Tom Doak has been receiving plenty of accolades recently for the Old Macdonald course he and Jim Urbina designed in Bandon, Ore., but that’s not the only new Doak layout that has drawn national attention.
CommonGround Golf Course, the Aurora-based facility that’s owned and operated by the CGA and CWGA, this week was named one of the top 20 “Best New Courses” in the country by Golfweek magazine.
Golfweek ranked CommonGround No. 18 on its best new courses list. Old Macdonald, the fourth course at the Bandon facility, came in at No. 1. In May, Golf World magazine featured Old Macdonald in a cover story.
The Golfweek best-new rankings, 40 courses strong, feature all types of facilities — private, semi-private, resort and public. CommonGround (pictured) stands seventh among courses that the general public can play, though several of those ahead of the Colorado course carry very pricey greens fees.
Among the top 18 courses on the Golfweek list, CommonGround has the least-expensive per-round fees ($40 for CGA/CWGA members and $50 for non-members), though eighth-ranked Wine Valley Golf Club in Walla Walla, Wash., is close.
The Golfweek honor is the second of its sort for CommonGround, which opened in May 2009 and was the only new course to debut in Colorado last year. Last fall, Links magazine named CommonGround one of its 10 best new courses of 2009 in the nation.
Other course evaluators got an up-close look at CommonGround earlier this month when Doak hosted his annual Renaissance Cup tournament at the facility located at Havana St. and E. 1st Ave. (Doak’s company is named Renaissance Golf Design.)
One of the purposes of the event, which has been held worldwide at various Doak-designed courses, is “to gain valuable feedback on the course,” Doak said in a recent e-mail exchange. “”¦ It started because I felt that too many of the magazine raters were skipping through our courses too quickly and missing the detail work that sets them apart. So the tournament is designed to get everyone there for two days and let them see the course with two different sets of hole locations and different weather.”
CommonGround, a totally new course built on the site of the former Mira Vista Golf Course, features wide fairways and formidable green complexes. Large mounds and swales on and around the putting surfaces provide challenges for even very adept short games. Aesthetically speaking, with no residences on the site, CommonGround boasts expansive views of the mountains and downtown Denver.
CommonGround hosted several major amateur championships this year, including the CGA Match Play, CWGA Match Play and the 5A girls state high school tournament.
For the complete list of Golfweek’s best new courses in the U.S., CLICK HERE.
CommonGround is one of several Colorado courses that have drawn recognition in lists published this year by the most prominent national golf magazines. Here’s a sampling of some of the others:
“¢Golf Magazine Platinum Awards for Premier Resorts (published Feb. 9) — Broadmoor in Colorado Springs among top 10.
“¢Golfweek Best Classic Courses (opened before 1960) (published March 11) — 58. Cherry Hills.
“¢Golfweek Best Modern Courses (opened 1960-present) (published March 11) — 5. Ballyneal in Holyoke; 22. Colorado GC in Parker; 29. Castle Pines GC in Castle Rock; 70. Sanctuary in Sedalia; 80. Ravenna in Littleton.
“¢Golfweek Best Courses You Can Play in Colorado (published March 11) — 1. Cougar Canyon in Trinidad; 2. Redlands Mesa in Grand Junction; 3. Lakota Canyon in New Castle; 4. Red Sky-Fazio in Wolcott; 5. Broadmoor East in Colorado Springs; 6. Haymaker in Steamboat Springs; 7. Raven at Three Peaks in Silverthorne; 8. Devil’s Thumb in Delta; 9. Bear Dance in Larkspur; 10. Ridge at Castle Pines North in Castle Rock.
“¢Golf Digest America’s Top 50 Courses for Women (published in March) — 11. Keystone Resort River Course; 16. Four Mile Ranch in Canon City; 19. Snowmass Club in Snowmass Village.
“¢Golfweek Best Municipal Courses (published May 6) — 21. Aspen GC; 34. Fossil Trace in Golden; 44. Breckenridge GC.
“¢Golf Magazine Top 100 Courses You Can Play (published Aug. 4) — 26. Red Sky Ranch Norman Course in Wolcott; 73. Lakota Canyon in New Castle; 75. Broadmoor East in Colorado Springs; 94. Redlands Mesa in Grand Junction.
“¢Golfweek Best Campus Courses (published Sept. 9) — 20. Eisenhower Blue Course in Colorado Springs.
