GRAND JUNCTION – PLAY GOLF. EAT. SLEEP. REPEAT AS MANY TIMES AS POSSIBLE.
Skip the caddy, the spa treatments, the nightlife, the gourmet meals and the designer boutiques normally associated with a mountain golf vacation.
On the state’s Western Slope courses, you’ll get golfing without the frills, the price tag, the snow or the crowds.
Towns such as Delta, Grand Junction, Montrose and Cedaredge are betting that golfers won’t miss them a bit.
They’ve spent millions on breathtaking courses they hope will persuade Front Range golfers to keep driving west on Interstate 70, past their favorite resorts in the Vail Valley and into the Grand Valley.
If these towns succeed, they also will fill hotel rooms and restaurants with tourists who might otherwise have driven through on their way somewhere else.
“Let’s face it,” says John Edwards, editor and publisher of Colorado Golfer. “Once you’ve seen the Colorado National Monument and unless you’re a dinosaur fan, what else would you do there?”
Residents of the agricultural towns in Mesa, Delta and Montrose counties find plenty to keep them busy, but selling those activities – hunting and fishing, hiking and biking, planting and harvesting – to well-heeled tourists has been tough. Grand Mesa may be the world’s largest flat-top mountain, and Colorado National Monument may offer 20,000 acres of jaw-dropping scenery, but the state is filled with gorgeous mountains and vistas.
What these counties can offer, however, is a mild climate that keeps golfers swinging long after mountain fairways are covered with snow. Add smaller crowds, fees less than half those of the Big Guys and well-designed courses that play through dramatic topography, and the outlook changes dramatically.
When you can get a tee time, the new Red Sky Golf Club
near Vail charges $200 for 18 holes and closes for the season about Oct. 26. Vail Golf Course’s $100 high-season weekend round can sound almost cheap, until you compare it to Cedaredge’s DeerCreek Village ($34 with cart).
“If you keep driving west past Vail,” says Edwards, “you can save a lot of money.”
You also will experience a stark change of pace once you’ve left the Vail Valley behind.
“We joke about living in Mayberry,” says Dave Way, head golf pro at Delta’s new Devil’s Thumb Golf Club. “But we don’t get hectic busy like they do other places. We’re kinda slow-paced and relaxed.”
That may be good news to golfers who are tired of fighting for tee times on metro courses, but it wasn’t always good for the local economy. “We used to just have people who passed through going somewhere else,” says Way. “A few went to Paonia’s Cherry Days, and we had a few hunters in the fall. But it was quiet.
“When we started thinking about rebuilding our little nine-hole Cottonwood Golf Course, there were starting to be a lot of good places to play golf. Part of our initial plan was to end up being another destination.”
Colorado is home to 65,700 golfers avid enough to belong to the Colorado Golf Association and Colorado Women’s Golf Association. Nearly 40,000 of them live in the Denver area; only 9,300 live west of the mountains.
Most golfers like variety, says Edwards, and many are willing to drive around the state in search of their next favorite hole.
Delta planners hoped those golfers would include their little town in a three-day itinerary – one day at Battlement Mesa, for example, one day at Grand Junction’s new Redlands Mesa course or Ridgway’s Fairway Pines, and one day in Delta.
When unable to buy more land around its old municipal course, the town shifted its gaze north, to 260 acres of wasteland it already owned atop a nearby adobe mesa. With the help of course designer Rick Phelps of Evergreen and an infusion of $3.8 million, the badlands were transformed into a challenging course that offers something for everyone, Way says.
Flat links-style holes lead to elevated tee boxes and desert-style holes that jump bushy arroyos on their way from tee box to manicured green. Although carved onto a harsh, treeless mesa, all holes are enhanced by uninterrupted panoramic views of the San Juan Mountains, the West Elk Mountains and the Grand Mesa.
The result has agreed with Colorado’s golfers. They play 20,000 rounds of golf each year at Devil’s Thumb, enough to keep the bills paid and attract national attention, Way says. Local golfers accounted for some of the business (they can play for $35 with a cart, $25 after 2 p.m.), but most players are out-of-towners who consider Devil’s Thumb a “must play” destination. They pay $47 for the pleasure, cart included.
And although some homes eventually may be built on nearby land, “we have no development inside or around the course,” Ways says. “When you play here, there are no jackhammers or construction crews. All you hear is peace and quiet.”
That’s a gentle jab at Devil’s Thumb’s closest competition, the Golf Club at Redlands Mesa, which opened in Grand Junction in 2001. A third of the development’s acreage is devoted to golf, a third to open space and a third to a high-end housing project now in the noisy construction stage.
The golfing experience there is a stark contrast to the dusty moonscape of Devil’s Thumb. A reviewer for Travelgolf.com describes Delta’s course as “the kind of course you feel comfortable pulling up to in a 1985 Chevy pickup with clubs in the bed. Redlands Mesa is more upscale – you won’t be out of place in your brand-new Lincoln SUV.”
Redlands Mesa is green and lush, with verdant fairways nestled against harsh rock outcroppings. Players start their round – $77 with cart – from a plush clubhouse and can finish at the elegant Red Canyon Grille. (Devil’s Thumb players start from a prefab building and can grab a bite from its snack bar. A permanent pro shop and grill are planned for 2004.)
Redlands Mesa is privately owned but open to the public and was intended to feel like a country club. Developers spent about $6.5 million on the course, which hugs topography so rocky it resembles Utah’s famous Canyonlands. That’s not surprising, considering that Redlands Mesa sits alongside the Colorado National Monument and offers front-row views of the monument’s rock spires. The course designer, Castle Rock resident Jim Engh, also designed Golden’s Fossil Trace Golf Club and the private Sanctuary course in Castle Rock.
Navigating the course’s steep cart path can feel a little like riding a roller coaster, and putting into the fourth hole can be tricky for those afraid of heights. (It’s called the Cliff Hole because just beyond the green is a cliff that drops 100 feet.)
Eleven of the 18 tee boxes are elevated, which adds to the landscape’s natural drama. The back tee box on the 17th hole, for example, is 150 feet above the green, which makes for a stunning view but a potentially dangerous climb. It was closed to golfers shortly after the club opened, because erosion made the stone steps too dangerous to climb from the cart path to the tees. Guests still can enjoy the panoramic view from the top of the cart path, however.
“There isn’t a course like it anywhere,” says C.J. Rhyne, an assistant in the pro shop. “Guests say you’d have to be in the Vail Valley or Las Vegas to find anything like it, and there you’d pay twice the price.”
Last year golfers played 28,000 rounds at Redlands Mesa. Even so, it’s relatively easy to book a tee time, and local hotels offer golf packages that allow them to book times a week or more in advance.
Throw in Battlement Mesa Golf Club (which opened in 1987), Adobe Creek National Golf Club in Fruita (which opened in 1991 and added nine holes in 2001), DeerCreek Village Golf Club in Cedaredge (1992), Fairway Pines Golf Club in Ridgway (1996), and Cobble Creek Golf Course in Montrose (nine holes built in 1999 and nine more opened this month), and you’ve got enough golf to satisfy even the most ardent player.
Linda Castrone is a feature writer for the Post. Contact her at 303-820-1452 or lcastrone@denverpost.com.
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IF YOU GO
We picked five Western Slope courses to play during one whirlwind visit in August. Here’s what we found.
Adobe Creek National Golf Course, 876 18 1/2 Road, Fruita, 970-858-0521. Ned Wilson built 18 holes alongside Interstate 70 in 1991, then added another nine in 2001 so the course could host a tournament without turning away regulars. Depending on which 9-hole segments you play, yardage is 6,744 to 7,180, par 72-73. Greens fees are $18-25 for 18 holes. The course is open year-round and is broad and flat, with great views of the Colorado National Monument. It gets a lot of play, which means the turf can sometimes be the worse for wear.
Devil’s Thumb Golf Club, 968 1560 Road, Delta, 970-874-6262, www.deltagolf.org. This 7,176-yard, par-72 course is owned by the town of Delta and opened in 2001. It was designed by Rick Phelps. Greens fees are $28 (weekdays) or $35 (weekends). Its combination of terrain – flat links-style holes, up-and-down shots from elevated tees, long jumps over natural arroyos – makes the course unusual. Holes can be long (a 626-yard par 5, for example), and so can the out-of-bounds natural areas. Hole 13 requires female golfers to drive 250 feet over a natural area to reach the landing pad, for example. Our goals changed from “Hey, I landed on the green!” to “Hey, I think we can actually find that ball!” Midday summer temperatures can be in the 100s, and players can finish the round covered with fine dust. Recognized as one of 10 hidden Colorado jewels by Travel golf.com and No. 2 Best New Affordable Course by Golf Digest in 2002.
The Golf Club at Redlands Mesa, 2325 W. Ridges Blvd., Grand Junction, 970-263-9270, www.redlands golf.com. Also opened in 2001, this 7,007-yard, par-72 course is private but is open to the public. Greens fees start at $62 for 18 holes. It was designed by Jim Engh, who also designed the Sanctuary course near Castle Rock. Awards include Best New Affordable Public Golf Course by Golf Digest, Top Ten You Can Play by Golf Magazine, No. 3 Best New Golf Course in the World by Sports Illustrated, Colorado’s No. 1 Public Access Course by Golfweek, 23rd of the nation’s top 100 Public Golf Courses by Golf Digest. Carts come with club and ball washers. Sand traps are grass-lined and resemble boils in the fairway. Sandstone rock towers line the course and can sometimes come into play. Bathrooms are permanent buildings, but sinks had not been plumbed when we visited. Construction noise was loud and distracting on the front nine. Hole 13 plays around a lake with a sandy beach, two hazards for the price of one. For a stunning view, head up the cart path to the back tee box on 17. The box is closed, but the scenic view remains.
DeerCreek Village, 500 S.E. Jay Ave., Cedaredge, 970-856-7781, www.deercreekvillage-golf.com. Built in 1992 as the core of several housing developments, DeerCreek is a 6,418-yard, par-72 course. Greens fees are $22 weekdays, $25 weekends and holidays. It plays like two different 9-hole courses, a gentle links style on the front, a challenging up-and-down mountain course on the back. Although it’s ringed by houses, they’re situated behind landscaped berms and don’t interfere with the scenery. Food in the clubhouse is provided by Berardi’s, a longtime Colorado restaurant family, and it attracts destination diners and golfers with upscale Italian fare. Golfers can phone in sandwich orders after the 8th hole and have them waiting at the turn.
Cobble Creek Golf Club, 699 Cobble Drive, Montrose, 970-240-9542, www.cobblecreek.com. This 6,682-yard, par-72 course is surrounded by a 445-acre planned community. The first nine holes opened in 1999, the second nine this month. It’s a broad, friendly valley course with 360-degree views of the Grand Mesa and the San Juan Mountains. A cornfield on one side, a red barn and haystacks on another lend a bucolic country feel, although when lightning storms developed in the west, we felt somewhat vulnerable. Crowds are scarce while this course develops a reputation. The clubhouse includes a restaurant with outdoor patio and beverage cart service. Plenty of water is available on the course.
– Linda Castrone
