COMMON GROUND

GOLFERS EJOYING A BEAUTIFUL EVENING AT COMMON GROUND

The game of golf is at a crossroads. We can chose to continue develop costly and overdone courses that are too difficult and too expensive to play or we can look for new solutions. At Common Ground Golf Course near Denver, Tom Doak and the rest of the Renaissance team have reworked an uninspiring and dull course into a compelling design filled with both subtle and bold strategies. And they did it all for $4.5 million. The average guy  pays $50 or less to play a course that engages the mind and body. While this is not Tom’s greatest course, it is one of his greatest achievements.

I was able to stop in at Common Ground in the the spring of 2008 while the course was still under construction. Eric Iverson, Renaissance’s lead design associate on the job, gave Kyle Franz and me a tour around the site. I captured some video as we discussed Renaissance’s plans for the course and some of the inspiration for the feature work and look of the place. I returned this past spring for a round and was blown away at how well they had executed their vision for the place (Video after the jump)

I will go into more details about the course in a later post, but the bottom line is that this a fun golf course that has not been dumbed down for the masses. There is a good mix of wild and relatively subtle greens. The bunkers are expertly placed to make the golfer think about every tee shot and every approach. The conditions for this young course were superb, with the dwarf-bluegrass playing firm and fast.

While golf course aficianado may be studying some of Doak’s better known works like Pacific Dunes and Ballyneal eighty years from now, modern golf course architects should make a point in studying Common Ground today.