In less than a month now we’ll once again be celebrating “a tradition unlike any other.” The 2017 Masters will certainly be unlike any other — our first without the beloved, late Arnold Palmer.
There is absolutely nothing I can say about the King, Palmer, that you can’t find better stated by someone who actually knew him. As a life-long amateur golfer who grew up holding Palmer’s name higher than any other, I know the mark he left on the game — having taken it for granted from time to time — and am forever grateful for the relationship and warmth he shared with his fans. But my favorite memories of Palmer are those shared by the pros themselves, mainly the advice he’d give them in passing about how to carry themselves on the tour. It’s that advice that’s helped shaped the new culture and characters of professional golf, open to all shapes, sizes, colors and classes of upcoming fans.
Though we will forever be indebted, we fans can still make the most of this Masters week as a tribute — Arnie’s Army keeping traditions creating new ones in Palmers honor. CGB won’t be the only ones tipping our caps to the skies above Augusta next month. Whether you were a life-long fan or just know you have respects to pay, here are some good ways to do it:
What would Arnold do?
Depending on who you ask, 1-part iced tea and 1-part lemonade — on the rocks. But because we live in a two-sided world, some people believe it’s actually 3-parts iced tea and 1-part lemonade, citing video evidence (an ESPN commercial).
If you need to brush up on your history on the man himself, there have already been dozens of tributes since his passing, the most recent being “Arnold Palmer,” via NBC. The PGA Tour, Golf Channel, and Golf Digest all share touching remembrances as well.
Dress the part
Lord knows you’re never going to get to slip on a green jacket, but that doesn’t excuse you from looking like a shlub. Green and yellow are the colors of the week — we’ll be sporting Masters prints from Weekend Warrior and Swing Juice all week long.
Eat right
Cheeses
Pimentos
Mayo
Dijon
White bread
Now we’re cooking. Courtesy of GOLF, Augusta’s famed Pimento Cheese sammies are just a few easy steps away in your kitchen. Put your summer body goals on hold — this is turkey on Thanksgiving status.
Swing the sticks
The sun rises over the practice green at Four Mile ranch. So close you can touch it.
We have four days of tournament coverage ahead of us, even more if you count everything before and after play begins. You don’t need to be there for all of it. Palmer made golf an everyday man’s game, it was all for naught if your ass doesn’t hit the course whenever you can. Masters week if the perfect time to gather your foursome, I think it’s safe to count Arnie as a fifth.
“Winter in Colorado” sounds like one of the least golf-friendly things you can think of. It snows quite a bit around here, it’s cold from October to May … and did I mention the snow and the cold? Given that, “winter golf in Colorado” sounds like nothing but a farce.
Ski Country USA may be our home state, but we here at CGB can’t accept putting the clubs away for too long, regardless of how much we love our 29,000+ skiable acres. Colorado golfers aren’t the only ones who deal with several unplayable months per year, but for the sake of perspective, we’re basing this off what we know all too well. As dedicated we are to the grind, we feel it’s our place to prove that winter golf in Colorado is, in fact, a very real thing, and it can be pretty awesome.
Golf should be as much about the experience as it is about the sport, why else would we all be dreaming of the day we’re strutting the fairways of Augusta or St. Andrews? Colorado golf, at any time of year, can be quite an experience; Colorado winter golf is something else entirely — a right of passage almost — and something you won’t soon forget.
Grab your sticks, your spikes, and dress in layers — and maybe pack some snowshoes (kidding).
We’ve already discussed the cold and the snow, but I didn’t tell you about the bright side — that is, the literal one. Colorado is home to 300+ days of sunshine per year, with plenty of the good stuff shining through the winter. And the state’s high-altitude geography means we’re a lot closer to the sun. All of this is to say that the snow doesn’t stick around very long after it falls. And even though the temperature gauge may be hovering in the 30s or 40s, you’ll still find yourself getting clammy in the solar heat — comfortable if you’re wearing the proper gear. If it’s the cold that’s keeping you away, your excuses can stop here.
High, dry, and long
Let’s talk about ball flight — already boosted by the higher altitude — and just how much more frozen turf can boost your confidence. The air is dry during the winter, sucking moisture out of everything. Add that with ground temperatures hovering close to freezing and it’s like you’re playing on astroturf set on top of a hard wood floor; big bounces and even bigger rolls. There’s no shooting darts during a winter round — unless your local groundskeeper is some kind of magician, or you’re good enough to not be listening to me — which can be good and bad. Ball control may suffer a bit, and the recently-thawed-from-last-night greens are always fast, but you probably won’t see yourself reaching distances like this anywhere else. Grip it and rip it.
Kidding, it’s a select few. From Late October to early May, CO weekend warriors are packing into bumper to bumper traffic along the 1-70 corridor heading to and from ski country, and your grandparents golf group doesn’t have the joints to handle the cold weather anymore. That means there will be very little in between you and the next tee box when you’re on the course during the winter months — no 6-hour rounds this time of year. Play fast, and play two.
Show up or shut up
The courses are open — at least a lot of them are — and there are such things as cold weather gear, spikes, and hot beverages. So, obviously, winter golf in Colorado isn’t completely out of the question. There will be times when it is (call the pro shop to get the most reliable course information) winter happens often around here, and courses are quick to close when they need to. But when you’re gifted a playable window of time in the middle of February, it’s on you to take advantage of it. That is, of course, if you really are dedicated to the game.
You can now follow the CGB crew from tee to green as we take to the world’s premiere courses in friendly competition. Back tracking a little bit, we’re talking about playing video games, Rory McIlroy PGA Tour to be exact, and streaming live via SwingCast on Twitch.
Colorado Golf Blog picks up the sticks Monday evenings from 7-Midnight (MST), shooting for prizes for viewers (including cash for hole-in-ones) and doing what we do best — talking trash, and playing golf our way (read: under the influence).
As a group of golfers who grew up in the era when Tiger Woods video games reigned supreme, we were pretty confident our years of experience would translate to the more recent Rory franchise. Not so. We’ve had to say goodbye to the flyover view features and the magic of “Tiger Vision” to make things interesting. If we’ve learned anything so far it’s that golf video games bring out the same exact emotions we have on the course, for better or worse — and that being belittled by 12-year-old gaming addicts only adds another layer to it.
Download the free Twitch app for any of your mobile and gaming devices and follow cofounder Lee Johnson, contributors Seth Bates, Travis Bromley, Blaine Willeford, and more from the CGB crew each Monday for a look at how we play the game.
There are certain people who you can just tell smoke weed — apparently we here at the CGB are amongst those people.
When CLICKON Golf producers/filmmakers Ian Cumming and Jeremy Frankenthal contacted us wanting to talk about “cannabis and golf in Colorado,” we weren’t really sure what they had in mind. (Just another day on the course for us.)
“We gotta go to Top Golf to do this interview about weed and golf,” CGB cofounder Lee Johnson texted me. “What do they want to know?” I replied back.
“IDK but I said yes,” Lee said. Of course he did.
CGB wasn’t at the top of the list of interviewees for CLICKON’s documentary, Mile-High Golf— we were just one of the few who would actually talk to them about the relationship between golf and weed in Colorado. “We didn’t think it’d be that big a deal,” Jeremy said about the reservations people had when approached with the subject. Lucky for them, if you offer us an evening at Top Golf and want to talk about weed, we’re always available.
The short of it is yes, whether the old guard likes it or not, weed and golf go together in Colorado maybe a little bit more than other places — legalization really is a beautiful thing — but that’s CLICKON’s story to tell.
The game of golf and the culture around it are changing forever, and the pot-heads are going to be amongst those playing through. Visit us in Colorado — get high and let if fly.
We were all thinking the same thing as we pulled into the Top Golf parking lot in Centennial, Colorado (10601 E. Easter Ave., topgolf.com): This is f**king crazy. They say you learn a lot from first impressions. In this case, it’s certainly true. You get a sense of Top Golf’s grandiose style when you walk past the valet parking — yeah, at a driving range — and find a spot in the lines winding their way around the main lobby.
This wasn’t our first introduction to the lines at Top Golf, several weeks prior to this visit we were turned away by the long lines and what one of the ushers told us would be a 3-hour wait. This really is the only gripe I have with the uber-popular chain. To not take reservations for parties with fewer than six players, as we were told during our first visit, seems a little unreasonable when you’re looking at 4+ hour wait-times during busy times. And the two-line system they have set up for first-timers — one to become a member, which you have to do, and another to actually book a bay — is a little confusing, not to mention a little overwhelming.
Anyway, on to the good stuff. We started with a satisfying burger and fries and some beers before making our way to our bay, an order or guac and more beers placed at the bar followed us close behind. Nothing really stands out about the food — to be fair, we hardly looked at the menu to see all of the offerings — but the that’s not why we’re here anyway.
Three levels of bays stretch almost as far as you can see, each stocked with TVs, climate-controlled patio furniture, and loaner clubs. The setup is a lot like what you’d get if you mixed a nightclub VIP room with a bowling alley lounging area, music included. Another common area is located in the lower level, with a pool table and other alternative entertainment options (if you’re into that kind of thing.) We never made our way to the top level but I wouldn’t be surprised to find another common entertainment area there, too — this place is built to make you want to stay awhile.
The range itself, to be honest, isn’t all that impressive if you’re expecting a traditional practice range, but then again, nothing about Top Golf is traditional. A smattering of colored targets extend to the back fence, which is short of 300 yards. After dark, the lights come on — read: glow golf meets cosmic bowling. For the budget inclined, Top Golf’s fee structure is hourly, increasing based on the time of day; $25 before noon, $35 from noon to 5p.m., $45 from 5p.m. to close — there’s also a one-time $5 lifetime membership fee. Get the most bang-for-your-buck with a bigger group of players.
As for Top Golf’s games, gone are the days of settling friendly closest-to-the-pin disputes with screaming and threats, this is calculated competition. Top Golf balls have internal microchips that send distance, landing, and respective points to a game screen inside the bay. Much like bowling, players get a real time scoring with each swing — the only controversy comes when someone disputes/edits the scores.
You know it’s been a good day with your crew when you feel the need to make something of an embarrassing confession. That said, there are some rules to be followed at Top Golf, one of which includes sniping the ball collector. (For the record, everyone watching loved it, and we didn’t cause any damage.) Also, no tees. After a friendly scolding timed perfectly with the end of our game, we had our first Top Golf experience under our belts.
Welcome to Colorado. Enjoy our 300+ days of sunshine and weather that changes by the minute.
Colorado is a very unique place, and the same goes for its style of spring/summer golf. Whether you’re from here or just planning to visit, have played a Colorado course before or not, let this be your guide to handle it like a pro. From our unpredictable weather to altitude sickness and wildlife, here are five things to know about spring/summer golf in Colorado:
1. Weather
Really, this entire post could be about Colorado weather. Most Colorado courses are charging peak season prices come May, but don’t be fooled — snow, sleet, frost delays and other cold weather conditions linger in parts of the state well after the start of spring.
The state tourism office will go blue in the face boasting about our “300+ days of sunshine,” which is something we’re proud of, but mind that they’re not saying “300+ day full of sunshine” — it’s what happens in between the rays they’re not telling you. Colorado weather changes at the drop of a dime. Sunny skies and a cool breeze can be replaced by torrential rain, hail, and threatening lightning storms. The most extreme weather conditions will be found in mountain courses and those across the eastern plains, but given the diversity of the state’s landscapes you never really know what you’re going to get.
How to deal with it
Not that it’s any fault of their own, but Colorado meteorologists are notoriously awful, and consistently wrong — you’ll get a more useful forecast with your phone’s weather app. That said, plan on that being wrong too. All we can say is bring layers and protective gear in your bag. If there’s even a chance of inclement weather, expect it to come to fruition. Give it 15 minutes and it’ll change again.
The views this high above sea level are breathtaking, literally.
2. Altitude
Let’s get the “Colorado is high” jokes out of the way early… OK, now we can be serious.
The biggest perk to playing at altitude is the increased ball flight. There is no better confidence builder. We here at CGB aren’t scientists, and therefore can’t give a definitive measurement to the increase of yards, or a very accurate comparison to lower-lying regions, but trust us, it is noticeable. Enjoy it.
That perk comes at a price, and some can be pretty serious, especially for visitors to the state. Altitude sickness is the most dangerous possibility and can really, really put a damper on your golf plans. Over-exertion is a common cause for altitude sickness. You may feel the urge to keep up with the locals, but keep it slow. Seriously, missing your tee time because you’re hooked up to an iv is not a memory you want to make.
How to deal with it
First, and especially for newcomers, let yourself get acclimated to the altitude — depending on age, medical, and other personal factors this may take a couple days, but still very important. And pay attention to how you’re feeling; headaches, dehydration, lightheadedness and shortness of breath are all indicators that you may be coming down with altitude sickness. Stay hydrated and pace yourself — don’t walk 18 if you’re not up to it, and pack plenty of water in the beer cooler.
The sun rises over the practice green at Four Mile ranch. So close you can almost touch it.
3. Sunlight
Chase the sun, it’s what golfers do. And you’re a lot closer to it in Colorado, literally. This also means you’re more exposed to not-so-great aspects of it too. Extreme sunburns — and I do mean extreme — are a very real possibility for lighter-skinned swingers, but really anyone can go from working on their golf tan to singeing their nerve endings within minutes on any Colorado course.
What to do about it
Wear sunscreen, a lot of it. Chances are you’ll still have a killer golf tan to show for it by the time you sign your card.
Pro tip for twilight golfers
There’s nothing like a twilight round, and there’s really nothing like a twilight round in Colorado — you won’t find a more impressive backdrop than the sun setting on the Rocky Mountains — but there is a caveat. Said mountains cut a considerable amount of sunlight from the day. You may not have as much time as you think to squeeze in that late day round.
You’ll encounter some new friends on a regular basis out on the course. Just keep your distance.
4. Wildlife
Colorado is also known for our wildlife, and the animals are no stranger to area courses. Elk, deer, moose, birds of all kinds, even bears enjoy the state’s beautiful courses regularly. Depending on which part of the state you’re in, you may or may not have to worry about certain kinds of animals — I say “worry” because rattlesnakes, mountain lions, and other less-cuddly creatures are also within the realm of possibility.
What to do about it
Don’t be stupid is step one through five. As the saying goes, “they’ll probably see you before you see them,” and will most likely move along happily without incident. But in the case of a run-in, our money’s on Mother Nature, avoiding them is your job. Resist the urge to take a selfie, and please, don’t feed the animals.
Mountain courses are a world all their own. You’ll never experience anything like it.
5. Mountain course disclosure
You can pretty much throw everything you’ve just read out the window if you’re planning a round at a mountain course. Peak season in mountain towns begins when Mother Nature says it does and no sooner — some areas host skiers and snowboarders into the very late spring. Mountain course conditions can also be much more extreme, and the weather much more unpredictable. Do what you can to plan accordingly. Mind that all of this isn’t to say that some of Colorado’s mountain courses shouldn’t be on your destinations list, some of them definitely should be.
So welcome to golf in Colorado where we enjoy 300+ days of sunshine and unpredictable weather, wildlife encounters, and literally breathtaking courses. Whether you’re from here or just visiting, enjoy the novelty of golf in the Centennial State.
