister act of Arielle and her sibling Marie Jo. Arielle greets you upon entering the restaurant. Proudly in her 70s, she’ll readily explain that she came from France to New York in 2000 and worked co l o r a d o a v i d g o l f e r. c o m
in restaurants around Manhattan, then discovered Breckenridge and the Colorado mountains while on vacation. She opened Le Petit Paris in 2007. On a recent visit, Arielle was her sweet, friendly self, dressed in a cotton print top and blue jeans (her waitstaff was professionally attired). And I found myself noting: this lady smells good. She immediately sized up me and my wife and seated us at the “holding hands” table, located in a corner of the dining room—and then put us in the hands of Chef Josh Hall, a graduate of the New England Culinary School. When he joined Le Petit Paris Bistrot, Arielle sent him to Paris to immerse himself in the
French atmosphere. A ski buddy had tipped us off to Hall’s rich Velouté de Châtaigne et Champignon—a creamy soup of sweet chestnuts and mushrooms—and what he called “the best bouillabaisse this side of Provence.” Both indulgences however, had apparently departed with the winter menu, so we started with Soupe à l’oignon—French Onion Soup to non-Francophones— which was a revelation. Chef Hall’s secret? Veal stock and brandy. Escargots Petit Paris had to be on the menu. Yes, snails carry a lot of baggage for newbies, and they can look, um, mucoid when presentation is done badly. That’s not the case with Chef Josh, who takes the June 2014 |Colorado AvidGolfer
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P h o t o g r a p h c o u rt e s y o f l e p e t i t pa r i s ( TOP ) AN D BY GARY JA M ES
plump protein, which has absorbed herbs, and then slowly heats it in a garlicky butter mixture on the stovetop. Meli Melo is Chef Josh’s selection of half charcuterie, and half assortment of cheeses and honey. The former featured a pâté de champagne, but the moist pork garlic sausage stole the show; the latter included Gruyère, Roquefort and Dauphinoise (a member of the Brie family, creamier and more potent). Of the entrées, we enjoyed Cotelettes d’agneau—a grilled locally raised lamb chop, with polenta and a rich mushroom ragout melded with oh-so-tender braised lamb. The French concocted the classic Boeuf Bourguignon to turn tough beef chunks into a delicious dish; Chef John upgrades it with braised short ribs, still made with nicely browned vegetables and deglazed with red wine. Then it was Marie Jo’s turn. Arielle brought her from Paris to work alongside her as her pastry chef, and she spends each afternoon creating fresh, scrumptious desserts, which are listed on the main menu, reflecting her disdain for a separate dessert menu brought after the meal. “Women look at dessert first,” she explained. “Then they say, ‘I’ll have a salad, a little chicken...and a big dessert!’” The Profiteroles
BOARD DECISION: Petit Paris’ Meli Melo mixes charcuterie, cheeses, honey and more.
were sublime, and the Crème brûlée shamed other cooks who cut their heavy cream with milk. Marie Jo’s signature dessert is Fondant au Chocolat, a molten chocolate cake with crème anglaise. She uses only Belgian chocolate, just a tablespoon of flour, and I would walk on broken glass to eat it again. The service from Katie was superb—I’ve always found the smart-funny-pretty combo in
a waitress to be irresistible. Her recommendation of a Côtes du Rhone Domaine de Pierredon, 50% Grenache and 50% Mourvedre—not as dry as the grenache and syrah blend we were leaning toward—was spot-on. Everything at La Petit Paris is a transportive experience à la française. My wife even raved about the cute women’s bathroom. My favorite touch was the weird French 1980s
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MTV clips playing on the television above the bar, ranging from arcane musical theater numbers to Teletubbies knockoffs...and suddenly, Plastic Bertrand’s “Ça Plane Pour Moi”! Tout est bien qui finit bien... 161 E. Adams Ave. Breckenridge; 970-547-5335; lepetitparisbistro.com
ADRIANO’S BISTRO
BELLISSIMO: Adriano’s Melanzane Rolentine oozes with two cheeses, two sauces and a plateful of baked ziti.
dinners a night and running an old-school Italian deli with housemade pasta, cheeses, cured meats—they even made their own wine out back. When they got tired of people asking for Boar’s Head, they traded the deli for a fine dining experience, but soon retired the white tablecloths and hit the mark with the current family-style atmosphere.
relax. escape. ENJOY.
Breckenridge, CO
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BEAVERRUN.COM | 800.288.1282
The menu is different with each visit, limited to five main courses; all meals come with a small appetizer, soup and salad. The former was minimeatballs served in a creamy demi-glace—Sicilian-style, different from the six other styles of Italian meatballs, according to Ivano. I tried the Linguine Fresco with fresh tomatoes and basil in a red sauce, adding fresh homemade
After a day of teeing off on one of the highest golf courses in North America, stay at Beaver Run with lodging rates up to 30% OFF*. Book your discounted golf rate at the same time. *Some restrictions and blackout dates may apply. Not valid with other discounts.
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P h o t o g r a p h BY GARY JA M ES
So the first thing I notice at Adriano’s Bistro is the rules. Posted on a chalkboard at the door: no gluten-free options (you are referred to a neighboring eatery). The menu spells things out further: no separate checks, a split-plate fee. Just when I’m expecting to get some Italian tough love, a sweet-faced twentysomething kid introduces himself. Adriano Ottoborgo grew up on his grandfather’s ranch in Corciano, 30 miles north of Venice. His family made its way to Colorado and landed in Dillon by way of Berthoud Falls, keeping dual citizenship. Adriano wanted to go to culinary arts school, but his father, Ivano, told him to work in a few restaurants first. They split the difference and opened Adriano’s. Adriano lives with his folks downstairs; their commute is 14 steps. Ivano hunkers down in the kitchen, preparing recipes that sample from the different regions of Italy; Adriano serves as sous chef. The restaurant opened in 2010, doing 30
The ToP 70 PlAyerS Will Be There. Will yoU? The top 70 players in the world will compete in the PGA TOUR’s FedExCup Playoffs at Cherry Hills Country Club September 1-7, 2014. Purchase your tickets today at BMWChampionshipUSA.com.
Cherry Hills Country Club September 1-7, 2014
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P h o t o g r a p h c o u rt e s y o f SUNSHINE CA F E
MORNING GLORY: Hearty breakfast options start the day at Sunshine Cafe.
sausage (chicken or shrimp are also available). But I was most impressed with my wife’s Melanzane Rolentine. Eggplant is tricky—not cooked properly, it can be slick or bitter. But this dish— “The way my father got us to eat it when we were kids,” Adriano noted—reflected a creative approach of herb-marinated eggplant, rolled and stuffed with ricotta and parmesan cheeses and topped with both marinara and béchamel sauce, served on baked ziti. I vowed to return for the wood-fired pizza, which comes in a menu’s worth of choices. We washed down our meal with a bottle of Zonin Montepulciano d’Abruzzo. Adriano creates the desserts, and he’s proudest of his Tiramisu, which he doesn’t make with ladyfingers—it’s a simple yellow cake with custard, chocolate and mascarpone layers, chocolate shavings and a liqueur blend drizzled over the top. The young waitstaff was more casual than cameriere, as befits a mountain town. But the bottom line was delicious food and rustic charm. I should have known—the rules are never wrong. 250 Lake Dillon Dr., Dillon.; 970-468-6111; adrianosbistrodillon.com
SUNSHINE CAFE For 30 years, this classic breakfast place, located in the Summit Place Shopping Center, has been known for simple décor, good prices and a lot of food. Accordingly, it attracts all types. You can’t go wrong facing the day with a huge, delectable three-egg omelet (my fave is the Santa Fe, topped with a spicy pork green chile), but someone in my party always wrestles with the choice of thick oven-baked wheat cakes or pancakes (the Banana Nut is awesome). Always good to see Trout & Eggs on the menu, and the younger demo gravitates toward the Snowboarder’s Jump Start, a breakfast sandwich with eggs, tomatoes, cheese and avocado on sourdough bread. Extra kudos for the friendly and quick servers—I’ve never had an empty coffee cup, even when it’s nutty-busy. 250 Summit Pl., Silverthorne; 970-468-6663; sunshine-cafe.com CAG Boulder-based Gary James is CAG’s dining editor.
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Goldilocks and the Three Cars How does a middle-aged car guy find one that’s just right? By Isaac Bouchard
P h o t o g r a p h c o u rt e s y o f CA D I L L AC
NEW CADDY ON THE LOOP: The 2014 CTS.
Too Hot?
S
o much of how we perceive a vehicle—even if we are someone who has spent their entire professional career evaluating them—has to do with where we are in life. That thought came to the fore as I climbed into the all-new 2015 Subaru WRX STI ($34,495). Eleven years had passed since I bought one of the first of these rally wonders and reveled in its ferocious, uncompromising performance. The car looked similar, with bright blue scoops and bulges wrapped around shining gold wheels. It’s been updated of course. This model is two generations removed from my own, and the LED lights, quad exhausts and even larger rear wing attracted tremendous attention from Suby aficionados—of which there are an endless number on the Front Range. Inside it was déjà vu all over again, with blue trim, mediocre plastics and a tight, short-jab shifter falling
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readily to hand. My first one had no factory stereo; this one shouldn’t have had one, because it’s awful. Which is a shame as the new STI is quieter by far, its throbbing exhaust note dying away at highway speeds. The steering has clearly improved. My old Suby’s helm was considered vague at best. The new STI’s tiller is better than most cars you can now buy. It turns like a demon too, and the adjustable center differential allows you to play rally hero on lowfriction surfaces. A more rigid structure and stiffer springs have turned this STI into one of the funnest out-of-the-box machines available. What this new STI isn’t, however, is faster than my old one. Blame its middle-aged avoirdupois, perhaps a corollary of all the new onboard safety system. While the pedals allow for perfect heel-toe maneuvers and the brakes are incredibly strong, there just isn’t the kind of straight-line stonk I expect now. The STI is actually good value though; it costs less, adjusted for inflation, than my first-gen model did.
Too Cold?
For a 45-year old car guy, something like the new, third-generation 2014 BMW X5 initially seems to make more sense. In M Sport guise, riding on 20-inch wheels, it cuts an imposing figure, and appears suitably expensive ($68,200) for my perceived station in life. Inside it is a big step up from the second-generation model (or my own first-gen X5), too, with beautifully rendered surfaces and mainly rich materials worthy of the price. The infotainment system is the best in the business, the seats supremely comfortable and the heated wheel a joy to hold. There’s really no feel feeding back through it, but there’s commendable accuracy for a 5,300-pound SUV, and the chassis it commands is staggering in its breadth of ability. One moment the optional-but-essential adjustable shocks are in Comfort and the X5’s gliding along, the next I’m in Sport+ and it tracks like a slot racer, with almost zero roll and fierce reactions. colorado avidgo lf e r.c o m
C LUB AT
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sideBets SOLID AS ROCK: The BMW X5
Just Right?
In that case, the new 2014 Cadillac CTS ($63,600) seems to be the perfect blend of STI delinquency and X5 prestige. This new midsize Caddy is correctly sized to compete head-on with the Audi A6 and BMW 5-series, two of the class’ best. Outside it is more flamboyant, yet still refined. Inside, material quality surpasses the Germans’ in many areas, and the comfy back seat is spacious. The once-reviled CUE infotainment interface is now a non-issue; software updates make it fast acting and intuitive. Where the CTS really spanks the Euros is in dynamics. Cadillac has reinvented itself with stunning steering feel and feedback and superb chassis composure—yet at no expense in refinement or ride quality. Credit goes to rigorous weight management—the Vsport tips the scales almost 500 pounds lighter than its classmates, the rest to the brilliant magnetorheological damping. The popular “entry level” CTS, motivated by a 2-liter, 272hp/295lb-ft four, is quite quick enough at just over six seconds to 60 mph, with a deep vein of low-end thrust to tap, a very nicely tuned exhaust note and good economy.
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Now all it needs is a real transmission, as its six-speed auto just doesn’t cut it these days. And that tranny is available in the new, Vsport model, intended to slot in between the upcoming CTS-V and more mainstream models. This Cadillac struck me as an almost perfect blend of performance and all around usability. There’s 420 horses from its sonorous twin turbo V6, eight speeds in the ’box to provide thrills and economy, and a chassis of unmatched ability in this class, yet it still serves up 85 percent of the basic model’s quiet refinement. And 60 takes only 4.4 seconds. Now all it needs is AWD.
The Verdict?
With BMWs almost as popular as Subarus in Colorado, the CTS comes across as the one I’m less likely to lose in a parking lot. Still, my midlife self likes the practicality and luxury of the X5 but I’m not sure my youthful childless self likes the SUV baggage. The STI makes sense for where I am now. At least I think it does. CAG
Read more of contributor Isaac Bouchard’s automotive writing at coloradoavidgolfer.com and nicedrivz.com.
CORNERING THE MARKET: Subaru’s WRX STI.
coloradoavidgo lf e r.c o m
P h o t o g r a p h S c o u rt e s y o f B M W ( TOP ) AN D SUBARU
Ironically, the X5 50i is faster than the STI, burning to 60 in 4.3 seconds (compared to 5.0), all while making glorious noises and ripping off rapid-fire shifts through its eight speed gearbox. This big V8 Beemer drinks like a sailor just off the boat, but fuel eco is important, so I’d opt to get the diesel or “normal,” six-cylinder 35i model. But for a kid-free dude like me, the X5 has too much mass to haul around—especially with only the one seat occupied.
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Monday, July 14 7:30am 4-person shamble
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Per-event entry fee of $125 per player includes 18 holes of golf, cart, range balls, food and beverage + a $25 gift card to Park Meadows! *SAVE $25 by picking up your Online Registration Discount Voucher at Park Meadows Guest Services (while supplies last). Register at coloradoavidgolfer.mycustomevent.com or call Vanessa at 720.493.1729 ext. 15.
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G l ac i e r c l u b c ov e r p h o t o b y S c o t t S m i t h
The
Glacier Club
The pinnacle of mountain elegance in Colorful Durango
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Must-Take Mountain Golf Trips
Grand Junction • Montrose • Gunnison Durango • Colorado Springs • Grand County
Places to Call Home | Where to Tee It Up | Must-See Attractions | Tasty Tips
Golfweek ranks the The Golf Club at Redlands Mesa No. 1 in Colorado in its 2014 State-by-State listing of Courses You Can Play.Taking in views of the Grand Mesa, Bookcliffs and the Colorado National Monument, the surreal Jim Engh masterpiece gallops 7,007 yards over and around outcroppings and escarpments to create 18 unforgettable holes. The Golf Club at Redlands Mesa
Golf | Where to Tee It Up
1
A Grand Time
I
t With Colorado National Monu-
t Chipeta Golf Course
ment and McInnis Canyons as backdrop, Fruita’s Adobe National Golf Club boasts three nines—Desert, Monument and the par-37 Mesa, which stretches 3,783 yards, 400 longer than the other two.
features no par 5s and the longest hole measures 386 yards. But what this par59 executive layout lacks in difficulty, it makes up for in fun, spectacular scenery and superlative service.
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Delta Featured Courses Adobe Creek National Golf Course Fruita 970-858-0521; adobecreekgolf.com The Bridges Golf & Country Club Montrose 970-252-1119; montrosebridges.com Chipeta Golf Course Grand Junction 970-245-7177; chipetagolf.com The Links at Cobble Creek Montrose, 970-240-9542; cobblecreek.com Devil’s Thumb Golf Club Delta, 970-874-6262; devilsthumbgolfclub.com Lincoln Park Golf Course Grand Junction, 970-242-6394; golfgrandjunction.net The Golf Club at Redlands Mesa Grand Junction, 970-263-9270; redlandsmesa.com
Cobble Creek
Cobble Up a Game in Montrose
On the Tee crown” because of the ruddy rocks defining it, Tiara Rado Golf Club also is green (it’s an Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary) and blue (the 6,442-yard course has fledged all three species of American bluebird).
Montrose
Tiara Rado Golf Course Grand Junction, 970-254-3830; golfgrandjunction.net
n addition to fecund vineyards and orchards, Grand Junction’s high-desert landscape has spawned five distinctive public courses. Opened in 2001, Redlands Mesa represents the newest addition to a cache that includes the challenging nine at Lincoln Park, Chipeta Golf Course’s perky executive course and the 27-hole Adobe National Golf Club just northwest in Fruita. And thanks to a recent Phelps-Atkinson renovation, the beautifully historic and hazard-filled Tiara Rado Golf Course has regained the luster it had when it opened 40 years ago.
t Roughly translating to “red
Grand Junction
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Tipping out just shy of 7,000 yards, The Links at Cobble Creek winds around ten lakes and a creek, with water figuring into half the holes. Two 600-yard par 5s and a back nine featuring three par 3s, three par 4s and three par 5s make this layout as distinctive as its view of the San Juan Mountains.
400 yards at a time. Indulge in our reds, whites and greens. Come discover for yourself why people return again and again to Colorado’s Wine Country to golf at Tiara Rado Golf Course and The Golf Club at Redlands Mesa in Grand Junction.
golfgrandjunction.net
redlandsmesa.com
Turn your twosome into a foursome. Book a trip for 4 or more, and get a $20 Downtown GJ gift card on us.
800.962.2547
The Grand Junction region’s alkaline soil, hot sunny days and cool night breezes make the highdesert environment the ideal terroir to grow grapes. Sporting the highest vineyards in North America, the region supports some 30 vineyards and wineries, many offering tours and tastings. Palisade’s annual Colorado Mountain Winefest (Sept.18-21) showcases all of them, plus dozens more from across the state. visitgrandjunction.com Grand Junction vineyard
Lifestyle | Living Well
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Grand Junction Montrose DO & DINE Grand Junction Visitor and Convention Bureau 970-244-1480; visitgrandjunction.com The Ale House Grand Junction 970-242-7ALE; breckbrew.com Il Bistro Italiano Grand Junction 970-243-8622; ilbistroitaliano.com Red Canyon Grille Grand Junction 970-243-7736; redlandsmesa.com Los Altos Bed & Breakfast Grand Junction 970-256-0964; losaltosgrandjunction.com Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park Montrose, 970-641-2337; nps.gov/blca Creekside Restaurant Montrose, 970-249-5915; creeksidecobblecreek.com Remington’s Montrose, 970-252-1119; montrosebridges.com
Sunny in Every Way
F
eaturing awe-inspiring natural beauty and more sunny days than Denver, the home of the Colorado National Monument teems with exhilarating outdoor adventures. The Kokopelli Trail highlights a latticework of mountain bike routes, including the 142-mile Tabeguache Trail connecting Grand Junction to Montrose. Campers and hikers can explore the wonders of the Grand Mesa. Raft the whitewater of the Colorado River and take the scenic byways of Rim Rock Drive, Highway 65 and the Colorado-Utah Dinosaur Diamond Prehistoric Highway. visitgrandjunction.com
Red Canyon Grille
Where’s The Grub?
Stop & See t The soaring buttresses
t Grand Junction’s cultural
t Stay-and-Play deals
and steep cliffs of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison in Montrose plunge 2,722 feet to the thundering river below. The most spectacular parts of the 48-mile-long chasm lie within the national park.
side reveals itself with Art on the Corner, a pioneering program that dots the streets with 100 scuptures. Galleries and shops abound. So do live performances at the Avalon and Mesa theaters.
for most Grand Junction golf courses exist with many of the major hotel chains (Marriott, Hampton Inn, etc.) and B&Bs (Los Altos) located there. These hostelries often offer wine travel packages as well. visitgrandjunction.com
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Colorado AvidGolfer | June 2014
For more hot spots go to coloradoavidgolfer.com
Grand Junction’s finer eateries include Il Bistro Italiano, The Winery and Redlands Mesa’s Red Canyon Grille. In Montrose, Cobble Creek’s Creekside does great pizza and steak, and Remington’s at The Bridges may be one of Colorado’s best publiccourse restaurants.
Glacier Club
This month Durango’s Glacier Club will begin construction on nine new holes, bringing the facility’s total to 36 and completing the the long-awaited Glacier Course. Scheduled to open no later than 2017, the 18-hole Hale Irwin-Todd Schoeder Signature Design will complement the original Arthur Hills-designed Cliffs Course and provide a semiprivate resort option at the members-only facility.
Fore! in the Four Corners
Golf | Where to Tee It Up
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Durango Gunnison featured courses Dalton Ranch Golf Club Durango 970-247-8774 daltonranch.com Dos Rios Golf Club Gunnison 970-641-1482 dosriosgolf.net Glacier Club Durango 970-382-7800 theglacierclub.com Hillcrest Golf Club Durango 970-247-1499 golfhillcrest.com
T
he 20-mile section of U.S. 550 that connects Glacier Club in the north of Durango to Hillcrest Golf Club in the south isn’t part of the fabled “Million-Dollar Highway” popularized in Jay Grant’s song. But that costly section of 550 between Ouray and Silverton has no golf courses, which should make golfers value the Durango stretch all the more—especially when you consider that midway between the private Glacier and the public Hillcrest lies the semi-private Dalton Ranch & Club, which welcomes public play on its layout along the Animas River.
Dalton Ranch
An Hour’s Drive
On the Tee t No relation to Pete, Ken Dye designed Dalton Ranch & Club along the Animas River
below the towering red cliffs of the San Juan Mountains. The impeccably maintained facility recently underwent an ownership change. 56
Colorado AvidGolfer | June 2014
t The three nines at Glacier Club tuck into the piney
foothills of the San Juans. The club opened 40 years ago as the 18-hole Cliffs at Tamarron resort, went private 10 years ago and now will again have a resort component.
t Situated 3 hours from
Durango and an hour from Montrose, the friendly Dos Rios Golf Club runs 6,566 tree-lined yards along the Gunnison River. Water appears on 17 holes, and great food awaits on the 19th, known as the Dos Grill.
For golf packages go to coloradoavidgolfer.com
Dalton Ranch’s impeccably maintained layout is a must-play for golfers coming to Durango. For another award-winning example of architect Ken Dye’s handiwork, drive an hour to Farmington, N.M., home of Piñon Hills Golf Course. And if you head west from Durango, you’ll hit the city of Cortez and Press Maxwell’s Conquistador Golf Course.
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Lifestyle | Living Well
40
Durango
A road- and mountain-biking mecca, Durango has for 40 years staged the 50-mile Iron Horse Bicycle Classic. Dozens of other races have followed. The area also boasts more than 1,000 miles of rugged single-track right outside of town, as well as endless ribbons of paved highways that wind through the hills, valleys, and flats of Southwest Colorado.
Stay in Stylet Both built before the 20th Century, Durango’s elegant Strater and General Palmer hotels epitomize the Victorian elegance of the Old West. Hipper, perhaps, are the boutique Nobody’s Inn and the magnificently restored Leland House & Rochester Hotel. For more of a resort feel, go to the Durango Mountain Resort. Visit durango.org for all hotel information.
Get Some Grub t
For more hot spots go to coloradoavidgolfer.com
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Durango purports to have more restaurants per capita than San Francisco. The most authentic is the Bar D Chuckwagon, an old-timey outdoor cowboy experience that includes a barbecue supper, music and comedy. The Strater’s Mahogany Grill, Seasons Rotisserie and the Sow’s Ear all take a more conventional approach towards fine dining. Durango’s five brewpubs include Ska, Carver, Steamworks, BREW Pub and the Durango Brewing Company. New blood at Dalton Ranch has invigorated the club’s Swing Restaurant. Visit durango.org for all restaurant listings.
Colorado AvidGolfer | June 2014
Wade a Minute Durango derives from a Basque word meaning “water town,” because the Animas River flows right through it. These are gold medal fly-fishing waters, but local guides like San Juan Anglers will point you to the more secluded Pine, Dolores and Florida Rivers, as well as remote creeks, lakes and streams teeming with fish.
colora do avidgo lf e r.c o m
Calling It Home Glacier Club Set against the majestic San Juans on nearly 1,000 acres and surrounded by another 3 million of National Forest, Glacier Club offers some of the best residential opportunities in the region— if not the country. From square footage to acreage to pricing, the club offers an extraordinary range of options that has recently expanded. Expect to see new real estate products that provide families a broader range of price points, without departing from the club’s high building standards. In addition to expanding its popular line of townhomes, Glacier Club will introduce the innovative Golf Villa that features four master suites, catering to couples or friends on a golf junket. The new lineup will also include a condominium facility that meets the needs of owners who prefer shorter lengths of stay and lock and leave convenience. For more information: 970382-7800; theglacierclub.com
A Dozen Vacations In One Destination™ #visitdurango
Get Your Free Travel Planner • www.durango.org • 866.631.7009 co lo r a d o a v i d g o l f e r. c om
June 2014 | Colorado AvidGolfer
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The Club at Flying Horse
Golf | Where to Tee It Up
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Talk about a game-changer. Nine years ago this August, The Club at Flying Horse debuted on the northern edge of Colorado Springs with 7,300 challenge-filled yards of Tom Weiskopf-designed golf, 43,000 square feet of majestic clubhouse space and another 50,000 to accommodate athletes, spa-goers and members with kids. There’s also a K-12 school and medical center on premises.
Colorado Springs FEATURED COURSES The Broadmoor Colorado Springs 888-974-4990; broadmoor.com The Country Club of Colorado at Cheyenne Mountain Resort; 719-538-4080; ccofcolorado.com The Club at Flying Horse Colorado Springs (719) 494-1222 flyinghorsecolorado.com Garden of the Gods Club & Resort Colorado Springs 800-923-8838; gardenofthegodsclub.com Patty Jewett Golf Course Colorado Springs 719-385-6934 springsgov.com/pattyjewett
Golf Springs Eternal
W
hat started in 1898 with the course that would become Patty Jewett continues today across Colorado Springs, where The Broadmoor’s East, West and Mountain courses continue to attract the world and the recent renovations to the Country Club of Colorado layout at Cheyenne Mountain Lodge are drawing raves. The 18 inspired holes at The Club at Flying Horse present members with endless enjoyment, as do the 27 at Kissing Camels Golf Club at the Garden of the Gods Club, which also welcomes resort play in much the same way as the Broadmoor and Cheyenne Mountain do.
On the Tee t Few golf facilities compare to The Broadmoor, which opened in 1918 and this year earned “#1 Golf Resort in North America” from Golf readers. Last year Links named The Broadmoor one of the “25 Best Golf Resorts in the World.”
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Colorado AvidGolfer | June 2014
t Patty Jewett Golf Course’s 27 holes see
more rounds than any facility in the state. The popularity of the 116-year-old doyenne attests as much to its beauty, challenge and conditioning as to its affordability.
The Country Club of the Rockies
New Cheyenne
t An ownership change at Garden of the Gods Club has sparked enthu-
siasm among the membership. Renovations are well underway at the iconic private club and resort, which is home to Kissing Camels Golf Club.
For golf packages go to coloradoavidgolfer.com
Most people know The Country Club of Colorado by the name of the hotel to which it is attached: Cheyenne Mountain. They also know the 40-year-old Pete Dye design as one of the state’s true gems, especially after Phelps-Atkinson Golf Course Design recently redid the tees and greens, added 150 yards and made other improvements.
In Life, as in Golf, Club Selection is Everything.
Rated “BEST OVERALL - PRIVATE CLUB EXPERIENCE” in Colorado
While Flying Horse is renowned for its golf, our award-winning club has been said to rival the finest resorts of Europe. If your soul yearns for offerings and services so handsome, so complete, so luxurious they defy comparison, The Club at Flying Horse is your choicest of choices.
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Lifestyle | Living Well
Colorado Springs
8
Cheyenne Mountain Resort’s eight residential lodges consist of 316 finely appointed guest rooms and suites—all of which benefited from $20 million in renovations three years ago. Surrounded by Colorado Springs’ naturally breathtaking scenery, the resort offers swimming, golf, tennis, indoor half-court basketball and a full-service workout center complete with state-of-the-art fitness equipment. cheyennemountain.com.
Get Schooled t Built in 1916, the Ivywild Elementary School at 1604 S. Cascade Avenue closed in 2009. Five years later, it’s become a hub of commerce and community anchored by the local Bristol Brewery. The reimagined space also contains a gourmet deli, charcuterie, bakery, art school and a fresh fruit and vegetable market. Concerts, films and art exhibits take place in the gym. There’s even an espresso bar/cocktail lounge in what was—and is still called—The Principal’s Office.
Be a Sport t
For more hot spots go to coloradoavidgolfer.com
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Colorado Springs stages a full calendar of sporting events. July 18-20 & 25-27 will see the Rocky Mountain State Games, a festival for athletes of all ages and athletic abilities. On August 24 The Broadmoor Pikes Peak Cycling Hill Climb covers the same 20km course cars cover in the The Broadmoor Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. And September 6-7, at the Pikes Peak Downhill, skateboarders will fly down 1.5 miles of the course’s sweeping turns, drops, and banked hairpins. coloradospringssports.org
Colorado AvidGolfer | June 2014
Cheyenne Mountain Resort
Eating the Springs When it comes to Colorado Springs dining, you can’t beat five stars and diamonds of The Broadmoor’s many restaurants, including the newest, Ristorante del Lago. Other options include The Craftwood Inn,Cliff House and Adam’s Mountain Cafe— all in Manitou Springs.
The Broadmoor colora do avidgo lf e r.c o m
Calling It Home FLYING HORSE
At Flying Horse, luxury living comes with a smorgasbord of choices. Each of the community’s ten distinct neighborhood Villages boasts enclaves, open spaces, pocket parks and homes designed and built by some of the most respected names in the business. It’s like having a summer home, winter cottage and fall retreat rolled into one. Lavish options include traditional ranch-style and two-story homes from the $300s; ranch-style paired-patio homes from the upper $200s; and custom homes and homesites from $500,000 to more than $1 million. All homes afford access to breathtaking views; a European-influenced Club, Spa, and Clubhouse and a boldly-conceived K-12 academic campus. Membership opportunities range from social dining to full golf, and the location, less than 50 minutes from the Denver Tech Center and 15 from downtown Colorado Springs, makes it an ideal next place to live. FlyingHorseColorado.com; 719-886-4800
Come play in our backyard
Your Summer Golf “Play-cation” With more than $4 million in renovations, world-class PGA instructors, and a brand new stay and play package, Cheyenne Mountain Resort and Club is sure to please players of every level. Packages are available from $199* per person including luxurious accommodations and unlimited golf on our private Pete Dye Championship course. Surrounded by the stunning peaks of the majestic A Rocky Mountains this exclusive experience is every golfer’s perfect “play-cation.” After a day of golf in the Colorado sunshine, relax and enjoy our Four-Diamond accommodations and resort amenities. *Package rates per person/per night based on double occupancy.
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Elevate your game.
3225 Broadmoor Valley Road | Colorado Springs, CO 80906 | p 800.588.0250 | CheyenneM ountain.com co lo r a d o a v i d g o l f e r. c om
June 2014 | Colorado AvidGolfer
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Considered one of the classic mountain golf experiences, Pole Creek Golf Club comprises 27 holes on three distinct courses: The Ranch, Meadow and the newer Ridge. The Ranch and Meadow nines, designed by Gary Player and Ron Kirby, wander through lush fields, while the Denis Griffiths-designed Ridge showcases views of the Indian Peaks and Continental Divide. Pole Creek Golf Club
Golf | Where to Tee It Up
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Granby Grand Lake Winter Park featured courses Golf Granby Ranch Granby 970-887-2709 granbyranch.com
Grand Elk Golf Club Granby 970-887-9122 grandelk.com Grand Lake Golf Course Grand Lake 970-627-8008 grandlakerecreation.com/ golf_main.html Pole Creek Golf Club Winter Park 970-887-9195 polecreekgolf.com
No Pines, No Problem
I
f you haven’t played Grand Lake Golf Course since the early part of this century, you won’t recognize it today. Hailed for decades as a one-of-a-kind gem carved out of a Rocky Mountain lodgepole forest, the 50-year-old course lost more than 100,000 trees during the pine-beetle infestation of the last decade, reincarnating the tree-lined layout as a links-like circuit. It looks and plays differently now, with fewer frost delays and better turf and greens because of the added sun exposure. Is it a better course now or before? Go play it and judge for yourself.
On the Tee t Golf Granby Ranch
t Grand Elk Golf Club
has had many names over the years, but people still call the 7,260-yard layout one of the region’s best, thanks to a renovation by Nicklaus Design and the natural flow of lakes and ponds throughout the property.
reflects the vision of Tripp Davis and Craig Stadler, who drew Inspiration from Gleneagles and the heathland courses of the British Isles, using the rugged, rolling terrain to influence shotmaking.
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Colorado AvidGolfer | June 2014
t Pole Creek Golf Club has sustained its ex-
cellence since being named one of Golf Digest’s best new courses of 1985. It is an annual fixture on “Best in State” lists and has won two consecutive CAGGYs for Best Mountain Course.
Grand Elk Golf Club
School’s Open John Jacobs’ Golf Schools and Academies debuted its fourteenth location in a grand opening ceremony at Grand Elk Golf Club last month. “Colorado has always been among our students’ favorite destinations,” said Shelby Futch, For golf president and CEO of John packages go to Jacobs. “This property in Granby coloradoavidgolfer.com is certain to be among them.”
Room and Board Inn at SilverCreek Granby; 970 887-2131 innatsilvercreek.com Grand Lake Lodge Grand Lake, 970-627-3967 grandlakelodge.com Hot Sulphur Springs Resort & Spa Soak in the healing waters in one of this resort’s 21 pools west of Granby. 970-725-3306 hotsulphursprings.com
Hot Sulphur Springs
Maverick’s Grille Granby; 970-887-9000 mavericksgrille.com Fontenot’s Fresh Seafood & Grill Winter Park;. 970-726-4021 fontenotswp.com
Fontenot’s Fresh Seafood & Grill
co lo r a d o a v i d g o l f e r. c om
June 2014 | Colorado AvidGolfer
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Elk Season Comes Early
When Koelbel and Company purchased the majority of the remaining homesites in the second-home golf course community of Grand Elk, the visionary Colorado developer immediately reenergized the property. Located only 90 miles from Denver and a short distance from Rocky Mountain National Park, Grand Elk features affordable cabins and custom-home sites on a championship course just minutes from the resort amenities of Winter Park, the water sports of Lake Granby, miles of hiking and biking trails, and world-class fly-fishing on the nearby headwaters of the Fraser and Colorado Rivers. Koelbel will debut its stunning new model home golf villas this month. Starting at $358,000, the two- and three-bedroom homes feature open floor plans measuring 1,500 square feet and up. Each home includes charming and sizable outdoor living spaces for entertaining, relaxing and savoring what makes Colorado Colorado. For more information, call 970-7268200 or visit koelbelatgrandelk.com.
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Colorado AvidGolfer | June 2014
Grand Elk
colora do avidgo lf e r.c o m
Tee ng
Himself Up Mark Schlereth
has transitioned from an anonymous offensive lineman into a popular TV and radio personality who counts green chile and golf among his many talents. By Sam Adams | Portrait by Peter Lockley/Clarkson Creative
M
ark Schlereth remembers
the first time he ever drove the green. He was a 23-year-old, 290-pound rookie offensive lineman with the Washington Redskins. The Alaska native never had picked up a club, and was playing golf for the first time ever during a team outing. “I think it was a Par 5, and one of the guys in our group got on in two. So I go, ‘I got it guys. I’ll putt it,’” Schlereth recalls. “I’ve never been on a golf course before and I drive my cart onto the green. These guys are screaming ‘Noooooooo’ and I’m like, ‘I got it fellas.’ I hopped out with my putter. Like, I had zero golf etiquette. “That was my indoctrination.” It was an innocent rookie mistake by Schlereth in 1989, one worthy of a penalty flag and a huge laugh. Ever since, his life has been one long, winding cart ride down the path of success. He raised three children with his wife, Lisa, while playing 12 seasons in the NFL—a career that included 29 surgeries and three Super Bowl championships: one with Washington and back-to-back titles with the Denver Broncos. There’s the multimillion-dollar business venture—Mark Schlereth’s Stinkin’ Good Green Chile—and his recurring role as Detective Roc Hoover on the Guiding Light soap opera series. The man nicknamed “Stink” in honor of his home state’s fermented fish “delicacy” called “stinkhead” and his tendency to soil himself during games has also sold television shows—two to CBS, one to Lifetime and one to E!. c ol oradoavi dgol f er. c om
And then there’s the television thing Schlereth has going. This is his 14th season as one of the most popular NFL analysts on ESPN. For a guy who joined his former offensive line mates in a vow not to give quotes to the media during the season, Schlereth is as talkative—and knowledgeable—as they come in front of the television cameras. “People get on me, saying I’m a hypocrite because now all I do is talk,” Schlereth says. “There was this misconception that it was a contentious relationship between the linemen and the media. I’d tell them, you have no idea what’s going on. We’re friends with everybody. We just didn’t give you quotes because it was a game. “When I first retired I thought I’d take a couple of years off after football—just take a couple of years to hang at home. Literally, after two weeks my wife said, ‘If you don’t find something to do, we will get divorced. You’re driving me nuts.’ “I am the world’s neediest person. I just am. I’m creative, always thinking what I can do, I’ve always got ideas I want to work on . . . and I need outlets. So initially, I signed a one-year deal (with ESPN) with a one-year option. I was just trying to hang on.” After Schlereth’s first year the network wanted to sign him to a long-term deal. “What I’ve learned is, just like anything else in life, if you’re efficient, you grind, you work hard and you are passionate and care about it, you’re going to find a way to be employed for a long time—especially in this business. In the broadcasting business, I think the majority of the athletes who come in as analysts think that it’s easy. It’s not. “I would probably consider myself a middle-innings, long relief guy. A guy who can come in, on any topic and in any situation and give you the innings you need on television. And there’s not a lot of us that can talk about quarterback play, linebacker play, d-line play…that study the game enough to have an educated opinion.” With all he has going on in his life, it’s mildly amazing that Schlereth can find time to play golf. But he does, usually when he’s closest to work at ESPN in Connecticut. Those rounds usually take place with Trey Wingo, his good friend and host of ESPN’s NFL Live. “I call him my work wife,” Wingo says. “Put it this way, I know no matter what we’re talking about, I can turn to him with a question and he’ll give an honest, thoughtful and opinionated answer. That’s all you can ask from anybody doing this job. June 2014 | Colorado AvidGolfer
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Colorado AvidGolfer | June 2014
READY, SET: Schlereth delivers colorful insight with Trey Wingo and Tedy Bruschi.
I was traveling a lot, year-round, and I essentially put the sticks away for about six years. “My thought process is, I’m always gone and a recipe for divorce is to come home for the two days I’m home and say, ‘Hey honey, I’m going to spend five hours at the golf course.’ Right? “But I started picking it up because I was being invited to a lot of celebrity tournaments. I was on a good little circuit for a while. But I only play in Connecticut or on the road. I don’t really play in Colorado that much any more—maybe a couple times at Lone Tree Golf
Cure, a charity that has raised more than $2 million for children with neurological diseases and programs for special-needs children. “That tournament was the cornerstone of our foundation,” says Founding Director Robb Nelson, whose five-yearold son, Hunter, died of Sturge Weber syndrome. “Mark is a far better person than he was a football player—and I was a huge fan of his playing. He and Dave were the only non-family members to give eulogies at my son’s funeral.” One thing about Schlereth is certain—when he does something, he wants to put in the
ON HIS MARK: During the eight years of his charity event (right) and for more than a decade with ESPN’s Wingo and Herm Edwards, Schlereth has played pivotal roles.
Club. I rarely play in Denver, but hey—I’m rarely in Denver.” For eight years at the Inverness Golf Club in Englewood, he and his former line mate co-hosted the Dave Diaz-Infante & Mark Schlereth Celebrity Golf Classic to benefit Hunter’s Dream for a
work to be good at it. He might not have the available time, but he makes the most of what he does have. When it comes to golf, he’s no different. And Schlereth, who recalls his best round as 76, can honestly size up his golf deficiencies as if he were
analyzing the shortcomings of the Broncos’ defense. “I wouldn’t say that I’m a normal prototypical golf addict guy,” Schlereth said. “Most golfers will say, ‘Hey, remember 17, it was that dogleg right?’ Look, I’m just out there, man. But I have grown to enjoy the process of striking the ball well, and the feeling that you have—and the frustration. “The thing about what I did for a living compared to golf is that it’s completely counter-intuitive to the way I live my life— which says, if things aren’t going well, apply more pressure. That was the NFL. “The mental challenge, as well as the physical challenge because my body is fairly broken
down, but the mental challenge of golf is what I find intriguing. This game, in my world, makes zero sense. You don’t feel like you swing hard and you pound it. Then you apply more force and it goes nowhere. The game constantly tells you to put on the brakes. “The problem with me and golf sometimes is my back and my body. Twenty-nine surgeries will take a toll on you. One day I can consistently be 315 off the tee. The next day, if my back locks up, it’s 235 off the tee. (Those numbers also roughly reflect Schlereth’s playing weight and current poundage.) “I can go out and shoot midto-high 70s, or I can shoot 90. That’s my golf game. When I’m striking it well, I do hit it pretty coloradoavidgo lf e r.c o m
P H O T O G R A P H S C O U RT E S Y O F E S P N I M AG E S ( T O P an d b ottom ) an d ro b b ne l son
“A lot of times, when guys are playing, they see the media at best as a necessary evil—or sometimes the enemy. Then, when they come to work here they realize we’re not all threelegged, four-horned devils. Maybe we work hard at what we do. I think they take a much greater appreciation for it.” That is Wingo’s assessment of Schlereth the football analyst. As for Schlereth the golfer…“We are, I would say, the exact opposite of competitive,” Wingo says. “Neither one of us is getting our Senior Tour card any time soon. I would argue that there might be more putts conceded in every round than maybe other people concede in their entire lives. The other thing is, we try to play before we come into work. So we play a little speed golf, basically; we fly around as fast as we can.” Wingo recalls playing with Schlereth in Denver in 2012. “I believe we played Arrowhead. The day before it was 70 degrees and beautiful. In classic Denver fashion, the next day it snowed. But it was a dry snow and it was above freezing. So we played and were the only two on the course. The guys in the pro shop were looking at us thinking, ‘What is your major malfunction?’ We’re the only ones out there, in ear muffs and gloves.” Schlereth labels himself an “accurate ball striker.” Wingo takes some issue with that selfassessment. “I’m not sure I’m buying that one,” he says. “I would say that Mark has a really good game off the tee and is really long with the irons. Around the greens he struggles a bit simply because so many things hurt sometimes from all the years in the trenches. But I tell you, when he hits it, it goes a long, long, long way.” Schlereth had put his clubs away for several years before his celebrity status helped lure him back to the fairways. “I was playing a bunch and got to the point to where I was playing really well,” Schlereth says. “But then
well. The more swing thoughts I have in my head, the worse I am. I’m an athlete. I know I played on the offensive line, but I’m an athlete. I just rely on athleticism.” Schlereth has done so much in his life since being an NFL rookie in ’89. He’s always made the time to help raise his children, never letting the duties of fatherhood get away from him. His eldest daughter, Alex, is a 29-year-
old actress and rising sportscaster. His youngest child, Avery, is a 21-year-old aspiring model. Son Daniel, 28, has pitched in the major leagues since 2009. “They’re trying to hustle, but it’s not like they picked easy things. I tell them overnight success takes about seven to fifteen years,” Schlereth says. “I make it a point to get to everything I can get to. Just because your kids are grown doesn’t
CAG
Contributing Editor Sam Adams, an awardwinning journalist and comedian, co-hosts Sports A to Z with Ron Zappolo on KUSA-TV.
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FREQUENT FLYER: Schlereth’s 3,300-mile commute finds him at home two or three days a week.
stop you from being a parent. They still need you.” There’s still more to come for Schlereth. He’ll continue his work, both on television and radio, for ESPN. There’s expansion ahead for Stink Inc. and the green chile business. Schlereth would like to fit in corporate speaking engagements too. He gets his eight hours sleep every night, and plenty of caffeine—maybe too much—into his bloodstream on a daily basis. When he decides to put more time into his golf game, Schlereth very well could break 70. Or come close. “I can ham-and-egg an 87 every day of the week,” he says. “Breaking 70? That, for me, would be work. Like, I would have to put away TV, radio, business—and golf would have to become my business.” At least he knows the first rule of that business: Keep the cart off of the green.
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Cow Pasture Pool?
The course Bruce Maness built on his Cortez dairy farm is anything but. By Jon Rizzi
O
n Bruce and Nancy
Maness’s lush, 40acre property, tucked alongside Mount Hesperus into the state’s far southwestern corner, spread nine punctiliously groomed par-three golf holes. They range in length from 124 to 238 yards. They dogleg left and right, strategically traverse creeks and skirt cottonwoods. Sagebrush rough borders the wide fairways and the subtly breaking greens roll true.
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A 72-year-old retired mechanic and dairy farmer, Bruce Maness built, owns, operates and maintains the entire facility, which he calls the South Forty Golf Course and Driving Range. You won’t find it in any directory of Colorado golf, and you won’t find Bruce or Nancy out there enjoying a round with their children or grandchildren. That’s because Bruce and Nancy Maness—a couple that’s living the dream of every avid golfer—don’t play golf.
“Not a lick,” says Nancy, a retired school counselor who jokes her job is “to look pretty while Bruce does everything else,” but ably handles South Forty’s customer service, marketing and communications. Bruce first had the idea of building a golf course in 1973. After working on oilrigs and airplanes during his twenties, he had returned with his wife to work with his parents and siblings on the family dairy farm. Bringing home the cows
one evening, he looked over the property and thought, Wouldn’t this make a lovely golf course? The idea marinated while he and Nancy raised their three sons, none of whom demonstrated much interest in working the farm. “We also realized that dairy farming was a financial risk that changed almost yearly,” Nancy says. “The siblings had all gone and his parents were ready to retire. It was obvious that running the farm by ourselves would not be practical.” coloradoavidgo lf e r.c o m
images C O U RT E S Y O F B R U C E M A N E S S
FORE! CORNERS: The creation of Bruce and Nancy Maness (above), South Forty’s range (opposite) faces Ute Mountain; Mesa Verde (left) glows from the third tee; and vegetation borders the fourth green (bottom).
So by the late 1980s, Nancy fulfilled her dream of becoming a school counselor and they sold the dairy herd. But when it finally came time for Bruce to announce his ambition, Nancy panicked. “A golf course?” she remembers thinking. “They cost a lot of money and we don’t even play golf. So like any good wife, I ignored him and thought it’d go away.” But Bruce was already applying his mechanic’s mind and farmer’s work ethic. And when Norm Trivett, who had run golf courses for 20 years, moved in across the street, Nancy “knew the jig was up.” Using the non-agricultural portion of the co l o r a d o a v i d g o l f e r. c o m
property, in 1995 they started by installing a gravity-fed irrigation themselves. They built the driving range while frugally and methodically using the money it generated to build the course. They employed farm implements, garage-sale mowers and other equipment Bruce would overhaul. He once spent 16 hours towing a seven-blade Toro Gang Mower in a trailer from Denver. “Norm said he wouldn’t leave until the last green went in,” Nancy reports of the good neighbor who stayed the entire 10 years the project took. Today, a small white A-frame serves as the clubhouse, built by Mennonites from
Farmington, New Mexico, and kept warm by the geothermal heating system Bruce put in. He also bought three golf carts, which he charges with solar panels installed and hauled in a wartime bomb wagon he refurbished. The Manesses still lease part of their ag land and have in the past allowed Navajos to pasture their goats and sheep to control the weeds. Nancy says Bruce is also hatching a plan to train crows to pick the range. With Bruce keeping the homespun course in in great shape, South Forty makes good on its promise of a “carefree relaxed round.” That is, as long as you avoid the sagebrush. It has some surprisingly good holes, which provide different angles from different tees. The fourth, for example, with its green hidden behind cottonwoods and fronted by a creek, presents a tougher challenge from the back tees than the front ones to the right. To play nine holes costs $10, which you can slide into the pay slot if George, the 90-year-old attendant, isn’t around. High Five Fridays cut the price in half. South Forty also sells a $225 season pass. The driving range, which faces Ute Mountain, is self-service as well, thanks to Bruce’s retrofitting of the ball dispenser with a dollar-bill reader. Thirty balls cost $2. The machine takes tokens too, which the San Juan Coffee market at the local City Market sells at no extra charge. The course, which cost the Manesses less than $100,000 to build, sits five miles southwest of Cortez’s municipal Conquistador Golf Course and is a quick drive to Mesa Verde, Durango and New Mexico. With none of their kids interested in taking it over, do Nancy and Bruce plan to sell it or retire? “As long as it pays for itself and keeps Bruce healthy,” Nancy says, “we’ll keep doing it.” CAG Jon Rizzi is CAG’s editor. South Forty Golf is located at 25500 Road H, Cortez, Colorado. southfortygolf.com; 970-565-3501. June 2014 | Colorado AvidGolfer
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coloradoavidgo lf e r.c o m
To paraphrase Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,
“Into each life some reign must fall.” And so it was for one of his distant descendants, who over the span of 30 days in 1974
dominated Colorado golf as no other player ever has. By Scott N. Gardner | Portrait by Barry Staver
A
t Shiraz,
a Persian restaurant in Greenwood Village, Gary Longfellow tucks into his spicy lamb shank, his chiseled face looking much the way it did 40 years ago, save for his jet-black hair now salted by years as a commercial pilot. In 1974 Longfellow not only became the first of only two amateurs ever to win the Colorado Open, his victory also became the centerpiece of an unprecedented Grand Slam Season. Now 72, Longfellow won all of Colorado’s major golf championships: the State Stroke Play, the Colorado Open and the State Match Play. An amazing feat, made even more so, because, prior to 1974, as Longfellow admits, “I had not co l o r a d o a v i d g o l f e r. c o m
won any tournament of significance.” He’d never captured an individual high school tournament or college event, and he was winless in state championships in Colorado. Asked if he had any premonitions of catching lighting in a bottle and winning the three biggest golf tournaments in the state, he crosses his tanned arms and reflects. “I can’t say that it was anything other than paying dues on the practice tee, believing in my golf swing and,” he says, smiling, “for those three tournaments my putter and I had quite a love affair!” Or, as the famous ancestor after whom his father was named —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow—wrote a century earlier, “Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough and loud enough
at the gate you are sure to wake up somebody.” Longfellow did hoist a golf trophy at the age of 14—in Libya. He played on mixture of oil and sand greens in Tripoli, where his father’s military job had taken the family. “I remember taking the golf ball out of the cup and having it covered in oil,” he recalls. “Libya was an exotic place for me as a teenager. I saw camels strolling across on the course swaying palm trees and locusts buzzing overhead!” Returning to the States, he continued to work on his game while attending high school in the windy town of Fort Sill, Okla., grooving an athletic golf swing that still features a slight over-the-top move, a characteristic shared by great ball strikers from Bobby Jones to Graeme McDowell.
While earning an engineering degree at the University of Denver, Longfellow played on the golf team coached by the legendary hockey coach Murray Armstrong. During Longfellow’s senior year in 1965, Armstrong stuck a pen in his player’s pocket and told him to drive over to Lakewood Country Club and fill out a membership application. “Lakewood was a great place for me, because the course put a premium on both driving and putting with its narrow fairways and small slick greens,” Longfellow recalls. “The members at Lakewood were supportive of competitive golfers and there was no lack of competition with former state champions Larry McAtee, Billy Cark and Tony Veto stalking the grounds.” Longfellow toiled behind an June 2014 | Colorado AvidGolfer
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HIGH FLYER: Longfellow, a United pilot, was prepared for takeoff in 1974.
Stroke Play
When Longfellow went into the State Stroke Play championship at Green Gables Country Club on June 28, 1974, he simply wanted to play his game and see how it stacked up against the field. “Green Gables reminded me of my home course at Lakewood,” he remembered. “I felt very much at home when I pulled into the parking lot on Thursday and that good feeling carried over onto the course.” His opening round of 67 was a display of power off the tee, pinpoint iron play and judicial putting. Picking his Titleist out of the hole on 18, Longfellow was amped up from his play and couldn’t wait for Friday to see if it would continue. When asked by Ralph Moore of The Denver Post about his college playing credentials, the 727 flight engineer replied: “I wasn’t much
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Colorado AvidGolfer | June 2014
Colorado Open
Ten days after capturing the state Stroke Play, Longfellow found himself at Hiwan Golf Club in Evergreen, home of the Colorado Open. By his own admission, he was lucky to get into the field at all. “Had I not won the Stroke Play I would have had to qualify for the Open the following Monday,” he explains, “and I couldn’t get that day off from work.” The Colorado Open golf championship, which will celebrate its fiftieth anniversary next month, was in 1974 one of the premier state opens in the country, attracting not only the best pros from the Rocky Mountain region but top collegiate golfers such as Fred Couples, Craig Stadler and Peter Jacobsen. Longfellow did something unique during the week of the Open. Before each round he warmed up by hitting a shag bag of balls on the driving range at Lakewood Country Club. Longfellow and his caddie jumped into his blue-and-silver Austin Healy and raced up Interstate 70. “The practice range at Hiwan was situated on a hill so that it was difficult for me to determine how I was hitting the ball,” he explains. “It was maybe more mental than anything else, but
I didn’t want to be carrying any negative thoughts with me to the first tee.” As the first round got underway on July 11, no one took notice of the new Stroke Play champion, who was just looking for a good week, maybe even winning low amateur. He did a little better than that. He rode his Bulls-Eye putter to an opening round of 68. That was good enough to tie him for the lead with Gene Torres of New Mexico, one shot in front of Bold Hold of Paradise Valley Country Club and the “Old Sarge,” Orville Moody of Lake Arbor. Longfellow was not comfortable playing in front of crowds and confided such to the press before teeing off in round two. “I have mixed emotions about the attention,” he said. “It’s nice to be in the limelight, but I don’t like the idea of people watching me too closely.”
That night, Longfellow slept fitfully, contemplating his name atop the leaderboard. He wobbled out of the gate for round three. He three-putted both the fourth and seventh greens for bogeys and bogeyed the uphill par-4, ninth after missing the green with his approach. Those watching the pilot navigate the front nine in a 3-over 38 strokes wondered if it would be the start of a downward spiral. Longfellow, however, had a 15th club in the bag—his ability to stay calm under adverse situations. As a trained pilot, he would come face-to-face with life-or-death situations, including a hijacking attempt. A tough front nine didn’t compare. After downing a few gulps of water at the turn, Longfellow slammed home birdies on 11 and 12. He also added a dramatic 17-foot birdie on 18 to give him an even par 71 for the day. He retired for the evening with a images C O U RT E S Y O F gary l ongfe l l o w
engineering desk for a year before enrolling in flight school with United Airlines. He was soon working a pilot’s schedule that offered three or four consecutive days off, giving him the time to wear the grooves off his clubs on the practice tee. His golf game was good enough to qualify for both the 1971 and 1973 U.S. Amateurs. When he finished second in the 1973 State Stroke Play to Bob Byman after making a dramatic eagle on the 18th hole, he felt his golf game was getting sharper by the day.
of a player then.” Longfellow followed the opening 67 with a squeaky clean 69 that pushed him five shots in front of 18-year-old Carter Mathies of Hiwan Country Club. The following two days, in 90plus degree heat, Longfellow polished off the field at Green Gables with closing rounds of 71 and 73, cruising to a sevenshot victory over runners-up Mathies, Tom McGraw and Tim Brauch. “I guess I won one for the old folks!” Longfellow called back to Moore as he headed towards the parking lot with the trophy under his arm.
LONG PUTTER: Longfellow sank a nine-footer on the 18th hole of the Colorado Open to seal a one-shot victory. “That putt took forever to get there,” he recalls.
If Longfellow was averse to people watching him play it didn’t keep him from going out and constructing a secondround 69 that left him tied with Torres, five shots out in front. The key was his response to a tree-induced double-bogey seven on the 15th hole. Longfellow stepped up to the long par-3 16th hole and ripped a 4-wood that settled 18 feet from the hole. He converted the birdie putt and also drained a 14-footer for birdie on 18, salting away his 69.
four-shot lead tucked under his pillow. Longfellow’s lead was over Torres, the 1972 champion who was playing in the group ahead of him, but his biggest challenge would come from 25-year-old Oklahoma State golf coach Mike Holder, who was in his group and started the day five shots behind him. Before teeing off Longfellow found himself receiving encouragement from fans and fellow amateurs. Legendary Denver sportscaster Star Yelland gave coloradoavidgo lf e r.c o m
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Longfellow a motivational final send-off. “He approached me on the putting green and told me to go and win the darn thing,” Longfellow remembers. “That gave me a shot in the arm!” Feeling the pressure, Longfellow bogeyed three of the first four holes, deflating the spirits of the 3,000 spectators that walked along with the final group. A chipin birdie on the fifth hole brought the fans to their feet and steadied the amateur’s nerves. At the turn, his lead had melted to one shot over Torres and Holder. But Longfellow had owned Hiwan’s back nine for three days. So after finding the fairway with his tee shot on 10, he marched up to his ball with renewed vigor. He hit a beautiful approach that stopped eight feet from cup. On the green, Longfellow ripped off his golf glove, putting it between his teeth and tucked in his white-checkered shirt. He then calmly rammed home his first birdie putt of the day. On the 219-yard 12th, Longfellow carded a crucial par to keep his one-stroke lead intact. “The way I played the 12th hole for those four days is what won the golf tournament for me,” he says now. “I used my 4-wood and went birdie, birdie, birdie, par on what I consider the most difficult hole on the course. “They should put a plaque on that tee to honor me,” Longfellow jokes. Standing on the 13th tee, Longfellow avoided idle chatter with his playing companions as scraped mud off his golf cleats with a white tee, but he proceeded to give away bogeys on both the 13th and 14th holes to fall back into a tie with Holder. The TV cameras covering the local broadcast for co l o r a d o a v i d g o l f e r. c o m
KWGN channel 7 picked up the final pairing on the par 5 15th. Longfellow hadn’t felt comfortable with the tee shot all week and pulled his drive left toward the tree line. Finding his ball in a snake pit of television cables, Longfellow assessed the situation with a Rules official before taking a free drop onto a patch of hardpan sprinkled with pine needles. With the tournament in the balance, Longfellow again leaned on the 4-wood. Swinging slow to keep his footing, he picked the ball cleanly and watched as it climbed over the windswept tips of the pines, clearing the distant fairway bunker and coming to rest ten yards short of the green. He got up and down for a birdie that put him one ahead of Holder. “The 4-wood I hit from the TV compound over the trees was the best shot I hit all tournament,” he says. “I squeezed one off when I really needed it.” Longfellow added a shot to his lead on the 224 yard par-3 16th. He then gave it right back on 17, when his par putt hit a spike mark. Both Longfellow and Holder found the fairway off the 18th tee. Holder put his second shot just off the right fringe, while Longfellow’s approach settled on the back fringe. After Holder chipped to within two feet, Longfellow decided to make things interesting. He putted from the back fringe and came up nine feet short. The gallery murmured as Longfellow studied the putt from every angle. A hush enveloped the green. He stroked the putt with as much confidence and conviction as he could summon and all eyes tracked the Titleist as it rolled down the gentle slope, accepted the break and tumbled into the bottom
of the cup. The gallery erupted with a cheer that could be heard to Lake Evergreen. “That putt was not one you would want to win a golf tournament, but it was a pretty sight when it fell into the hole” Longfellow said afterwards. With rounds of 68, 69, 71, 74 Longfellow became the first amateur to win the Colorado Open (Brian Guetz, in 1994. is the only other). Longfellow collected two trophies and a $200 dollar certificate for his efforts.
Match Play
When Longfellow pulled into the Eisenhower’s Blue Course’s parking lot on July 26th for the opening matches of the Match Play, a number of sportswriters greeted him. Did the amateur have it in him to capture the third major event of the summer? “I’ve come this far,” he told them, “it would be nice to finish it.” Unlike the previous two competitions, the Match Play would test Longfellow’s physical stamina. The winner would potentially have to play 108 holes in 3 days. The first round only lasted 14 holes, as he drew an overmatched Von Plessinger, who had finished 17 shots behind him at the Colorado Open. Not taking his opponent lightly, Longfellow crushed him, 6 and 4. Longfellow had a sandwich and a coke before stepping onto the tee for his afternoon match against Kirk Padgett of Colorado Springs. Longfellow struggled off the tee against Padgett; however when crunch time came on the back nine, Longfellow came up big with birdies on holes 10, 13 and 16, closing out the match 3 and 1, and moving onto the next day’s quarterfinals. Again needing to win back-
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GOING TWO-UP: At Eisenhower, Longfellow holds aloft his State Match Play and Stroke Play trophies.
to-back matches on the same day, Longfellow squared off in the morning against Tom Mulheran. The 90-degree heat and a malfunctioning sprinkler system had desiccated the fairways to the point where Longfellow and Mulheran could only laugh at some of erratic bounces the balls were taking. The two played to stalemate until Longfellow to squeaked out a 2 and 1 victory. Only two matches away from making Colorado golf history, Longfellow entered the afternoon match against Mark Fowler, the 22-year-old son of legendary player and University of Colorado golf coach Les Fowler. Fowler had to go into extra holes in his Friday matches and then rallied in that morning’s quarterfinals to win 1 up against Ken Krieger. Fowler put up a good fight against his older competitor, but he’d run out of back-nine heroics and succumbed 2 and 1. Longfellow, not superstitious by nature, arrived Sunday for the 36-hole final match wearing the same shirt, pants and visor he wore for the final round of both the Stroke Play and the Colorado Open. Facing him was Dr. Bob Gitchell, a 3-handicap orthopedic surgeon at the Air Force Academy’s military hospital who knew the Blue course layout as well as he knew the hospital’s operating room. Before being called to the first tee, Longfellow hit a bucket of balls on the range trying to mollify his troublesome driver. The morning’s 18 were a mixed bag as Longfellow continued to struggle with a driver that put him behind trees and in fairway bunkers. Gitchell had his own problems, as he three-putted five greens in the morning including a costly one the 18 that handed Longfellow a 1-up lead. “He played better than me the first 18 holes,” Longfellow admits. With the gallery urging him on as he made his way off the 18th green, Longfellow and his driver and headed to the practice tee. It worked. By the 565-yard par-5 fifth hole,
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Longfellow was 2-up and split the fairway with a booming drive and then leaned on a 4-wood that rolled up onto the green 25 feet from the hole. After poking around the trees to find his drive, Gitchell signaled to Longfellow to pick up, conceding the hole. That was the turning point. “I could feel my driving coming back on that fifth hole,” Longfellow recalls, “It’s funny how one shot can mean so much to a player’s confidence.” Although Gitchell got a hole back on No. 8 with a tap-in birdie, he admitted later he felt “shaky” over that three-incher. Longfellow had no such problems with his putter as he calmly dropped a five-footer for par on the ninth hole to go up three. On the walk to the 10th tee, Longfellow kept his head down, reminding himself to hit quality shots and not to force anything. He did both, winning the 11th and 12th holes with solid pars and forcing Gitchell to take some chances that didn’t pay off. With a five-stroke lead, Longfellow halved 13 and 14 with pars and on the 14th green Dr. Gitchell extended his hand to a relieved and exhausted Longfellow who prevailed 5 & 4. The two got an appreciative ovation from those following the match. At Lakewood Country Club, Longfellow’s friend Bob Clark Jr.—whose father, Bob Sr., and brother, Billy, had both previously captured the State Match Play—popped the cork on buckets of champagne in the clubhouse. The clinking of glasses could be heard into the early summer evening. Longfellow defended his Colorado Open with a fifth place finish in 1975, but never again cracked the top ten. He did capture a second CGA Stroke Play Championship in 1978 and Match Play Championship in 1987. The Colorado Golf Hall of Fame inducted him in 1990. After retiring from United, Longfellow flew for NetJets, but clipped his wings for good last December. “I accomplished something that I initially didn’t set out to do,” he reflects. “But sometimes fate hands you an opportunity and it’s up to you to see how far you can go with it. I got it going pretty good back in the summer of ’74. When I think about the fact that no one else has been able to accomplish what I did, it still amazes me.” CAG Arvada-based writer Scott N. Gardner caddied for Gary Longfellow at the 1974 Stroke Play and Colorado Open.
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Golf Discove rs
Ne w W o rl d th e
With Cabot Links and the forthcoming Cabot Cliffs, Mike Keiser charts a Bandonesque future for Canada’s Cape Breton Island. By Tom Ferrel l 86
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ne of the
photograph C O U RT E S Y O F C A B O T L I N K S
deepest truths about travel is that—more often than not—what we discover is not what we set out to find. At Cabot Links, golf ’s newest remote mecca hard on the shore of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence in the Maritime Province of Nova Scotia, this truth is real—and a part of the region’s rich history. John Cabot, around whom so much of this experience revolves, personifies the axiom. Inspired by Christopher Columbus, Cabot won a commission from the King of England in 1497 and set out to find a northwestern passage to Asia. In 1498 Cabot landed somewhere along the wild north shore of Cape Breton Island and claimed for the English throne what he thought were the outlands of Asia. Instead, he had stumbled upon a land that remains mysterious to this day and enflames the greatest of passions among those who undertake the trip—a real and genuine sense of discovery. Tethered to Nova Scotia by a causeway, Cape Breton Island is a wilderness Valhalla, rich with virgin forests, dramatic mountains and rushing rivers. Here, the explorer’s spirit kindles inside you, for you have truly arrived at an edge of the world. And if you have brought along your golf clubs, then you, too, will delight at what Ben Cowan-Dewar and Mike Keiser—golf ’s modern-day Tom Morris—are bringing to life in the tiny burg of Inverness.
Cabot Links Brings Rebirth and Renewal
MARITIME THRILLER: The par-4 16th at Cabot Links hugs the Atlantic.
co l o r a d o a v i d g o l f e r. c o m
Today, Inverness is abuzz with activity. What was once a dying mill town at the western terminus of the breathtaking Cabot Trail is humming with pride and anticipation. Cabot Links, with its acclaimed Rod Whitman golf course, which features ocean views from every hole, opened in July of 2012. Next year, a second course—Cabot Cliffs, wrought by minimalist masters Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, and featuring an even more dramatic cliffside perch—will turn the sleepy village from a curiosity to a true destination. Brenda Campbell, an Inverness native who works part-time as a starter at Cabot Links, wipes away tears as she describes with the transformation has meant for her and for her hometown. “This,” she says, sweeping her arm past the first tee toward the coast holes below and the gulf beyond, “this place has brought me back to life.” Brenda’s has a personal story—she left Inverness after meeting the love of her life, an executive with a global firm. She lived abroad, visited the world’s greatest cities, learned to play golf and generally enjoyed the spoils of a privileged and modern world. After her husband’s unexpected death and in a profound depression, she moved back to Inverness only to June 2014 | Colorado AvidGolfer
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FEAST FOR THE EYES: Diners and lodgers can take in the action on Cabot’s par-4 finisher.
V ision Attracts V ision Cowan-Dewar had that unique combination of youthful exuberance and beyond-hisyears experience—along with a passion for links golf. CowanDewar came to Inverness in 2004, scouting the property of a former coalmine, which had long been considered a potential site for golf. He fell in love with
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the site, the idea and town. He soon went all in, moving his family from cosmopolitan Toronto to a hillside home overlooking the property and the gulf. “The site had 60 years to naturalize,” Cowan-Dewar says, referring to the fact that coal mining ended in 1953. “So you ended up with these big, sweeping contours and features. It reminded me of Scotland and Ireland. The question was how to get the idea from the drawing board to the field.” Enter Mike Keiser. CowanDewar had done the land as-
class links golf ethos to a remote area unfamiliar with the game, it was Keiser, who had already sown links golf greatness into the land at Bandon, Oregon. Keiser had much-needed capital and the experience of opening a frontier resort. “Mike believes in seeking the right answer,” Cowan-Dewar notes. “Creative friction is not his style. We just shared so many beliefs and so many favorite courses. He’s amazing in his ability to bring everyone in and give everyone input but create a unified voice.”
“You ended up with these big, sweeping contours and features. It reminded me of Scotland and Ireland.” sembly, had won the necessary approvals and concessions. Now he was looking for a partner. And if anyone understood the process of bringing a world-
The Links Journey Keiser certainly has opinions on links golf, however, and is willing to stand up for them.
Course architect Rod Whitman chafed at first when Keiser suggested certain changes to the sequencing. Most dramatically, he insisted that the first hole move directly toward the sea. And today, any visitor would agree that few starting holes in golf tell more of a story than the 385-yard first hole, which plays over a small hill, creating a reveal of the oceanfront holes and the breaking surf. From there, Cabot Links is a rollicking adventure, worthy of mention among the top links experiences in the world. The 620yard par-five second is perhaps the most spectacular on the golf course, with an uphill approach over a ravine to a limited-sight green. Already, the golfer knows that this is a round with the opportunity for heroism and the necessity for strategy. As the course works inland, the more subtle genius of Whitman’s green complexes becomes apparent. Take a few moments to study them, however, because the impossibly scenic ocean holes are coming. But in a brilliant homage to such legendary links brethren as Royal County Down, Saint coloradoavidgo lf e r.c o m
photograph C O U RT E S Y O F C A B O T L I N K S
find a town seemingly as down as she was. “Honestly, I don’t know what I would have done without this, what we would have done. The entire area is so proud. Our children are coming home to spend summers working here, or working in the businesses that are growing up around the resort. We feel like we have a future now, and isn’t that all anyone really wants?” What started as a personal story has become a spiritual and social philosophy for Brenda, and for many like her who never dreamed they would see such life breathed into their community. And for this, they credit the vision and tenacity of Ben Cowan-Dewar.
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Getting There
Most arrive via Halifax, a beautiful Nova Scotia city with flights from many major cities. A three-and-a-half hour drive from Cabot, Halifax is worth checking out. Book a night at the Lord Nelson Hotel (lordnelsonhotel.ca), set on a hillside overlooking downtown Halifax. Explore the city on foot, strolling down to the waterfront casino or to any of the many music bars and cafes.
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Andrews and North Berwick, Cabot Links swings back toward the village of Inverness on the mid-length par-4 ninth. Savor the walk toward town and steel yourself for what is to come as you head back out at the long and difficult par-4 11th, which plays toward the charming alcove of the Inverness harbor, where the fishing boats that delivered tonight’s dinner are docked. And if the commitment of Cowan-Dewar and Keiser isn’t fully confirmed in your mind just yet, consider the par-3 12th. The course opened with a perfectly wonderful one-shotter, but Keiser in particular saw another alternative—a hole just to the west of the original that would play to a bluff and eliminate foot traffic past the eighth green. The problem? Cabot didn’t own the land. But that changed in mid-2012, and today, the “new” 12th is already in play. From there, the course descends upon one of the most breathtaking stretches of golf on the planet. The par-5 13th, the spectacular 100-yard 14th, the 15th and coloradoavidgo lf e r.c o m
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16th all play alongside the beach. You’ll get a wonderful view of the soon-to-be-completed Cabot Cliffs as you play 15 and 16, and then turn back toward town and the original (two more are already under construction) lodge and clubhouse. If Cowan-Dewar and Keiser had a concern, it was whether the course and accommodations would entice multipleround visitors. “Return business is always the challenge and the hope,” Cowan-Dewar admits. The second course will take care of that concern once and for all. But I can say that my companion and I played the course three times, from three different sets of tees, and each delivered a unique and memorable experience, showcasing different challenges and strategies. Cabot Links elevates Canadian designer Rod Whitman immediately to the fore of modern architects. That Coore & Crenshaw are consulting closely with him as they finalize Cabot Cliffs should give all early visitors to Cabot Links a sense of comfort— and a desire to return. But I find myself coming back time and again to the story of Inverness, to its rebirth and renewal, and to the reassuring idea that golf—as insignificant and silly as it might seem—does indeed impart something special and leave something worthwhile in the wake of those who travel to such ends on the promise of a singular experience. “To be handed this baton and to carry it through is very rewarding,” Cowan-Dewar says. “The town feels like it has life. It’s an economic success story, and it is humbling for sure.” On my last night in Cabot, I walked out
toward the shoreline at dusk. The sun was sliding into the gulf, and the air had taken on a late-September golden glow. To my left, a hare bounded out of the tall grass, and behind him a fox. Three hops and a cloud of dust later, the fox had prevailed in an age-old rivalry, and I was reminded again why we make these
Adding to the Journey
CAG
Tom Ferrell is CAG’s editor at large. For more information: cabotlinks.com; 855-652-2268.
for golf. Designed in 1941 by Stanley Thompson, Canada’s most prolific and historic architect, Highlands Links is the ultimate wilderness golf experience. Once a perennial Top 100 course, it had fallen into disrepair over the past couple of decades. Ian Andrew, one of Canada’s top young golf course designers, has won the task of restoring Highlands Links to its rightful place among the world’s best. Already, drainage improvements and an aggressive tree management program have improved the golf experience. Leave early if you plan on making the round trip from Inverness to Ingonish in a single day. Better yet, spend a night in the seaside village of Cheticamp on your way back. This much is certain: you will never run out of stories to tell of your adventure across the Cape Breton Island frontier. For more information, visit highlandslinksgolf.com and cbisland.com. —Tom Ferrell
WORTH THE TRIP: Cape Breton’s Highland Links
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coloradoavidgo lf e r.c o m
photograph by Dav i d S ca l etti
If you have made it as far as Inverness, you have to add one of the world’s finest day trips to your agenda. Take the breathtaking—and at times harrowing—Cabot Trail to Ingonish, where you will revel in a round at Highlands Links in the Cape Breton Highlands National Park. Talk about getting there being half the fun! The 104-mile road requires a three-hour sojourn that takes you past beautiful villages, along jawdropping cliffs and through vast timberlands. Watch out for moose on the road! The pot of gold at the end this rainbow cuts through the most spectacular natural setting I have ever seen
journeys, why we love these small hamlets and burgs that welcome us. And indeed, why golf remains the greatest of games.
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TEE FOR TWO ON NO. 2 Golf’s sternest tests come to Pinehurst— and this page.
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his month, for the first time in history, one facility—North Carolina’s Pinehurst No. 2—will host both the U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open. England’s Justin Rose and South Korea’s Inbee Park will defend their respective championships on the Donald Ross masterpiece recently restored by the team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw. The USGA will make scoring a challenge—so we will too. How many of these questions can you answer correctly?
u.s. open a) Phil Mickelson b) Sam Snead c) Arnold Palmer d) Jack Nicklaus a) Jason Dufner b) Billy Horschel c) Jason Day d) Ernie Els a) Tiger Woods b) Reteif Goosen c) Curtis Strange d) Jack Nicklaus a) 3 b) 2 c) 4 d) 5 a) Pennsylvania b) New York c) New Jersey d) California
u.s. WOMEN’S open Player(s) with the most No. 2 finishes
Who was No. 2 in last year’s event?
Who was the last to win two in a row?
Number of times held in North Carolina (including 2014)?
Which state has held the championship most often?
For the answers, visit coloradoavidgolfer.com.
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a) Betty Hicks/Louise Suggs b) Nancy Lopez/Beth Daniel c) Louise Suggs/JoAnne Carner d) Meg Mallon/Nancy Lopez a) So-Yeon Ryu b) In-Kyung Kim c) Jodi Ewart Shadoff d) Paula Creamer a) Karrie Webb b) Annika Sorenstam c) Inbee Park d) Juli Inkster a) 2 b) 4 c) 3 d) 5 a) New York b) Pennsylvania c) Massachusetts d) Oregon
CAG
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