CommonGround - Colorado - USA

CommonGround was created for the "common" man and woman golfer. It's the home course for the Colorado Golf Association and is total redesign of the former Lowry Air Force Base course.

The finished product rests on playability and in clearly providing different avenues for golfers to take on any of the holes. There's no real "sink-or-swim" shots but clearly preferred places to be to maximize one's opportunity to score. In sum -- the course seeks to provide architecture that is clear, straightforward and without contrivance or artifice.

The bunker placements are done well -- making sure that those seeking to gain a clear advantage have the shotmaking acumen in doing so. Several fairways have tapering bottlenecks so those attempting to get as far off the tee as possible had better bring some needed accuracy too.

The outward nine is good but only a few holes are especially noteworthy -- the uphill par-4 9th among them. The inward half has the better diversity of holes and with three long par-3s in the mixture at the 12th, 14th and 17th -- one has to be especially mindful about securing the correct clubs when executing approaches. The 17th is especially demanding and can often play into the prevailing southwest wind and is reminiscent in what one would see on the eastern end of Long Island.

Tom Doak had a few of his key principles at Renaissance Design at the time get involved with the effort and the net result is a quality layout that accomplished what it sought to do. But, it's important to point out the genesis of CommonGround was not to create some sort of public Colorado version of Bethpage Black or Cog Hill #3.

Given the myriad of courses I've played in Colorado I'd certainly see a position in the top 25 as doable but clearly not in the top 15. That's not a knock on CommonGround as much as an elevation of golf architecture that's clearly blossomed -- both the private and public side of the aisle.

M. James Ward

Frankly I'm not sure how this course is ranked 15th in the state. I've played Bear Dance and the Broadmoor West course that are ranked lower than CommonGround, and there's no way CommonGround is better than them. Others not ranked like The Ridge at Castle Pines or Bear Creek are better in my book. This is a nice course in that it's certainly unique. I don't think there's another course in the Denver-metro area you'll find with greens this undulated or bunkers so deep with as much fescue grass surrounding them. I just think if you're looking solely at the quality of the golf course, it's absurd to say this is the 15th best course in the state. Probably top 50 at best.