This story originally appeared in Mile High Sports Magazine. Read the full digital edition.
As one of eight Denver Golf facilities, City Park Golf Course is best known as the urban course with unbeatable skyline and mountain views. The course is set to undergo a redesign this fall that will preserve its best features and modernize its amenities, including a full driving range and new clubhouse, while seamlessly integrating flood control for the surrounding community.
The project has already drawn in big and familiar names, with a design-build team consisting of Saunders Construction, clubhouse architect Johnson Nathan Strohe and golf course architect iConGolf Studio with famed professional golfer Hale Irwin as golf design advisor.
Mile High Sports and Denver Golf sat down with Executive Women’s Golf Association (EWGA) member Jennifer Bater to talk more about the redesign of City Park Golf Course and her other favorite Denver Golf courses. Bater sits on the Design Workgroup for the redesign, a group consisting of residents, community members and golfers. This group was integral to developing the design guidelines that helped define the project.
Jennifer, based on your work with the Design Workgroup, can you tell us a bit about what the redesign will include?
While the details are still being refined, we know the course will be an 18-hole par 70 in the existing parkland style that is so enjoyable for golfers of all skill levels. In addition to a new clubhouse with west-facing patios for mountain and skyline views, the redesign includes a full driving range that accommodates all clubs and meets safety needs without netting, which I’m most excited about.
How long have you been playing City Park Golf Course?
I play there a lot because its closest to my house – it really is a very nice community golf course. It is so convenient and integral to my lifestyle. I play most Wednesday nights with my women’s league. That’s honestly how I came to be involved in the project. I first saw some project signage in the winter of 2016, and I found out they were looking for golfers to participate in the process. I’ve been in Denver for over 20 years and have been enjoying the course for just as long, so I wanted to be involved.
What courses will you play while City Park Golf Course is closed for redesign?
Our next favorite course is Overland. It has a full driving range and is a nice course, particularly the back nine which back up to a bike path that sits next to the Platte River. We also enjoy playing at Kennedy. From the west nine to the par three, the full course at Kennedy is really tremendous and challenging. When I play well at Kennedy, which isn’t that often, I feel great.
What are the top three things you are most looking forward to about the redesign?
The full driving range. On the current course, those first three holes along 26th Avenue are really challenging if you haven’t warmed up with your driver! I also love having the entire practice and warm-up area organized near the number one tee. The third thing is the chance for modernization of elements like the irrigation system. It can be hot here in Denver and City Park gets lots of play, so having modern irrigation just helps keep the course in the best condition for the water that can and should be used. The fourth thing – and I know you said top three but I have to mention it – man that clubhouse looks fantastic! To be able to sit on the terrace and look out to the mountains, seeing golfers either teeing off or finishing; we don’t have that today.
City Park Golf Course will remain open until November 2017 and reopen in 2019. To learn more about Denver Golf facilities and the City Park Golf Course Redesign project, visit CPGCredesign.org.
Featured Image Credit: Denver Golf