Mile High Golf Courses

I’ve been on the road for almost two weeks and enjoying every bit of it. I spent about six days in the Denver area and went to five different golf courses including an office visit to award winning architect Jim Engh. Although he was not there I meet with his associates. One associate actually took me out to one of the courses they opened four years ago and it was great to hear the logistics to the design. Jim Engh is a award winning architect and has a unique style from anyone else. He really thinks outside the box and created his own style. The courses consists of concave green and fairways which provides a player friendly golf course because the ball will bounce back to the fairway or green. Also, the strategy of the course allows the player options. Which means there isn't just one way to play the hole like most holes that are lined with trees or even houses. When a player has options he can play the hole in multiple ways. This makes the game more interesting and the player can never figure out the course the first time playing it. Also, this type of strategy benefits the lesser player because the course in more forgiving.

The courses I visited in the Denver area were The Club at Pradera, Fossil Trace Golf Club, Castle Pines Country Club, Red Hawk Ridge and The Heritage at Westmoor.

Fossil Trace Golf Club was pretty awesome. The site was once a clay mine and was an eye soar for the community of Golden, Colorado. The course is not located on top of clay ash that was caped during the construction part of the golf courses. Number 12 is a very unique golf hole. As you can see from the pictures the old shovels were integrated into the design. Also the sand stone rocks was too. These are called fins because when they mined the clay they went around this sand stone and left they tall pillar like structures. Finally while playing this hole you will see remnants of dinosaur fossils hence Fossils Trace Golf Club.





The Heritage at Westmoor is an Audubon gold signature course that was built about ten years ago. On this public course you will find buffer strips along all ponds. Around every pond there is a 25' buffer. This enables all drainage to go through a filtration process made up of native plant material. This technique is not evident on course that are not involved in the Audubon program.




The Country Club at Castle Pines was another great case study. The superintendent here has taking big steps in the environmental movement. The course was design in the mid 80s and has seen some changes from environmental issues. This course uses reclaimed water for the irrigation system and is kept healthy by the use of compost and organic fertilizers.