Red Sky Ranch (Norman)

The Norman and Fazio courses at Red Sky Ranch and Golf Club are new millennium offerings that opened within a couple of years of each other and such is their undoubted quality, they both feature prominently in modern Colorado State golf course rankings.

The Norman course appeared in 2003, a year after the unveiling of the Fazio layout, and it plays longer – by almost 500 yards – and tougher than its older sibling, as a back tee slope rating of 146 (against 134 on the Fazio course) confirms.

Greg Norman is on record as having this to say about his course at Red Sky Ranch:

“The Norman course at Red Sky Ranch & Golf Club was my first design in the Colorado Mountains. I first toured the property in 2000 and was struck by the authentic mountain feel to the project. In fact, it reminded me of Seven Lakes Lodge, a ranch I own in northwest Colorado.

As with all our golf courses, we work closely with the land planners, environmentalists and developers to achieve a balance between a natural and playable golf course and a unique development and residential experience.

At Red Sky, we had more than 400 acres to route the golf course, and those parameters helped define the golf course routing – the backbone for the course and the basis for variety in the holes.

I try to find variety in terms of direction, length, slope, par and shot shape, and that challenge is magnified when designing a course with an elevation eclipsing 7,500 feet. Interestingly, there is an elevation change of 400 feet from the 14th tee to the 3rd green”.