by Craig Lemley | Dec 11, 2017 | Golf Courses, Reviews
Overland Park Golf Club, courtesy GolfNow.
1895 America: Prohibition is in its infancy, the venerable “America the Beautiful” is published for the first time, and golf makes its debut in Colorado.
Overland Country Club, the original Denver Country Club now known as Overland Park Golf Club (1801 S. Huron St., Denver), began as a horse racing, sporting and a nine-hole golf retreat for the area’s wealthy in 1895. Now a Denver Golf municipal property, the oldest operating course west of the Mississippi is home to a unique Colorado golf experience. Located close to downtown Denver, the property is home to an 18-hole William H. Tucker design, water and traditional driving ranges, and a 36-hole miniature course named Aqua Golf boarding Overland Lake.
Big, beautiful, menacing trees and narrow fairways will cause you the most trouble on this par 72 track, accuracy from the tee being paramount. But the Overland’s predominantly parallel fairway layout makes scrambling a little easier. Enjoy the downtown Denver skyline throughout your round, and beautiful autumn hues as the leaves change color each fall on Colorado’s oldest course.
A snow-capped Pikes Peak overlooks the bridge to the 9-hole 7th fairway at Patty Jewett in Colorado Springs.
A mere three years younger than its northern counterpart — and a short commute from Overland — Patty Jewett Golf Course (900 East Española Street, Colorado Springs) holds the title of the third oldest golf course operating west of the Mississippi, second oldest in the state. The course has grown 18-holes larger since debuting nine holes in 1898, the Willie Campbell design is now played as a par 72 18-hole or par 36 nine-hole. A Springs’ municipal property, minuets away from downtown, Patty’s rich history is apparent the moment you enter the gate. A long driveway under a canopy of 100-plus-year-old trees leads to the impressive clubhouse, seeping with history itself and home to one of the best dining patios in the city.
Each of Patty’s courses has its own personality, challenging enough for average golfers but ripe with scoring opportunities in another wooded, country club-like layout. The famous Pikes Peak, “America’s Mountain,” dominates your view to the west, unobstructed by any urban skyline and often framed perfectly from western facing fairways. Patty does have its flaws, as we’ve noted in a previous review, but this track remains one of CGB’s go-to rounds.
Aside from their history, both Overland Park and Patty Jewett showcase the quality of Colorado municipal properties. County club-like conditions peak in the late spring and summer months and carry into the region’s famously colorful fall, when trees show a range of reds, oranges and yellows. Winter golf in Colorado is an experience all its own, and both Overland and Patty are open year-round.
Courses like Overland Park and Patty Jewett have witnessed the game of golf change through generations of players, and will continue to for the foreseeable future. Visiting one of the country’s oldest courses isn’t something an average golfer gets to do very often, let alone playing two easily over a weekend. A round at Patty Jewett and Overland Park is an act of historic preservation a golfer won’t soon forget.
A version of this article first appeared on GolfNow‘s blog The Daily Tee, to which CGB is a contributor.
by Craig Lemley | Dec 8, 2017 | 19th Hole, News
It’s easy to get used to the city life at City Park Golf Course
Golfers paid a final tribute to Denver’s City Park Golf Course on November 4, bidding a fond farewell to the historic municipal track. After hosting a final day of tee times for social media contest winners and local officials, City Park pulled the pins one last time to make way for the construction zone set to dominate the property for the next year-plus.
The course redesign, which will see a stormwater detention area integrated into the property, a new, relocated clubhouse, additional yardage and larger practice facilities, is part of the city of Denver’s larger $300 million stormwater system plan. And not without controversy.
The extensive project calls for dramatic changes to the 100+-year-old property including the removal of more than 250 trees which brought a group of protesters to the course on its final day. ( A number of those uprooted trees are supposed to be replanted, and the city says the property will have more than trees than it had before with completion of the redesign.) The plan also faced backlash and legal battles since it was announced in April 2016. In November, a judge ruled against plaintiffs arguing the plan violates the city charter while the city continued putting the pieces in place to ready for the scheduled closure, maintaining that the project is vital to address Denver’s stormwater issues now and into the future.
“City Park Golf Course is one of the city’s most beloved and enjoyable golf courses,” said Happy Haynes, Executive Director of Denver Parks and Recreation, in a January news release. At the time, the city was looking for a contractor to “… ensure that City Park Golf Course continues to be one of Denver’s crown jewels for years to come.” It made its choice in July, awarding Saunders Construction, iConGolf Studio with Hale Irwin Golf Design the course redesign project and tapping architect Johnson Nathan Strohe for the new clubhouse. The $40 million project was approved by the Denver city council in August.
CGB played the historic Thomas Bendelow design in the summer of 2017 at a media event. Though it’s not the state’s most notable course, City Park is a gem of a municipal track, and boasts some of the best views of downtown Denver in the area. Its proximity to residential areas, the Denver Zoo and the city center makes City Park even more fun — a little sliver of Colorado golf history completely surrounded but a bustling modern age. And while the location won’t change, we can only hope Saunders and company pay homage to City Park of old and give the community something to gather around once again.
Denver Golf posts regular updates on the City Park project and expects to debut the redesign summer 2019.
by Craig Lemley | Jun 19, 2017 | Golf Courses, Reviews
It’s easy to get used to the city life at City Park Golf Course.
City Park Golf Course in downtown Denver (201 W. Colfax Ave., cityofdenvergolf.com/golf-course/city-park) has been a landmark of Colorado golf since opening in 1913, though, its future isn’t clear. We spend a lot of time talking about a given course’s front row, panoramic view into pristine nature — Rocky Mountain skylines, expansive marshlands, valleys, et al, but something else can be said for urban tracks. Especially a track that’s on the National Register of Historic Places.
A Thomas Bendelow design, City Park has always been a little different given the worldwide popularity of links tracks. But the history that’s rooted in the fairways of Denver’s Park Hill (not to be confused with Park Hill G.C.) is even more of driving force behind the resistance to plans to redesign the course as part of the city’s flood control program. One portion of the multi-million dollar “Platte to Park Hill: Stormwater Systems” project, City Park is set to close in late 2017, effectively flooded and redesigned around the new stormwater retention reservoir. The Denver Post published a piece about the project and the history of City Park in May 2017.
We can’t speak on the future City Park design as the project contractor has yet to be selected as of this writing (to be announced summer 2017), and we’re not one for politicking, but we can speak on a recent experience at one of Colorado golf’s most important historical landmarks.
Dew-covered spring mornings are a fixture on the golf course — picture perfect lawns warming in the sunlight, freshly cut grass wafting in the breeze — it’s a similar experience at most courses. Now, take that scene and place it in the middle of an urban residential area at a municipal course blocks from downtown Denver, with a bustling city life and the lure of one of the most desirable cities in the nation. That’s City Park golf course.
The track opens along a busy residential road, the 402-yard (from the tips) par-4 at no.1 and its 359-yard counterpart at no.2 are easily reachable in regulation — the long, open fairways are playable from either side, though, just make sure you don’t ruin a commuter’s day playing too far left. Tough, undulating greens are City Park’s signature and will cause you trouble. Pin placements matter, a lot, as much as targeted approach shots to stay below the hole. Scoring opportunities continue at the dead straight, 490-yard par-5 at no.3. Long hitters can make short work of this hole for even lower scores, but even average hitters can play for a good birdie look.
Your troubles aren’t limited to the rolling greens, the City Park’s only water hazard — ironic considering the future plans — is a large pond at no.6. Stay left from the tee the entire way for the safest path to the green, anything right is playing with danger. Offering little reprieve, no.7 is home to the track’s longest par-3, a cool 218 yards. Long par-3s are another Bendelow signature — playing for par here will do no harm.
No.s 8 and 9 offer a taste of what the urban golf scenery is all about, playing back towards downtown. The real payoffs begin at the no.12 teebox, so have your camera ready. The Denver skyline looms overhead as the remainder of the track zigzags in a more condensed layout. Tighter fairways and more hazardous trees make the back-9 a little more daunting, opening with consecutive par-5s and another long par-3. Capitalize on the short par-4 at no.13 with a fairway dropping gently into a green that’s approachable from either side.
The remaining holes leading back to the clubhouse stay true to form, with stunning views and tough greens demanding consistency from tee to green. Distances don’t matter as much as accuracy, and though this course can be welcoming, playing from the rough can and will get you into trouble.
Denver cares about City Park, as witnessed by the impeccable turf conditions and the pride Denver Golf staff has for all the municipal properties. The city has more information on the ongoing redesign process at CPGCredesign.org, and posts regular updates in monthly newsletters. We may not know what the future holds for the beloved City Park Golf Course, but here’s to hoping the new design pays homage to Bendelow’s original design and the historic legacy of the grounds. CGB has a 2019 tee time to find out.
by Craig Lemley | May 1, 2016 | 19th Hole, Reviews
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.
