Here at Central Bank we’re wishing all of our customers, friends and family the best this Holiday Season. Whether it’s business banking, wealth management, mortgages, or more, we’ve got you covered. With over 120 years of proudly serving our community, we combine local expertise with the strength of a $19 billion bank. This year alone, we have funded over $450 million in commercial and residential loans in Colorado. Let us help you achieve your financial goals!
Baxter Fain, President
Charlie Cartwright, Business Development Officer Private Banking, Colorado
Steve Harlan, Wealth Management Advisor Central Trust Company, Colorado
STAY & PLAY WHERE THE PROS PLAY
BE ONE OF THE FIRST to experience a one-of-a-kind
golf destination nestled amongst the ancient black lava fields and vibrant vermillion cliffs of Greater Zion in Southern Utah.
This new luxury resort offers:
Nearly 800 guestrooms and luxury suites
Diverse dining options
Year-round outdoor recreation
World-class spa facilities
All anchored by its 19-hole Tom Weiskopf signature championship golf course
HOTEL | RESIDENCES | DINING MEETINGS & EVENTS |
STAY & PLAY PACKAGES include accommodations and one round of golf per person, per night, plus cart fees, forecaddie service, all on-course food & non-alcoholic beverages, practice facility access featuring TRACKMAN technology and tee gift. Restrictions apply
14 COURSES IN A 20-MILE RADIUS, PLUS
ZION NATIONAL PARK
Watching over Greater Zion like a king on his throne is Zion National Park. Its towering sandstone cliffs and stunning scenery make for the perfect day of exploring. At any time of the year, Zion’s 232 square miles of plateaus and canyons create views and vistas via hike or even just a scenic drive.
MOUNTAIN BIKING
Year-round access to slick rock and singletrack trails make Greater Zion a mountain biking mecca! With warm weather, bright sun and solitude, our trails offer an outstanding experience for any riding level. Trails can be found in every region of Greater Zion, which makes for quick and easy access. Local outfitters can equip you and inform you.
ATV/OHV
Greater Zion’s diverse landscape lends to the ultimate ATV/OHV experience. The Pine Valley Mountains offer tall, green pine trees and mountain air while Sand Mountain at Sand Hollow State Park delivers miles of warm sand dunes and red, slick rock climbs. Greater Zion’s public lands extend the promise of amazing views and breathtaking waterfalls, many of which can only be accessed in an off-road vehicle.
HIKING
The combination of red rock plateaus, candy-colored cliffs and green pine forests make Greater Zion’s terrain some of the most incredible, especially for hiking. Get out to see lava tubes, slot canyons, petrified dunes and petroglyphs. With over 300 miles of trails to explore, Greater Zion is a hiker’s paradise.
WATERSPORTS
The reservoirs of Sand Hollow, Quail Creek and Gunlock State Parks hold deep, blue-green waters on which to jet ski, motorboat, kayak, swim, or fish, as well as sandy beaches to soak up the sun. Each park is only a short distance from just about anywhere in Greater Zion, and with year-round sunshine, these water bodies create the perfect desert oasis.
THEATER AND ARTS
Beautiful scenery breathes inspiration into every corner of Greater Zion. Tuacahn Amphitheatre brings Broadway-like show to the desert while St. George Musical Theatre and Kayenta Center for the Arts showcase a variety of musical, comedic and dramatic productions. Numerous art galleries sprinkle the area, showcasing further talents, inspired by their surroundings.
GOLF ELEVATED
PLAY IT TO BELIEVE IT
COVER STORY
WAILEA AWAITS
Resort and the
FEATURES
donald ross tour// 30
Last summer’s U.S. Open showed off one of golf architect Donald Ross’ best courses; Colorado has three more. By Chris Wheeler
name-image-license// 36
NIL comes to youth golf in Colorado. By Jim Bebbington
an amazing run// 46
Keith Schneider has worked at Castle Pines Golf Club since day one. By Jim Bebbington
la costa: a new era// 58
La Costa’s North Course’s new path By Tony Dear
SIDE BETS
24// NICE DRIVES
The Ford Raptor. By Isaac Bouchard
26// FAREWAYS
When it comes to Detroit-style pizza, Colorado is Motor City. By John Lehndorff
DEPARTMENTS
8// FORETHOUGHTS
Castle Pines Golf Club’s Keith Schneider career is a good guide for other club pros. By Jim Bebbington
10// THE CGA
People of the CGA – Gary Albrecht By Kayla Kerns
12// THE
GALLERY
The Colorado Golf Hall of Fame inducts a new class; How one adaptive golfer found new challenges; Two new books by Colorado golfers offer insight on the game; Boulder’s Flatirons Golf Course Opens New Restaurant.
COLORADO GOLF GIFT GUIDE
We’ll help you find the perfect gift this season!
62// BLINDSHOT
After a third place finish at DP World Tour, Davis Bryant’s year ends with a roar By Jim Bebbington
We take you on a tour of the “Magic City”
Wailea
Wailea Golf Club offer unrivaled, quiet luxury during their high season each winter Pg. 40
Photo Credit: Wailea Resort Association
ANDY BIGFORD, TONY DEAR, DENNY DRESSMAN, CHRIS DUTHIE, SCOTT GARDNER, KAYLEE HARTER, NICK MCQUEENEY, TED JOHNSON, JOHN LEHNDORFF, CHRISTIAN MARCY-VEGA, KIM MCHUGH, JAY MCKINNEY, JON RIZZI, JAMIE SIEBRASE, CHRIS WHEELER coloradoavidgolfer.com
JIM@COLORADOAVIDGOLFER.COM customer service & subscriptions (720) 493-1729 mailing address 9350 E. ARAPAHOE ROAD, STE. 210 GREENWOOD VILLAGE, CO 80112 newsstand information (720) 493-1729
magazine partner of choice : Colorado Section
We offer a wide variety of home financing options. When it’s time to secure home financing for your family, call me! MORTGAGE
John Pavlakovich
NMLSR ID: 801982
Sr. Mortgage Consultant
Cell: 720-308-2507
John.Pavlakovich@phmloans.com
JohnPavlakovich.phmloans.com
215 Saint Paul St, Denver, CO 80206
FORETHOUGHTS
JUST OUTSIDE THE LIMELIGHT
One Sunday afternoon last August on the edge of the 18th green of Castle Pines Golf Club Keith Schneider wore a forest green jacket – just like all the other club members – to watch Keegan Bradley receive his trophy for winning the BMW Championship.
Like one of the great Motown back-up singers, Schneider stood 20 feet from fame, just outside the limelight.
It is how he spent nearly his entire career, and he wouldn’t have had it any other way.
Schneider this month is featured in this magazine because he is finishing one of the rarest accomplishments in golf. For 43 years he has worked for the high-maintenance millionaires who are members of one of the most exclusive golf clubs in Colorado. And for 43 years he has earned almost universal respect and admiration for the job he did first as head pro and then as the club’s general manager.
The profile of Schneider we have in this edition tells a little of his back story. He was gracious and patient in our interview, telling tales that he had probably regaled others with for … well… 43 years.
But he was open and honest about the challenges the club faced during his time. It was not always on top – and the employees who work there are brought into a culture that is honest about that. It is only through their hard work – every day – that keeps the experience there top notch.
And that sense of mission comes directly from the top. It is why the members gave Schneider his own membership when he announced his retirement earlier this year. That entitled him to wear his
green jacket. And, if there is a just God, his good leadership to hundreds of employees and service to members entitles him to many years of enjoyment of family, friends, fewer deadlines, and a lot of great golf.
We should all be so lucky.
This month too we share a story that is going to continue to develop and help shape the top young players in our communities. As colleges have entered the Name/Image/License business to recruit athletes to their teams, the concept has leaked into high school sports as well, especially golf.
Inside you’ll meet one entrepreneurial NIL agent who has recruited three Colorado golfers to help them get the most out of their time in competitive golf. It is indeed a new day.
And one of the things I noticed when I first moved from Ohio to Colorado in 2022 was the different style of golf courses I got to play here. Except for one. Denver’s Wellshire Golf Course made me turn my head several times as if to check – ‘Um, did I go back to the Midwest suddenly.’
It was then that I learned why. The rolling municipal gem was designed by one of the greats – Donald Ross. There are dozens of Ross courses in Ohio. But in Colorado, there are just three. His DNA is still evident on them - in several of the tough angles and greens that can be hard to hold. So, Chris Wheeler – a dual-threat writer and photographer in golf journalism – took the measure of all three Colorado Donald Ross courses. Put them all on your list if you can.
Jim Bebbington// jim@coloradoavidgolfer.com
ALOHA MAUI
WELCOME TO WAILEA
Embrace your love of golf at luxurious Wailea Resort, where you can craft your unique blend of memorable moments on our trio of award-winning courses. Swing through the beautiful Blue, Emerald and Gold; soak up spectacular island scenery from every hole; and experience the enduring aloha of Maui. Unlimited play and other great o ers available online.
You’re just a tee time away.
@waileagolf
THE CGA
PEOPLE OF THE CGA : GARY ALBRECHT
MEET THE CURRENT PRESIDENT OF THE CGA
ByKaylaKerns
Gary Albrecht, 2023-2024 CGA President, was born and raised in a small farm town in southwestern Minnesota. He went to college at St. John’s University in Minnesota and then taught at Hill Murray High School in Saint Paul, where he coached football, basketball, and golf. He attended William Mitchell College of Law and started practicing law in 1984. In 1995, Gary developed a client based in Denver, so he moved out to Colorado to help run the company and has been here ever since.
KK: How did you get involved in golf?
GA: I grew up in this small town with a nine-hole public course: Jackson Golf Club. Neither of my parents played. My first memory was going to the Catholic park right down the street, a block from where I grew up. They would flood the park in the winter, and we’d skate there. We hit golf balls in the summer using my friends’ parents’ cast-off golf clubs. When we reached the point where we could hit across the park into Mrs. Pribyl’s yard, it was time to move. We went to the athletic field and hit balls there, or I would go to the end of my street and hit into a gravel pit across the road. When I was 11, I was invited by my childhood friend, his mom, and a neighbor’s mom to play golf at the Jackson Golf Club.
KK: You’re a pretty good golfer now (Handicap is 1.6). Has your game improved with time, or has it remained steady?
GA: I am a better player now than when I was young. I think, for one, the only real training I had was with our golf coaches. I could always hit the ball far, but finding it was a challenge sometimes. And that was okay because I wanted to smash it.
I qualified twice to compete in the national long drive championship. At the time, they held the championship in conjunction with the PGA Championship. In 1982, I went to Southern Hills in Tulsa, OK. It was during the week of the PGA Championship, and I had a pass to go into the locker room and there I saw Tom Watson and Seve Ballesteros, and many other well-known pros. I was in heaven. It was quite an experience. But to answer your question, I continued playing and was a member of different clubs. When I became a senior, I started playing in CGA events, and I think that playing regular tournament golf caused me to work on my game differently.
KK: When were you introduced to the CGA Board?
GA: In 2009, when CommonGround opened, I joined the Men’s Club and started playing there regularly. Along the way, I met Pete Lis, the director of rules and competitions for the CGA. We became good friends, and he mentioned the CGA and becoming a board member to me. He said he thought I would enjoy it. I didn’t know what the CGA did. As I learned more and met Ed Mate, one thing led to another, and in 2012, I joined the board. I was very involved with the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy, especially training caddies. I’ve kind of climbed the CGA ladder, but it’s been rewarding, and it’s a great organization.
KK: When did you become CGA President and what do you do in that role?
GA: Last year; I have a two-year term 2023-2024. I work closely with Ed Mate on a variety of projects. The business of the Colorado Golf Association: delivering core services offered by the USGA to members of the association is a steady, consistent kind of business, and I believe the fact that the CGA owns and operates CommonGround creates an enormous opportunity. We do Golf in Schools, help support Youth On Course and have the caddie academy.
KK: What would you say you’re most proud of as president?
GA: We’ve accomplished so many things. We enlarged the CommonGround clubhouse, and a couple of years ago we expanded the driving range. We continue to work on long-term projects. Last year, I was very involved when the USGA asked the CGA to deliver core services to golfers in Wyoming. I wrote the contract between the CGA and the Wyoming State Golf Association.
KK: Do you have a favorite golf memory?
GA: I thought you might ask that question. I can’t say that I have just one. I played with my best friend in New York, and he made a hole-in-one on the last hole of the golf course 81 days before he died. He had terminal cancer, and the shot was called. I told the group, “Everybody think 1” before he made it. The story was published in The Golfers Journal.
Another good memory is that I participated in the 100 Hole Hike at Ballyneal three times. I played 126-, 127-, and 128-holes walking, 38 miles roughly in one day. That’s a great memory primarily because my charity was related to my friend who had cancer. I’ve been very fortunate to have played with many great people at many great places, and it gives me joy.
KK: If you had one piece of advice that you could give to either your younger self or younger generations, what would it be?
GA: That’s kind of a timely question. I have this mantra that I actively think about when I play golf: Enjoy the day and try to make good swings. The point is that we should enjoy the day no matter what. We all want to play well, but all we can do is try. I think those few words really sum up the essence of the game to me.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE COLORADO GOLF ASSOCIATION
PHOTO COURTESY OF GARY ALBRECHT/ THE COLORADO GOLF ASSOCIATION
Six Inducted into Hall of Fame
A year after celebrating its 50th anniversary with the unveiling of a magnificent new museum at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, The Colorado Golf Hall of Fame is inducting six new members this year.
The six were chosen by the Hall’s board of directors for substantial, sustained and positive impact on Colorado golf.
The six join more than 140 men and women who have shaped the game of golf in Colorado.
THE SIX 2024 INDUCTEES ARE:
Wyndham Clark. In 2023 the PGA Tour professional became the first Coloradan to win the U.S. Open since Steve Jones in 1996. He is a twotime Colorado high school state champion and has won three times so far on the PGA.
Jennifer Kupcho. The LPGA pro has won three times on the Tour in addition to winning the 2018 NCAA Women’s Championship while playing for
Wake Forest University. She has represented the U.S. twice in the Solheim Cup and at age 26 is the youngest person ever elected to the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame.
George Solich. A former caddie and Evans Scholar at the University of Colorado, Solich launched a successful career in oil and gas and along with his brother Duffy founded the Solich Caddie and Leadership Academy at CommonGround Golf Course and The Broadmoor Caddie and Leadership Academy. Solich also is the chairman of Castle Pines Golf Club, which successfully hosted the 2024 BMW Championship.
Joe Assell. Assell is the co-founder and CEO of the technology-driven golf instruction, fitting and training company GOLFTEC. Assell has grown GOLFTEC to more than 250 locations worldwide and was voted the PGA of America’s 2022 Golf Executive of the Year.
Pat Hamill. Hamill is the founder of Denver developer Oakwood Homes and created the Colorado
Open Golf Foundation to run the Colorado Open tournaments after the series was cancelled in 2003 by the previous operators. Under Hamill the Colorado Open men’s and women’s tournaments pay the highest purses of any state opens.
Gene Torres. Born in Trinidad, Colorado, Torres won the 1956 Colorado high school title, the 1972 Colorado Open championship, qualified for two U.S. Opens and a PGA Championship, won five New Mexico Opens. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Sun Country PGA Section in 2004.
The Hall also honored at its annual inductee dinner this year Golf Person of the Year Jim Hillary; Lifetime Achievement Award winner Kathy Walker; Distinguished Service Award winner Mark Passey; and “Future Famers” Charlie Tucker and Logan Hale.
The 2024 Colorado Hall of Fame Induction dinner was held Sunday, December 1, at the Hyatt Regency Denver Tech Center.
WYNDHAM CLARK: PHOTO COURTESY COLORADO AVIDGOLFER
JENNIFER KUPCHO//PHOTO: USGA CONTENT HUB//CHRIS KEANE
PAT HAMMIL
GEORGE SOLICH
GENE TORRES
JOE ASSELL
Denver Man Finds Renewal in Adaptive Golf
Eric Weischselbaumer of Denver gives a whole new definition to looking at every situation as having a silver lining.
Weischselbaumer, a 39-year-old father of two, was an athletic and active person growing up, playing soccer and golf primarily. He developed a bleeding disorder early on, and left contact sports behind. Golf was his thing, and he became very good at it.
He enjoyed competing in U.S. Open regional qualifiers and high-level amateur tournaments, but rarely finished high enough to satisfy his expectations.
“Nothing amounted to any of that, then this injury happened and now I have all these adaptive opportunities,” he said in a recent interview.
“This injury” was a flare up of his blood disorder that caused a blood clot which led to him sustaining significant kidney damage and forcing the amputation of his left leg.
But in an amazing example of persistence –through a kidney transplant and the rehab necessary to come back a leg amputation – Weischselbaumer says he has found more enjoyment on the golf course than ever.
He began competing in the U.S. adaptive national championships after his amputation, and found that while his skills had not won in the non-adaptive level, he was suddenly highly competitive.
Having already endured the loss of his leg, the kidney transplant in June was the procedure fraught with the most unknown, he said.
After his blood clot his name was placed on a long national list of people needing kidney transplants. Many of his family and friends volunteered to be screened as potential donors, he said. None were a match.
This spring his wife Amanda donated one of her kidneys into the national transplant effort, even though it couldn’t be used for Eric.
“That bumped me to the top of the list,” he said.
He still remembers the day in May he had to pull over on the highway to take a call. A donor kidney had been obtained and he needed to prepare for surgery.
“It is up there with one of the most memorable days of my life,” he said. “I was just complaining – I’m so sick and tired with feeling sick and tired.”
Amanda had come through her surgery without complications. Five weeks later he was in surgery, received his transplant, and spent four weeks in recovery.
“The energy and the return has been great and I’m looking forward to moving ahead with the adaptive golf world,” he said.
Weischelsbaumer works as the head of retail banking for Central Bank in Denver and is preparing for an active 2025 adaptive golf campaign. “Anything is possible,” he said.
For more information about organ donation, go to adventhealth.com/Institute/transplant
PHOTO CREDIT: TODD LANGLEY
Golf Books for the Holidays
Two new books by Denver-area authors are using golf to help tell stories and are ready for holiday gift giving.
You are More Than Your Sport: Former college golfer Erin Baer uses her personal story to help readers align the game of golf into a healthy part of their lives. Baer, 42, grew up playing and competed in high school and on the women’s golf team at Rockhurst University in Missouri. Then a wrist injury sidelined her, and she found her reaction to being on the sidelines completely out of proportion to the reality that she was simply healing from an injury.
She sought counseling and through that journey learned valuable lessons in balancing love and passion for a sport with keeping your mental health separate from what happens on the course.
“(My college coach) said you should talk to a counselor, and I said that was for the weak,” she says. “He said, no that is what being strong looks like. That’s how I realized ‘I am so much more than my sport.” To order go to ErinBaer.Com.
Albatross: Local author Scott N. Gardner writes a fictional account that combines turn-of-thecentury golf in Denver with a who-dunnit.
“The novel is a historical fiction piece, which is based off Harry Vardon’s 1900 golf exhibition at the then Overland Country Club, which is now
Overland Park Golf Club,” Gardner says. The book combines a murder mystery with real Denver golf personalities in the early 1900s.
His family has been members of various area clubs for more than a century and he was spurred to write the book after his father, John Reed Gardner, died at the age of 97.
“He was the type who would have gone through it and pointed out some punctuation errors,” Gardner said. “He was very meticulous.”
To order: search Scott N. Gardner on Amazon. com.
State Title Round Up: Boys HS Golf
Cherry Creek High School’s boys golf team won the school’s ninth state championship this year – its first since 1981 – as part of the season-ending boys high school competition.
Gavin Amella of Castle View High School won the Class 5A individual title, shooting 9-under par in competition at CommonGround Golf Course in Aurora.
The Class 4A title went to Cheyenne Mountain High School, the program’s fourth championship. Evergreen High School won the Class 3A title and Golden View Classical Academy won the Class 2A championship, its first.
INDIVIDUAL CHAMPIONS WERE:
Class 5A: Gavin Amella, Castle View
Class 4A: Brayden Destefano, Cheyenne Mtn.
Class 3A: Tyler Long, Evergreen
Class 2A: Kameron Gilbert, Strasburg
ERIN BAER
PHOTO CREDIT: GARY BAINES//CGA
Helping the world play better golf.
From all of your TEAMMATES across GOLFTEC Enterprises, congratulations on your induction into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame!
Joe Assell GOLFTEC CEO
Colorado Golf Hall of Fame Class of 2024
Boulder’s Flatirons Golf Course Opens New Restaurant
Boulder’s municipal golf course, Flatirons Golf Course, opened its new restaurant this fall after a nearly three-year saga of construction delays.
The restaurant, Ironwood Bar and Grille, is being operated by Noah and Tanya Westby. The Westby’s have run the popular Dagabi Tapas Bar on Broadway in north Boulder since 1991.
Flatirons Director of Golf Tom Buzbee said the city sought to make the restaurant a part of the trend of golf course eateries that can operate year-round and offer much more than a place to grab a quick hot dog at the turn.
Plans to replace the course’s previous restaurant were first hatched around 2020, just in time for Covid to stall a lot of construction projects. The building was torn down in Spring of 2022, but the project was delayed again because of difficulty getting steel at first, then again in summer 2023 when heavy spring rains kept the foundation under water for weeks at a time.
“That was kind of a tough way to start your
project,” Buzbee said. For two years the popular course operated without its liquor license and was unable to serve beer to patrons while its new facility was slowly built. At the same time portions of the parking lot were also being renovated.
“Parking lot demo, no rest rooms, no liquor license - you couldn’t have made a tougher way to present to the golfer than we did last summer,” Buzbee said.
But everything was finished this summer and the Westby’s opened for business in September.
Buzbee said the city of Boulder sought a restaurant operator who had experience at running popular neighborhood establishments. The hope is that the Ironwood Bar and Grille attracts not just players but local residents who use it as a comfortable neighborhood bar and restaurant.
“We didn’t want just a golf restaurant operator, we wanted someone who could get the neighborhood behind them,” Buzbee said.
FLATIRONS GOLF COURSE’S NEW RESTAURANT, IRONWOOD BAR AND GRILLE
colorado golf gift guide
WHEN THE HOLIDAY SEASON ROLLS AROUND, FINDING THE PERFECT GIFTS FOR EVERYONE ON YOUR LIST CAN FEEL LIKE A DAUNTING TASK. WITH A CALENDAR FILLED WITH GATHERINGS, DECORATIONS TO HANG, AND HOLIDAY TREATS TO BAKE, IT’S EASY FOR GIFT SHOPPING TO FALL TO THE LAST MINUTE. BUT DON’T WORRY—OUR HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE (AND SANTA) ARE HERE TO HELP!
BY SUZANNE S. BROWN
BUCKLE UP, 54
Denver-based Brewster Belt Company is known for its custom needlepoint belts that can be personalized with up to 10 images inspired by a golfer’s favorite courses and interests. Custom designs, $210, can take up to three months to design, stitch and assemble, but Brewster also has in-stock belts and gifts starting at about $45. brewsterbelt.com
WARMING TREND
Travis Mathew’s golf apparel has earned a loyal following, but the label is now a full lifestyle brand for men and women. For the cold weather, guys will go for the Cloud Denim Sherpa Jacket, $200, plaid flannel shirt, $140 and waffle beanie, $40. Find them at the Travis Mathew store in Park Meadows Shopping Center, pro shops and travismathew.com
MODERN CLASSICS
Marking a decade in business in 2024, Holderness & Bourne continues to create updated classics with a focus on fit, quality and performance. The Wallace hoodie in Egyptian cotton has a diamond jacquard pattern on the front and ribbed side panels, $215, and comes in five colors. holdernessandbourne.com
MAKING A MARK
Accessories are part of a golfing gal’s wardrobe and she’ll love a gift set from Birdie Girl, a Boise-based brand started by a former Division 1 golfer, Lindzee Barrera. Options include a magnetic towel and matching water and stain-resistant Tyvek accessory bag, $54; birdiegirlgolf.com
colorado golf gift guide
Yellowstone x Pins & Aces
Denver-based golf apparel icon Pins and Aces has launched a line of shirts, hats and golf gear in partnership with the Paramount Network series Yellowstone. The branded material can set your golf bag apart or just your wardrobe, with the distinctive Dutton Ranch ‘Y’ logo and shirts with the colorful Pins and Aces design aesthetic.
Yellowstone Montana Sunset Polo or Yellowstone Rustic Ranch Polo- $69.95
Head covers: Limited edition line of hand-made, hand sewn clubhead covers for drivers, hybrids and putters. Driver cover- $69.95; Fairway cover - $59.95; Hybrid cover - $54.95; Blade or Mallet putter cover - $54.95. PinsandAces.Com
Entrada
at Snow Canyon Country Club
The Entrada at Snow Canyon Country Club in St. George, Utah, is a private club whose world-class golf course and amenities are available for discerning families and individuals looking for a unique sense of delight and engagement.
The club is inspired by breathtaking natural beauty and has friendly people connected in close camaraderie, a year-round active lifestyle and one of golf’s most distinctive playing experiences. The Entrada at Snow Canyon Country Club’s golf course reopened in 2022 after a full redesign led by renowned architect David McLay Kidd. Kidd’s redesign updated the 20-year-old Johnny Miller original to make it a little less thirsty for irrigation and more engaging for the private club player.
Entrada’s golf course is recognized as one of the best layouts in the Southwest. A unique and distinctive design weaves through ancient black-lava rock, desert arroyos, and is highlighted over 7,000 yards by emerald-bright tees, fairways and greens.This is a play-everyday course that enjoys more than 300 days of sunshine, supported by stand-out practice facilities and a deep bench of experienced, engaging golf pros, instructors and staff. The 18hole course provides fair challenges throughout and holes No. 15,16 and 17 - ‘the lava triangle’ - traverse a stunning black lava field. “(The course) rewards good strategy,” said Entrada General Manager Jim Cleary. “Kidd is protecting against birdie as opposed to protecting against par. It’s a different experience to
some.” Entrada is a four-season club, with a climate that is liveable all year long. Our award-winning clubhouse draws inspiration from our distinct environment and pays tribute to the area’s Native American heritage. The beautiful design creates a vibrant social hub, and a masterful centerpiece to the full wonder of Entrada. The club has received the prestigious Distinguished Club award from BoardRoom Magazine, the industry’s highest achievement granted to clubs providing a member experience attained by the best clubs in the world.
The club just completed a $2.8 million renovation that provides an elevated member dining experience, Sol Mesa, which offers a casual atmosphere with a fine dining twist.Many people who are looking for a place to retire to, build a dream home, or start a newlife chapter find Entrada after discovering St. George — and they discover St. George by exploring the sheer beauty and overwhelming majesty of southwest Utah. This particular slice of heaven is an almost-unbelievable combination of red-rock desert valleys, soaring pine-covered mountain peaks, ancient lava beds, and skies that are beyond blue. These are landscapes unlike anywhere else, rugged and reassuring, inspiring and energizing... and every view, every point on the compass is a glimpse at nature at its wildest and best.
The club gives access to the stunning St. George region, with easy drives to hiking and natural beauty of Zion National Park and Utah’s Snow Canyon State Park. The Inn at Entrada is often used by visitors getting a first taste of the region as a luxury base camp.
This exceptional private country club is designed to ignite your senses with its awe-inspiring natural beauty. Embark on a year-round active lifestyle, filled with endless possibilities for adventure and enjoyment. And when it comes to golf, prepare yourself for an extraordinary playing experience. At Entrada at Snow Canyon Country Club, every moment is infused with delight, engagement, and the allure of something truly special.
TAILGATE READY
HOW TO GET PARKING LOT PANACHE FOR YOUR NEXT GAME GRILL-OUT
BY ISAAC BOUCHARD
Sometimes it seems there’s an inverse relationship between one’s ability to physically participate in sports and ones ability to pay for them.
As a young person, you could hammer your body into oblivion playing contact sports. Then come the higher-earning years and though there’s still the desire to be part of the legacy of a beloved team, actual participation makes more sense in sports that require finesse, fitness and savvy.
Having the right vehicle to indulge both while also being something special in its own right no longer need mean spending six figures. A high-value, genuinely special automobile that can do it all is crucial – from hosting the perfect tailgate party to ferrying the next generation of athletes to all their games.
2024 FORD RANGER RAPTOR
Ford was first making Baja 1000 — capable offroad racing trucks widely available with the F-150 Raptor — 14 years ago. Next came the Bronco Raptor, often referred to as the “Braptor.” Now
there’s a dino-mite Ranger. Not only are all Raptors an absolute blast ripping down rutted dirt tracks or blasting across sand dunes, but they also are nicer on pavement than their more pedestrian versions, with lots of power and smooth, absorbent rides, courtesy of their long-travel suspensions and big, fat tires.
The Ranger Raptor is the perfect rig for those who seek adventure on-and-off grid, thanks mainly to its width. Unlike the F-150 and Braptor, it will easily slip down narrow mountain trails. And it’s much quieter than the Bronco, whose removable top makes highway runs fatiguing due to wind and road noise. Ford Performance has worked its magic underneath this midsize truck. Most everything is beefed up: There’s forged aluminum control arms, Fox Live-valve shocks, a Watts linkage to better locate the rear axle and much more, which give it 10 inches of suspension travel on the trail and make it more fun in paved corners too.
The Ranger R runs the same twin turbocharged, 3.0-liter V6 as the Braptor, here rated at 405-hp
and 430-lb-ft of torque. Its hooked to a responsive 10-speed automatic transmission. 0-60 takes only 5.3 seconds. It is responsive and has a burly exhaust note that can be turned down for quiet cruising. This new-gen Ranger has a much nicer interior than its predecessor, with comfortable seats in front and enough room on the back bench for gear that needs protection from the elements or light-fingered scoundrels.
The 5-foot bed is big and deep enough for work or adventure and of course can be upfitted with every conceivable amenity to make stays in the wilder-
This is not the kind of pizza you would gulp mindlessly while walking down a sidewalk to a disco beat.
The square slice towers over the plate at Longmont’s Urban Field Pizza and Market. Its dark crust sports a collar of crispy mozzarella, provolone and cheddar. The sourdough crust is topped with creme fraiche, fontina and gorgonzola cheeses, extra virgin olive oil and black pepper.
Every cacio e pepe-infused forkful is an eye-opener, but the corner pieces are blushingly good. Lovingly referred to as “butts,” the four corner pieces on the rectangular pie are a crust crush that makes you fall in love with pizza all over again. It’s enough to make a veteran dining critic openly sigh at the table.
Waiting was the hardest part. These are no 3-minute pizzas like some chains bake these days. It takes time to caramelize. A new generation of bread-loving Colorado chefs have turned their talents to elevating the humble tomato pie to greatness. They geek out about slow-fermentation and superior ingredients from flour to cheeses and sauces. They are even serious about the grated cheese and chile flakes sprinkled on their creations.
Less than a decade ago, these squares were rarely seen on Colorado menus. Denver’s Blue Pan Pizza introduced the state to the joy of Detroit-style pizzas. Now, Motown-influenced pizzerias are popping up along with shops featuring other square pizza variations.
Chef Nick Swanson is the perfect square pizza explainer since the pies he serves at Urban Field and Market in Longmont are influenced by the Big Three: Detroit, Sicilian, and Roman pizzas. “Between growing up in the Boston area, living in New York and New Jersey and studying in Italy, I feel like I’ve eaten my fair share of good pizza,” Swanson says. Detroit became his new inspiration.
Motown’s pizza hit originated at Buddy’s Pizza in Detroit in 1946. Baked in a square pan, the pillowy dough was covered corner to corner with cheese, usually higher-fat Brick. “It’s a really thick crust and that cheese melts into the edges and becomes this nice crispy lattice,” Swanson says.
Detroit pizzas are typically not baked ahead of time. At Urban Field as well as Blue Pan Pizza and Broomfield’s Rock City Ice & Pie, the slow-fermented dough rises in the metal pans and is pre-baked. These pies are a variation on Sicilian square pizzas. “They’re always pre-baked and when you’re ready, you sauce it, cheese it, and toss it back in the oven,” he says.
motown meets denver
FRONT RANGE PIZZERIAS CORNER THE MARKET WITH SIGH-WORTHY, CHEESE-CRUNCHY DETROIT-STYLE PIES BY
JOHN LEHNDORFF
“Otherwise, it would be a big soggy mess and deflate.” The simple tomato sauce is usually ladled on just before serving. Untraditionally, Swanson puts the sauce under the cheese.
Roman-style rectangular pizzas usually have a very airy crust made with olive oil. “The sauce goes over the cheeses and toppings when it’s served,” Swanson says. “With Sicilian and Roman pizzas, you don’t get any of those crispy cheese edges.”
Swanson is certain about what he and his fellow square pizza chefs are NOT producing. “People call our pizzas ‘deep dish’ and I’m quick to correct them. These are nothing like those Chicago-style pies with that heavy crust. I don’t want a gut bomb pizza where you eat one slice and you’re full. I designed our crust off a focaccia recipe so it’s light and moist in the middle and crunchy on the edges,” he says. Despite the recent boom, horizontal pies are far from new in Denver. Squares of “tomato pie” were served long before the first
local pizzerias put round pizzas in square boxes. Colorado’s first tiny Italian eateries opened in the early 1900s when Italian immigrants started arrived. They baked bread and offered grab-and-go, cheese- and sauce-covered squares. A common lunch item in Italy, simple tomato pie is still on the menu by the slice at Dolce Sicilia Bakery in Wheat Ridge.
North Denver’s Carl’s Pizza opened in 1953 and may have been the state’s first true pizzeria. Colorado has no home-grown pizza style since “mountain pies” are just a variation on deep-dish Chicago pizzas. Those raised in Chicago and Detroit regularly howl about the authenticity of the pizzas served in Colorado. New Yorkers dismiss anything called “pizza” that isn’t a foldable triangle sold in one of the boroughs.
“Pizza has always evolved and different styles have developed all over the world. It has never stayed the same,” Swanson says.
DOUGH COUNTER // PHOTO CREDIT: JIM BEBBINGTON
colorado’s square pizza trail
AFTER
IN-DEPTH
AND
DELICIOUS
HIGH-CARB RESEARCH WE PRESENT COLORADO
AVIDGOLFER’S GUIDE TO SOME OF THE TOP SQUARE PIZZA PURVEYORS ON THE FRONT RANGE WITH RECOMMENDED SQUARES TO SAMPLE AND SAVOR
BY JOHN LEHNDORFF
DENVER
Blue Pan Pizza
Details: Blue Pan introduced the metro area to Detroit-style pizza and now has two locations in Denver and one in Golden. bluepandenver.com // Pie to Try: The Brooklyn Bridge: mozzarella, brick, Pecorino Romano and fresh ricotta cheeses with tomato sauce, pepperoni, Italian sausage, garlic and oregano. (Featured on The Food Network’s “Diners, Drive In’s and Dives”)
Eat Ya Pizza
Details: Roman style square pizza. eatyapizza.com // Pie to Try: The Kevin: Mozzarella, Provolone, Italian herbs and Pecorino Romano.
Sofia’s
Details: Roman-style square pizza. sofiasroman. com // Pie to Try: Tomato sauce, pepperoni, mozzarella, gorgonzola and spicy honey.
Dough Counter
Details: The Dough Counter offers round as well as square Sicilian pies. doughcounter.com // Pie to Try: Vodka Chicken Parm: Chicken strips, vodka sauce, brick cheese, marinara, oregano and Parmesan.
BROOMFIELD
Rock City Ice & Pie
Details: Mainly takeout spot dishes Detroit-inspired square pizza (and Italian water ices). rockcitypieandice.com // Pie to Try: Wild Shroom: Mari-
nated roasted Colorado mushrooms, goat cheese, Brick cheese, aged Provolone, sharp white Cheddar, ricotta, bufala mozzarella and fresh mozzarella, Parmesan, fresh basil and tomato sauce.
BOULDER
Audrey Jane’s Pizza Garage
Details: Round and Sicilian rectangular pan pizzas are available for takeout only. The special Patty Style pies are coated on the bottom with sesame seeds. thepizzagarage.com // Pie to Try: Spicy Pig: Tomato sauce, mozzarella, pepperoni, Italian sausage, roasted jalapeños, garlic and oregano. (Featured on The Food Network’s “Diners, Drive In’s and Dives”)
LONGMONT
Urban Field and Market
Details: Round and Detroit-inspired pizzas are available at Urban Field locations in Longmont and Loveland, and on concert nights in The Lounge at the Boulder Theater. urbanfieldpizza.com // Pie to Try: Arrabiata: Tomato sauce, cheese blend, cup pepperoni, shaved red onion, pepperoncini, garlic, Calabrian chiles, hot honey and basil.
Rosalee’s Pizzeria
Details: Round and Sicilian squares are on the menu with premium toppings like roasted chilies, fresh mozzarella, whole anchovies and smoked Provolone. Cheese Sicilian squares served nightly during live music. rosaleespizzeria.com // Pie to Try: Margherita: Plum tomato sauce, fresh moz-
zarella, basil leaves, whole milk mozzarella and Pecorino Romano.
LAFAYETTE
Westbound and Down Mill
Details: At its Lafayette location, this award-winning craft brewery dishes round and square pizzas. westboundanddown.com // Pie to Try: The Westbound: Green chile sausage, mozzarella, red onion, jalapeños, carrots, smoked cheddar, cilantro and white sauce.
Ghost Box Pizza
Details: A sister to Acreage at Stem Ciders (nearby in Lafayette), Ghost Box Pizza offers Detroit-style pies and wood-fired round pizzas and calzones. ghostboxpizza.com // Pie to Try: Hawaiian: Canadian bacon, pineapple, red onion, red sauce and mozzarella. (Really!)
COLORADO SPRINGS
Decent Pizza Co.
Details: Detroit-style pies on a sourdough crust are available. decentpizza.com // Pie to Try: Animal Lovers: Daiya cheese, vegan pepperoni, vegan Italian sausage crumbles and red sauce.
FORT COLLINS
Postcard Pizza
Details: Detroit-style pizzas are served. postcard. pizza // Pie to Try: Classic Pepperoni: Cheese blend, cupping pepperoni, red sauce, oregano, Parmesan and Pecorino Romano.
DOUGH COUNTER // PHOTO CREDIT: JIM BEBBINGTON
URBAN FIELD AND MARKET // PHOTO CREDIT: NICK SWANSON
URBAN FIELD AND MARKET // PHOTO CREDIT: NICK SWANSON
donald ross courses
The Colorado Masterpieces of
Donald Ross
On a perfect morning for golf, the first foursome of the day – all walkers – begin their trek down the fairway of hole No. 1. Dewdrops cling to blades of grass. Dappled light covers the bent grass greens. Silver poplar, cottonwood, and Austrian pines cast shadows across the fairway. Wellshire Golf Course, the stately municipal in southeast Denver, not only drips with beauty, but also with history.
Wellshire is designed by the man considered to be America’s greatest golf architect: Donald J. Ross.
If you watched this year’s U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2, you likely heard his memory constantly invoked. Born in Scotland in 1872, Ross was a player, clubmaker, greenskeeper and designer whose mentor was the legendary Old Tom Morris of Old Course fame. Between 1900 and 1948, Ross was so prolific that even he lost track of how many courses in North America he designed. The record shows a staggering four hundred. In addition to Wellshire (1926), Colorado is blessed to have two other confirmed Ross courses– The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs (1918), home of the 2025 U.S. Senior Open, and Lakewood Country Club (1916). All are works of art created by the man some call the Michaelangelo of golf.
Over a century ago, when Colorado Springs entrepreneur Spencer Penrose was planning The Broadmoor, he knew his vision of a grand European-style resort in the shadow of Pikes Peak was incomplete without a world class golf course. Golf was on the rise in America, and so was the career of Donald Ross. In 1907, Ross had completed Pinehurst No. 2, the course Ben Hogan would later refer to as “a golf Mecca.”
America’s first golf superstar was not a player, but an architect whose growing body of work would soon put him in the same company as Old Tom Morris, Alistair Mackenzie, and C.B. McDonald. At a time when winners of the U.S. Open were taking home a prize of $500, architect Ross was making $30,000 a year - the equivalent of almost $500,000 today. Spencer Penrose wanted the best for The Broadmoor. Ross was his man. The rolling foothills surrounding The Broadmoor combined with the stunning backdrop of Cheyenne Mountain made the perfect pallet for Ross to cre -
BY CHRIS WHEELER
ate his next great work. At The Broadmoor, Ross brought design principles that would become a blueprint for future golf course design. In an age when golf was a walking game, his routing of his courses were models of efficiency. “Build each hole in such a manner that it wastes none of the ground at my disposal” he wrote. Bunkers, Ross believed, should be clearly visible and placed in locations “to make all classes of golfers think.” Greens were strategically placed in locations with natural undulations.
Ross’s goal at The Broadmoor – and in all his designs - was to create a course that worked in harmony with nature. Ross believed in moving the least amount of dirt possible. The first bulldozer would not be operating until the 1920s. “Make your holes fit your course,” Ross wrote. “No other way can be as satisfactory.”
On June 29, 1918, The Broadmoor opened its doors to its first guests. Five days later, on July 4th, Ross’s course saw its first players. The headline of the Rocky Mountain News proclaimed: “Broadmoor Golf Links Equal to Best in America.” Ross agreed, calling it his “best work.”
“I feel a responsibility to uphold Ross’s vision, as it has endured for over 100 years with minimal changes,” says Broadmoor Superintendent Michael Sartori. “Even today, it remains a terrific test of golf, despite the advancements in equipment over the years.” Like Spencer Penrose, Denver mortuary magnate George Olinger was eager to capitalize on the golf boom in America. Olinger’s plan for a southeast Denver subdivision was to be anchored by a country club and golf course.
In 1924, Olinger’s Wellshire Park Subdivision hired Donald Ross, who was then at the zenith of his career. Ross was charged with transforming the 137-acre Skeel Farm into the finest course west of the Mississippi. As with The Broadmoor, Ross designed a course that would “mold nature just sufficiently to give the greatest golf possibilities.” Believing that each course should be limited to three water holes, Ross restrained from creating too many hazards with Skeel Reservoir and the meandering Highline Canal. “Pleasure not penance” became Ross’s mantra. “Too many water
hazards are not desirable,” he wrote. “The loss of balls becomes a serious detraction from the joys of the game.”
Wellshire Country Club opened on August 28, 1926. However, Olinger’s dream for the grand Wellshire Subdivision was short-lived. Financial losses in the Great Depression forced him to sell. In 1936, the City of Denver purchased the golf course and clubhouse for $60,000. Olinger’s loss became Colorado golfers’ gain. Today, Wellshire is the only Ross-designed municipal course west of the Mississippi, a beautiful tract where all can have access to Ross’ genius.
At the same time he was beginning work at The Broadmoor, Ross was hired by Lakewood Country Club. The original 1908 course had nine holes, and was said to have had dirt fairways and sand greens. Turf was eventually planted and nine holes added. But members of the Lakewood Country Club had big dreams.
In 1916, they hired America’s best-known golf course architect. In the rolling fields surrounding Lakewood Country Club, Ross added new bunkers to the sand-less course, reshaped some greens, moved others and added new tees. The end result was a classic Ross design.
The resurgence of interest in Donald Ross courses speaks volumes about who we were then, and who we are now. Donald Ross is America’s golf royalty - our Old Tom Morris. One hundred years ago, Donald Ross began to introduce the sport of golf to generations of Americans.
There is a comfort in knowing that that golfers today can still walk a course, can still be challenged in the same way golfers were challenged a century ago. Ross understood that golf courses are meant to be places of “pleasure, not penance.” He also realized that golf courses are our sanctuaries, places where time stands still.
Near the end of his career, Ross wrote: “Golf has never failed me.” His gift of 400 golf courses across America is proof that Donald Ross never failed us. Colorado has three timeless tracts that prove it.
donald ross courses
“ROSS ADAPTED TO THE AVAILABLE LAND IN ORDER TO CREATE A GOLF COURSE THAT COMPLEMENTED THE COLORADO FRONT RANGE. HIS INCORPORATION OF A VARIETY OF HOLE LENGTHS ENSURES AN ENJOYABLE ROUND OF GOLF FOR PLAYERS OF ALL SKILL LEVELS.”
MICHAEL SARTORI, SUPERINTENDENT OF THE BROADMOOR COURSESS, ON ROSSʻ GENIUS:
PHOTO: CHRIS WHEELER
ROSS CAME TO AMERICA FROM SCOTLAND IN 1899. WITHIN 10 YEARS, THE ARCHITECT WAS THE FIRST SUPERSTAR OF GOLF. COURTESY: THE BROADMOOR
PHOTO BY CHRIS WHEELER
donald ross courses
Today, Wellshire is the only Ross-designed municipal course west of the Mississippi
THE SECOND HOLE AT LAKEWOOD COUNTRY CLUB SHOWCASES THE CROSS BUNKER (FOREGROUND) AND RIBBON BUNKER (OF THE GREEN) DESIGNED BY DONALD ROSS. PHOTO: CHRIS WHEELER
IN JUNE 2026, WELLSHIRE GOLF COURSE WILL CELEBRATE A CENTURY OF THE TRACT DESIGNED BY DONALD ROSS. PHOTO: CHRIS WHEELER
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A New Era
of NIL
NIL UNLOCKS A NEW WAVE OF GOLF SPONSORSHIPS – IN HIGH SCHOOL
BY JIM BEBBINGTON
One of Arizona’s “Exceptional Golf Experiences”
Last summer as Logan Hale, a star golfer who had just graduated from Erie High School, played in the final round of the Inspirato Colorado Women’s Open, one man shadowed her group carrying a tripod and cell phone.
Greg Glynn, the founder and CEO of Pliable Marketing, was shooting photos of Hale in action as part of one of the region’s first NIL relationships for youth golf. Glynn is among a new category of sports agent who are reaching into the high school ranks for clients – something that just a few years ago would have been illegal.
But all that changed with the arrival of NIL. “This new era of NIL is going to have a positive impact on young golfers, especially because of how social media plays such an important part now in an athlete’s overall brand and personality,” Glynn said.
For decades if high school and college athletes –including golfers – wanted to make money on the side and still be eligible to compete their options were very limited. They had to work jobs that had zero connection to their roles as athletes – something that was possible but very difficult given the time many have to spend with their sports.
Or, they had to cheat. Taking money under the table from boosters or no-show jobs could be lucrative, but if it was found out the athletes’ amateur careers were over.
THE IMPACT OF NIL
That all changed with the era of Name/Image/License. In July 2021 the NCAA began to allow college athletes to profit off of their names, images and licensing abilities.
Nearly all the highest-profile examples have been football and basketball athletes – some are facing pay cuts when they graduate and turn pro. But for golf, the opportunities – and complexity – is very real.
Sisters Lauren and Katelyn Lehigh of Loveland were two of Glynn’s first clients. For the Lehigh sisters, their goals for playing though are already different. Lauren followed up a strong career at the University of New Mexico with a run at professional golf. Her sister Katelyn, currently studying and playing for Fresno State University, is preparing to enter the field of sports management.
And that is where her partnership with Glynn helps, she said.
“I wanted to stay and work in sports somewhere and (my NIL work is) creating the network of people who already know me,” she said.
When she and her sister Lauren signed up for Glynn’s services, he worked alongside them setting up calls with potential clients for them to sponsor their products. Most calls don’t yield deals, but every call is another sports-industry
person whom she has met, Katelyn said. “The money isn’t being thrown at us like at the bigger schools,” Katelyn said. “We have to work at that and I don’t have the time for that. And that is when Greg comes in.”
All three of Glynn’s clients have sponsorship agreements with a brand of energy bars, Ignite.
They connected when Glynn first saw Lauren competing in a summer tournament.“Lauren had swagger, I saw that and saw the way she handled herself,” Glynn said. “I reached out and said ‘Are you interested in athlete branding and NIL.’ We got a call together and she says to me ‘I have a sister and she’s going to want this too.’”
Their experience was so positive, Katelyn said, that when Glynn began to recruit Logan Hale he asked the three of them to speak first on a phone call for the Lehigh’s to answer Hale’s questions. All four were supposed to be on that call one morning. Bizarrely, a car hit Greg’s office building in Maine just as the call began.
“We just told him to hang up; we’ll take it from here,” Katelyn said.
By the time he rejoined the call Hale had had all her questions answered and was ready to sign up. Hale is now a freshman at Denver University.
The phenomenon is already widespread. One of junior golf’s highest-profile female athletes of this summer – a Californian named Asterisk Talley –was just signed by the international agency the William Morris Agency. Talley, 15, finished in the top five for numerous junior and women’s amateur tournaments and made the cut, finishing 44th, in last summer’s U.S. Women’s Open.
Katelyn said high school students looking to become active in the NIL space would be wise to get good advice.
“The scarier side of NIL is the compliance side,” she said. “Make sure everything is done is legal. I disclose everything with my compliance department. You can lose eligibility. You’re trying to write a contract, what services am I going to provide and what am I getting out of that. Be clear. What is Ignite doing, what is Greg and what am I doing. If they didn’t know anybody like Greg I would warn them to be careful, especially with recruiting.”
PHOTO CREDIT: PLIABLE MARKETING
2024 Colorado PGA Special Award Recipients
Cathy Matthews-Kane, PGA, has been named the 2024 Colorado PGA Golf Professional of the Year, marking a significant achievement as she becomes only the second female President of the Colorado PGA since its establishment in 1957. Currently the General Manager of The Country Club of Colorado and the District IX Director for the PGA of America, she is recognized for her over 15 years of service in various volunteer roles within the PGA. A graduate of Iowa State University, where she excelled in women's golf, Matthews-Kane began her career in golf at Hole-In-TheWall Golf Club in Florida and later at The Broadmoor in Colorado. Cathy expressed her gratitude upon receiving the award and she emphasized the importance of community support in her journey.
Charles "Vic" Kline Award
Graham Cliff, PGA I Colorado Golf Club
Superintendent of the Year
Tim Davis I Legacy Ridge Golf Course
Salesperson of the Year
Marcus Gregory I Callaway Golf
P resident’s Award
Phil Anschutz I The Broadmoor Resort
T odd Phipers Media Award
Gary Baines I Colorado Golf Journal
Associate Player of the Year
Andrew Connell | TRUE Spec - Denver
Women's Player of the Year
A shley Tait-Wengert, PGA I Turkey Creek Golf
Rolex Senior Player of the year
D oug Rohrbaugh, PGA I River Valley Ranch Golf Course
Rolex Dow Finsterwald Player of the Year
Geoff Keffer, PGA | Lakewood Country club
N oble Chalfant Award
Ed Oldham, PGA
Marion Pfluger, PGA
Tony Novitsky, PGA
Merchandisers of the Year
Private - Greg Bryan, PGA | Roaring Fork Club
Resort - Jake O’Dell, PGA I Flying Horse Resort and Club
Public - Trey Johnson, PGA I Vail Golf Club
Warren Smith Award
M ark Kelbel, PGA I Broadmoor Golf Club
Patriot Award
V isanu Tongwarin, PGA I Legacy Ridge Golf Course
B ill Strausbaugh Award
Z ach Lambeck, PGA I GOLFTEC
Y outh Player Development Award
M aggie Hartman, PGA | Trent Wearner Golf Academy
Player Development Award
K yle McGee, PGA I Thorncreek Golf Course
E d Kelbel Award
J on Husby, PGA I UCCS PGA Golf Management
A ssistant Professional of the Year (Bottom)
M itchell Gore, PGA I Columbine Country Club
T eacher of the Year (Middle)
S tan Sayers, PGA I Colorado Golf Club
G olf Professional of the Year (Top)
C athy Matthews-Kane, PGA I Country Club of Colorado
Scan here to watch videos about each award winner
Wailea Awaits
BY JIM BEBBINGTON
Situated on the south/central coast of the Hawaiian island of Maui, the resort community of hotels, three sumptuous golf courses, beaches, beautiful pools and lush grounds is ready to provide a warm and welcoming refuge.
This year the 1,500-acre resort community heads into its busy season – November through April –with a renewed sense of ‘Aloha’ for its visitors.
Wailea is sharing a new season with visitors to its pristine beaches, vacation villas and private homes and world-class golf courses. The Wailea Golf Club offers three 18-hole tests (see ‘Golfing with Aloha, page 44) that are excellent yearround, but provide stunning views during the winter whale watching season.
“You get a two-for-one on the golf courses,” said Wailea Resort Association’s Kathleen Costello.
“You cannot help but see the whales.” The seaside community has enough to provide a complete Maui experience in and of itself. But it also puts visitors in close proximity to the best golf, surf, spas, culture and outdoor pursuits that the beautiful island of Maui provides.
The Wailea resort community is many things. There are eight hotel and resort complexes along the Wailea shores. Within the community are homes, residences, villas and condos available for all manner of visit durations – quick trips with buddies, or over-winter stays.
The resort community has evolved over decades of development and spans 1,500 acres along 1.5 miles of Pacific oceanfront. In addition to
Visit wailea
the eight hotels and residences there are four boutique commercial districts, three world-class resort golf courses and tennis center. Within the Wailea Resort community there are five beaches that line the shores. Each provides instant access to snorkeling and diving experiences - Keawakapu Beach, Ulua Beach, Wailea Beach, Mokapu Beach and Polo Beach. They are a short walk from anywhere in the community, or out the back door of some the most elite seaside residences.
Poolside luxury is available for anyone staying in any of the eight hotels in the community. Or, for people opting for private residences and condominiums, many of the resorts offer day passes for families to use their lazy rivers, waterfalls and lounges. Check with properties directly for availability.
Whale-watching tours, kayak excursions, sunset cruises and diving tours head out daily from hotels in the community and nearby. “Wailea is gracious hospitality and we have so much to offer our visitors,” said Costello.
WAILEA DINING AND SPAS
Dining options in the community range from casual to pubs to gourmet. There are more than 50 eateries within the resort community - pubs, kitchens and restaurants many with top ratings.
Start your day at Akamai Coffee – either the one within Wailea or in nearby Kihei – a regular on the ‘best of Maui’ lists.
Lunch can be had at dozens of options: grab-andgo for a beach picnic or enjoyed poolside. The
popular MonkeyPod Kitchen features fare from island farms and ranches as well as hand-tossed pizzas. Take a peek at Kohola Brewery’s new taproom. All the resorts have top-end dining options including Ikena at the Grand Wailea, Ferraro’s Restaurant & Bar at the Four Seasons Resort, and the AMA Bar and Grill at the Fairmont Kea Lani.
Pilina at Fairmont Kea Lani, Humuhumunukunukuapua’a at the Grand Wailea, Roy’s Humble Market Kitchin at Wailea Beach Resort, Morimoto Maui at Andaz, or visit Gather on Maui for a 19th hole at Wailea Golf Club.
Away from the hotels Lineage provides Asian fusion staples, and Oao is a delicious excursion for sushi. Hungry, but still need to catch an important game? The sports gastropub The Pint and Cork is worth a visit.
Wailea also offers a range of spa and wellness offerings from the largest spa in the state of Hawaii, the New Kilolani Spa at the Grand Wailea opened earlier this year.
Wailea’s other four oceanfront resort hotels –Four Seasons, Fairmont, Wailea Beach Resort and Andaz also have spas on property offering spa treatments, classes and experiences.
There is also the Wailea Coastal Path, a 1.5-mile pedestrian path along the gorgeous Wailea Gold Coastline where visitors can walk and experience amazing oceanfront views of the neighboring islands and see the grounds of resort hotels and villas. WaileaResortAssociation.Com.
The seaside community has enough to provide a complete Maui experience in and of itself. But it also puts visitors in close proximity to the best golf, surf and hiking that the beautiful island of Maui provides. Within the Wailea Resort community there are five beaches that line the shores.
PHOTO CREDIT: WAILEA RESORT ASSOCIATION
Golfing with Aloha
T.J. Figueroa, the director of golf for Wailea Golf Club, has lived and worked on the islands nearly his entire career. Starting on a maintenance crew he moved through all the roles that help run a golf course en route to now leading Maui’s premier three-course complex that is available to visitors of Wailea Resort.
“I love the people I get to work with and the people who get to come and visit,” he said. “A lot of people are coming to Wailea and coming to Maui to have fun, to relax, and to enjoy everything Maui has to offer.”
Wailea Golf Club has been built out over the past 50 years with the goal of providing challenges for all levels of players.
The Blue Course: “We describe it as easy to hit, hard to score,” Figueroa said. Wide resort fairways give way to large, fast greens.
The Emerald Course: “This is our tropical garden; it is golfing in paradise.” From the first tee box it
gives visitors sweeping ocean and mountain views with this enchanting starting hole taking you straight toward the ocean.
The Gold Course: “This is our natural beauty –natural lava rocks, a lot of bunkers and more of a rugged beauty to look at.” The course was one of the homes of the Champions Skins Game, the unofficial kick-off tournament to the Champions Tour season held in January and February that featured appearances by Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Lee Trevino. Most of the greens are surrounded by the 95 bunkers that dot the course, making approach shots crucial.
The popular resort courses offer packages and flexible rates. Players age 17 and under play free after 3 p.m. Rates drop after noon, and training center and driving range privileges are available to players of all three courses.
The Wailea Golf Academy offers private or group lessons, as well as playing sessions and half-day outings with PGA pros.
WAILEA GOLF CLUB, WAILEA EMERALD COURSE #17 AND #10 DOUBLE GREEN// PHOTO CREDIT: BRIAN OAR
CASTLE PINES’ KEITH SCHNEIDER HANDS OVER LEADERSHIP OF CLUB HE HELPED MAKE ONE OF THE BEST WORDS BY JIM BEBBINGTON // PHOTOS BY CHRISTIAN MARCY-VEGA
an icon retires
The story is an old one, but it’s worth re-telling. It’s 1981 and Keith Schneider, an Ohioan, had just recently fallen off the turnip truck and found himself as the interim club professional at a still-under-construction new golf club south of Denver, the Castle Pines Golf Club.
For three years Schneider had been working for the greatest professional golfer of the time, Jack Nicklaus, helping operate his pride and joy and home course northwest of Columbus, Ohio, the Muirfield Village Golf Club.
One day Jack had asked to speak to his young, green assistant golf pro.
“I said, OK, what did I do wrong?” Schneider recalls. Far from it, Jack said. Instead Jack ‘asked’ if Schneider would be willing to uproot his life, move
1,200 miles away, and help one of his clients –Jack Vickers – get the fledgling Castle Pines off the ground.
“I looked at him and I said, well, how soon do you need to know? And he looked at that gold Rolex and he says ‘Pretty much now,” Schneider said. “Two days later, I’m in my car driving to Colorado.” Schneider, all of 26, arrived a few days later at a construction site.
“When Keith came out here Happy Canyon Road was still a dirt road,” said George Solich, the Denver oil executive and current president and Chairman of Castle Pines Golf Club. Working out of a double-wide trailer, Schneider helped Vickers, the club’s visionary founder, get started. Vickers’ vision was simple: he wanted to build the Augusta National of the West.
That first summer the course greened up early, and within a few weeks Jack Vickers wanted to hold a ceremonial first round of golf with course architect Jack Nicklaus on hand and all his members getting their first taste.
There was one problem, however. There were no caddies. Schneider called the president of the Evans Scholar House at the University of Colorado, Roger Hiyama.
“Roger, this is what we’re doing: I got Jack playing an exhibition to introduce some members to the club, then the members are going to play the next day,” Schneider recalled. “I’d like to have you caddy for Jack on the round. We called it Round One. Then the next day with 100 members I need 25 caddies to come down. I’ll send a bus to pick you up, bring you down here, caddy for the day, bus back to Boulder. I’ll put a keg of beer on it on
the way back - not on the way down.” The signup sheet filled up fast, including a CU sophomore named George Solich. Castle Pines Golf Club was now officially open.
“He’s seen everything from day 1,” Solich said recently. “That’s a wealth of knowledge. What’s really important as I transitioned into the executive committee first and chairman second, I’ve been working with Keith closely for 14 years. He’s meant so much to Castle Pines - not only the golf club but the membership. He’s very member centric – that’s one of his strengths. We say we treat the members like family and their guests like members.”
That spirit is strong throughout the staff and the club’s members, largely thanks to Schneider.
“He very much cared that Castle Pines be the best version of itself that Jack Vickers envisioned,” Solich said.
Now, 43 years later, Schneider is retiring at the end of the year. He served as head pro for 23
an icon retires
years, then 20 as the general manager. In his time he helped guide nearly every aspect of a club that sought to live up to its promise of providing ‘The Best Day of Golf in America.”
The trailer clubhouse has long since gone. In its place is a modern complex that underwent a full renovation and expansion in the past 10 years. Nearby is a secluded enclave of what the club calls cottages – multi-story residences with separate living quarters on each floor. They give visitors unrivaled access and views along holes No. 1 and 9. In 2018 when Vickers died and Solich became the chairman, they launched an update that touched every corner of the building and the course.
“When George Solich became chairman and president of the club, that’s the best thing that really happened for us,” Schneider said. “He really appreciated and cherished Jack Vickers’s vision.”
Everything needed to be updated. That work began. The course – if it was ever to challenge the PGA Tour’s best again – needed to be improved. They called Jack Nicklaus back in to oversee it.
“It’s not necessarily that the architecture was changed, it’s just we modernized it. And that’s what we’ve worked so hard to accomplish - we’ve done the clubhouse, the cottages, the golf course. We did all of this together the last 10 years, with the dream of the BMW (Championship) coming to show the world what we have done.”
This summer’s BMW Championship was a near-perfect reintroduction of the club to the world. The weather was ideal. The grounds looked fantastic on TV. And the competition came down to the final hole.
“I think the people here that came really enjoyed it,” Schneider said. “It was a huge success.”
Along those 43 years Schneider married and raised a family. He and Beth married 36 years ago and Schneider became stepfather to her two children, Tom and Lisa. They had one son together, Drew, who followed Keith into the golf business and is now the assistant GM at Lakewood Country Club in Dallas. The club operations business is well-known for its challenges. Different members
can want different things. How do you succeed at that for 43 years? Mike MacAdams, the club vice president and CFO, has worked alongside Schneider for 20 years and says Schneider has succeeded by being himself.
“Keith makes everybody feel welcome here whether you’re an employee, a member, a guest,” MacAdams said. “The individual can feel that. I think that’s one of the best things - his leadership by example.”
“One of the key things Keith taught me is what details to pay attention to,” MacAdams said. “How to see all the details and teaching me about Mr. Vickers vision – when people come here they come for home cooking. When you walk through the clubhouse you’re looking into the corners - did we vacuum into the corners? Even when you’re walking through the clubhouse you still saying ‘Are we on our game to the best of our ability?’ ”
His successor as general manager, Dwight Dyksterhouse Jr., is 33 years old and part of a new wave of staff who are tasked with keeping the club vibrant and relevant for decades to come. He said he has come to appreciate what Schneider accomplished as he looks forward to his own job ahead.
“I would say the biggest takeaway so far for me is he’s given his life to this place - 43 years is a long time,” Dyksterhouse said. “It shows in the way he treats the members and their guests and the way they treat him. When you spend so long in one place it’s evident he’s admired and respected and frankly loved.”
As this final summer approached Castle Pines members gathered last spring for their annual kickoff. Schneider was their guest of honor. They gave Schneider their highest honor – a membership to the club for life – and before a crowded room relived his accomplishments at helping make the best day of golf in America a reality.
“There were standing ovations and tears,” Solich said. “And that is not all that common at clubs.”
an icon retires
avid travels: BIRMINGHAM
golf in the magic city
BIRMINGHAM IS THE CORNERSTONE OF ALABAMA’S
ROBERT TRENT JONES TRAIL
WORDS & PHOTOS BY JIM BEBBINGTON
When you visit Birmingham, Alabama, from Denver – a quick 2.5-hour direct flight – you are forgiven if you think your plane was rerouted to Pittsburgh.
Lush green hills surround a bustling downtown with smoke stacks on the horizon. Birmingham is the steel belt of the South. The city was created from scratch in the 1870s and exploded in population as whites and blacks flooded in for jobs in coal mines and steel mills. People showed up, the saying goes, as if by magic – hence the nickname Magic City.
Today it is a fun and diverse downtown with fantastic food and nightlife, a city that was the furnace of the Civil Rights Era of the 1950s and 1960s, and now the hub of a world-class golf experience: Alabama’s Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail.
The Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail was the brainchild in 1990 of the director of Alabama’s state pension funds. He envisioned a chain of worldclass golf courses and resorts dotting the state in order to spread out tourist interest and spur rural development – a golf version, the story goes, of the baseball film “Field of Dreams.”
Today the Trail offers 31 courses at 11 locations. The courses – many of which are also home to comfortable resort accommodations – are marketed to buddy trippers, golf tourists, couples and players of all sorts.
Robert Trent Jones Sr., one of the most prolific golf course architects in the 20th Century, designed the majority of the courses. They began to come online in 1992 and the contract with him to design 18 courses across the state is considered the largest single partnership project in the world between one client and one course architect.
For those interested in dipping their toes into the RTJ Trail waters, there is no better place to start than Birmingham.
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ROSS BRIDGE
A 15-minute drive southwest of downtown Birmingham sits the crown-jewel of the RTJ Trail, Ross Bridge in the suburb of Hoover. The rolling, massive grounds were undeveloped forest when the course was built – no homes or developments pinned in the original design. So Jones created an absolute stunner dotted with curving, rolling fairways, enormous green complexes, and a series of ponds, streams and waterfalls for irrigate it all. Until RainDance National opened in Colorado at nearly 8,500 yards, the back-tees of Ross Bridge at nearly 8,200 yards were considered the longest golf course in the United States.
Ross Bridge is also the home to the premier resort offered by the RTJ Golf Trail, the Renaissance Ross Bridge Golf Resort & Spa. The enormous castle-like complex opened 20 years ago and just was given a wall-to-wall renovation. It features a new pool complex outdoors in addition to the spa and restaurants inside.
“For a lot of the folks who come to Ross Bridge it’s the guys who come to play golf, then they go
avid travels: BIRMINGHAM
back and tell their wives where they’ve been and they ask ‘Why didn’t you take me?’ so they come back the next year, bring their wives, they go have a great time by the pool or the spa and the guys go out and have a good time on the course,” said Jonathan McKinney, the Renaissance Ross Bridge hotels director of sales.
The course, like all the RTJ Trail, offers an abundance of tee options. Played in October from the orange tees – 6,846 yards – the course never felt overwhelming. But nearly every green is approached from below, with an advantage given to players who know their iron yardages well and can come in high and stick the landing.
In conjunction with the hotel renovation, the course operators completed a full re-grassing and tidy-up of Ross Bridge in 2023. Some bunkers were removed to help the lay-golfer have a better experience, while the bunkers designed in the landing zones of the single-digit handicappers were enhanced to make them even more of a challenge.Greens and tees are in excellent shape and the fairways are wide. Magnificent oaks and pines
line many of the fairways and wayward drives are often found atop a bed of pine needles. The course is maintained as one would expect – nearly pristine conditions throughout.
DISCOVER
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avid travels: BIRMINGHAM
OXMOOR VALLEY AND THE BACK YARD
There’s a story about a group of men who were about to tee off at the RTJ Golf Trail at Oxmoor Valley’s Ridge course – just down the road from Ross Bridge.
They were arguing over which tees to play – orange or white – both middle-of-the-pack tee boxes, but the orange being longer. “I’ll tell you what,” the started finally interrupted. “I don’t know you guys or how any of you play, but I’ll bet you each $5 that you can’t break 100 if you play the orange.”
The appropriately educated squad headed to the forward whites, and still no one broke 100. Oxmoor Valley’s Ridge course is a narrower, steeper version of Ross Bridge. Its greens are dynamic, rolling and worthy of deep study before placing putter to ball. In money matches, four-putts will not be rare.
The complex features 45 holes – two full-throated 18-hole challenges Ridge and Valley, and a brandnew Back Yard. The Back Yard is a new concept for the RTJ Golf Trail – nine par-3 holes that can
be played in less than an hour, with music pumped in, fire pits, Adirondack chairs and a food and beer truck nearby. On Saturday afternoons the place rocks.
HIGHLAND PARK
The original home to the Birmingham Country Club, Highland Park is in the heart of Birmingham and provides a fun departure from the ‘distance is everything’ courses elsewhere. It is not an RTJ Trail course, but during any visit to Birmingham can offer a perfect second round of a day for anyone looking to get in more golf before the nightlife begins.
“Everyone claims it’s one of the most fun rounds they’ve had,” said Evan Godfrey, Highland Park’s general manager.
Big hitters get an advantage only briefly here. The course boasts many holes designed to take the driver out of your hand, and rewards real craftsmanship. (That said, the drive-or-die types simply have to go for the green on No. 10 – tantalizingly placed 310 yards out over a lake.) After the wel-
coming first three holes, the rest of the course offers up tight landing zones and greens surrounded by bunkers – front and back at times. Beautiful views of downtown Birmingham can be had on the 5th and 15th tee boxes.
The Troon Golf managed course is a relative bargain – 18 holes from around $60 on weekdays and $100 on weekends – and worth a visit. It hosts nearly 5,000 rounds a month from spring through fall.
The best time of year to play Birmingham is spring or fall. Winters are similar to those in Colorado –you can get temps in the 60s, or sleet. Summers the courses are just as enjoyable but the heat and humidity skyrockets.
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The Dinner Table of the South
A VISIT TO BIRMINGHAM OPENS UP A WORLD OF GOOD DINING, BEFITTING A CITY THAT BILLS ITSELF AS THE DINNER TABLE OF THE SOUTH
Le Fresca Ristorante Italiano: The 2nd Avenue downtown eatery offers North Italian dishes, meats and an excellent wine selection. Lefrescabhm.com.
Back Forty Beer Company: Alabama’s brew-pub scene is not as diverse as Colorado’s but its best are excellent. Back Forty offers delicious takes on southern dinner favorites. Backfortybeer.com
House of Found Objects: Another 2nd Avenue destination this nightclub has to be seen to be believed. Quirky and endlessly fascinating, it offers boutique cocktails named for local celebrities meant to be sipped from within cubby-hole seating.
Saw’s Soul Kitchen: Delicious Old-school Alabama BBQ joint that has helped revitalize its neighborhood. Sawsbbq.com
Dread River Distilling Company: One of Alabama’s growing whiskey and spirits distillery scene features a handsome showroom and tasting room. dreadriver.com.
BIRMINGHAM ATTRACTIONS
Birmingham Civil Rights Institute: Birmingham’s part in the U.S. Civil Rights struggle is second to none. This museum and learning center has guided tours to bring the story to life. It is across the street from the 16th Street Baptist Church, which the Ku Klux Klan bombed in 1963, killing four young girls and providing more momentum for the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act in Congress.
Birmingham’s story is part of our nation’s story and an afternoon here is a reward in itself. Tour presenter Barry McNealy at BCRI.Org is worth asking for by name.
Rickwood Field: Considered the oldest professional baseball stadium in the country, the stadium took center stage June 20, 2024, when MLB held a regular season game there between the St. Louis Cardinals and the San Francisco Giants.
Negro Southern League Museum: A quick trip to learn about the deep tradition of African American baseball teams that thrived before the desegregation of Major League Baseball. Birminghamnslm. org.
Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum: A simply breathtaking display of more than 1,200 motorcycles, race cars and other eye candy for motorheads. It is set within an immaculately landscaped motor racing park that features a racing track used by Porsche and Mercedes to offer client experiences. BarberMuseum.org.
36 HOLES | PLAY SAGUARO & CHOLLA
The Coore/Crenshaw-designed Saguaro course (No. 1) and the Scott Miller-designed Cholla course (No. 9) have been ranked among the Top-10 Best You Can Play in Arizona* for a decade. And you can experience both within a 3-day period with the 36-hole package. Located minutes from Scottsdale, Arizona in the pristine Sonoran Desert of the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation
It takes an architect of immense skill to take a better-than-average golf course and transform it into something that commands respect from worldclass players and still be enjoyed by resort golfers.
The North Course at La Costa, nestled in the hills north of San Diego, hosted its share of prestigious events since opening in 1965. Most notably it was the site of the Mercedes Championship (nee the Tournament of Champions) – between 1969 and 1998. It was always regarded as a good test without ever really setting anyone’s world alight or reaching ‘bucket-list’ status. But following its most recent renovation it is now seen in a completely different light.
Gil Hanse was chosen to update the course late in 2020 and have it ready in time for the last spring’s NCAA Championships. The project was beset with wet winter weather in 2022/2023 causing power outages, evacuations, and extensive property damage throughout southern California. “It’s so hard to complain about rain there because they need so much of it,” Hanse says. “But it definitely created a timing issue for us.”
Hanse’s first job had been to locate old photos of the resort and the course Wilson built to see how it blended into its surroundings. “Our goal was to try and create a course that was fun and interesting for resort guests, provide a challenging exam for the country’s best college players through the setup options we created, and restore a connection to the Southern California landscape,” he says.
He and his design partner Jim Wagner pulled off a remarkable job. The extended 7,538-yard layout, previously called the Champions Course, played extremely firm and fast and provided a great deal of excitement for last spring’s NCAA golf championships last spring. The last team to qualify for the match play portion of the event (in the men’s tournament) shot a collective 25-over-par, and the medalist, Georgia Tech’s Hiroshi Tai, came in at just three-under 285 for the four-stroke play rounds.
The Auburn Tigers won its first ever national golf title there, beating the Florida State Seminoles by three matches to two. Stanford won the women’s championship, claiming its third title since 2015, beating UCLA 3-2 in the final.
Auburn’s coach Nick Clinard left La Costa a big fan. “It tested every part of your game which is exactly what you want for a national championship,” he says. The NCAA was also impressed and awarded a two-year contract extension, meaning it will host the championships through 2028.
la costa: back to glory
hanse enhanced
LA COSTA’S NORTH COURSE BEGAN A NEW ERA WHEN IT HOSTED A HIGHLY-SUCCESSFUL NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP
BY TONY DEAR
la costa: back to glory
“Our first impression was ‘wow’, this place is outstanding,” Clinard says. “It was a great test. And, because of how firm it was, the players really had to manage their games and execute their shots with great precision.”
Coloradans who visit won’t be met with quite the same demands as there are six sets of tees ranging from 4,502 yards to 7,500 (the neighboring South Course, formerly the Legends, measures 4,904 yards to 6,996), and it’s unlikely the course will play quite as firm as it did last May.
Walk-up green fees are no longer offered. “You must be staying on property or be a member to access the North Course,” says Dustin Irwin, the
Club Director. “Our focus is to do a lower volume of rounds, which helps us ensure our course conditions are always excellent, and adds value to our members and resort guests.” The new North Course has been open to guests for six months now and its reputation has improved dramatically. The volume of play is down as planned, but Irwin says he is constantly on the phone, fielding calls from golfers wanting to give it a shot.
The 400-acre, Spanish Mission-style property saw other changes ahead of its 60th birthday. In 2021, the resort’s lobby, bar, meeting spaces, and Costa De La Luna ballroom were refreshed, and last spring a multi-million dollar project brought changes to more than 500 guest rooms and the
43,000 square foot spa where the likes of Richard Nixon, Johnny Carson, Jackie Kennedy, and Frank Sinatra were once pampered. The days when famous politicians and TV personalities frequented La Costa may be considered its heyday, but Dustin Irwin believes it’s peaking again.
“With the renovations to guestrooms, the spa, meeting space, practice facilities, and Gil Hanse’s amazing work on the North Course,” he says, “we really are bringing La Costa back to its glory days.”
Tony Dear is a former teaching professional and First Tee coach, now a freelance writer/author living in Bellingham, WA. He can be reached at tonydear71@comcast.net
PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE OMNI LACOSTA RESORT AND SPA
ENDING WITH A ROAR
A THIRD PLACE FINISH AT DP WORLD TOUR Q-SCHOOL
TOURNAMENT SECURES TOUR CARD FOR 2025
BY JIM BEBBINGTON
For professional golfers in their rookie season like Aurora’s Davis Bryant their first year ends with a roar.
After months of mini-tour events, shared hotel rooms, long drives around the U.S. West, diner food and state opens (two of which he won) Davis and other rookie pros face the hardest challenge of all: Q-School.
Q-School stand for qualification school. They are well known for being the most nerve wracking events that a pro golfer can experience. Doing well opens doors. Doing poorly means for some the end of the road.
Some players take many attempts to earn a card to a major tour. A rare few, like Tiger Woods, win early enough in their PGA Tour experience that they never have to go through it. But most do. Scottie Scheffler went through the PGA’s Q-School. Rory McIlroy went through the European Tour’s.
It is brutal.
Bryant ended his rookie season by going through two Q-School competitions, and as of this article finished one in about as good an outcome as he could possibly imagine.
At the age of 24 Bryant earned his card for the 2025 season of the DP World Tour – the equivalent of the PGA Tour for the rest of the world.
Over six days in Tarragona, Spain, Bryant played against some of the best young players in the world and came out nearly on top. The top 20 finishers earned DP World Tour cards for 2025. After six grueling rounds Bryant stood alone in third place, a DP World Tour 2025 card in hand.
PHOTO BY COLORADO AVIDGOLFER
“I want to give myself an opportunity to play at the next level, whatever the level may look like, and really not trying to put my eggs in one basket,” he said before heading over to Spain for the second round of the DPT World Tour qualifiers. “So yeah, fortunately I have a great opportunity to hopefully pursue both for the six weeks. But I love my chances.”
Bryant was dominant in Spain. He was the only player in the field of 156 players to score in the 60s all six rounds. He finished 27-under par, two shots behind tournament winner Edoardo Molinari, the Italian winner of the 2005 U.S. Amateur who has been playing professionally for since 2006.
Bryant’s final round was the low score of the day – 9-under par with no bogeys.Davis filled his first season with a nearly constant series of mini-tour events. He won two state opens – Colorado’s and Wyomings – and finished in the top 10 regularly.
After he was done in Europe he is scheduled to return to the U.S. and play in the PGA Tour’s Q-school. He earned his way into the tournament’s second stage, and if he does well there will play for a full PGA Tour card in early December.
“I’m very pleased to have some really good results,” he said. “I’m pleased to have a lot of experiences and different courses, different states, different cultures. I’ve seen a lot of different parts of the world, a couple different places outside the country which has been cool. I’m very, very happy with like how I’ve transitioned from amateur golf or junior golf to college golf and college golf to the professional golf.”
Davis said he could learn what it was like only by going through it.“Everyone said it was going to be different in a way, but they didn’t say really what it was going to be different,” he said.
“Some of the some of the biggest differences are, you know, in college you’re with a team of eight to 10 players.”
Bryant during his first year leaned heavily on his extended family for support. “Yeah, you’re certainly not alone – I mean, I wasn’t,” Bryant said. “I was alone in the moment (while making shots), but you’re not alone emotionally or mentally. You have your parents, you have your siblings, you have grandparents, aunts and uncles that are supporting you and sending you text messages and calling you in between tournaments or when I’m driving state to state.”
Family is crucial, and in that Bryant is surrounded by people who know what to ask. His parents Matt and Julie both work in the golf industry and his sister Emma is a high-level player now competing on the University of Denver golf team.
“With my former college coach or my Dad or someone like that, (conversations) are a little more detail focused. But certainly having people on your team that help you - whether it’s helping you keep track of your expenses or helping you with your actual physical swing or talking to your psychologist about your mental game and how crappy that might have been for a couple of tournaments or whatever it might have been – it can take some pressure off different areas.”
Davis now has a choice: keep going with the DP season ahead, or roll the dice and try to reach the PGA Tour now. The top finishers in the PGA Q-School go straight onto the PGA Tour, while the rest fill out the field for the 2025 Korn Ferry season. Davis said he is prepared to move ahead either way, and is taking his fledgling career day-by-day and shot-by-shot, with ultimate hopes of joining the best in his profession on the PGA Tour – either now or later.
“Hopefully we’re starting 2025 in Hawaii, so that would be awesome,” he said.
Readers Note
This is the final chapter of a year-long series of articles by Colorado AvidGolfer documenting the rookie season of an aspiring Colorado touring golf professional, Davis Bryant. Read all our coverage – and future stories – at ColoradoAvidGolfer.Com
“I want to give myself an opportunity to play at the next level, whatever the level may look like”
PHOTO BY COLORADO AVIDGOLFER
PHOTO BY COLORADO AVIDGOLFER
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