Colorado Golf Club

The par-4 10th at Colorado Golf Club, playing downhill off the tee to a green hanging on a slope, with the Colorado Rockies in the far distance, has not a single bunker. Yet it sets the tone for what may well be Coore and Crenshaw’s finest example of how to massage a great golf course from topography that many would have considered ordinary. These designers made this stretch of Front Range southeast of Denver extraordinary. They ran fairways across sagebrush hills that are dotted with pines. They positioned greens on buttes and the far sides of barrancas. Colorado G.C. is a second-shot course where seemingly generous landing areas can result in awkward hanging lies for approach shots to greens that run left or right or even away from the direction of play. The massive par-5 fiirst is one of the most exciting first holes in a time zone known for exciting opening holes, and it's followed by a short cross-ravine par 3 benched into a hillside like its inspiration, the second at No. 23 Prairie Dunes. In 2019, the course hosted the USGA Mid-Amateur.