Aspen Golf Club: Fall Facelift Will Enhance Esteemed Municipal Layout

By David R. Holland, Senior Staff Writer

ASPEN, CO -- When Aspen Golf Club’s first head pro, Evon Tasha, and an area plumber walked these grounds more than 30 years ago, setting out stakes for a nine-hole golf course, they probably never dreamed what was coming in the future.

Shortly after, golf architect Frank Hummel was called in to do the finish work, and in 1978 renowned Colorado golf architect Dick Phelps fine-tuned a full 18 holes.

Following this year’s golf season, the Aspen Golf Club will embark on a $3-million project that will include a new pro shop, restaurant and island green at No. 18. You will be able to sit and enjoy lunch with a view of the 18th green, a cascading waterfall and snow-capped Pyramid Peak in the distance.

• Sonnenalp Golf Club review • Past articles by David R. Holland • Past Colorado course reviews

The golf course is already a favorite, averaging about 26,000 rounds a year. As a municipal golf course, more than 1,500 area residents purchase passes from Aspen’s Recreation Department, making their rounds cost about $30. Vacationers will pay in the $80 to $100 range.

“Lots of folks around the country think we are snowed in most of the year,” said head pro Les Klahn, “but we opened this year on April 8 and you could ski until April 19. Last year we opened on March 28 and the year before that on March 4.

“I think all our golfers enjoy the scenery, the great conditions and our fast greens. Most of them are surprised at how challenging the putting surfaces are, but they like the challenge,” he said.

The fairways are lush and from just about every hole you have a view of Pyramid Peak, Aspen Highlands and Buttermilk Mountain ski runs. Groves of aspen, blue spruce, willows and other evergreens dot the landscape.

Aspen Golf Club presents the golfer with some tight driving holes, guarded by 39 bunkers and water on every dad-gum single hole -- they come in the form of ponds, hard-to-see irrigation ditches cloaked in long- and sticky-haired rough and a creek.

At No. 2, the fun begins on this 7,165-yard par-71 layout. It’s 428 from the rear and a target pin in the fairway tells you where to aim. If you clear the creek correctly, your approach will be over wet stuff to an arrowhead-shaped green protected by traps in the front.

No. 10 is a severely narrow, long-iron tee shot test, that measures 356 from the rear. There’s very little room to err as the fairway shoots left and downhill after your first shot. If you go too far left, there’s no entrance to go for the green. If you go too far right, you are in the trees and just have to chip out to the fairway.

The tee shot is framed tightly by aspens and blue spruce at the 13th, a 562-yard par-5 beauty. No. 16 is called Aspen’s best golf hole by many. It is a 453-yard par-4 which doglegs left. There’s water and a pond left and a trap in front.

When you tee it up on 18 you face Pyramid Peak and a par-4 dogleg right at 439 yards. There are two framing bunkers to aim between and the sand traps in front and left are deep and dangerous. Just think that this same shot next season will be a little shorter, but to an island green.

Whether you visit Aspen in the summer for golf, fishing, backpacking, tree-hugging or water sports, this is an area rich in history, art-gallery culture, gourmet restaurants and a playground for the rich and famous. But humans have lived here for more than 8,000 years.

The Ute Indians called it “Shining Mountain” and ventured here every summer, from their winter home on the plains near Colorado Springs, for its rich hunting.

The silver miners called it money in the bank and by 1891 surpassed rival Leadville as the nation’s largest single silver producing mining town.

The ski futurists arrived in 1935 when there were just 700 residents in Aspen. They came to the Roaring Fork Valley in search of the ideal location for a ski resort and enlisted André Roch, a famous Swiss avalanche expert, to develop a ski area. While World War II delayed the planning, Roch and the newly-formed Aspen Ski Club carved a trail system on Aspen Mountain, and constructed a boat tow, consisting of two large sleds to pull skiers up the hill by a gas motor and an old mine hoist.

Three more ski mountains have come along -- Aspen Highlands and Buttermilk in 1958 and Snowmass in 1968 -- making Aspen a ski capital of the world.

Aspen Golf Club
39551 West Highway 82
Aspen, CO 81611

Telephone: 970-925-2145.

Green Fees: 18 holes $80. Nine holes $45. After 1 p.m. $65. After 3:30 p.m. $45. Cart fee $31 for 18 holes or $16 for shared-half a cart. Individual season pass $640. Twenty 9-hole punch cards $300. Call the Aspen Recreation Department, 920-5140, for more information. Passholders must live or work in Pitkin County and have a local ID. Call for information on the Aspen Junior Golf program.

Restaurant: Tenth Hole Bar & Grill.

Aspen Academy of Golf: Clem Cleveland heads a staff of nine instructors. Call 970-925-2145.

Honors: Site of the National AGA tournament the past 12 years. Accredited as an Audubon cooperative Sanctuary.

Directions: From Snowmass Village and Glenwood Springs -- travel east on Highway 82 toward Aspen. Approximately half a mile past the stoplight at the airport and Airport Business Center you will cross the Maroon Creek Bridge. Take your next left into the parking lot. If you reach the Roundabout, you've gone too far.

Where to Stay:
The Gant Aspen, 610 West End,
Aspen, CO 81611.
Phone: 970-925-5000. Fax: 970-925-6891.
Toll Free: 800-345-1471.
Internet Address: http://www.gantaspen.com.
E-mail address: gantres@destinationhotels.com.

The Gant Aspen has fall golf packages for the Aspen Golf Club from September 5 to October 31, 2000. Enjoy a round of golf for two including cart while staying in the Gant's one bedroom/one bath condominiums for only $216 per night. The two bedroom/two bath condominiums are being offered at a rate of $317 per night. This also includes golf for four and a cart. The above rates does not include the tax of 8.2%.

The Gant Aspen also has tennis packages. Visit their website for directions and other specials, including the winter ski rates.