Boulder / Denver Colorado Course Recommendations?

[cedrictheo]

I recently moved to Boulder Colorado and am looking for some course recommendations (within an hour or two). Would love to hear your favorites.

Also happy to go play if someone lives nearby!

[DeadMan]

Welcome to the area! Here are some public courses in the Denver area that are worth checking out. None of these are in Boulder proper, and some are going to be about an hour drive for you. Nevertheless:

• Walnut Creek - this is the one on this list closest to you. Really good course that can be really tough. Play it in May, which is when they have US Open qualifying, and see the best and fastest (public) greens in Denver.
• Commonground - public Doak course. Hard to get tee times, but an excellent course
• Riverdale Dales - public Dye course. Fun layout
• Homestead - this is an executive course, but plays pretty much up, down, and on a mountain. It has some excellent greens, too. Really fun course; I wish it was a par 70+.

Other recommendations that are a step below those:

• Murphy Creek - this will be a bit of a drive for you. It's worth checking out, but it's not spectacular. The first 13 holes are fun and basically on prairie. Then it gets into a housing development and loses steam. Bunkers were dirt last time I played there, which is not great.
• Wellshire - this was originally designed by Ross, but I don't think he ever set foot on the property. This is a parkland course with a couple of wicked greens. I think it's a step below the rest on this list, but still solid.
• Fox Hollow - this the course I normally play. It's slightly pricier than other courses, but a good layout with solid conditions. Issue is that pace of play is terrible. They stack tee times to get as much money as possible, resulting in a completely full course. Weekdays are best.
• Twin Peaks - I've only played this once, but I thought it was surprisingly interesting. The greens are generally surrounded by small embankments, which means that hitting the green is especially important. It's not a great course, but worth checking out.
• Broadlands - solid but not spectacular course. Worth checking out.

Places to avoid:

• Westwoods. Just don't.
• Lake Arbor. Although it's a regulation course, it's short and weaves through houses the whole time. Go to Indian Tree instead, or really just go to Walnut Creek.
• Meadows. Terrible layout, bad conditions. Avoid.
• Fossil Trace for pull price. It's a Jim Engh. It's quirky but fun. The issue is that it's not worth the rate. Play Walnut Creek instead.

If you really want to drive a while, here are some pricier courses that are worth checking out:

• Castle Rock - which would probably be about 1.5-2 hour drive for you - has a couple of cool courses that may be worth it. They are generally more expensive than the others on this list:
  • Bear Dance - solid mountain-ish course. 
  • Red Hawk Ridge - haven't actually played it, but have heard good things
  • Plum Creek - this is also a Dye that used to have a senior tour event. The layout is good, although probably not as unique to Colorado as Bear Dance or Red Hawk Ridge.
• Keystone Ranch - this is about a 1.5 hour drive, up by Keystone resort. It's a 9000 feet, so it's a weird experience. It's a good course in an amazing setting.
• There are other mountain courses, but I haven't played many of them. I've heard people like Breckenridge Golf Course, and it's on my list to try. I've played Three Raven, and it's fine, but I would recommend Keystone Ranch over it. 

Would be happy to join you for a round sometime. My golf schedule is fairly limited, but I'm sure we could find a time. Would be happy to show you any of the courses on this list (even the first 3 to avoid just to laugh at them).

Also tagging @Pretzel who used to live in the area as well.

Edited August 1 by DeadMan

[cedrictheo]

Wow, @DeadMan that is such a helpful breakdown of what’s around. Really excited to check a bunch of these out. Thank you.

Will definitely go to Walnut Creek. Will also try and get a commonground tee time. Haven’t played many Doak courses yet!

If your schedule frees up, let me know! 

[DeadMan]

17 hours ago, cedrictheo said:

If your schedule frees up, let me know! 

I’ll definitely let you know. August and September tend to be pretty crazy months for me, but hopefully I’ll be able to squeeze something in. 

[Pretzel]

I grew up just north of there in the Longmont area and went to college in Boulder, plus still visit family in the area so I'm pretty familiar with the courses and can make some recommendations:

Nearby Recommendations (30 Minutes or Less)

• Walnut Creek - definitely my favorite course in the Boulder area and @DeadMan is spot on about the US Open Qualifying conditions as someone who fell prey to that course in a past qualifying event
• Indian Peaks - A public course just down Baseline Rd that is typically well-maintained and reasonably priced. A decent layout, but it's the maintenance that stands out more than anything else here. Do be aware that Tuesday evenings through the summer you won't be able to get on after ~4:30pm since they have multiple different leagues playing off both the front and back nines that day. 
• Ute Creek - Public course up in Longmont, and a MUCH more interesting course design than Twin Peaks that also has substantially better practice facilities. Nice driving range with real greens to hit towards, large putting green, and separate short game area where you can hit just about any shot your heart desires out to ~60-75 yards depending on angle. Bunkers have typically also have a sufficient quantity of actual sand (short game area included), which is unfortunately hard to find sometimes in Colorado.
• Sunset Golf Course - Small 9 hole course up in Longmont that gets a mention simply because it has a special place in my heart as the place I learned to play the game. It's not a long course, but the greens are always in great condition and it still puts up more of a challenge than you might expect due to the tall mature trees lining every hole and an unassuming par 3 (hole 5) that is genuinely one of the more difficult ones anywhere in the surrounding area when played from 200 yards due to the very narrow and firm elevated green surrounded more closely by trees than on other holes. If you like regular events and tournaments, the Sunset Men's League is VERY active with events almost every weekend and multiple different cash games that happen on set days each week, as well as participation in Colorado's inter-club match play tournaments. 

Longer Drive or Higher Price, But Worth Experiencing Once: 

• Riverdale Dunes - Fantastic links-style course out east of I-25
• Interlocken Golf Club - A fun resort course in Broomfield that is well-maintained, usually has relatively fast greens, and has 3 different sets of 9 holes to mix and match. I prefer Walnut Creek honestly, but if you're under 30 they used to have a really good executive membership deal offering unlimited golf + cart for ~$150/month with no initiation fee. 
• Commonground - Tee times are hard to get for a reason, it's a great design that's well-maintained as the "capstone" course for the Colorado Golf Association. It also can be dialed up to play particularly brutal during US Open/US Amateur qualifying season.
• TPC Colorado - Ideally find a member to take you as their guest to cut down on the high cost, but it's genuinely one of my favorite courses anywhere in the country. Don't worry about the ~8,000 yard tips, they don't even put the markers out for that during public play and one big reason I like this course's design so much is because it was truly intended from the start to be playable anywhere from ~6,000 yards all the way back to the tips without just plopping tee markers down in the fairway and ruining the fun/appealing parts of each hole in the process. 
• Arrowhead - Fun course playing in and around the beautiful red rocks. 
• Highland Meadows - Another great links style golf course up north near Windsor. Good layout, good maintenance, and if you happen to pair up with the right person you might get to cross the street and also play the new Jack Nicklaus course Ptarmigan Country club.

Courses to Avoid/Not Worth the Price of Admission:

• Twin Peaks - going against what @DeadMan said as someone who grew up in Longmont, Twin Peaks is by far my least favorite of their 3 courses because if you've seen one green you've seem the all - strong slope from back to front, stadium mounding around the green, green complex raised ~3-10ft above the fairway. The entire course is flatter than a griddle, and I mean that literally because during the historic Colorado floods in 2013 the entire course (sans the raised green complexes) was completely flooded with only 1-2 feet of water.
• Colorado National - Overpriced and overall not worth it. The greens aren't as bad as they used to be back when they first became the "home course" for CU Boulder golf programs because they tore them all out and completely replaced them since then (the dollar spot was BAD), but overall right now the only thing better than middle of the road is their practice facilities. Mind you, you'll still be spending $12 or more on even a small bucket of balls to use said practice facilities. Since it's the same ownership group as Fox Hill in Longmont it also gives you all the worst parts of private country club snobbery (strict dress codes, employees forced to remind everyone that all dining areas including the snack bar require you to remove your hat, tee time cancellations and unavailability because members and/or the CU golf program decided they would use it instead, etc.) without any of the benefits (it's usually crowded, pace of play is still typically bad, and large parts of the course run alongside a major highway). 
• Eagle Trace - The course itself is usually poorly maintained, especially the bunkers which have always contained less than 1/2 inch of sand over the top of a bed of pea gravel so swing in them at your own risk. It also would appear from satellite photos that their old "driving range" (hitting floaters into the lake) is no longer available either since there's a row of houses where the mats used to sit.
• Saddleback Golf Course - I actually like the layout of this course, which is the sad part, but the ownership and maintenance of it make it a complete non-starter to me. Greens will be rolling anywhere between a 6-8, pace of play will be 5.5 hours or longer with course marshalls prohibited from doing anything about it (if you ever see one, that is, since they're rarely permitted to go out on the course instead of handling work around the clubhouse), and odds are high that at least 10% of the course at any given time will have already been WILDLY overserved. I'm particularly jaded as a former employee, but there genuinely is a serious alcohol problem that I know has not changed one bit from the few times I went back to investigate after several major course renovations took place (the bar manager is still the same person related to the owner with the same policies as ever before). 

[cedrictheo]

@Pretzel thank you so much.

Booked 9 holes at sunset tomorrow afternoon. Your description reminded me of a course I grew up on. And the league / cash games sound like they would be a lot of fun.