Joshuaplaysgolf

This is my new home course this year, and I love this place. The staff is super friendly, and after introducing myself to most of them they all remember your name and genuinely ask you how you are doing and joke around with you. Granted, part of this is probably because I am here literally every day, but it's extremely important to me. The other people who practice/play here regularly are also all very nice and friendly. They will talk with you, and after playing several rounds with random people, I have yet to get paired up with someone that was a chore to play with.

The chipping green is amazing, one of the best in the Denver area. It's huge, with three different flags that they regularly rotate, and tons of hills, elevation changes, and grass cuts around it. The driving range is ALWAYS off grass. They don't even have mats. There is also a fairway bunker at the end of the range to practice out of, which is a rarity. The course is in decent condition, and is a really intriguing layout. Not overly long (7,200 from the tips), but well placed bunkers and hazards make you have to hit your spots. Most of the holes have some sort of risk/reward shot, making you think about, and sometimes second guess, what your doing. If your a long hitter, every once in a while it's fun to move up to the golds and just bomb it over everything.

I think there is entirely too much sand in all the bunkers. If you get in one of them, you better not let the leading edge dig or your in trouble. Some of the patrons are complete jerks...most people will hit, literally, 50-100 balls onto the chipping green at a time. This makes it unusable by anyone else. It makes no sense what so ever. Hitting into a pile of balls doesn't help you. The point is to see how the ball rolls/reacts, and control the ball. This is golf, not billiards. Whats more, is very few people clean their balls up, and when I have politely asked 'could you please clean up those balls?' I have had several people yell or curse at me, and/or just stare blankly and walk away. It's really rude, and I don't get this mentality.

Overall it's a really great place, just be prepared to laugh off any clowns that want you to pick up after them.

So I hang out here (practice and/or play) a minimum of 6 days a week, so I know the ins and outs of this place. Let me preface this by saying that I grew up in the cornfields of Illinois playing ummm...interesting...back-woods courses.

Let's start with the bad:

- The green speeds can fluctuate daily. It's frustrating because if you play there frequently you spend the first 3 holes trying to figure out how hard to hit your putts and how much break to play.
- The range is pretty sandy and soft, and the tee boxes on the range aren't mowed as tightly as you might prefer. This is easily resolved by packing down a small area to hit a few shots off of a realistic feeling lie from the fairway.
- The chipping green is small. Like, the size of your kitchen table pushed next to your coffee table.
- People are poor, getting better, but poor at fixing their ball marks. When other people are lining up putts I typically fix 4-5 just to try and keep the greens running smooth.
- Because green fees are so cheap, you get a very wide variety of players, from the average player, the beginners, the general riff-raff, to the serious player who would golf for a living in a heartbeat.

So why would I give this place 5 stars?

-The green fees are cheap. Like really cheap. Especially if you are on their practice program, which allows you to play at volume to work on your game if you don't make 6 figures.
- The staff there is extremely nice, and have a good sense of humor. I don't exactly look like your average golfer. At all. And a lot of places I go to they instantly treat me like a hack...at least until I start swinging a club. The staff will take the time to know your name, ask how your doing, and crack a joke or two with you when they are cleaning up the range.
- Literally every green here is multi-level, some of them even 3 levels. This is a bummer, and the best way to describe it is gimmicky, and the staff is realistic about it...however, this makes shot making and hitting to the correct level imperative to putting up a good score. Some pin placements are downright nasty, and for someone who is working to compete, its fantastic for developing your accuracy and distance control with your irons.
- There's some real risk/reward holes out here, and plenty of holes you have to be realistic with and take your par and walk away...but there's also a handful of scoring opportunities and you can really go after some of the holes.
- The back 9 especially, will force you to keep your driver in your bag outside of 3 holes (12, 14, 18), and target golf is good golf. It will teach you to play to yardages, not just pull your driver and play your giant banana slice.
- Despite being different speeds, the greens roll pretty smooth and true.
- Outside of holes 12 and 14, there are no holes that play back on each other, forcing you to actually pay for hitting the ball 50 yards offline. And deservedly so.
- While I've witnessed a lot of people get frustrated with kids at golf courses, I personally love this and encourage it by giving away buckets of range balls to kids and offering lessons. For example, there was a kid trying to hit out of the practice bunker the other day, I asked: 'Has anyone ever taught you how do to that?' 'No, but I REALLY want to learn how.' So I gave him a quick lesson. Golf is starving for kids to get involved, and it makes me happy to see kids who are hungry to learn the game. In 15 years, those are the players who will be keeping our game alive, they should be encouraged and having a course that kids feel comfortable at the very least practicing at is a necessity. This is one of the few places in Denver I've seen it.

So sure, it's not the greatest course you'll ever play, but play here. The fundamentals of golf are this: hit it in the fairway, get on the green in regulation, and make a couple putts...and you can do that anywhere. The views are phenomenal, the rates are unbeatable (literally), and I've never once ran into a rude player or staff member. I'm not sure what else you could ask for.