Jim Engh

Redlands Mesa Next for Engh,
Golf Designer Extraordinaire

By David R. Holland, Regional Staff Writer CASTLE ROCK, Colo. - Sanctuary and Red Hawk Ridge -- gems in Jim Engh’s growing Colorado golf-design portfolio.

What’s next?

“It’s Redlands Mesa,” Engh said. “It will be a daily-fee, privately-owned course beneath the Colorado National Monument near Grand Junction. Every time I visit this location I shake my head,” said Engh, whose James J. Engh, Golf Design Group, Inc. is located in Castle Rock.

“There are boulders laying everywhere big as buildings, and it’s kind of a moonscape on rolling terrain with large mesas and valleys.”

The Colorado National Monument includes 32 square miles of canyons, plateaus, and massive towers of naturally sculpted rock. Ground-breaking for Redlands Mesa is upcoming and Engh hopes the first tee shot will be made some time in the year 2000.

And what about the golf-course boom in the Castle Rock area?

“I had a funny view of that a few years ago,” Engh said. “I wasn’t quite sure the Castle Rock area could be that successful. But then the Troon guys built The Ridge at Castle Pines North and they were getting those $100 fees easily.

“I started to think there must be an untapped market out there. Maybe Castle Rock can become a mini-golf destination for the Denver metro area. Maybe you do it like the auto marts, build a bunch of golf courses next to each other and get lots of people to come. Maybe if the Castle Rock area gets three or four more quality golf courses that could happen.”

Engh’s Sanctuary in Sedalia was certainly one of the most pleasant surprises in recent golf architecture accomplishment. RE/MAX founder Dave Liniger put his faith in Engh to build this very unique golf course and Engh didn’t disappoint him. This could be one of the most exclusive golf courses in the world. Located in Douglas County just minutes north of Jack Nicklaus’ Castle Pines layout, Sanctuary is for Liniger’s family and invitees only.

Sanctuary was Golf Digest’s “Best New Private Course” in 1997. That award was like winning an Oscar for the native of North Dakota. Sanctuary was also named in the magazine’s 100 Greatest Courses at No. 48, making Engh one of only six living architects who have a course in the Top 50 and he’s is the youngest of that group.

Sanctuary’s No. 1, a downhill 604-yard par-5 was also named as No. 28 on Golf Digest’s “America’s Greatest Par 5s”.

“During our frequent discussions here in the office a lot of people have said the best sites for golf courses have been taken,” Engh said. “I used to agree, but because of today’s technology we are able to work on sites you couldn’t do before. Sanctuary was one of those sites that needed dramatic construction.”

A PBS documentary about the history of Pinehurst showed old black and white movies of Donald Ross’ construction crew working on Pinehurst No. 2 with horse-drawn construction methods.

“If Ross was alive today, with the technical ability we have for construction, I think he would be doing the same kind of stuff we are doing,” Engh theorized. “The minimalist designer of yesterday would be pushing the envelope today, just like we are.”

In 1980, Engh was working as a draftsman in an engineering firm, when he called Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Dick Phelps (designer of more than 30 golf courses in Colorado) for some advice.

“Phelps said I need to get a landscape architect degree first of all and spend my summers building golf courses,” Engh said.

So he paid his dues working in summers for crews building golf courses while studying landscape architecture and turf science at Colorado State University. He learned golf-course construction from the bottom of a ditch up. After earning his degree he started working for Dick Nugent in Chicago and was put in charge of remodeling projects.

He moved on in 1987 to join the British design firm Cotton Pennick and that led to a job as lead designer for International Management Group Developments in London. At IMG he ghosted for Bernhard Langer and Isao Aoki.

“I got some great experience with some high-profile courses in Europe,” Engh said. “We built some of the finest upscale new courses in Europe -- Austria, Germany, France, England, Ireland and even the Soviet Union.”

Engh formed his own company in the basement of his home in Highlands Ranch, then opened his Castle Rock office in 1991.

The older generation designers such as Ross, Alister Mackenzie and Perry Maxwell have influenced Engh’s style.

“But there are so many great ones it’s hard to pick. My style is a mix of what I’ve seen new and old. You see things you like, like long flowing lines and strong points of visual accents,” Engh said.

	The No. 9 waterfall at Sanctuary

The striking visuals people focus on at Sanctuary are the three waterfalls at holes number nine, 14 and 18. “Nine and 18 are natural-rock outcroppings, but No. 14 was a completely manmade concrete waterfall,” Engh said.

Even Rocky Mountain Concrete gave him an award for that creation. “If you are going to create something like that waterfall you have to do it on a grand scale to pull it off.”

Here’s some comments about Sanctuary:

"Simply the most spectacular golf course I have ever seen!" -- Gary McCord, CBS Golf Analyst, PGA Tour Professional

"It is special in the Augusta National, Pebble Beach sense of the word!" -- Tom Cushman, San Diego Union Tribune

"The Sanctuary is an unbelievable testimony to Jim Engh’s architectural skills." -- Peter Kostis, CBS Golf Analyst, PGA Tour Professional

“A golf course should be a place of emotional enjoyment and a place to be experienced,” Engh said. “It is the responsibility of the golf course designer to ensure that the golfer has that experience.”

Engh is proud of his cost-efficient company: “I personally designed every inch of every project that we do and take great pride in producing the most detailed documents in the industry,” he said. “You get the best product for the best price.”

Other recent accomplishments include : Red Hawk Ridge, Columbia Point Golf Course in Richland, WA; Hawktree Golf Club in Bismark, ND; Dragon Pearl Country Club in Ratchaburi, Thailand and Dongguan Hillview Golf Club in Guangdong, China.