I’m fortunate to have some good friends that live in cool places, and with one of those friends recently moving out to the Lakewood area of Denver, Colorado, I (of course) had to take him up on his offer to couch surf and play a few rounds of golf together in the mile-high city. Check out the video recap(s) of our four day trip below:
Between four courses, we were able to get in 63 holes of golf over the extended weekend. I’ll give a brief description of the courses we played below:
Day 1:
– 18 holes at Fossil Trace in Golden
After a short nonstop flight from RDU to Denver, we grabbed some lunch and made our way over to the course. The clubhouse was situated on a nice tall hill (mountain essentially) that basically cut the front and back nines in two. The practice green here at Fossil Trace was the craziest I have ever seen, with a triple-tiered putting surface that had an elevation change of nearly ten feet at each individual level. Never seen anything like it before.
The course itself was in great shape. The back nine was far more memorable as some of the more scenic or signature holes were on the final stretch in. For jumping off a flight and pretty much straight to the tee box, I was pretty happy with the way I played. We definitely started the trip off with a bang, and I knew this track would be hard to beat.
Day 2:
– 9 holes at Fox Hollow Golf Course in Lakewood
We actually didn’t even plan on playing the second day (Friday) as we started our morning off with a great hike about 20 minutes outside of the Denver area. On the way back, my buddy (naturally) took a look at the online tee times for Fox Hollow, a course just a quick five-minutes drive from his apartment. We decided to go for it, and by the early afternoon we were back swinging the clubs.
Fox Hollow had three individual nine-hole courses, and was immediately next door to another good looking public track called The Homestead. Both seemed to be in fantastic shape and offered some really cool (and tricky) shot opportunities. The change in elevation in some of these holes was nuts and it was difficult adjusting my distances. I struggled a bit this afternoon but still enjoyed myself immensely. Would highly recommend this course as well, especially for a more budget-friendly outing.
Day 3:
– 18 holes at Red Hawk Ridge in Castle Rock
This course was actually a sleeper hit for me, and quite possibly my favorite of the weekend. Out of the three that I knew we were playing going into the trip, this one was the least anticipated. Like a good percentage of the nearby courses, Red Hawk seemed as if it was just plopped down on the top of a mountain. With so many elevated tee boxes, it made for some tremendous views.
I also thought this course was the best maintained–the greens were perfect and there were no dead areas on the course. The grass was a stunning shade of green amidst the oranges and yellows of the fall foliage. I definitely played my best round of the weekend at Red Hawk, and on top of everything the guys we played with that morning were super cool. Just an awesome day of golf all around.
Day 4:
– 18 holes at Bear Dance Golf Club in Larkspur
Our final round was the epitome of Colorado golf. In a nutshell: a course in the middle of nowhere with ridiculously stunning views of the Rockies. This one felt like a top tier resort, and it was by far my most anticipated of the trip. I actually found out when we arrived that this course is the home of the Colorado section of the PGA. The practice areas were expansive and it definitely fit the mold of a top flight course.
The greens, which were actually surrounded by elk fences when we played, had recently been punched but were still in excellent condition. The rope elk fences were slightly annoying but really just influenced our pictures more than anything. Even though I was running out of steam towards the end of the round, we both really enjoyed playing this course.
That’s it for my quick recap! Be sure to stayed tuned for more stories about our upcoming Halloween adventures.
– Walker
Texas-Ranger Travels 