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CONTENTS | Spring 2022
DEPARTMENTS 10 Forethoughts
Hitting the Curveball. By Jon Rizzi
14 The CGA
Why a World Golf Handicap is the only handicap you’ll ever need. By Ed Mate
21 The Gallery
Davis Love III will redesign Glenmoor; indoor simulator locations stimulate appetites; the rebranded, relocated Colorado Golf Expo; Moody’s tournament and more.
100 Blind Shot
Maui’s Wailea upgrades more than golf.
PLAYER’S CORNER 31 Profile
With each breast-cancer diagnosis, inspiring
instructor Ann Wolta Blackstone becomes more grateful for the lessons golf has taught her. By Jon Rizzi
36 Play Away
The Wigwam in Arizona tees up multiple packages for golfers. By Tom Mackin
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAMIE SCHWARBEROW / CLARKSON CREATIVE
45
59
2022 CAGGY Awards Which courses, clubs, resorts and instructors topped your lists—and ours—this year? Welcome to the best of Colorado golf.
68
Setting Its Course Turning 100 this year, Cherry Hills Country Club leverages its illustrious past to create an equally historic future. By Jon Rizzi
79
Going to Extremes Last December, intreped Coloradans Renée Brinkerhoff and Laura Shepard Churchley each completed an otherworldly journey—and golf went along for both rides. By Jon Rizzi COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | Spring 2022
ball searches in the woods. Here’s how to get better at knowing where to look. By Trent Wearner
SIDE BETS 45 Fareways
Harmony Club, The Club at Ravenna and
Ballyneal Golf & Hunt Club are redefining private-club cuisine. By John Lehndorff
52 Nice Drives
2022 Genesis GV70 Sport Prestige; 2022
Infiniti QX60; 2021 Mercedes S580; and 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz Limited AWD. By Isaac Bouchard
SPECIAL SECTION
87 Arizona Spring Travel Best bets in Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tucson and more.
ON THE COVER REDLANDS MESA GOLF CLUB in Grand Junction. Photograph Courtesy of Redlands Mesa Golf Club.
6
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY VALLEY COUNTRY CLUB (VIA INSTAGRAM)
FEATURES
PHOTOGRAPH BY JAMIE SCHWARBEROW/CLARKSON CREATIVE
79
42 Lesson
Early-season golf can lead to frustrating
59 coloradoavidgolfer.com
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Spring 22 | Volume 20, Number 8 president and group publisher
A llen J. Walters editorial director
Jon Rizzi
SALES, MARKETING & ADVERTISING associate publisher
Chris Phillips
vp of sales and marketing
Lori Perr y
director of sales & marketing , golf passport and events
Mike Car ver
digital strategist and content manager
Katie Macleay
business and operations manager
Cindy Palmer
ART & EDITORIAL creative director
Jani Duncan Smith art director
Michelle M. Gutierrez editor - at- large
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Suzanne S. Brown
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Colorado AvidGolfer (ISSN 1548-4335) is published eight times a year by Baker-Colorado Publishing, LLC, and printed by Publication Printers Corp. Volume 20, Number eight. 6143 S. Willow Drive, #406, Greenwood Village, CO 80111. 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 © 2021 by BakerColorado Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is prohibited. Postmaster: Send address changes to Colorado AvidGolfer, 6143 S. Willow Drive, #406, Greenwood Village, CO 80111. The magazine welcomes editorial submissions but assumes no responsibility for the safekeeping or return of unsolicited manuscripts, photographs, artwork or other material. magazine partner of choice :
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Forethoughts
Hitting the Curveball UNTIL GREG NORMAN and the Saudis created a rival league designed to poach players from the PGA TOUR, I’d always appreciated that professional golf seemed immune to the sort of issues that plagued other sports. Yes, I know about the late 1960s schism within the PGA of America that begat the Tournament Players Division, which eventually became the independent PGA TOUR. But neither labor issues nor the advent of a rival league has never stopped the playing of professional golf. Frustratingly, as of this writing, a professional sports organization—Major League Baseball—has thrown a curveball at our annual Golfer’s Guide to Spring Training that normally appears in this, our first issue of the year. With pitchers and catchers scheduled to report February 15, the owners and players seemed far from an agreement—although the owners have asked to have an arbitrator settle the dispute. Meanwhile, they have locked out the players, and the ones who pay the price are the fans—and the establishments where they spend their dollars—hotels, restaurants, stores and golf courses. Unable to solve this major-league problem before going to press, we’ve rebranded the special section as the Golfer’s Guide to Spring Travel in Arizona. No baseball to watch leaves you more golf balls to chase on the fairways around Phoenix, Scottsdale and Tucson. Our section about those areas begins on Page 87. Closer to home, our annual CAGGY Awards (CAGGY plays off CAG, the initials of Colorado AvidGolfer) highlight the best in Colorado golf, as selected by you, our readers. Find out how your favorite courses fared in the voting, and how they compare to our staff’s picks. Golf seems to bring out the best in people, and that is abundantly evident in features about three remarkable Colorado women—Ann Wolta Blackstone (page 31), Renée Brinkerhoff (page 80) and Laura Shepard Churchley (page 82). Blackstone, a state high-school golf champion as both a player and a coach, will receive the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame’s Lifetime Achievement Award this August. The decorated LPGA professional has fought recurrences of breast cancer for almost half of her 62 years and credits golf for much of her tenacity and resilience. Churchley’s father, astronaut Alan Shepard, hit the most famous 6-iron in the galaxy 51 years ago. In December, she notably traveled on Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft with, among others, Pro Football Hall of Famer Michael Strahan and Voyager Space Chairman Dylan Taylor of Denver. It turns out space travel isn’t the only passion the Evergreen resident shares with her dad. She’s the former women’s club president at Hiwan Golf Club. While not as epic as a moonshot, Brinkerhoff recently hit golf balls at the bottom of the earth. The competitive endurance driver recently piloted her customized, PXG Golf-sponsored 1956 Porsche 356 across 356 frozen miles of Antarctica—the seventh continent on which she’s driven—to raise awareness and funds to fight child trafficking. The daughter-in-law of Colorado Golf Hall of Fame member Sonny Brinkerhoff, Renée and her husband William are members at Cherry Hills Country Club—which, as you’ll learn on page 68, is renovating much more than its clubhouse in preparation for the club’s centennial this year, the U.S. Amateur in 2023 and the century of championships to come. Turning 100, Cherry Hills has Colorado AvidGolfer beat by 80 years. Our next issue marks our 20th anniversary, and we haven’t had a work stoppage or a rival publication try to plunder our team. —JON RIZZI
10
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The CGA SERVING ALL COLORADO GOLFERS
Golf’s World Wide Web Available through the Colorado Golf Association, the WHS provides you with an official handicap accepted around the globe. By Ed Mate AS WE KICK OFF a new golf season, we first want to thank our members for a record year at the Colorado Golf Association. The 69,400 golfers who joined the CGA in 2021 enjoyed the many benefits that come with membership—a robust Smartphone app; discounts on golf rounds, products and services; and deals on rental cars and tickets to sporting events. Those golfers also get to feel good about supporting CGA programs that introduce the game to those who might not otherwise have that opportunity. Most significant, though, is that membership comes with an official Handicap Index. The CGA is one of 58 Allied Golf Associations (AGAs) throughout the U.S. designated by the USGA to implement, oversee and support the World Handicap System (WHS) and issue a Handicap Index. In that role, the CGA and other associations around the country are responsible for providing WHS Course Rating and Slope Ratings, overseeing club compliance, providing training and education and, in general, being the delivery outlet for the WHS throughout the state in partnership with the USGA. Having a Handicap Index issued under the World Handicap System means a golfer’s handicap is accepted anywhere in the world. The
advent of the WHS is one of the most notable accomplishments in golf during the past decade. Prior to WHS, the major governing bodies of golf around the globe had very different methodologies of calculating a golf handicap. Today, under WHS, the rules of handicapping now mirror the Rules of Golf—a universal code that applies wherever the game is played! For decades, the USGA has developed, refined and improved its methodology to allow all golfers of all abilities to compete against one another. This begins with Course Rating and Slope Rating, which are the backbone of the World Handicap System. Course and Slope Rating is the method that allows a handicap to travel from one course to another. The well-established, well-researched and proven mathematical formulas that drive Course and Slope Rating are what distinguish a score of 95 on an easy course from a 95 on a difficult one. Depending on Course and Slope Rating, that 95 varies tremendously. Without them, the handicap system would only “travel” to the edge of a given golf course and not across the world. Another critical piece of the CGA-GHIN service is the Golf Genius tournament management software. Golf Genius has become the industry leader in tournament management, and we are
proud to offer the basic Golf Genius package as part of the GHIN (Golf Handicap and Information Network) services at no additional costs to our clubs. Golf Genius seamlessly integrates with the GHIN database to ensure the accuracy of handicaps and real-time application of appropriate adjustments for tournament format and tees played. When you look at organized golf tournaments in Colorado, they usually have three things in common: 1) They are conducted under the Rules of Golf; 2) They utilize the World Handicap System; and 3) They often rely on Golf Genius to create the pairings and scoring to enhance the experience for both the administrator and the golfer. The CGA prides itself on the critical role it plays in supporting a system that allows golfers of varying abilities to enjoy competing against one another in a credible and trusted manner. Ultimately, the CGA and the USGA depend entirely on the acceptance of both the Rules of Golf and the World Handicap System by the end user. We are grateful to the club leaders and members who rely on the CGA and help facilitate these services. Thank you for stewarding these traditions and for your continued support of the Colorado Golf Association.
Ed Mate is the Executive Director/CEO of the Colorado Golf Association. Learn more about membership in the CGA at coloradogolf.org. COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | Spring 2022
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NEWS | NOTES | NAMES
BULKHEAD REVISITED: Davis Love’s design team will make some changes to Glenmoor’s classic Pete Dye design.
COURTESY GLENMOOR COUNTRY CLUB
Glenmoor Will Get Some Love WITH FINICKY, well-guarded greens, snug fairways and hazards bulkheaded by 3.7 miles of wall ties, Glenmoor Country Club’s par-71 Pete Dyedesigned layout packs a load of challenge into less than 100 acres. Increasingly, however, the challenges of the 36-year-old course have been age-related. Its 6,787-yard length doesn’t necessarily stand up to the bombs launched by today’s golfers, and the playability for beginners and higher handicap players needs improvement. The wood wall ties bulkheading the hazards require constant replacement. Inconsistency plagues the bunkers and the greens, and, critically, the turf suffers from high-salinity water and poor drainage, which two years of dry weather and heavy play have exacerbated. In early 2021 the member-owned club in Cherry Hills Village turned to Love Golf Design— comprised of World Golf Hall of Famer Davis Love III, brother Mark Love and lead architect Scot Sherman—to propose an upgrade to the course that would set it up for the next 35 years without fundamentally changing the original Dye design. LGD’s plan, supported by a fireside chat with Davis and members the day after the U.S. Ryder Cup victory at Whistling Straits, called for $8 million in improvements. On December 9, the membership signed off on the renovation with a 76 percent approval ratcoloradoavidgolfer.com
ing. The course will close August 1 for a minimum of 10 months. But why Love Golf Design? Yes, Davis Love III did win five PGA TOUR events at Dye’s Harbour Town Golf Links. But it’s more than that. Love regarded Dye as “a dear friend and a mentor and somebody I could call for advice as an architect. He meant a lot to me and my family.” Love’s heralded designs at Diamante in Cabo and 16 other courses bear that out, as have his company’s Donald Ross restoration at Brunswick Country Club, reconstruction of Sea Pines Resort’s Ocean Course, renovations of two courses at Sea Island Resort and a redo of the original course at The Valley Club in Sun Valley, Idaho. In Idaho, a Valley Club member mentioned to Love that his home club in Colorado was considering a renovation to its Pete Dye layout, and would Love like to see it? Not only did the project interest Love; Sherman, his lead architect since 2014, enjoyed a long working relationship with Dye. The two first met during the construction of Dye’s Ocean Course at Kiawah Island, and in the 1990s Sherman worked for three years in Denver with Pete, his brother Roy Dye, and son Perry Dye on numerous projects. On a job in Hawaii, he consulted often with Dye’s grow-in director, Dennis Vogt, who was also Glenmoor’s head superintendent—and has held that
21
Davis Love III
position for the last 30 years. “It was a happy coincidence,” LGD CoFounder/President Mark Love says of the shared history. “We were looking for a real pro with Dye experience,” Glenmoor General Manager Ryan Norris explains of the decision to go with LGD over others bidding the job. It also spoke volumes that Sherman was brought in before the 2021 PGA Championship to preserve the original Dye design at Kiawah while accommodating for evolution and the needs that come with resort and major championship play. He and the Loves will have to walk a similar tightrope at Glenmoor, where maintaining Dye’s Spring 2022 | COLORADO AVIDGOLFER
The Gallery vision and the course’s high slope/ rating (141/72.2 for men; 155/77.0 for women) needs to be balanced with family-friendliness and playability. During the 10-month course closure, the club will have gained access to a cleaner water source. To leverage that, LDG’s team will rebuild every putting surface as a “Calfornia green” with a 14-inch sand base. The greens will expand to their original sizes—creating new pinning areas—and new sod and irrigation will surround them all. They’ll also replace deteriorating wall ties, redo every bunker for consistency of play and shift several teeing areas, adding substantial back-tee length to holes like the par-5 12th, par-4 16th and par-3 17th, and creating new angles on holes such as the par-3 11th. No hole will go untouched, including the par-4 sixth and seventh, where the height of the rear teeing areas will sink for more visual intimidation. On seven, they’ll also remove the cattails along the left fairway and widen the neck into the green by 15 yards. The adjacent par-5 12th and par-4 13th will also receive considerable attention, with a directional bunker added between the fairways—both of which will be widened. In the end, Sherman believes the course will measure 6,950 yards. “Pete always said there wasn’t a golf hole he couldn’t make better,” Davis Love remembers. “We want to recapture some things in the vein of what Pete and P.B. did. There were some things that changed over the years that didn’t really have Pete’s style.” He and his team are planning family tees, and they appear to have found additional yardage on a layout circumscribed by real estate and Belleview Avenue. Although some improvements will be made on the limited-flight range, the plan also calls for space for members to practice while the course is unplayable. In the end, the inconvenience will be worth it, according to Club President Kevin Tarrant. “The Glenmoor Country Club has offered a special family-oriented social and golf experience to our members for over 35 years,” he says. “To continue this great culture and environment for another 30plus years, we are excited to partner with the Love Golf Design group to restore and update our outstanding Pete Dye course. Our members are excited to support this initiative.” glenmoorcc.com COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | Spring 2022
It’s Showtime! NO LONGER KNOWN as Denver Golf Expo and no longer taking place at the now-demolished Denver Mart, the rechristened Colorado Golf Expo will make a fresh start February 25-27 at the Colorado Convention Center on 14th Street in Downtown Denver. “Taking it to the Colorado Convention Center means it’s a golf expo for the entire state,” Expo co-owner Mark Cramer says. “The facility is the premier location for a show in the city—it’s clean, well-maintained, close to hundreds of restaurants, has its own light-rail station, and there’s also parking right there.” More than 100 vendors will set up shop in Hall F—a 100,000square-foot space that’s 15 percent larger than the Denver Mart area. Every exhibitor is looking forward to interacting with the legions of men, women and children who filled Colorado’s tee sheets in record numbers during the pandemic-fueled golf boom of the last two years. They’ll come for the giveaways and deals on everything from tee times to head covers. They’ll come to compete in skills challenges, to try clubs that just debuted at the PGA Merchandise
22
Show, to score a free lesson from a PGA or LPGA Professional and to connect with people from different courses, leagues and associations. Many will also come to buy the 2022 Golf Passport. In addition to the venue, new this year is a chipping challenge at the vast Lenny’s Golf Shop space. Players will chip to a scaled-down version of TPC Sawgrass’s island-green 17th built by SYNLawn specifically for the Expo.
No golf event would be complete without a 19th hole, and hundreds of them await right outside the doors of the Convention Center. In the spirit of the game, the Colorado Golf Expo also will feature the Argonaut Turn Rest Stop, where you can sample and purchase products from Great Divide Brewing Company, Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey and The Infinite Monkey Theorem wines. Admission is $11-$15. denvergolfexpo.com coloradoavidgolfer.com
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COURTESY OF THE DENVER DISH
Getting the Inside Edge AS GOLF’S pandemic-inspired demand outstrips tee-time supply, the game is moving indoors. The popularity of Topgolf and improvements in golf-simulator technology have spawned a rise in indoor golf facilities around Denver, but these three examples show that not all are created equal.
G.C. LOUNGE
1210 E. 17th Ave., thegclounge.com; 303-954-8530 COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | Spring 2022
COURTESY OF THE DENVER DISH
Golf competes with food at this sleek, “sporty but not sports-barish” facility that opened before Christmas in Denver’s City Park West neighborhood. Simple touchscreens navigate the Trackman systems in the four bays, three of which require online reservations; the fourth handles walkins. All cost $60 an hour to rent (with $40 for each additional hour). Members of your group can watch each other take turns playing myriad courses and target-style games while imbibing cocktails and eating first-rate fare at very fair prices. Executive Chef Toby Prout’s upscale menu features meaty crab cakes, a lamb meatloaf that’s infinitely better than the one at Bandon Dunes and mouthwatering short ribs. Turkey, ham and spicy bacon—all smoked or cured inhouse—elevate the club sandwich, as does the bacon, pineapple and sriracha atop the G.C. Hot Dog. “We don’t serve wings,” owner David Burbage says. “Too messy on the grips.” G.C. Lounge accommodates 148 inside and 50 on its patio.
GREAT GRUB: GC Lounge’s Beef Skewers and Lump Crab Cakes
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ONE LUXURIOUS RESORT TWO CHAMPIONSHIP GOLF COURSES ut of the heart of a legendary landscape comes a champion— Flying Horse, featuring two private 18-hole golf courses, one designed by the legendary golfer, Tom Weiskopf, and the other by renowned golf course architect, Phil Smith. Flying Horse offers the ultimate Colorado golf experience with luxuriously appointed guest rooms, a European-inspired clubhouse and athletic club & spa, world-class dining, and Southern Colorado's only Golf Channel Academy golf instruction facility. Lodge Reservations: 844-768-2684 - LodgeAtFlyingHorse.com Membership Opportunities: 719-487-2660 - FlyingHorseClub.com Golf Academy Lessons: 719-201-0240 - FlyingHorseGolfAcademy.com 1 8 8 0
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The Gallery South Broadway Country Club
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The spirits of golf and its many elixirs comingle at South Broadway Country Club’s two by-appointment-only Denver chapters. “We’re usually booked more a month out for lessons and for TrackMan/simulator rentals,” owner Kelly Huff says, noting SBCC’s third “chapter” will open this spring in Fort Collins. “We don’t
have a kitchen, but we have a bar and people can order in food. It’s the kind of place the avid golfer would appreciate.” The 35-year-old Georgia golf instructor opened the South Broadway chapter for “non-members only” in 2016. It and the Tennyson chapter both feature two state-of-the-art TrackMan units— one available for practice or simulated rounds on more than 125
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OPTIMUM GOLF At its Park Hill and RiNo locations, Optimum Golf eschews food and bar service for golf practice and instruction. Run by two PGA professionals—previous CAGGY winner Brad Alston and director of operations
Kyle McGee—and staffed by certified coaches, Optimum offers a total of 11 simulator bays outfitted with either Foresight GC2 or Uneekor EYE XO units, an adjustable-slope putting green, retail area and private coaching sessions. You can book tee times or lessons online, purchase an annual membership or monthly subscription. 5059 E. 38th Ave. and 3565 Walnut St., theoptimumgolf.com
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The Gallery
Risk-Management Rewards 2022 WILL BE A big year for Moody’s Insurance. This February, the family-owned business celebrates its 50th year of providing risk management from its offices in Denver, Colorado Springs and Grand Junction. The company’s involvement in these communities takes many forms. It supports numerous worthy causes—including Flight for Life, CASA and Food Bank of the Rockies—and helps sponsor its partners’ charity golf tournaments. However, its biggest commitment comes during the Moody Insurance Golf Tournament to Benefit Judi’s House—the 15th edition of which takes place July 25 at Hiwan Golf Club in Evergreen. At the 250-person double-shotgun event, the company will celebrate another milestone. It will eclipse the $1 million mark in net donations for Judi’s House, the community-based bereavement center founded by Brian and Brook Griese to help heal children and families grieving a death. “I personally know five families who have gone through
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the program,” Chief Operating Officer Troy Moody says. “They do amazing work.” Moody has taken staff members on tours of Judi’s House, a home at 1741 Gaylord Street in Denver, where the charity’s JAG Institute (taking the initials of Judi Ann Griese, the mother Brian lost at age 12) is also being built across the street. “I look at it as a wellness program for our staff,” Moody explains. “The kids there were so excited, and when our people could see the impact of the center and why we support it, many volunteered.” Although the Moodys, like the
Grieses, are Cherry Hills members, the tournament takes place at Hiwan, which happens to be where Troy caddied in the Colorado Open while growing up in Genesee. Hiwan is also a client. “Brian always attends, and all of our carriers step up,” Moody says with excitement. “One has sponsored a simulator, and we had potato-gun golf cannons on some tee boxes until they were no longer allowed.” No matter. The morning flight, a 144-player shamble format, has already sold out, while a few spots remain in the afternoon scramble. moodyins.com
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Player’s Corner PROFILE
The Lesson Tee of Life With each breast-cancer diagnosis, spirited instructor Ann Wolta Blackstone becomes more grateful for what golf has taught her. By Jon Rizzi
LAST JUNE, on the first day of the CHSSA 3A State Girls Golf Champi-
PHOTOGRAPH BY JAMIE SCHWABEROW/CLARKSON CREATIVE
onships at Pueblo’s Elmwood Golf Course, the members of the St. Mary’s Academy team surprised their coach, Ann Wolta Blackstone. The four girls wore pink socks and white polos sporting pink stitching bearing the school’s name and the Wildcats logo, while their right sleeves featured a pink ribbon above the words “Coach Ann”—an inscription echoed on their pink rubber bracelets. As this display suggests, Blackstone, now 62, is battling breast cancer—a disease she’s fought three separate times since her first diagnosis in 1993. “All of us wanted to show how grateful we were for what an amazing coach Coach Ann is,” freshman Maddy Bante explains. “Without her help and her amazing attitude and everything, none of what our team did would have been possible.” What Coach Ann’s team did in the two-day state championship was cap off an undefeated season and capture the first girls’ state golf title in St. Mary’s history. Bante and juniors Mallory Hopper and Natalie Tatar finished 45 shots clear of runner-up Vail Mountain School. Bante finished second, Tatar third and Hopper T-11. (The score of freshman Reese Brown, who had helped win the Metro League Conference Championship, didn’t count towards the team’s two-day total.) “It was incredible to see these young women understand there are more important things in life than golf and to support their coach,” Blackstone, whose daily regimen of Ibrance and Letrozole keeps her Stage 4 metastatic breast cancer under control, says. “But oh my gosh, to have them win state by 45 shots was incredible! It was so awesome…so awesome.” The beaming coach commendably won’t let her illness define her, nor let her story overshadow the accomplishments of her players—all of whom are returning to defend their title this spring before heading to Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina for June’s High School Golf National Invitational. But make no mistake; Ann Wolta Blackstone’s story bears telling. /// CONTINUED ON PAGE 32
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Spring 2022 | COLORADO AVIDGOLFER
Player’s Corner PROFILE /// CONTINUED FROM PAGE 31
PLAYER…TEACHER… COACH
TEAM PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF ST. MARY’S ACADEMY; ALL OTHERS COURTESY OF ANN WOLTA BLACKSTONE
Forty-five years before the 45-shot victory, the coach herself had won the individual Arizona High School State Championship. Her name was Ann Feist then, and she’d picked up the game at age 10, taking lessons at Phoenix’s Papago Golf Course from local legend Arch Watkins. “I got pretty good really fast,” she recalls. She began competing at age 12, and during her teens, she found herself in the fields at the World Juniors, Women’s TransMississippi, U.S. Women’s Amateur Publinks and the Broadmoor Ladies Invitation. But, she says, she “didn’t thrive on the competition, and I didn’t really enjoy the pressure I put on myself to perform.” A challenging home environment—her mother was on her fifth husband—didn’t help. “If I didn’t play well, my mother wouldn’t talk to me for three days. If I played well, she’d buy me an outfit. It was interesting conditioning. It didn’t work very well.” However, the teenager loved to practice. She would spend more time at the range hitting balls and putting than on the course playing golf. “That’s the opposite of what most people do,” she says. “And I’d always be around the driving area, helping my friends with their golf swings.” Teaching brought her joy. Competing didn’t. After three years at Arizona State University on a golf scholarship, she redshirted as a senior, made the dean’s list, graduated and moved to Colorado in 1983 with Bob Wolta, whom she’d met at Papago and married as a sophomore. In the early 1980s, few clubs hired female golf instructors, but with some coaxing from his wife, Head PGA Professional Bruce Riley employed Ann at Meadow Hills Golf Course. “They actually sent the men’s club president to take a lesson from the new woman pro to see if I knew what I was talking about,” the Class A LPGA Teaching Professional laughs now. During her decade at Meadow Hills, Ann got her LPGA certification and bore a son, Bryan, and daughter, Bre. She also bought merchandise for the ladies’ section of the golf shop, which led to her involvement with the women who started Golf for Her, a pioneering retail shop at the corner of Arapahoe
A NATURAL TEACHER: Clockwise, from top left, Blackstone works with Ada McGregor, one of the hundreds of juniors she instructs at Southglenn Country Club; the pink-powered St. Mary’s Academy Wildcats (Assistant Coach Russell McFall, Reese Brown, Maddy Bante, Natalie Tatar, Mallory Hopper, Blackstone) pose before winning the state championship; using BirdieBalls, Blackstone introduced golf to Swahili women artisans in Kenya in 2016, calling it “the most rewarding experience of my life.”
Road and Quebec Street in what is now Centennial. She gave lessons, arranged trips and bought apparel. The store eventually failed, as did the marriage, and in 1995, Ann contracted to instruct students at Indian Tree Golf Course in Arvada, where she still schedules private lessons. After marrying Tom Blackstone in 2011, she started teaching at the nine-hole par-3 Southglenn Country Club in Centennial. She currently runs a junior golf program there with 100 children between the ages of eight and 18. The St. Mary’s gig—her first as a coach—came in 2016. The change from teacher to coach was “huge,” she admits, as the players already have their own personal instructors and she does not want to infringe on that relationship. “What I’ve had to learn to do is ask the student what she’s working on, even though I can see what it is,” she says. “Also, there’s so much more psychology. Teenage girls! I would say, out of all the things I’ve done, coaching has been the most chal-
COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | Spring 2022
lenging for me.” Given the health issues she’s had to overcome during this time, you’d think Blackstone might want to qualify that last statement with “professionally.” Then again…
A CANCER ANSWER When Ann received her first breast-cancer diagnosis, her kids were five and nine. “It was hard to accept that my life would be ending soon,” she says. So, she didn’t. “You can be the victim and feel upset, or you can say ‘OK, I’ve got to do this and this and this. And I’m going to get through that and then I’m going to enjoy life for what it’s presenting to me every day.’” Alas, squeezing the most out of every day involved pursuing activities she’d never done, like riding in an ATV. The vehicle hit a huge bump and ejected the helmetless cancer patient. It left her unconscious for three hours with a broken leg, four broken ribs and a closedhead injury that months later developed into a subdural hematoma
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requiring brain surgery. Short-term memory loss resulted. To soldier through, Ann relied on her golf training. “Being involved with golf since I was ten taught me the skills to get through all of these obstacles,” she says. “You learn perseverance, how to keep grinding, how to do the best thing to get out of a bunker or a bad lie. All that training helped me figure out a way.” She also figured out that teaching was great cognitive therapy. “After the injury, if I saw 10 things wrong with your golf swing, it would take me a lot of time to figure out which one I was going to work on and what words I was going to communicate to you,” she remembers. “But that process made me better.” PGA of America Hall of Famer Vic Kline, who watched Ann work at Indian Tree, agrees. “As a cancer survivor myself, I watched Ann— who not only survived cancer, but also a serious head injury—come back stronger and more dedicated to what she was doing. She wants to coloradoavidgolfer.com
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Player’s Corner PROFILE
teach people how to enjoy the game and enjoy life. She’s done this all over the world.” Kline is referring to a trip Ann made to Kenya in 2016, right before she took the St. Mary’s job. She went to support the Imani Collective, a socioeconomic empowerment program for female artisans. She brought BirdieBalls, a mat and a golf club and instructed 24 Swahili women wearing Kitenge fabrics. “The joy on their faces, I can’t even tell you how amazing that was for me as an instructor,” she says. “To have them clapping for their friends and watching them hit the ball was the most rewarding experience of my life.” That trip came seven years after a second cancer diagnosis in 2009. This time, a triple-negative breast cancer had resulted in a mastectomy and chemotherapy. Again, she turned to golf, starting a tournament called Indian Tree Rally for the Cure, which, over 10 years, generated $120,000 for fellow survivors through Susan G. Komen Colorado. “It was really cool to see her step into a leadership role,” Ann’s
“The qualities Ann has as a fundraiser are the same ones she has a teacher—passion, confidence, skill and a concern for others.” — Lt. Gov. Dianne Primavera, a Blackstone student and former CEO, Susan G. Komen Colorado daughter, Bre, says. She has ridden the emotional roller-coaster of her mother’s cancer for all but five of her 32 years. “I’m used to interacting with her as my mom, and to see her step into a professional space to raise money and even coordinate the day-of and be the speaker and command the room was amazing.” Before becoming Colorado’s lieutenant governor, another breastcancer survivor, Dianne Primavera, served as CEO of Susan G. Komen Colorado. She found Ann so inspiring that she took her first golf lessons at age 67. “The qualities Ann has as a fundraiser are the same ones she has a teacher—passion, confidence, skill and a concern for others,” Primavera says. “As a fellow survivor, she was aware of the limitations I might have as a re-
sult of my cancer and made accommodations in the way she taught.” In 2018, Ann herself had to make some accommodations in the way she played after she felt stabbing pain in her ribcage during a round at Cherry Hills. For nine months, the pain persisted as she went to different medical therapists. She was also getting easily winded, and suddenly her left arm started swelling, as if she had lymphedema, “which was weird because my left arm was where they took the lymph nodes in my first cancer 25 years earlier.” She got a CAT scan and PET scan, the latter of which shows cancer through illumination. “My whole sternum lit up; the cancer was eating it,” she says. “The ventricle to my lung lit up. And there’s this
tumor around my carotid artery restricting the blood flow to my arm.” Ann had Stage 4 metastatic breast cancer. As recently as five years ago, this diagnosis would have sealed her fate. However, an intensive 20-minute radiation session followed by daily drug therapy seems to be working. “I’m so grateful that there is something that works for me right now,” she says, praising her oncologist, Lily Klancar. The weakened sternum limits Ann’s ability to play golf other than the pitch-and-putt Operation 36, but she still can teach, which brings her great joy. Her happiness will also be on display August 28 at Columbine Country Club, where she will receive the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame’s coveted Lifetime Achievement Award. Her inspiring presence will command the room, and who knows what kind of sartorial surprise her St. Mary’s charges will have in store? Jon Rizzi is the editor of Colorado AvidGolfer. For more information, visit indiantreerallyforthecure.com or komencolorado.org.
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Player’s Corner PLAY AWAY
The Complete Package Arizona’s Wigwam tees up multiple ways to play. By Tom Mackin I’M FACING A CLASSIC RISK/REWARD situation at the Wigwam, Arizona’s only golf resort with 54 holes. You know the kind. Go for it and reap the rewards, or lay up and play it safe. One of my opponents loudly encourages me to take the former route, knowing full well my downfall will likely lead to his success. My other playing partners look on nervously and await my decision, seeing as they
will face the same choice right after me. I weigh my options and lay my cards on the table. In this case, those were a Queen and a seven of spades, but the dealer had two face cards. I lost, as did all of my blackjack-playing partners. That action took place on the outdoor patio of the resort’s spacious Oraibi Suite, a multi-bed-
room dwelling with a massive living room complete with couches, a bar, large-screen TVs, ping-pong table—and, on that particular night, two gambling tables as part of a Putts and Poker package (blackjack, too), one of an array of new golf-trip options introduced at the Wigwam last year. So why, during a pandemic-induced golf boom, where tee sheets in the Valley of the Sun
PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY WIGWAM
GET WIGGY WITH IT: Clockwise from above left, Wigwam packages include Swings and Swigs, Putts and Poker, and Par Pairings at Litchfield’s, the resort’s welcoming restaurant; Lichtfield’s perfectly turned Cedar River prime filet sits atop some creamy Gouda mac and tender green beans; the patio at Red’s Bar & Grill spills toward the practice green for Wigwam’s Blue and Gold courses.
COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | Spring 2022
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Player’s Corner PLAY AWAY
WATERY HOLES: The same pond that abuts Wigwam Gold’s 16th green encircles the island green on the Blue’s par-3 15th.
PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY WIGWAM
are overflowing, would a resort try to attract even more golfers? “You can never sit back and say, ‘Oh, we’re fine,’” Director of Golf Operations Leo Simonetta explains. “We’ve always felt that if you do that in our business you’re going to get run over. So it’s always fun to be creative. Plus, a lot of it is based on feedback from guests. We’ve been a golf-package hangout for quite some time. So how do we get to another level? How do we make it so that people walk away saying ‘Oh my gosh, you have to go there,’ and tell more people the same thing.” The package lineup also includes Swings & Swigs (a whiskey, beer or wine tasting plus dinner), Par Pairings (a private dining experience at Litchfield’s, the resort’s signature restaurant), Tee Off With Wellness (yoga class, spa treatment and an especially healthy meal), Fine Tune Your Game (private lessons for your group at the onsite Warren Schutte Players Academy) and Elevate Your Game (play at the Wigwam and then helicopter to and from another Arizona course). All are priced separately from golf and accommodations. The new menu reflects the highly competitive marketplace for golfers in Arizona, especially for a resort located 30 minutes west of Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, a wee bit off the beaten path already paved by plenty of golf resorts. Still, it has earned a stellar reputation as a group golf trip destination. “The main reason for that is we’re the only resort on the state with three courses on-site,” Resort Vice President of Sales & Marketing J. Green says. “So there’s the variety of golf we provide, which I think is what keeps people coming here. What a lot of people also really love is the complimentary same-day replay round we offer on any of the three courses (space permitting) with our golf packages. You might play the same course twice or play a different one in the COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | Spring 2022
So why, during a pandemic-induced golf boom, where tee sheets in the Valley of the Sun are overflowing, would a resort try to attract even more golfers? morning and the afternoon.” There are also 331 casitas, including some that line the right side of the first fairway on the Blue Course, multiple pools, a Spa and dining options that range from Litchfield’s in the main resort building to Red’s, a casual sports bar in the clubhouse overlooking the practice putting green. Even the golf shop is above average: Club + Resort Business magazine ranked it 16th in the U.S. on its “Top Ranked Private Club and Resort Pro Shops” in 2021. And sports fans will appreciate the proximity to both Camelback Ranch, the spring training home of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago White Sox, and State Farm Stadium, home to the Arizona Cardinals. Those facilities are in Glendale, just a short drive away.
ON COURSE But you’re here for the golf and Wigwam’s three courses provide more than enough diversity for a multiple-day stay. “The Gold is a different golf course than the typical resort course,” said Simonetta. “It’s a challenging Robert Trent Jones Sr. design that originally opened in 1965 and can play up to 7,345 yards.” Need that challenge validated? The Gold will be one of six sites in the U.S. to host PGA TOUR Canada Qualifying tournament (this March 28 – April 1), and it’s the venue for the annual Patriot All-America Invitational, a 54-
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SHORT-IRON SPECIAL: At 142 yards from the tips, the 15th is the shortest of the Blue’s six par 3s.
hole amateur event featuring the top male and female college golfers held the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day. Water comes in play on three of the par 3s, most notably when the hole locations are on the left side of greens at 11 and 16. Plenty of other elevated greens must be navigated skillfully, as does a skinny canal (a remnant from the site’s former life as a farm) that must be avoided multiple times, most notably to the left of the 18th green. “If you’re looking for something more resorty, there’s the Red Course,” added Simonetta. Like its siblings, the Red is eminently walkable, but getting there requires a five-minute cart ride that takes you across two roads from the main property. Opened in 1974 and designed by Robert “Red” Lawrence, the par 72, 6,852-yard laycoloradoavidgolfer.com
Player’s Corner
out comes with fairways lined by pine and eucalyptus trees and greens that are primarily open in front for run-up shots. The Blue Course, located adjacent to The Gold, sets up right in the middle of those two layouts in terms of challenge. “We’ve found that The Blue works well as the place to play on both your arrival day and departure day because you can get around it fairly quickly,” noted Simonetta. “A lot of people used to think it was too short (just 6,000 yards from the tips), but now most people find it to be a lot of fun.” The initial response to the Wigwam’s new lineup has been positive, according to Green. “We continue to grow our numbers every month. We will do 15 golf groups in February, with the largest being 40 golfers doing a wine pairing dinner and two days of golf,” said Green. “When you compare us to the rest of the Valley (including Phoenix and Scottsdale) and Palm Springs, we’re a significant value for golfers. They do get a luxury experience with our packages, but our rates can sometimes be 60 to 100 percent lower than other resorts.”
PLAY AWAY
Tom Mackin is an Arizona-based contributor. DESERT OASIS: Since 1929, Wigwam’s Welcome Arch has greeted guests who now enjoy the stadium tennis court and LeMonds Aveda Salon-Spa. PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY WIGWAM
WIGWAM 300 E Wigwam Blvd Litchfield Park, Ariz. 85340 (866) 976-6894; WigwamArizona.com
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Player’s Corner LESSON
PHOTOGRAPH BY RON ALVAY/SHUTTERSOCK
Into the Woods Early-season golf can mean finding yourself—but not always the ball you hit—somewhere way off the fairway. Here’s how to get better at knowing where to look. By Trent Wearner ALMOST NO ONE WATCHES their ball for as long as they should, especially after a poor tee shot, and that leads to a plethora of issues. First is the time you waste searching for your ball, which slows play. Second is the anxiety that builds as you realize you must find it within the prescribed three minutes or you’ll experience the third issue—the dreaded trip back to the teeing area. From my experience, failing to watch their ball long enough results in golfers habitually searching 20-40 yards in the wrong direction from where their ball really is. So, if your golf ball is sailing wide of the fairway, whether toward native grass, some trees or a home, follow these steps: »
Watch it all the way; it may take a crazy bounce.
»
Pick a reference spot in which to start your search. This could be an OB stake or an
electric box, the tree with the curvy branch or that clump of native grass that is a little more yellow in color. Whatever. The reference spot could also be something in the background like a house or a parked car.
right to search for the ball, because by then, that tree with the curvy branch may no longer appear to have a curvy branch because of the angle at which you’re now driving or walking.
»
Announce you are hitting a provisional ball just in case you don’t find your first one, thus avoiding the “walk (or ride) of shame.”
Plus, not watching your ball all the way dramatically slows down pace of play as you search for your ball. And there aren’t too many things more maddening than playing behind a slow group when it really wouldn’t be slow if they would just watch their shots all the way.
»
You should then walk or drive straight toward that reference point. Do not proceed straight up the fairway and then turn left or
Of course, you could avoid this situation by hiring a sharp-eyed caddie to do your shot-watching and searching. Better still, take a lesson.
»
Among numerous other accolades, Trent Wearner is a three-time Colorado PGA Teacher of the Year and a two-time Player Development Award winner. Trent Wearner Golf Academy now has locations at The Club at Inverness, Murphy Creek Golf Club, Meadow Hills Golf Course and Colorado National Golf Club. trentwearnergolf.com; 303-645-8000. COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | Spring 2022
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Side Bets FAREWAYS
Changing Courses Colorado’s private clubs are transforming golf food expectations. By John Lehndorff IT FEELS LIKE you’re entering a pri-
PASTA PERFECT: Grana Padano flakes fall onto Harmony Club’s exquisite Beef Bolognese.
vate party at a luxurious hilltop home when you walk in the front door at Harmony Club in Timnath, east of Fort Collins. Inside a welcoming atrium space couples and groups sip cocktails on couches around a fireplace. The aptly named Great Room opens into Harmony’s warmly lit dining room. The full tables and bright modern booths look out on a pastel sunset over the lights of Fort Collins with the Front Range peaks in the distance. The personable serving staff delivers pours of pinot noir in tall stemware, beautiful plates of creamy burrata cheese with beets and platters of melt-in-themouth short ribs and blackened tilapia. Tucked away nearby is a lively bar and lounge area ruled by Irish-born bartender Matty O’Reilly, a former chef who can pair fare for members from a list of designer cocktails, wines and beers. Year-round diners linger on Harmony’s expansive wraparound patio that looks out over the golf course. Welcome to the great new world of Golf Food 2.0. The food, service, wine and ambience at golf course restaurants in Colorado is getting a major upgrade. Public
and private clubs are investing serious funds in amenities as interest in golf has boomed during the Covid pandemic. We talked with the leaders at three Colorado clubs—Harmony, Ballyneal and Ravenna. Each takes a different, fresh approach to the feeding of members, especially the millennials. Golf’s next generation includes savvy, well-traveled diners with dietary needs and expecations beyond a club sandwich.
HARMONY CLUB “Golf course food got its reputation at country clubs. Typically, country clubs were out in the country, and they had to feed people. They had these giant kitchens for banquets,” says Harmony Club owner Byron Collins. The private golf community near Fort Collins opened in 2007 but the commanding clubhouse and dining room only debuted in August 2020. “Times had changed. We knew it had to be a restaurant, not at a banquet hall. We didn’t want it to be stuffy,” Collins says, “It’s a neighborhood club. It’s much more like Cheers than a ‘country club.’ You always see the same staff and they know members by name,” he says. The 600 members live near the
PHOTOGRAPHY BY ISAIAH VAZQUEZ/CLARKSON CREATIVE
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Spring 2022 | COLORADO AVIDGOLFER
Fareways INLAND SEAFOOD: Ballyneal Chef Sarah Wills’ pan-seared scallops with beet puree, lobster risotto PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAMIE SCHWARBEROW PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAMIE SCHWARBEROW
COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | Spring 2022
The food needs to be really great at Ballyneal, the renowned private golf club tucked away near the Nebraska border in Holyoke. “Our audience is captive here,” Ballyneal General Manager Dave Hensley explains. “At a lot of golf courses, you’re going to swing in, grab a snack before teeing off, grab beers and maybe lunch afterwards, and then you’re gone. Our members come and eat three meals here plus happy hour and snacks. They aren’t dining anywhere else.” Ballyneal’s facilities include a main dining room seating 65, a rustic bar and a private dining area. The wide-open patio boasts sweeping views and sunsets on the eastern plains of Colorado. The club has an invisible advantage over other golf courses in Colorado. The elevation is only 3,700 feet above sea level (versus say, Vail’s 8,150 feet) making it easier on the numerous national members and their flatlander guests. That’s helpful since Ballyneal’s Scottish-style course walking-only and members work up an appetite and thirst. “If the golf course is good, the food needs to be just as good,” Hensley says. That’s where Sarah Wills, Ballyneal’s talented executive chef, comes in. “I’m classically French trained as a chef,” says Wills, who arrived at Ballyneal from The Pinery two years ago. “I don’t have to compromise here. We make everything from scratch, and I feel like you can tell when you taste the food.” Her focus on quality doesn’t mean exotic fare full of foams, strange garnishes and trendy ingredients. Ballyneal’s changing menu features familiar, exceptionally made dishes like an upgraded club sandwich with candied bacon. “Chicken Parm is a big favorite,” the chef says. “We take a fresh chicken breast, pounded
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golf course and in the nearby community. “They expect meals similar or better than what they can find at local restaurants, which are very good.” Collins praises Executive Chef Isaac Magaña’s fine-dining philosophy and everythingfrom-scratch approach. “He finds out what each diner wants. Have it your way is our way,” he says. The Chicago-trained chef’s changing seasonal menu includes fresh pasta dishes like ravioli centered with soft egg yolks served with seared pork belly, shallot jam and brown butter. Dinner in the restaurant calls for reservations, especially if you want to dine at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday. “We’re not looking to flip tables. We’re happy to have members for an hour or three,” Collins says. The casual menu for the Great Room, bar and patio is packed with familiar favorites all elevated a notch. The obligatory burger is prime beef topped with Odell Beer cheese, grilled verjus onions, house-made pickles and Kewpie mayonnaise on a freshly baked bun. “We’re like the best-kept secret in the area because it’s not a public restaurant,” Collins says. For him, millennials’ fresh passion for golf is making all the difference on and off the course. “It’s very gratifying to see three generations—grandparents, a young couple and their children–all eating here.” harmonyclub.info
COURTESY BALLYNEAL GOLF & HUNT CLUB
PHOTOGRPHY BY ISAIAH VAZQUEZ
CLUB CUISINE: Chef Isaac Magaña’s pan-seared salmon (with French green lentils and roasted cauliflower) and his Madagascar vanilla gelato sundae with chocolate, caramel and Amerena Cherries.
BALLYNEAL GOLF & HUNT CLUB
out and breaded, over fettuccine noodles with house-made marinara. There’s a big ‘wow!’ factor,” she adds, indicating other diners at the table often experience entrée envy. Her culinary mantra is simple: “You see before you eat.” “I’m a huge seafood fan, so I serve sea scallops pan-seared–nice and crispy brown on one side, with beet puree, lobster risotto and sugar snap peas and vanilla beurre blanc. It makes you hungry looking at it,” she says. Ballyneal is a destination club with lodging for about 65 people, mainly groups of guys. “It’s all about the vibe and the hang we provide for them,” Hensley says. “We are a small enough and slow enough operation that it gives us a chance to get to know our members’ taste. They can just walk into the kitchen and make requests.” “We had a member fly out from New Orleans with a big old cooler of shrimp and I did shrimp five ways for him and his guests,” Wills recounts. “To me, you should feel a little bit special if you belong to a club like this.” ballyneal.com /// CONTINUED ON PAGE 48
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Side Bets FAREWAYS /// CONTINUED FROM PAGE 46
THE CLUB AT RAVENNA
TENDER IS THE BITE: Ravenna’s braised Colorado lamb chops.
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COURTESY THE CLUB AT RAVENNA
Dining at Ravenna, the private golf club near Waterton Canyon, will never be same after March 2022, when a spacious new Italian-inspired clubhouse opens. “We’ve been providing great food and beverage service from a temporary tent kitchen for years, back when we only had 50 members,” club owner Kevin Collins says. Originally a homeowner at Ravenna, Collins bought the club in 2015 and has steadily added amenities (like a fitness facility and event center) and attracted hundreds of new members. “When we were planning the clubhouse, we wanted to give our members a dining experience they can’t get anywhere else,” Collins explains. The new clubhouse includes a 70-seat dining room and a cozy lobby decorated with original oil paintings where guests can relax with drinks and hors d’oeuvres. “We’re competing with other restaurants as well as other golf courses.” To realize this culinary vision, Collins hired Executive Chef David Lazarus in 2018. His extensive résumé includes hauls at the Denver Country Club and Castle Pines Golf
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Side Bets FAREWAYS
COURTESY THE CLUB AT RAVENNA
GOING ROE: Ravenna’s thin sweet potato pancakes with caviar.
Club and training at The Broadmoor. “Opening a new facility like this attracts a high level of international talent including sommeliers, a new sous chef and experienced service staff,” Collins says. “The new kitchen allows our chef to take dining to the next level. For instance, he will be able to do tableside service and carve a steak or do flambés for dessert. It’s really kind of a lost art in restaurant dining now.” Personalization is the hallmark at Ravenna. “We have a smaller boutique club and it allows our staff to deliver great service,” Collins says. “The chef meets members at each table and talks about their tastes. If there’s not something on the menu they fancy that night, he can come up with something special.” That includes low-fat, low-carb, gluten-free or vegan dishes. “We can provide what they need to make it a good experience. It’s like everyone has a personal chef,” Collins says. Guests can also dine on a 2,000-square-foot terrace above the 18th hole with spectacular 360-degree views including deer, wild turkeys and the ravine suggested by the club’s name. The fine-wine appreciation that is part of Ravenna’s DNA will express itself spectacularly in a circular staircase that transports guests down to a wine grotto. “It looks like a Napa wine cave and it’s next to a 1,600-bottle cellar,” he says. “Members can go in with our sommelier before dinner to pick a bottle.” The grotto is also available for intimate wine dinners. Ravenna’s constantly changing seasonal menu can feature classics like beef bourguignon, penne pomodoro with grilled pesto shrimp and braised lamb shanks and eye-catching appetizers including thin sweet potato pancakes with caviar and honey-roasted beet salad with oranges and toasted almonds. “We can make a club sandwich if a member requests one,” Collins adds. Collins says he chooses to dine at Ravenna even though many dining destinations are a short drive away in Littleton. He highly recommends the menu’s succulent grilled bone-in veal chop with morel mushrooms and the seared ahi tuna salad. “I live out here and eat at the club a lot, so it better be good,” he says. ravenagolf.com John Lehndorff is the former Dining Critic of the Rocky Mountain News. He writes Nibbles for the Boulder Weekly and hosts Radio Nibbles on KGNU.
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Side Bets NICE DRIVES
The Surprise Chain Despite the largest price swings and biggest supply-chain disruptions in automotive history, some amazing vehicles hit the market. By Isaac Bouchard 2022 GENESIS GV70 SPORT PRESTIGE
EPA RATINGS: 19/25/21 0-60MPH: 4.9 SEC PRICE AS TESTED: $64,045 Genesis keeps winning recognition for the most trouble-free and pleasing new cars you can buy. Now the GV70 crossover completes the lineup. One of the most impressive vehicles tested over the last year, its styling really grabs people and stands out in a very crowded field—no small task. Its stunning interior is covered in stitched, soft-touch material, and the colors on offer are audacious and beautiful. The numerous oval and round shapes create compelling unity. The use of trim other than faux wood is commendable, and the huge screens impress with their high resolution and lovely graphics. But they, like the control-wheel interface and the software behind them, is not up to the user-friendliness standards of a BMW. The GV70 usually—but not always—resets its interior temp
COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | Spring 2022
to 72 degrees, and the overactive driver aids do more to annoy than to ease progress. And it’s easy to confuse the dished controller for the center screen with the identically shaped shifter. Yet these are minor issues compared to all the ways the GV70 cossets and rewards. The seating is richly comfortable for all occupants, the steering wheel begs to be caressed and the cargo area is finished to a much higher standard than most all the competition. The GV70 in Sport Prestige trim, with the stout 3.5-liter, twin turbo V6, is very impressive on the road. The ride quality is absolutely superb, hinting that the Genesis is more a luxury crossover than a sporting one. It handles decently. Its 375hp engine is strong; 60mph arrives in under 5 seconds and the 8-speed auto shifts adroitly. There is a cohesiveness to it that usually eludes newcomers, too. With vehicles this good—and good value, as a comparable German is $10,000 more—it will be no surprise to see Genesis steal tens of thousands of sales from established players.
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2022 HYUNDAI SANTA CRUZ LIMITED AWD EPA RATINGS: 19/27/22 0-60MPH: 6.0SEC PRICE AS TESTED: $40,945
Hyundai’s mission with the Santa Cruz isn’t to dent the market share of the Toyota Tacoma. They don’t even call it a pickup, though it sure tries to act like one. Its composite bed is wide enough for a 4ft sheet of plywood, and you can haul dirt bikes with the tailgate down. Like the Honda Ridgeline, there is a slick underfloor compartment with drain plugs for iced beverages and perishables. There are cleats, lights and even a built-in accordionstyle tonneau cover. Sadly, the latter doesn’t seal out dust, so runs down dirt roads mean your gear still gents gunky. Its overall payload, at 1,411 pounds, rivals the new Ford Maverick’s, but remember that this includes passengers; only 661 pounds are supposed to go into the bed. The Santa Cruz will tow 5,000 pounds, which is more than the Ford. You’d want the optional turbocharged engine to do that, since the base motor is breathless at our altitude. Going with the turbo gets you a twin clutch gearbox that nets a 0-60 dash of 6 seconds, making it much fleeter of foot than the Tacoma and most others in the class. Its real-world fuel economy seems no better than bigger pickups, but it drives like a good coloradoavidgolfer.com
Nice Drives
2021 MERCEDES S580
EPA RATINGS: 17/25/20 0-60MPH: 3.9 SEC PRICE AS TESTED: $140,130 Each generation of S-Class typically resets the standard for true luxury cars, while also unveiling technology that will eventually go mainstream. The latest, dubbed W223, continues that tradition, while also having the distinction of being the last powered by internal combustion. COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | Spring 2022
crossover on the road, with precise steering, a comfortable ride, great handling (for a truck) and commendable quiet. The attractive Santa Cruz also has the nicest interior in the class. However, like many new vehicles, it over-relies on haptic-feedback for things like the HVAC controls. Its front seats accommodate comfortably, but the second row doesn’t. The Santa Cruz has 8.6 inches of ground clearance, but it skips and skates over typical washboard Colorado dirt roads.
It is a lovely thing to behold, with a svelteness that highlights the advantages of the classic “three box” sedan shape with a modern simplicity of form and detail. Open the large doors, though, and a bold, stunning interior awaits. Sweeps of inlaid wood connect the huge OLED screens; bold vent designs complement intricate metal speaker grills; and the quilted seats are pillowy soft. Ultrasuede headrests coddle noggins, and dynamic air bladders and massage programs pamper backsides.
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No photo can capture how intriguingly attractive the 3-D instruments look, especially at night. The huge head-up display previews the virtual overlays all cars might have in a decade. Following floating arrowheads around corners to navigate busy city streets makes the idea of using Apple or Android integration seem silly—yet phone inputs integrate seamlessly as well. As far as how it drives, this Mercedes has, simply put, the best ride quality this reviewer has ever experienced, in any car, at any price. Underbody cameras and sensors read the road ahead, priming the dampers and air springs for what’s to come. It also can play the full-size sports sedan if needed, with accurate steering and deftly controlled body motions. Features like computer controlled four-wheel steering mean it can execute U-turns in places that beggar belief yet stabilize the Mercedes during cornering at triple-digit velocities. The 516lb-ft of twist from the twin-turbo V8 propel it to 60mph in under four seconds—faster than Ferraris of not that long ago—yet still turn 30 mpg on the highway. For those who want to celebrate the prestige motor car at the apogee of its gasoline glory, the S580 is the answer. /// CONTINUED ON PAGE 56 coloradoavidgolfer.com
Nice Drives
/// CONTINUED FROM PAGE 54
2022 INFINITI QX60
EPA RATINGS: 20/25/22 0-60MPH: 7.3 SEC PRICE AS TESTED: $63,945 Infiniti’s best-seller has undergone a thorough reengineering. The handsome body is all new and looks contemporary, what with its floating roof and chiseled forms. Its interior features soft-touch materials dominating the first row, dual 12.3-inch screens and very comfortable seats in all three rows. Pleasing surprises include the new shifter, which is logical in use and moves with a rewarding and precise feel—an anomaly these days. The middle row has a brilliant one-button tilt/
slide (even with child seats in place) that allows easy access to the roomy third, which has its own ceiling-mounted air vents and USBs. The QX60 is very quiet inside, with little road or wind noise making itself known. Much of the tech is really well done, including ProPilot adaptive cruise and lane assist, one of the better systems yet tested. Annoyances include front parking sensors that scream at you about how close you are to objects in front when you are backing up and an auto stop/start system that is so lethargic people will honk when you are trying to get underway once the lights turn green. Once started, the QX60 accelerates more pleasingly than before, thanks to a real trans-
mission, rather than its predecessor’s unreliable CVT. There’s no fuel economy penalty and it is much more satisfying. The engine carries over is 295 horses but lacks torque compared to the turbocharged competition. The platform is also from the older model, which means some types of bumps thump their way through. Yet the QX60’s ride is generally quiet and composed. The steering precision and handling connote luxury, not the athleticism of its rival, the Acura MDX. The Infiniti is a very solid entrance in a class it helped create; it beats the opposition from most of the domestics, has more room than the Lexus RX350L and undercuts the Europeans by tens of thousands.
Automotive Editor Isaac Bouchard owns Denver-based Bespoke Autos (isaac@bespokeautos.com; 303-475-1462). Read more of his automotive writing, reviews and recommendations on coloradoavidgolfer.com and bespokeautos.com.
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WELCOME TO THE 2022 CAGGY AWARDS AS GOLF ENJOYS A RESURGENCE IN POPULARITY, Colorado AvidGolfer (CAG) takes great pride in participating in your enjoyment of the game. In that spirit, we present our annual CAGGY Awards, which honor the best Colorado courses, clubs and instructors—as voted online by more than 5,000 of you, our readers. As always, our staff shared its selections. Thanks for voting and enjoy! PRESENTED BY
The Golf Club at Bear Dance PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE GOLF CLUB AT BEAR DANCE
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Spring 2022 | COLORADO AVIDGOLFER
CAGGY AWARD WINNERS
PUBLIC & RESORT COURSES Redlands Mesa Golf Club
PHOTOGRAPH BY DICK DURRANCE II/COURTESY OF REDLANDS MESA GOLF CLUB
BEST DENVER REGION COURSE 1. The Golf Club at Bear Dance, Larkspur 2. Arrowhead Golf Club, Littleton 3. Fossil Trace Golf Club, Golden Staff Picks (alphabetical) • CommonGround Golf Course, Aurora • Green Valley Ranch Golf Course, Denver • The Ridge at Castle Pines North, Castle Pines
BEST FRONT RANGE/ NORTHEASTERN COURSE 1. TPC Colorado, Berthoud 2. Mariana Butte Golf Course, Loveland 3. Pelican Lakes Golf & Country Club, Windsor Staff Picks (alphabetical) • The Club at Fox Acres, Red Feather Lakes • Pelican Lakes Golf & Country Club • TPC Colorado
BEST MOUNTAIN COURSE 1. Pole Creek Golf Club, Tabernash 2. Breckenridge Golf Club, Breckenridge T-3. R iver Valley Ranch Golf Course, Carbondale Keystone Ranch Golf Course, Keystone Staff Picks (alphabetical) • Keystone Ranch • Red Sky Golf Club (Norman), Wolcott • The River Course, Keystone • Rollingstone Ranch Golf Club, Steamboat Springs
BEST ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP PROGRAM
1. Redlands Mesa Golf Club, Grand Junction 2. Devil’s Thumb Golf Club, Delta 3. Lakota Links, New Castle
1. The Golf Club at Bear Dance 2. Applewood Golf Course 3. Heritage Eagle Bend Golf Club
Staff Picks (alphabetical) • The Bridges Golf & Country Club, Montrose • Redlands Mesa Golf Club • Telluride Ski & Golf, Telluride • Tiara Rado Golf Course, Grand Junction
Staff Picks (alphabetical) • CommonGround Golf Course • Green Valley Ranch • The Ridge at Castle Pines North
BEST EGO-BOOSTER
1. The Golf Club at Bear Dance 2. Broken Tee Golf Course, Englewood 3. Green Valley Ranch Golf Club
1. Applewood Golf Course, Golden 2. Heritage Eagle Bend Golf Club, Aurora 3. Red Hawk Ridge Golf Course, Castle Rock
BEST SOUTHERN COURSE 1. Walking Stick Golf Course, Pueblo 2. Kissing Camels Club at Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs 3. Country Club of Colorado at Cheyenne Mountain Resort, Colorado Springs
Staff Picks (alphabetical) • Applewood Golf Course • Eagle Trace Golf Course, Broomfield • Indian Tree Golf Course, Arvada
Staff Picks (alphabetical) • Kissing Camels • Patty Jewett Golf Course, Colorado Springs • Rio Grande Club, South Fork • Walking Stick Golf Course
COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | Spring 2022
BEST WESTERN SLOPE COURSE
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BEST PRACTICE FACILITY
Staff Picks (alphabetical) • Broken Tee Golf Course • CommonGround Golf Course • Green Valley Ranch • Murphy Creek Golf Course, Aurora
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PUBLIC & RESORT COURSES
BEST FOR SENIORS
Applewood Golf Course
1. Applewood Golf Course 2. Heritage Eagle Bend Golf Club 3. Aurora Hills Golf Course Staff Picks (alphabetical) • Fox Hollow Golf Course • Heritage Todd Creek Golf Club, Thornton • Indian Tree Golf Course
BEST PLACE TO HOLD A TOURNAMENT PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF PREMIER AERIALS
BEST COURSE CONDITIONS (PUBLIC) 1. The Golf Club at Bear Dance 2. Riverdale Golf Courses, Brighton 3. Pole Creek Golf Club Staff Picks (alphabetical) • Fossil Trace Golf Club • Green Valley Ranch Golf Club • Red Hawk Ridge Golf Club
BEST COURSE CONDITIONS (RESORT) 1. Omni Interlocken Resort Golf Club, Broomfield 2. Red Sky Golf Club (Fazio), Wolcott 3. Beaver Creek Golf Club Staff Picks (alphabetical) • The Club at Inverness, Englewood • Keystone Ranch Golf Course • Kissing Camels Club at Garden of the Gods • Red Sky Golf Club (Fazio),
BEST COURSE FOR WOMEN 1. Applewood Golf Course 2. The Golf Club at Bear Dance 3. Heritage Eagle Bend Golf Club Staff Picks (alphabetical) • Fox Hollow Golf Course • Saddleback Golf Course, Firestone • Willis Case Golf Course, Denver
BEST APRÈS-GOLF EXPERIENCE 1. Pole Creek Golf Club 2. Arrowhead Golf Club 3. The Ridge at Castle Pines Staff Picks (alphabetical) • City Park Golf Course, Denver • Green Valley Ranch Golf Club • Haymaker Golf Course, Steamboat Springs • The Bridges Golf & Country Club
BEST FOOD 1. The Golf Club at Bear Dance 2. River Valley Ranch Golf Course 3. Fox Hollow Golf Course Staff Picks (alphabetical) • Fossil Trace Golf Club • Green Valley Ranch Golf Club • The Club at Inverness • Vail Golf Club, Vail
BEST WEDDING OR PARTY VENUE 1. Arrowhead Golf Club 2. Bear Dance, The Golf Club at 3. Applewood Golf Course Staff Picks (alphabetical) • Arrowhead • Keystone Ranch • Raccoon Creek Golf Club, Littleton
COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | Spring 2022
OVERALL BEST VALUE 1. Applewood Golf Course 2. Devil’s Thumb Golf Club 3. Riverdale Golf Courses Staff Picks (alphabetical) • Aurora Hills Golf Course, Aurora • South Suburban Golf Course, Centennial • Wellshire Golf Course, Denver
BEST COURSE TO WALK 1. Applewood Golf Course 2. CommonGround Golf Course 3. Aurora Hills Golf Course Staff Picks (alphabetical) • Flatirons Golf Course, Boulder • Littleton Golf & Tennis, Littleton • Meadow Hills Golf Club, Aurora
BEST COURSE FOR FAMILIES 1. Applewood Golf Course 2. Broken Tee Golf Course 3. Pelican Lakes Golf & Country Club Staff Picks (alphabetical) • Fox Hollow Golf Course, Lakewood • Harvard Gulch Golf Course, Denver • South Suburban Golf Course
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1. The Golf Club at Bear Dance 2. Arrowhead Golf Club 3. Applewood Golf Course Staff Picks (alphabetical) • Arrowhead Golf Course • Omni Interlocken Golf Club • Raccoon Creek Golf Course
BEST SERVICE 1. The Golf Club at Bear Dance 2. Applewood Golf Course 3. Pole Creek Golf Club Staff Picks (alphabetical) • Green Valley Ranch • Raccoon Creek Golf Course • The Ridge at Castle Pines North
MOST UNDERRATED COURSE 1. Applewood Golf Course 2. Devil’s Thumb Golf Club 3. Battlement Mesa Golf Course, Battlement Mesa Staff Picks (alphabetical) • Buffalo Run Golf Course, Commerce City • Homestead at Fox Hollow, Lakewood • Tiara Rado Golf Course
BEST PACE OF PLAY 1. Applewood Golf Course 2. Heritage Eagle Bend Golf Club 3. CommonGround Golf Club Staff Picks (alphabetical) • Aspen Golf Club, Aspen • Green Valley Ranch Golf Club • Vail Golf Club
BEST OVERALL HOLE 1. Arrowhead Golf Club, No. 13 2. The Golf Club at Bear Dance, No. 16 3. Devil’s Thumb Golf Course, No. 13 Staff Picks (alphabetical) • Arrowhead Golf Club, No. 13 • Green Valley Ranch Golf Club, No. 18 • Redlands Mesa Golf Club, No.17 coloradoavidgolfer.com
CAGGY AWARD WINNERS
PRIVATE CLUBS
Broadmoor Golf Club
BEST DENVER REGION CLUB READER’S CHOICE: 1. Perry Park Country Club, Larkspur 2. Castle Pines Golf Club, Castle Rock 3. Valley Country Club, Centennial Staff Picks (alphabetical) • Castle Pines Golf Club • Cherry Hills Country Club, Cherry Hills Village • Colorado Golf Club, Parker
BEST FRONT RANGE/ NORTHEASTERN CLUB 1. Ballyneal Golf & Hunt Club, Holyoke 2. Fort Collins Country Club, Ft. Collins 3. Ptarmigan Country Club, Ft. Collins Staff Picks (alphabetical) • Ballyneal Golf & Hunt Club • Fort Collins Country Club • Harmony Club, Timnath
BEST MOUNTAIN CLUB 1. Red Sky Golf Club 2. The Club at Cordillera, Edwards 3. Frost Creek Club, Eagle Staff Picks (alphabetical) • The Club at Cordillera • Frost Creek Club • Red Sky Golf Club
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE BROADMOOR
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF PERRY PARK
Perry Park Country Club
BEST SOUTHERN CLUB
BEST APRÈS-GOLF EXPERIENCE
1. Broadmoor Golf Club, Colorado Springs 2. The Club at Flying Horse, Colorado Springs 3. Eisenhower Golf Club, Colorado Springs
1. Broadmoor Golf Club 2. Valley Country Club T-3. C astle Pines Golf Club Ballyneal Golf & Hunt Club
Staff Picks (alphabetical) • The Broadmoor • Flying Horse • Kissing Camels at the Garden of the Gods
Staff Picks (alphabetical) • Ballyneal Golf & Hunt Club • The Country Club at Castle Pines • Cherry Creek Country Club, Denver • The Club at Flying Horse
BEST WESTERN SLOPE CLUB 1. Telluride Ski & Golf Club, Telluride 2. Glacier Club, Durango 3. Bookcliff Country Club, Grand Junction
BEST OVERALL EXPERIENCE
Staff Picks (alphabetical) • Cornerstone, Montrose • Glacier Club, Durango • Telluride Ski & Golf
Staff Picks (alphabetical) • The Broadmoor Golf Club • Castle Pines Golf Club • The Club at Cordillera • The Club at Flying Horse • The Club at Ravenna
1. Valley Country Club 2. Perry Park Country Club 3. Ballyneal Golf & Hunt Club
BEST VALUE CLUB 1. Perry Park Country Club 2. Valley Country Club 3. Fort Collins Country Club
MOST UNDERRATED CLUB 1. Valley Country Club 2. Perry Park Country Club 3. Fort Collins Country Club
Staff Picks (alphabetical) • Black Bear Golf Club, Parker/ Blackstone Country Club, Aurora • The Club at Inverness • Lake Valley Golf Club, Niwot • Perry Park Country Club • The Pinery Country Club/The Club at Pradera, Parker
COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | Spring 2022
Staff Picks (alphabetical) • The Country Club at Castle Pines • The Club at Flying Horse • Perry Park Country Club • The Club at Ravenna
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BEST CLUB FOR FAMILIES 1. Valley Country Club 2. Fort Collins Country Club 3. Glenmoor Country Club, Cherry Hills Village Staff Picks (alphabetical) • Blackstone Country Club, Aurora • Cherry Creek Country Club • Columbine Country Club, Columbine Valley • The Club at Flying Horse, Colorado Springs • Pinehurst Country Club, Denver
BEST CLUB TO HOLD A TOURNAMENT 1. Sanctuary, Sedalia 2. Broadmoor Golf Club 3. Perry Park Country Club Staff Picks (alphabetical) • Castle Pines Golf Club • The Club at Cordillera • The Club at Flying Horse • The Club at Ravenna • Sanctuary
MOST COVETED INVITATION 1. Castle Pines Golf Club 2. Colorado Golf Club 3. Denver Country Club Staff Picks (alphabetical) • Ballyneal Golf & Hunt Club • Castle Pines Golf Club • Cherry Hills Country Club • Sanctuary coloradoavidgolfer.com
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PRIVATE CLUBS & INSTRUCTION
BEST CADDIES 1. Broadmoor Golf Club 2. Castle Pines Golf Club 3. Colorado Golf Club Staff Picks (alphabetical) • Ballyneal Golf & Hunt Club • Broadmoor Golf Club • Castle Pines Golf Club • Cherry Hills Country Club
BEST FOOD 1. Broadmoor Golf Club 2. Castle Pines Golf Club 3. Colorado Golf Club
PHOTOGRAPH BY E.J. CARR
Castle Pines Golf Club
BEST MEN’S LOCKER ROOM
BEST WOMEN’S LOCKER ROOM
1. Castle Pines Golf Club 2. Broadmoor Golf Club 3. Colorado Golf Club
1. Broadmoor Golf Club 2. Cherry Hills Country Club 3. Castle Pines Golf Club
Staff Picks (alphabetical) • Castle Pines Golf Club • Cherry Creek Country Club • Cherry Hills Country Club • Colorado Golf Club • Lakewood Country Club, Lakewood
BEST CLUBHOUSE 1. Broadmoor Golf Club 2. Castle Pines Golf Club 3. Colorado Golf Club Staff Picks (alphabetical) • Castle Pines Golf Club • Colorado Golf Club • Columbine Country Club • The Club at Flying Horse
Staff Picks (alphabetical) • Columbine Country Club • Castle Pines Golf Club • Cherry Creek Country Club
Staff Picks (alphabetical) • Broadmoor Golf Club • Castle Pines Golf Club • The Club at Flying Horse • Harmony Club • The Club at Ravenna
BEST OVERALL HOLE 1. Perry Park Country Club, No. 6 2. Cherry Hills Country Club, No. 17 3. Ballyneal Golf & Hunt Club, No. 7 Staff Picks (alphabetical) • Ballyneal Golf & Hunt Club, No. 7 • Cherry Hills Country Club, No. 18 • The Club at Ravenna, No. 16
INSTRUCTION BEST INSTRUCTOR FOR JUNIORS
BEST INSTRUCTOR FOR MEN
BEST INSTRUCTOR FOR WOMEN
1. Brad Alston, Optimum Golf, Denver 2. Craig Salib, Fort Collins Country Club 3. Trent Wearner, Trent Wearner Academy, Englewood
1. Dennis Murray, Valley Country Club, Centennial 2. Brad Alston 3. Mike Knights, GOLFTEC, Westminster
1. Dennis Murray 2. Alicia Bakken, GOLFTEC, Westminster 3. Brad Alston
Staff Picks (alphabetical) • Lanny DeRoeck, Perry Park Country Club, Larkspur • Nathan Morris, GOLFTEC, Westminster • Ed Oldham, Ed Oldham Golf, Westminster • Jason Witczak, The Pinery and The Club at Pradera, Parker
Staff Picks (alphabetical) • Nathan Morris • Keith Rogers, Jim McLean Golf Academy, Denver • Will Ulatowski, GOLFTEC, Highlands Ranch • Jason Witczak
Dennis Murray
PHOTOGRAPH BY E.J. CARR
Staff Picks (alphabetical) • Sherry Andonian-Smith, Valley Country Club • Dede Cusimano, Aspen Golf Club • Elena King, ExperienceGolf, Aurora • Ed Oldham
THANK YOU FOR VOTING! COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | Spring 2022
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Setting Its Course
PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF CHERRY HILLS COUNTRY CLUB
By JON RIZZI
Turning 100 this year, CHERRY HILLS COUNTRY CLUB leverages its illustrious past to create an equally historic future.
“WE OWE IT TO THE FOUNDERS AND THE FUTURES.” So says Cherry Hills Country Club President David Keyte of the substantial investment that he and current members are making in one of Colorado’s most storied private clubs as it enters its 100th year. “It’s our legacy to improve it when we can.” Those improvements include a $67 million clubhouse expansion that will bring the total square footage—including a remodeled basement and a new second story—to 96,000. They also include two golf-course initiatives: the purchase of properties adjacent to the famous finishing hole to satisfy the ever-increasing space requirements of championship golf; and the completion of a restoration of the golf course’s original 1922 William S. Flynn layout by Denver-based Eric Iverson of Tom Doak’s Renaissance Golf team.
THE CLUBHOUSE Although the centenary is 2022, “the goal is to have all the pieces in place by 2023, when we host the 2023 U.S. Amateur—our 14th major championship,” Keyte says. However, he also points out that the largest and most conspicuous of those pieces will be ready before 2022 is over. “We’re building the clubhouse in honor of our 100th anniversary, so we’re targeting a temporary certificate of occupancy by November 1.” (During construction, the club has conducted meetings and social events at the former restaurant at Union and Ulster in the Denver Tech Center and golf operations from modular units adjacent to the course.) For its size, cost and high visibility, the clubhouse project has received the most attention. Designed by Connecticut-based Mark P.
Finlay Architects and built by Colorado’s JHL Constructors, the addition retains much of the Tudor structure’s architectural style while completely overhauling its south side, starting with replacing its 100-year-old foundation. The formerly low-ceilinged basement will now house a sizable fitness center right off the pool area, a golf bar with simulators, yoga and Pilates studios and offices for club administration. On the ground floor, banquet space will coexist with a variety of member areas, including NanaWalled indoor-outdoor sections. Only the far north side—which underwent a renovation prior to the 2005 U.S. Women’s Open and houses the golf shop, men’s locker room and Hall of Champions—will remain largely unchanged. Most dramatically, the second-story addition will feature meeting rooms and a mem-
THE CLUBHOUSE TURN: By the end of this year. Cherry Hills’ iconic Tudorstyle structure will have expanded considerably.
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dahl] wore a tie) through the 2014 BMW Championship.
THE COURSE
PHOTOGRAPH BY EVAN SCHILLER/COURTESY OF CHERRY HILLS COUNTRY CLUB PHOTOGRAPH BY JULIE ALONZI/COURTESY OF CHERRY HILLS COUNTRY CLUB
HOGAN’S WATERLOO: Thanks to the 1960 U.S. Open, Cherry Hills’ island green on the par-5 17th (top) remains as famous as the tee on its par-4 first. By 2008, a copse had sprouted behind the green, reducing the intimidation factor, leading Tom Doak’s Renaissance Golf team to clear it out as the first of a three-phase course “reset” that touched every single hole. When the new clubhouse opens this fall, west-facing views (bottom) from the second-story restaurant—to be named in honor of Arnold Palmer—will accompany meals and events.
ber’s dining room with majestic west-facing views from above the tree-lined course towards the Rockies. “You’d be amazed what a difference 25 feet in elevation makes,” says General Manager/COO Lance Sabella, who joined the club from Lakeside Country Club in Burbank last year. Preliminarily called Arnie’s, in honor of the winner of the 1960 U.S. Open at Cherry
COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | Spring 2022
Hills, the steakhouse-style restaurant will also boast items from the club’s cherished collection of Arnold Palmer memorabilia. Some of it will also presumably remain in the display in the Hall of Champions, which spotlights every national championship hosted by the club—from the 1938 U.S. Open (the first one ever contested west of the Mississippi River and the last in which the winner [Ralph Gul-
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“We have to host a major tournament every 10 years; it’s in our bylaws,” Keyte explains. “Cherry Hills started exclusively as a golf club, but when it fell on hard times during the Great Depression, it became a country club. We continue as a country club, but the membership understands the golf course is the number-one priority.” Designed by Philadelphian William S. Flynn—the man who finished Pine Valley after George Crump’s death, and whose credits include Shinnecock Hills and The Country Club in Brookline—Cherry Hills featured many elements of those legendary layouts and some novel ones, such as the figure-eight routing of the front nine and the country’s first par-5 island green on hole 17. Like most courses from the “Golden Age of Golf Course Architecture,” Cherry Hills defends itself not with length—at altitude, its 7,375 yards had as little bearing on players in the 2014 BMW as its 6,888 yards had in the 1938 U.S. Open—but with angles, shot placement, deception, temptation, strategic hazards and the subtle tilt and contour of the putting surfaces. “The first time playing it, everybody thinks they’re going to eat it up,” Keyte says. “Then they leave hungry.” However, he and the board also know that to continue hosting major championships, the club needs room for hospitality tents, access for parking and shuttles. So, the club purchased two properties—one east of the 18th fairway that currently has a home on it; the other, a fiveacre lot at the corner of University and Quincy. “We wanted to make a statement that we could host,” Keyte says of the acquisitions. Could the additional land behind the 18th tee also create a new back teeing area for a 484yard hole that members play as a par 5 but the pros play as a 4? “I’m not sure that hole will get better if it’s longer,” Eric Iverson of Renaissance Golf says. “Flynn’s original tee was the peninsula (currently 454 yards). As the tee space grew to the back corner, you had to aim further east, taking the water out of the equation off the tee. If we can maintain the angle of the tee shot that Flynn originally intended, that would work, but we don’t want to do anything rash.” How to balance the hallmark strategies of great architecture to keep challenging the game’s elite? Iverson has dealt with questions like this since 2008, when Renaissance performed the first of three phases in its restoration of the original Flynn design.
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PHOTOGRAPH BY EVAN SCHILLER/ COURTESY OF CHERRY HILLS COUNTRY CLUB
SHIFTING SAND: Little Dry Creek will become an even greater factor on the par-4 14th, as the bunker left of the green comes out and the rerouted creek takes its place.
A RENAISSANCE BEGINS
COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | Spring 2022
THE CREEK RESTORATION
ERIC IVERSON
PHOTOGRAPH BY TODD LANGLEY
Renaissance’s involvement began a “reset” of a course that Golf Digest currently ranks 73rd on its list of 100 Greatest Courses, slightly higher than where of Golf and Golfweek place it. Retaining and improving its place among the Top 100 factored into the “reset.” During the first phase, which coincided with the replacement of the course’s irrigation system and halfway house, Renaissance agreed to “add length when reasonable.” Which it did, finding extra length on holes eight, nine and 16, while bringing back the original strategies that time, tree growth and various “beautification” projects had altered. The team returned the greens and fairways to their initial dimensions, and the removal, relocation and reintroduction of tees, trees and bunkers on holes throughout the course tellingly revealed the architect’s original vision. Most noticeably, the 17th green, which had sprouted a mini-arboretum behind it, regained its intimidating, treeless island identity. Renaissance’s restoration continued in
2016, as the team edged and shaped every bunker. By removing some larger trees at the elbow of the left-dogleg par-4 seventh, they rekindled the temptation to drive the green despite the risk of rolling into Little Dry Creek or the center fairway bunker 100 yards out. On the following hole, a long 222-yard par 3, Doak and Iverson also expanded the green to flirt more with the creek to the right.
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The “culminating project” in the course renaissance, according to the club’s PGA Head Professional Andrew Shuck, who arrived last April from Charlotte Country Club, is the Little Dry Creek restoration that is going on right now. Entering the property from the south, near the 17th tee, Little Dry Creek flows northwest through the course for about a mile before crossing in front of the 13th green as it exits the property. On Flynn’s drawings and the original engineer’s report, the creek’s journey takes it right next to the greens on holes seven, eight, 14, 15 and 16. It also runs along the right of the 16th fairway before crossing it near the green. “You can see from all the hole drawings that Flynn routed the holes and implemented strategy based on the hazard,” Iverson says. This changed during the 1980s, when the creek was straightened, channelized, bouldered and, in some cases, moved 30 to 40 feet away from the fairway or green to mitigate flooding. Over time, however, these changes created “pinch points” (areas that slow water and cause flooding) by the 14th and 16th greens.
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PHOTOGRAPH AND RENDITION COURTESY OF CHERRY HILLS COUNTRY CLUB AND ERIC IVERSON
UP A CREEK: Iverson’s rendering of the par-4 16th (above), shows how removing the right fairway bunker, shifting the creek further into the fairway and increasing the slope of the bank towards the water will create the degree of difficulty off the tee that Flynn had originally drawn up (below).
When the club brought in an engineering firm to solve the new flooding problems, the opportunity arose to return the creek to its strategic importance. To help reduce the flooding and “pinch points,” the engineers and Iverson made the 90-degree creek banks approximately 45 degrees and removed virtually every boulder—except those needed for erosion control and pipe crossings. “On 16, there’s a five-foot ridge right of the fairway into the rough where the creek used to be,” Cherry Hills Director of Grounds Josh Hester explains. “Now the creek is 40 feet to the right. On the par-3 15th, the boulders along the creek raised the banks, and over time those banks have risen even further. The added elevation eliminated the natural slope to the water—and reduced the risk of your ball going in.” With the full support of the club, the Army Corps of Engineers, the USGA and Hester worked with Iverson to return the natural meander to the creek and maximize the natural slope towards the water. Riffle structures, which create that “babbling brook sound,” and larger pooling areas keep the creek flowing. The project will make the affected holes even more formidable. A shot pushed right of the green on the par-4 seventh, for example, will dribble into the creek, as will one on the par-3 eighth, where the widened green now sits much closer to the water and features added mounding on its left fringe—opposite the creek—that can kick the ball onto the green. COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | Spring 2022
On the long, sweeping par-4 14th, the creek cuts in to replace the bunker fronting the left of the green and runs along the entire left flank of the putting surface. “It was already a great hole,” Iverson says, “and it’s going to be more dramatic now.” The architect also got rid of the back two bunkers on the par-3 15th to cozy the creek up to the green. The hole—which Flynn designed
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to be 115 yards but played at 242 during the 1985 PGA Championship—will now feature a tee directly behind the 14th green and adjacent to the creek. From this tee, the 150-yard hole now features water along its entire left side, creating a more daunting tee shot. “That hole was meant to be played along the creek,” Iverson says, noting that for tournament play, the longer tees on the hill are still available and
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DEBUNKERING: Part of the Creek Project calls for removing the two bunkers left of the par-3 15th green. The water, which flanks the entire left side of the 150yard hole, moves even closer to the green.
PHOTOGRAPH BY EVAN SCHILLER/ COURTESY OF CHERRY HILLS COUNTRY CLUB
could be alternated on different days during championships. A footbridge spanning the creek leads to a new tee bordering the left side of the creek on the 465-yard 16th. The water follows the curl of the fairway, which features two pooling areas where a lone bunker once caught blocked drives. The stream cuts across the fairway about 100 yards out and remains in play on the left and rear of the green. “There’s nothing going on with that creek that makes things easier,” Keyte laughs. “We expect to have the work completed by April 1st,” Hester says. “That gives us two full growing seasons before the U.S. Amateur in August, 2023.” By 2023, the clubhouse will already have reopened, and Cherry Hills Country Club will be poised for another century of legacy building and championship golf. For this, Keyte credits the visionary work of the club presidents and committee chairs who preceded him and the “perfect team” the club now has in place. “We’re on such a great trajectory,” he says. “It’s a big step between a country club and a major championship golf course. We’ve achieved it many times—and we’re dead-eyed focused on achieving it again.”
Jon Rizzi is the editor of Colorado AvidGolfer.
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GOING TO EXTREMES By JON RIZZI
WOMEN ON A MISSION: Renée Brinkerhoff (left) and Laura Shepard Churchley.
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Last December, within the span of days, two intrepid Colorado women each completed an inspiring journey. On December 10, RENÉE BRINKERHOFF, an endurance automotive racer from Sedalia, concluded a five-day, 356-mile drive through Antarctica in her 1956 Porsche to help bring awareness to one of humankind’s most grievous scourges. The next day, Evergreen’s LAURA SHEPARD CHURCHLEY blasted into Earth’s orbit aboard a Blue Origin spacecraft, following the same trajectory that six decades earlier had immortalized her father. And in both cases, golf went along for the ride. /// CONTINUED ON PAGE 80
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/// CONTINUED FROM PAGE 79
RENÉE BRINKERHOFF THE DAUGHTER-IN-LAW of Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Sonny Brinkerhoff, Renée Brinkerhoff admits she “plays at golf.” Yet, shortly after the 65-year-old founder of Valkyrie Racing finished driving her heavily modified 1956 Porsche 356 across 356 frozen miles of Antarctica—the seventh and final continent in her 17,000-mile Project 356 World Rally Tour— she teed off on a red golf ball with a PXG 0811 X GEN4 driver. Her swing took place in view of the frozen Drake Icefall, the same location at Union Glacier that the odyssey had begun five days earlier. Behind her stood the reengineered “Polar Porsche,” replete with a reinforced chassis, hood-mounted solar-paneled-outfitted crevasse bar, steerable skis in lieu of front tires and, replacing the rear tires, a pair of ice-clawing, Snow Cat-like rubber tracks. And on all four sides of the red-trimmed silver vehicle, the unmistakable black PXG logo announced Parsons Xtreme Golf ’s support. PXG’s sponsorship had less to do with Brinkerhoff ’s golf game than with her endgame: Using her status as an extreme vintage rally racer to raise awareness and funds to combat the global scourge of child trafficking. The words “Race to Rescue” emblazon both front panels of the 356. Brinkerhoff ’s crusade began in 2017, four years after winning the Sport Menor class in Mexico’s grueling 2,000-mile La Carrera Panamericana—her very first extreme race. She kicked off the Project 356 World Rally Tour in 2017 at the 30th edition of the event. “Because I was one of the only women comCOLORADO AVIDGOLFER | Spring 2022
peting and because of our success as a team in this race, people wanted to know who I was and what I was doing,” she remembers. “I realized we had a voice and had to use it every time someone put a microphone in front of me. We wanted to use this car literally as a vehicle to effect change.” Child trafficking, she knew, was “very difficult for people to want to hear about and insurmountable in so many ways.” But after a chance meeting with an FBI agent tracking down child pornography peddlers and seeing a random man looking at child porn on an airport shuttle, she knew the cause had found her. “Child pornography fuels child trafficking,” she explains, and child trafficking annually affects 1.2 million children. “If you really want a big voice and you really want to effect change, you need to do something out of the box,” she says. So, Valkyrie Racing created the nonprofit foundation, Valkyrie Gives, and entered the most challenging races on every continent—the Targa Tasmania in Australia; Caminos del Inca in the Andes of Perú; the 36-day Beijing to Paris Motor Challenge; and the East African Safari Rally in Kenya. In interviews on each continent, she brought
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attention to child trafficking. In eight countries, she identified, vetted and supported NGOs that helped shelter and protect vulnerable groups. She even went undercover as an investigator to get evidence to supply to law enforcement. “I’ve talked to traffickers; I’ve seen the girls they’re selling on their phones; I’ve sat with the young girls who are being sold,” says the married mother of four who home-schooled her own children. “It’s really difficult, but it’s changed my life and that of the kids who are being trafficked.” Another life-changing event occurred last August. After more than 18 months of having a UK-based team led by Senior Chassis Design Engineer Kieron Bradley transform the 65-yearold road racer into a one-of-a-kind “Polar Porsche,” she and her daughter Christina (who oversees operations for Valkyrie Racing/Valkyrie Gives) flew to England to see their fully liveried machine right before it was shipped to Chile and on to Antarctica. On the night of the big reveal, Bob Parsons, the founder of GoDaddy and Parsons Xtreme Golf, called her. “We were friends but not that close,” Renée says. “I had texted him about a coloradoavidgolfer.com
sponsorship a week earlier and he said he’d call me in a week.” Which he did. Parsons, who famously sponsored racecar driver Danica Patrick with GoDaddy and pushed the limits of golf performance with PXG, said he would underwrite the entire Antarctica odyssey and donate $100,000 to Valkyrie Gives. “The Antarctica Ice Challenge is the ultimate intersection of performance and philanthropy,” Parsons said in the company’s press release. “It’s a true boots-on-the-ground approach to making a difference. With 100 percent of dollars raised going directly to the cause, there was no way PXG wasn’t going to get involved.” The entire livery of the vehicle changed overnight, as did the fortunes of Valkyrie Racing and Valkyrie Gives. In early December, the six-person team— Renée and Christine Brinkerhoff, polar navigator Jason de Carteret, engineer Bradley, ice mechanic Simon Redhead and filmmaker Neil Carey—arrived at Union Glacier from Punta Arenas, Chile, via a Russian Ilyushin plane. No penguins greeted them. The sun never set. They slept in massive tents on the ice. Starting at 2,000 feet above sea level, the out-and-back trip (178 miles each way) took them through three —Renée Brinkerhoff different glaciers in the Ellsworth Mountain Range. Subtly menacing megadunes and sastrugi corrugated the terrain, claiming a shock absorber and stressing the suspension and skis. An ice-packed air filter, sheared bolts, frozen throttle cable and other mechanical challenges arose for the team to remedy. Winds of 85mph produced whiteouts through which Brinkerhoff persevered. She rarely shifted out of second and widened her turn radius to accommodate the skis. The carbon-neutral vehicle reached a maximum speed of 38mph, about 50 percent faster than what the engineers thought the rear-track tolerances could handle. It took five days to complete the 356 miles, and another five to wait out a storm before the team could fly home. The result: Valkyrie Gives now has more than $650,000 in donations. Her “Race to Rescue” the world’s children from trafficking continues to build momentum, especially with the philanthropic horsepower of PXG Golf. And to think, all this began 10 years ago with a 55-year-old woman’s simple dream: “One day, I’m going to race a car.”
“If you really want a big voice and you really want to effect change, you need to do something out of the box.”
COLD OPEN: Renée Brinkerhoff tees off in front of her “Polar Porsche” at Antarctica’s Union Glacier.
/// CONTINUED ON PAGE 82
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PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAMIE SHWARBEROW/CLARKSON CREATIVE
CLUB SELECTION: Churchley holds a replica of the 6-iron her father, Alan Shepard hit on the moon.
/// CONTINUED FROM PAGE 81
LAURA SHEPARD CHURCHLEY COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | Spring 2022
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BY 2 A.M. ON FEBRUARY 6, 1971, the 23-yearold daughter of Apollo 14 commander Alan Shepard Jr. had momentarily dozed off while watching her father become the fifth man to walk on the Moon. “Laura, Laura, wake up!” she heard her grandfather shout. “Your father is hitting a golf ball on the Moon.” “I thought Granddaddy Shep (Alan Shepard Sr.) had lost it,” Laura Shepard Churchley remembers. “Hitting a golf ball?” Yes. Her father had brought a couple of balls and a customized Wilson 6-iron with a collapsible shaft from a tool used to scoop lunar rocks. “Daddy didn’t tell us he’d be doing that,” Churchley says as she pulls the string that assembles a replica of the club. The flight came less than a year after the near-disaster of Apollo 13. “Only if his mission was perfect would NASA let him do his little trick.” Shepard’s “little trick” became the most famous golf shot in the galaxy. Churchley’s slick fascimile is one of coloradoavidgolfer.com
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PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY LAURA SHEPARD CHURCHLEY PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAMIE SHWARBEROW
PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY LAURA SHEPARD CHURCHLEY PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAMIE SHWARBEROW
CLAIMING SPACE: In 1961, Laura Shepard Churchley’s father, Alan Shepard (top left), became the first American in space and, in 1971, the first (and only) to hit a golf ball on the Moon. Last December, Churchley flew on Blue Origin’s New Shepard with (from left) Dylan Taylor, Lane and Cameron Bess, Michael Strahan and Evan Dick.
dozens of pieces of memorabilia mixed in among the tasteful appointments in the Evergreen home she shares with her husband, Fred, on the 11th green at Hiwan Golf Club. They’re members at Hiwan and Sand Hills Golf Club in Nebraska. Until a few years ago, they also belonged to Monterey Peninsula Country Club, having bought Alan Shepard’s membership after he and his wife Louise died, 35 days apart, in 1998. Fred, whom she married in 1996, got her into golf. “Daddy wanted to teach me, but I wanted to waterski,” she says. She played her first-ever round at Pebble Beach, where her parents lived in later years. She currently plays to an 18.7 index and served a term as president of Hiwan’s women’s club. The oldest of Alan Shepard’s three daughters takes righteous pride in the man she still calls “Daddy.” She cherishes memories of him playing piano, flooring his Corvette on straightaways, letting her solo in his plane and more. She also remembers whispering, “Daddy please don’t mess up” to a tiny black-and-white TV in 1961, when Shepard became America’s first space traveler, piloting the Project Mercury spacecraft he named Freedom 7. Space travel had fascinated her since 1959, when she was in sixth grade. That’s when Shepard, then a Navy test pilot, told Laura and her sister Julie that he was going to work for NASA as an astronaut—“a word that wasn’t even in the dictionary yet,” Churchley says. “So, as he explained to us, ‘They’re going to take me and they’re going to put me in a spacecraft that’s going to be on top of a rocket, COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | Spring 2022
“We experienced three minutes of weightlessness, which was a gas. All I was aware of was my mind.” —Laura Shepard Churchley and they’re going to blast me into space, and I’ll come back to earth safely…’” And? “And that is exactly what I told my grandchildren I was going to do!” the 74-year-old Churchley says, excitedly recounting how she delivered the news that she would be joining five other civilians aboard Jeff Bezos’s Blue Vision craft, New Shepard. “And my grandkids were as flabbergasted as I was 60 years ago!” Promoting the launch, Churchley often said, “An original Shepard will fly on the New Shepard.” But much has changed since 1961. Alan Shepard trained for more than two years before his suborbital Mercury flight; his daughter trained for three days before hers. The helmeted, pressurized spacesuit in which Shepard walked on the moon weighed 200 pounds; her helmetless flight suit weighs around 15. “He was working,” she jokes. “I was on a ride.” When the ride got postponed a day, the Churchleys played golf with Laura’s fellow New Shepard crewmember and Good Morning America host Michael Strahan and his friend, Eugene. Another member of the crew, Voyager Space Chairman Dylan Taylor of Denver, flew them to the course closest to the remote West Texas
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launch site—the nine-hole Mountain View Valley Golf Course in Van Horn. “Michael and I versus Fred and Eugene,” Laura Churchley says. “The astronaut team won on the last hole.” On the day of the flight, as her father did in 1971, Churchley packed golf balls. Hers were logoed—one each from Hiwan, Sand Hills and Principia (her boarding school in St. Louis)—and she has since framed them to present to each institution. To honor her father, with six seconds remaining in the countdown, she bellowed “Let’s light this candle”—Shepard’s famous command from the Mercury launch. “I just loved every second of it,” Churchley says of the 10-minute flight. “We were so welltrained in the simulator about what to expect, right down to the noises we’d hear.” Only the eight seconds after the booster separated disoriented her. “I couldn’t tell if we were going up or down, and then we unbuckled and experienced three minutes of weightlessness, which was a gas. All I was aware of was my mind. I just rose out of my chair. I did a headstand, and I didn’t know how my feet got up.” Greeted by Fred, their children, grandchildren and her sister upon her safe return to Earth, Churchley now has an even deeper appreciation for what her father accomplished. She honors his legacy by chairing the Board of Trustees for the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, which he started with the six other original Mercury Seven astronauts. Thanks to private investment, she believes civilian space travel will continue to grow. “So, if you ever get the chance,” she advises, “go on the New Shepard.” coloradoavidgolfer.com
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The Golfer’s Guide to
Spring Travel in Arizona Ways to have fun in the Valley of the Sun and Tucson
NO BASEBALL? NO PROBLEM. THERE ARE STILL PLENTY OF GAMES WITH NINE A SIDE IN ARIZONA.
Ak-Chin Southern Dunes Golf Club, Maricopa
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Spring Travel
Where the Pros Play and Stay NOW THAT ANOTHER Waste Management Phoenix Open—the “Greatest Show on Grass”—is in the books, the TPC Scottsdale Stadium Course can return to playing host to visitors who want to test their skills on the Tom Weiskopf-Jay Morrish layout that challenges the world’s best. The heckler-filled coliseum structure surrounding the famous 163-yard par 3 probably won’t be up when you tee off, but the hole and the course are challenging enough without the distraction. Don’t miss taking a spin on the TPC Scottsdale Champions Course, a sensational 2007 Randy Heckenkemper redesign of the original Desert Course layout. Just be prepared for the repeated roars of private jets
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TPC Scottsdale Stadium
from Scottsdale Airport next door. The courses abut the magnificent Fairmont Scottsdale Princess, which sports 11 styles of accommodations, six pools, four restaurants (Bourbon Steak, La Hacienda, Toro Latin Restaurant and Rum Bar and Ironwood American Kitchen), the innovative Well & Being Spa (incorporating the largest Sisley-
Paris Spa in the U.S.) and abundant luxury. The location puts you near the exciting Kierland area, which pulses with shops and trendsetting restaurants such as The Mission. scottsdaleprincess.com; tpc.com/scottsdale; themissionaz.com
GO WEST
A buffet of events awaits at WestWorld, home to hundreds of equine championships and shows, rodeos. the Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction and other happenings. westworldaz.com
INSIDER INSIGHT
Finish your round at TPC with a bang at Toro Restaurant & Rum Bar. The Richard Sandoval restaurant features 150 rums, exquisite food and the show-stopping dessert known as “la bomba”—a huge chocolate bowl filled with scoops of ice cream, gelato, four types of berries, cheesecake bites, candied pistachios and sweet sauces—that your server dramatically drops onto your paper-covered table, shattering the shell so all may share its contents. scottsdaleprincess.com
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A 2018 renovation by architect Phil Smith (Flying Horse North in Colorado Springs) has transformed The Phonecian Golf Club from a 27-hole facility into an 18-hole, par71 resort layout that stretches from 4,418 to 6,501 yards. “While challenging, everything will be in front of the golfer,” Smith says. “No surprise bunkers or blind hazards.” golfthephoenician.com
Trooning Up THE FLAGSHIP of the Troon Golf empire with two 18-hole courses, Troon North Golf Club stretches through the natural ravines and foothills beneath Pinnacle Peak and weaves around the giant boulders and saguaros of the Sonoran Desert. Designed in 1990 by Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morrish—with some deft recent remodeling by Weiskopf—the Pinnacle and Monument courses remain the hallmarks of daily-fee
desert golf, regularly earning high rankings from every national golf publication. Which to play? Do both. Play the first round on MondayWednesday and the second within the following five days and get a 20 percent off round two. The high standards continue at the club’s Dynamite Grille, perched above Pinnacle’s 18th, and minutes away at the Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale at Troon North. troonnorthgolf.com
COURTESY OF WHIRLWIND GOLF CLUB
Scott Miller’s innovative departure from the target-style Sonoran Desert course, Eagle Mountain Golf Club nestles in the ravines of the McDowell Mountains. The 6,800-yard layout winds through the natural box canyons, rolling hills and lush desert valleys southwest of Fountain Hills. eaglemtn.com
Located in the North Phoenix Mountains at the Tapatio Cliffs Hilton Pointe Resort, the 6,515-yard Lookout Mountain Golf Club lives up to its name with panoramas on every Forrest Richardson-designed hole. lookoutmountaingolf.com
Two stellar courses, both designed by Gary Panks, await at Whirlwind Golf Club at Wild Horse Pass south of downtown Phoenix in Chandler. The Cattail layout runs longer and boasts more water than the feisty Devil’s Claw, but both are worth the trip. whirlwindgolf.com
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Eagle Mountain Golf Club Fountain Hills
The Phoenician Scottsdale
Lookout Mountain Golf Club Phoenix
Whirlwind Golf Club Chandler
Spring Travel
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COURTESY OF WEKOPA CASINO RESORT
The We-Ko-Pa Casino Resort debuted in late 2020 with a 167,000-square-foot gaming facility replete with miles of table games, bingo, slots and live sports betting. Its 246 rooms include golfer, junior and executive suites for traveling foursomes. There’s the WKP Sports bar sports bar with an entertainment stage, and, for something quiet, the Amethyst Spa and Boutique. wekopacasinoresort.com COURTESY OF WEKOPA CASINO RESORT
Winning at We-Ko-Pa THE GRILLE OF IT ALL
Four miles from We-Ko-Pa, Fort McDowell Adventures is a 25,000-acre playground of Jeep and bicycle adventure tours, horseback riding, Segway Tours, cattle drives, hay wagon rides and more along the Verde River and through the Sonoran Desert. fortmcdowelladventures.com
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We-Ko-Pa Casino Resort augments its upscale gaming with Ember, a superb fine-dining experience featuring an award-winning wine list covering 17 countries, with 517 wines by the bottle and 26 by the glass. wekopacasinoresort.com
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Before, between or after rounds, head to the We-Ko-Pa Grille and Saguaro Grille for fare that’s as satisfying as the views from their dining rooms and patios. wekopa.com
“THIS OLD BONEY ground has some ‘sting’ in it.” Thus reads the plaque on We-Ko-Pa Golf Club’s Saguaro course. The quote comes from Ben Crenshaw, who with Bill Coore laid out the course in 2005, four years after the club’s Scott Miller-designed Cholla course debuted. Together, the two layouts pack enough “sting” to vault this property, owned by the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, to the top of every list of best Arizona public courses. The straightforward Cholla is less prickly than the wide-fairwayed and walkable Saguaro. No homes or developments interrupt the flow of the courses or the views of Red Mountain, the McDowells,the Superstitions and the Four Peaks from which We-Ko-Pa takes its name. A canyon-like breezeway divides We-Ko-Pa’s clubhouse into a grille and a golf shop, while architectural elements like stacked stone and wood beams suggest Yavapi heritage. wekopa.com
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UNSPOILED. UNRIVALED.
UNBELIEVABLE. 36 HOLES | PL AY SAGUARO & CHOLL A The Coore/Crenshaw-designed Saguaro course (No. 1) and the Scott Miller-designed Cholla course (No. 7) have made Golfweek’s Top-10 Best You Can Play 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.
CALL 866.660.7700 OR VISIT WEKOPA.COM
AN ENTERPRISE OF THE FORT MCDOWELL YAVAPAI NATION
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COURTESY OF AK-CHIN SOUTHERN DUNES
After a long day of golf and playing the 19th hole like a pro, one of the 500 rooms Harrah’s Ak-Chin Hotel could look very appealing. So could its 40,000 square feet of casino space, its pool and its live entertainment area. Owned by the Ak-Chin tribe, the hotel is managed by Caesars. caesars.com/harrahs-ak-chin NSTAGRAM.COM/HASHKITCHEN
Southern Exposure a White Truffle Mac and Cheese with house-smoked pork—all appear with a suggested adult-beverage pairings. Look into stay-and-play packages from the 300-room Harrah’s AkChin Casino Resort six miles south. akchinsoutherndunes.com
COLORADO PROUD
PGA General Manager Brady Wilson of Ak-Chin Southern Dunes is a Durango native and graduate of Fort Lewis College. He has spent the last 10 year at the Maricopa course.
If you haven’t been to Phoenix’s Papago Golf Club recently, you’re in for a treat. The revitalized home course of Arizona State University has an impressive new clubhouse and restaurant that is attracting golfers and nongolfers. papagogolfclub.com
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Hashtag-shaped donuts, over-thetop hashes, eggs, pancakes and build-your-own Bloody Mary Bar make Hash Kitchen’s five shrines to brunch an instagrammable way to start your day, hashkitchen.com PAPAGOGOLFCLUB.COM
A SPRING TRAINING favorite of low-handicap golfers who happen to play professional baseball, Ak-Chin Southern Dunes Golf Club in Maricopa is well worth the 40-minute drive from Scottsdale. Even after a 2014 “playerfriendly” renovation removed nearly two acres of bunkering and shortened a number of holes, the 7,546-yard design by Brian Curley, Lee Schmidt and Fred Couples remains a test worthy of Golf magazine’s Top 100 U.S. Courses You Can Play and an annual U.S. Open qualifier. No homes intrude on this Australian Sandhills-inspired course owned by the Ak-Chin Indian Community and managed by Troon. Unlike most clubs, Ak-Chin Southern Dunes serves breakfast, lunch and dinner at its Arroyo Grille, and the dinner menu selections—which include a delicate grilled salmon to
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Spring Travel
Tucson’s Course Load WITH MORE THAN 40 courses, Tucson’s vibrant and varied golf scene ranges from its five municipal layouts (including former PGA TOUR sites El Rio and Randolph North), to the magnificent Robert Trent Jones Jr.designed Arizona National Golf Club next to the Coronado National Forest, to The Stone Canyon Club in Oro Valley, which Phil Mickelson just added to his golf-property portfolio. Most, if not all, of the best layouts in the area are attached to resorts. The showpiece of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe-owned Casino Del Sol hotel, the stunning Notah Begay/Ty Butler-designed layout at Sewailo Golf Club is the University of Arizona Wildcats’ home course. A former home of the Tucson Open, the
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Sewailo Golf Club
JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort boasts three nines (Coyote, Road Runner and Rattler) designed by Arnold Palmer, while the Westin La Paloma and the erstwhile WGC Match Play site at Dove Mountain Golf Club at the RitzCarlton (in nearby Marana) both feature 27 Jack Nicklaus-designed holes. In the Tortolita Mountains of Marana,
virtually adjacent to Dove Mountain’s Tortolita, Wild Burro and Saguaro nines, lie the North and South 18s at The Gallery Golf Club. In Oro Valley, the Cañada, Conquistador and nine-hole Pusch Ridge layouts comprise a scenic 45 holes at El Conquistador Tucson, a Hilton Resort. visittucson.org
TOUR STOP
INSIDER INSIGHT
This Feb. 25 – 27, the Omni Tucson National will again host the PGA TOUR Champions Cologuard Classic on its tree-lined Catalina Course. cologuardclassic.com
Ventana Golf & Racquet Club spoils members and guests of the boutique Lodge at Ventana Canyon with two stunning Tom Fazio-designed championship courses, the Canyon and the Mountain, which both blend magically into the natural features of the Santa Catalinas. Guests of Loews Ventana Canyon, which borders the Canyon’s 18th hole, have limited playing privileges. thelodgeatventanacanyon.com
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Built on the site of the 500-acre Otero Ranch, Tubac Golf Resort’s bovines are as iconic to the course as the scenes from Tin Cup that were shot there. A marker on the Rancho nine’s 568-yard 4th tempts players to imitate the 3-wood shot “Roy McAvoy” (Kevin Costner) hit onto the green in two after “David Simms” (Don Johnson) laid up with a 7-iron. tubacgolfresort.com
ORIGINALLY DESIGNED in 1959, the Tubac Golf Resort & Spa is a classic that has only improved with time. In 2006, the original Robert “Red” Lawrence 18hole design was augmented by another nine, courtesy of Ken Kavanaugh. The Anza, Otero and Rancho each present their own beguiling challenges, featuring stately old growth cottonwoods and mesquites throughout. Of course, there’s more to the resort than golf. Its 3,000-square-foot earth-inspired
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Back to Tubac spa offers multiple treatements, integrating botanical oils, desert earth elements and fragrant candles to create a uniquely Arizona experience that even includes a rehydrating eucalyptus steam room. The resort also is home to 98 luxury hacienda-style accommodations and three dining options—Stables Ranch Grille & Patio, Stables Bar and La Cantina. It also features a recently updated swimming pool with spacious cabanas. tubacgolfresort.com
Elvira’s
Tucson is a foodie mecca, and its oldest Mexican restaurant, El Charro, turns 100 this year. In Tubac, the place to go is Elvira’s, which started 90 years ago in Nogales, Mexico, and still greets patrons with a free “Hola!” Tequila shot and a variety of traditionally prepared meals served in a delightful setting. elvirasrestaurant.com
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PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALAN GONZALES
The head pro at Tubac Golf Club, Kristie Fowler, is a native of Grand Junction. Named the 2017 LPGA National Professional of the Year, she grew up on Tiara Rado Golf Course—which was built by her dad—Tom Kolacny, and won the women’s 1984 State Match Play and ’85 Stroke Play titles.
The quaint, one-square-mile village of Tubac abounds in galleries overflowing with paintings, sculptures and crafts. It also features Pancho’s Resource and Design, a home-décor candy store brimming with one-of-a-kind Southwestern furnishings. panchosdesign.com
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Blind Shot THE UNSEEN GAME
PHOTOGRAPH BY BRIAN OAR
DOUBLE VISION: The 10th and 17th holes on Wailea’s Robert Trent Jones II-designed Emerald Course share a green—and a view of the Pacific.
Wide-Eyed in Wailea
Maui’s long-admired golf resort community continues to impress. THE SECOND-LARGEST Hawaiian island, Maui doesn’t play second ukulele to anyone when it comes to golf. Fittingly, its reputation starts at the top of the island at Kapalua, where CooreCrenshaw’s Plantation Course yielded Cameron Smith’s 34-under at January’s Sentry Tournament of Champions. You can only imagine the score he’d post on Kapalua’s more leisurely Bay Course. A similar two-course dynamic awaits minutes down the coast with the august Royal Kā‘anapali and the young Kā‘anapali Kai, which wanders the same stunning topography with a more player-friendly attitude than his regal forebear. The best drive on your Maui golf trip, however, could be the one you take along the ‘Au‘au Channel and Mā‘alea Bay to Wailea. Situated on 1,500 acres, the otherworldly resort community spans Haleakalā’s emerald slopes and the crescentshaped beaches along the Pacific. Each of Wailea Golf Club’s three courses makes superb use of its paradisial setting, with many holes perched as high as 300 feet above the ocean for extraordinary views.
COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | Spring 2022
A former Skins Game site, the Robert Trent Jones II-designed Gold course ranks as the toughest of the three, its 7,078 yards traversing rugged terrain that incorporates ancient lava rock walls. Six sets of tees bring the challenge within reach. The Gold course shares a clubhouse (and the superb Gannon’s restaurant) with the Emerald, a lushly landscaped RTJII design that’s flat-out fun, with few forced carries and abundant eye candy, especially the photogenic double green on holes 10 and 17. Rounding out the trio, Wailea’s original course, the Blue, represents architect Arthur Jack Snyder at his charming, challenging best: wide, sloping fairways lined by tropical foliage, ample risks and rewards, strategically placed coral sand bunkers and tricky greens. All three come with views of the neighboring islands that nongolfers can also enjoy, courtesy of the Wailea Blue Sunset Cart Tour. Be sure to enhance the self-guided late-afternoon drive to the course’s most scenic parts with a pinot noir from Meiomi Wines, or a lager from Maui Brewing Company.
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Continued reinvestment and responsiveness to guests and residents have kept the 35-year-old resort community fresh. Just last year, the sleek 110-room AC Hotel By Marriott Maui Wailea opened; the Andaz Maui Wailea debuted the Ilikai Collection of 19 three-bedroom villas; and the Wailea Beach resort unveiled its 34-room Oceanfront Sundeck Collection. By this April, the venerable Fairmont Kea Lani will reveal a multimillion-dollar transformation of its luxe suites and villas. In addition to snorkeling, swimming, hiking and biking, Wailea’s resorts have introduced a raft of wellness and mindfulness-oriented activities. Grand Wailea offers Sound Healing, Ho’omalie and even a resident astrologist, while the Four Seasons Wailea has partnered with Next|Health to upgrade its spa experience with customized IV treatments, vitamin shots and biomarker testing. The Four Seasons also has a troika of top-tier restaurants and this February added a full-service indoor Topgolf Swing Suite. That’s just in case Wailea’s three courses and Maui’s 12 others aren’t enough for you. wailearesortassociation.com
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