GOLF IN HARMONY ARCHITECT JIM ENGH'S GEM READY FOR PLAY IN TIMNATH SWINGING ROAD TRIP CORNER TO CORNER TO CORNER, WYOMING OFFERS GOLF TREATS LONG-AWAITED HARMONY TEES OFF Engh's latest creation will provide the By Tom Hacker ultimate test for brave golfers [email protected] TIMNATH — Golf course designer Jim Engh got his Engh's Colorado portfolio first look at Nelson Farm, a 640-acre sheep ranch two miles east of tiny Timnath Castle Rock golf architect Jim Engh opens his eighth flanking the north side of Harmony Road, in 2001. Colorado course, the Golf Course at Harmony, in July. Other Engh creations in the state have landed on the He viewed the rolling meadows, cottonwood groves sport's “best courses” lists with regularity. They include: and sheep pens as a sculptor views a block of marble. “This project has so much appeal,” he said at the time. • Sanctuary, the 18-hole private hideaway in Sedalia “Have you been out to walk around that property? It’s commissioned by millionaire Re/Max real estate really going to be a spectacular place.” founder Dave Liniger that is a popular venue for charity tournaments, and that Golf Digest ranked Six years later Engh, named the world’s No. 1 golf among the world's 150 best courses. architect in 2003 by leading sport publication Golf • Fossil Trace Golf Course, a spectacular municipal Digest, has put his unique stamp on an 18-hole champi- course on the southern edge of Golden that opened onship layout — the Golf Course at Harmony. Among for play to rave reviews in 2003, and was high among Northern Colorado golf aficionados, no other course has Golf Digest's “best new courses” that year. been so talked-about during its opening year. • The Golf Club at Redlands Mesa, chiseled out of the spectacular canyon country on the southern edge For example, people are marveling already at hole No. of Grand Junction and nudging the tops of “best pub- 7., a par-3 layout with a narrow, 100-yard-deep green lic courses” lists by major golf publications. that snakes between bunkers. It can play at 130 yards or 230 yards, depending on pin placement. Even before any- • Red Hawk Ridge Golf Course, a municipal course in one has played a full round of golf at Harmony, No. 7 is Castle Rock where James Engh Golf is headquar- etched in local golf lore. tered, and one of Engh's first Colorado designs. • Lakota Canyon Ranch Golf Club outside New Castle, The three-member development team that is blending similar to Redlands Mesa in that its fairways and Engh’s masterpiece into a residential community that will greens follow the natural canyon contours and where feature some of Northern Colorado’s grandest homes has tee boxes are sometimes perched 100 feet above fair- also assembled a dream team to direct golf operations, all ways. of them Professional Golfers’ Association Class-A profes- • Rounding out the list of Engh's Colorado projects sionals. are the Pradera Golf Club, a private, prairie-style course in Parker, and Snowmass Club, the alpine Two are returning Northern Colorado golf veterans. wonder near Aspen. Steve “Seve” Lind, former pro at the Eaton Country Club and Fox Acres Country Club in Red Feather Lakes, was See HARMONY, 12 Special section of the Northern Colorado and Wyoming Business Reports, May 2007 5 PLAY A ROUND AROUND WYOMING A whole lot of holes Fore! you By Dennis E. Curran [email protected] With its high altitudes and long winters, Wyoming will east off Dell Range Boulevard, and you have five courses never be a year-round golfing destination. But when spring that will delight you for a week or more. Plus we recom- and then glorious summer finally arrives, the state just mend the 90-mile roundtrip east to Pine Bluffs and its might be a golfer's paradise. nine-hole Leaning Rock Golf Course. It may not have a lot of players, but that adds to its charm. From championship courses beneath scenic mountain peaks to hometown links carefully laid across rolling Then it’s 70 miles up I-25 to the Wheatland Golf Club, a prairies, Wyoming offers something for every golfer. nicely landscaped par-72 course north of Cheyenne. Then on to Guernsey’s Trail Ruts Golf Club (another 29 miles), And the nice thing about playing a round here is you where you can play 18 in the footsteps of Oregon Trail pio- don’t have to rush. Whether it takes you a season or a life- neers. time, golfing Wyoming presents an experience that few will ever forget. Next on the Great Wyoming Golf Tour comes the Torrington Municipal Golf Course, another nicely land- Our goal this year is to introduce you to the gamut of scaped course along the North Platte River (33 miles) and fine golf courses that dot the state's broad expanse and so then north to Lusk and the Niobrara Country Club (57 you can play your way along what we call the Great miles) with its 6,492-yard course. Wyoming Golf Tour. No tour of eastern Wyoming courses would be complete With some 60 courses to play, you’ll drive some 2,300 without heading to the rolling hills of the Douglas miles to play some 372 holes of golf — 348,000 yards in all Community Golf Club (55 miles), a 6,300-yard par-71 — and we think you’ll experience some of the friendliest course that also offers a full-service restaurant. We’ll finish golfing opportunities in the region. up at the Glenrock Golf Club (30 miles) for another pleas- ant 18. Cheyenne has variety Three Crowns enhances Casper Let’s start our tour in Cheyenne, Wyoming’s Capital City, which offers five courses to choose from. The Our tour next takes us 24 miles up the North Platte Cheyenne Country Club and the F.E. Warren Air Force River to Casper, one of the state’s premier golf destinations Base offer contiguous, challenging courses, while just now with the addition of the Three Crowns Golf Course, a across Interstate 25 lies the city of Cheyenne’s Airport Golf championship course on rolling hills that once housed Club. Amoco’s historic Casper Refinery. Together, those three courses offer some of the best 54 The Robert Trent Jones course enters its second year holes in a concentrated space in Wyoming. Add in the with a new deck for outdoor dining and the same great nine-hole courses at Little America Resort just down I-25 views of Casper Mountain, downtown Casper and the and Kingham Prairie View, another city course a few miles North Platte. 6 Special section of the Northern Colorado and Wyoming Business Reports, May 2007 Courtesy Snake River Sporting Club PRETTY PUTT – Wyoming courses offer spectacular scenery. “Hole No. 7 offers our golfers the ultimate challenge,” ping first in Midwest (47 miles) to play the Salt Creek says general manager David Raper. “Your tee shot must be Country Club, a 3,004-yard, par-70 course carved out of a long and straight on this beautiful dogleg par 4. Casper working oil field where you can watch the deer and ante- Mountain looms in the background as you play from an lope and sometimes a cow play while you play. elevated tee area. Be careful not to cut too much off of the dogleg or your tee shot will end up in a lake that guards Then we head into the heart of the Powder River Basin the entire left side of this hole. Too long and you will end and the Haycreek Golf Club at Wright (51 miles). Haycreek up in one of two expertly placed bunkers.” is a 6,854-yard, nine-hole course with a signature hole (No. 4, 422 yards) that is a dogleg right, with water left and right Birdies are common on No. 7 at Three Crowns, but all the way to the green, which is surrounded by hazards. Raper advises that “a careless golfer may end up with dou- ble bogey or higher.” Another 38 miles takes us up Wyoming Highway 59 to Gillette, home of the long 7,258-yard Bell Nob Golf But don’t forget Casper’s three other courses — the Course, with its new companion course for kids, Wee Links Casper Country Club, the Casper Golf Club and the at Bell Nob, and the Gillette Golf Club, no slouch itself at Paradise Valley Country Club. All are fine 18-hole courses 6,694 yards. with all the amenities one would expect from country clubs in Wyoming’s second-largest city. Then it’s on to the Black Hills, stopping en route at Pinehaven (40 miles) for a round at the Keyhole Country Paradise Valley is the longest of the three at 7,000 yards, Club and Upton (34 miles) at the Cedar Pines Country followed by the Casper Golf Club with 6,500 yards and the Club and on to Newcastle (26 miles), home of the Casper Country Club at 6,046 yards. Newcastle County Club. Northeast offers challenges From Newcastle, we head north to Sundance (45 miles) and the par-70 Sundance Country Club and then to Hulett From Casper, we’ll head toward northeastern Wyoming’s (39 miles), home of one of the newest golf courses in the Black Hills and some of the state’s prettiest courses, stop- See WYOMING, 8 Special section of the Northern Colorado and Wyoming Business Reports, May 2007 7 Courtesy Snake River Sporting Club WYOMING, from 8 state, the recently expanded Devils Tower Golf Club.