Colorado golf

Hello all,

Myself and the girlfriend decided that we needed a change. We have settled on Castle Rock, CO as I have been in touch with some of the schools down there and will be able to find a job. Anyways, I would like to hear some input from people in the area.

We will be living in The links at Plum Creek which is on the course.

I will be looking for a season long golf pass so if anyone knows of any good ideas/deals in the area it would be appreciated.

Look into the Colorado Avid Golfer Passport if you want to get a break playing a lot of different courses around the state.  I lived in Colorado for 39 years and played golf almost the entire time, never had a true season pass as some other areas in the country have.  There are a few districts where you can buy a card which gets you a break on the green fees for the courses in that district, or just on one course, but you have to play there a lot just to break even, and you still have to play a fee each round.  I never heard of a public course membership like I read about on golf forums from other areas.

Thats odd, I assumed that season passes were the norm. They are offered everywhere here in IL. But thanks for the advice, I will definitely look into that. Are you familiar with the Castle Rock area?

I lived in the Southwest Denver metro area, but never played in Castle Rock.  The closest I got was Arrowhead in Roxborough, which is still a way northwest of Castle Rock.  I never played Plum Creek - it was always a bit too steep for me.  Even Arrowhead is a bit high at some $125 the last time I played it.

I think that you will find that a good many of the metro area public courses are pretty nice layouts, and the reason is that they don't do much discounting of green fees.  It takes money to keep up a nice course, and season passes greatly increase traffic without raising commensurate revenues.  You will need to visit some places like Fossil Trace (Golden CO city owned public course) and Fox Hollow (Lakewood CO city owned public) to see what I mean.  My home course was/is Foothills Golf course, part of the Foothills Recreation District in Jefferson County.  There are three courses - an 18 hole, par 72 Championship course, a 9 hole, par 31 Executive course, and a 9 hole par 3 course.  Also a full grass practice range with a separate lesson area, a short game/chipping area with bunker, and a fairly large practice green which is exactly the same as the greens on the 18 hole course.  In the middle of the complex is the golf shop and restaurant.

There are a lot of very nice city owned public courses around the Denver area, and in the summer some great mountain courses.  One reason I recommended the Avid Golfer Passport (Google it) is because there are some good deals on those mountain courses.  2 rounds at Pole Creek outside of Winter Park can pay for the passport.  I live in the Bahamas now, but I still buy the passport for when I go back to Colorado for a couple of weeks in the summer.

Your going to love golf in Colorado. There are many great courses throughout the front range from the Pueblo / Springs areas (South of Denver) to Boulder (North of Denver)

Also, a short travel into the mountains they are many hidden gems. I played Plum Creek many years ago (Pete Dye Course) and enjoyed the golf, almost had my first "ace" there.

The Meridian and Inverness are private clubs near bye if that may interest you.  You should probably check out "online tee times" for a guide to prices and discounts.

Just to name a few courses off the top of the brain, (South area) Walking Stick, Air Force Academy (if you have any military back round) Highland Hills, and Grandote.

Arrow Head is a good course as mentioned above.

Travel north to you could play Buffalo Run, Foot Hills, Fox Hollow, Riverdale, just to name a few.

A trip into the mountains offers Grand Lake and a great course at Winter Park Ski Area, Pole Creek.

Mountain courses are a blast to play, the ball really flies at the higher altitude...........

Feel free to PM if you have any questions.

Club Rat

Contrary to some of the posts above, there are annual memberships in many of the public courses like Bear Dance (Larkspur, my favorite course around Denver area), The Ridge at Castle Pines North.  You can get unlimited play, weekday play, or simply discount on regular green fee memberships.

If I lived close enough, I would get unlimited annual pass to Bear Dance.  With any type of membership, you get unlimited range balls at Bear Dance.

There's also annual memberships at various other public courses like Westwoods (Arvada), Riverdale GC (Dunes and Knolls, Dunes is Pete Dye design), Murphy Creek, etc.

However, there is no annual membership at Fossil Trace or Fox Hollow.

If you are going to play Plum Creek a lot, it is definitely worth getting an annual membership as you only pay once and get to play as much as you want.

Colorado native here. Been golfing since the mid 70's but took a 10+ year break until 2012 but mostly familiar with the courses in the area. Being down in CR takes you pretty far from the metro area. Fortunately there are some nice courses in the south should you decide to venture out of CR. In the south I like Saddle Rock, Raccoon Creek and Red Hawk Ridge. But my favorite courses are further north, Riverdale, Pelican Lakes, Mariana Butte, Legacy Ridge, Colorado National, Todd Creek and Hyland Hills Gold. The good news, lot's of gold choices here. The bad news, the nicer metro area courses see a lot of traffic during the season. For that reason I tend to frequent out of the way courses.

appreciate all the above information. I have just read online that plum creek is going downhill. hope that's not true because I'll be right on the course and it would be convenient . I suppose I'll see when I go there.like I said before I definitely want to look into some sort of pass.if I can't find anything I'll look into the passport. I'll look online and see what I can find. thanks everyone

See http://www.beardancegolf.com/ratesandpackages/index.html

for annual membership fee info.

It is a beautiful course.  My favorite.  It does not play as long since it is at about 7000 ft of elevation.  It plays about 1 to 1-1/2 club shorter.

I have the New Bear's Club membership as I am about 1-1/2 hour away from the course.  I try to play there every other week and courses near my home other weeks.  If I lived closer, I would definitely get the unlimited membership.  At about $100 w/o membership, if you played 40 weeks (once a week as it is closed during November to March, when there is snow on the ground), it pays for itself.  But most members I talked to play 2-3 time a week.

Welcome to CO- The golf here is amazing! I have a membership at The Heritage in Westminster which has held a few US Open qualifiers. Its a great links course and for 2,400 I get the Heritage and Legacy Ridge which is a totally different style of course but still very good.

If you make it to the North end let me know and I can show you the courses and also check out Riverdale Dunes- Best course I have played for the value. 39.00 bucks or so and its as good as anything I have ever played! Hawaii, California etc etc...

Cheers,

Dale

I hope Plum Creek reopens this spring.  Of the two Castle Rock courses, I prefer Plum. It is a better test of golf and not as gimmicky as Red Hawk.  I dont know your price range, but Aurora has very reasonably priced courses.  The same is true of Denver (JFK's Creek 9 was beautiful...even in winter).  What hole are you on?  And side?  I will try to carry the ball down the other side...LOL.

Ah, the par 5 with the swimming pool on the right protected by a high net?  If I miss that drive, it is normally to the left and OB.  I love that hole.  A good drive can set you up for making the green in two.