AURORA — Robin Elbardawil, executive director of the CWGA, remembers speaking with her former counterpart from the CGA about the prospects of a new golf course owned by the two associations.
“We said, “˜I wonder if we’ll ever see a shovel in the ground,'” Elbardawil recalled about the 1990s conversation. “There was a lot of red tape involved. But we knew if we were patient we’d get there.”
As Elbardawil spoke Wednesday — more than a year and a half after that shovel went into the ground — the golf associations were celebrating the grand opening of their CommonGround Golf Course, which was more than 13 years in the making. Noted golf course architect Tom Doak, who designed CommonGround, was among the many dignitaries who attended Wednesday’s festivities.
The City of Aurora, the CWGA, the CGA, the Lowry Redevelopment Autority and
architect Tom Doak cut the ribbon on the first tee Wednesday.
The course will open to the general public on Saturday. The first tee time that day — 6:30 a.m. — was auctioned off for $520, with the money going to the associations’ youth golf programs.
CommonGround director of Golf Dave Troyer said he’s already pre-booked about 6,500 rounds for 2009.
“It took two to three years to get to that point at the Omni” Interlocken Golf Club in Broomfield, one of the previous stops in Troyer’s career, he said. “The interest level here has been off the charts. A lot of tournaments booked the course sight unseen, which is unusual.”
CommonGround sits on the site of the former Lowry Air Force Base golf course, which was renamed Mira Vista Golf Course when it went public in the mid-1990s. But, starting in September 2007, Doak and his Renaissance Golf Design team built a completely new course on the 350-acre site. Suffice it to say that there’s been a lot of interest in perhaps the only new course that will open in Colorado this year.
“This places oozes curiosity,” Elbardawil said. “It’s so new and different from what was here before.”
Doak’s par-71 layout gives players considerable room off the tee and on greens, but the green complexes at CommonGround put even very good short games to the test. Large mounds and swales, some false fronts, and putting surfaces with different levels for pin placements make for plenty of challenges. And for those also into the scenery, there are no residences on the course, and the panoramic views of downtown Denver and the mountains are impressive.
CommonGround’s starter clubhouse — complete with both golf shop and bar and grill — is located near the intersection of Havana and 1st Avenue. But parts of the course fall into the city of Denver and others into Aurora. Combine that with the fact that Lowry Redevelopment Authority was also involved, and you might begin to see why the dreams of CommonGround took so long to become reality.
As CGA president Bill Fowler said on Wednesday, “I think we found a new Olympic sport: synchronized bureaucracy.”
Les Fowler (no relation) and M.J. Mastalir, representing the golf associations, first got the ball rolling in the process that led to this week’s opening of CommonGround. That was in a 1995 meeting with the Lowry Redevelopment Authority, and there have been countless twists and turns since then, many involving bureaucratic-related delays. For example, it wasn’t until December of 2005 — 10 years after the golf associations received the OK to run Mira Vista — that the U.S. Air Force sent the deed to the property.
But Wednesday marked more than just a grand opening of another golf course in Colorado. Given that CommonGround is owned by the golf associations, their reason for being takes center stage at the facility.
“This goes beyond the course,” said Peggy Milford, president of the CWGA. “Colorado has many, many great courses. We want to grow the game of golf and give back to the game of golf.”
As Ed Mate, executive director of the CGA, noted, CommonGround differs at least somewhat from typical golf facilities in several ways, mostly related to growing and giving back to the game.
Instead of profit being the primary goal, as it is with some course owners and operators, the associations are committed to “plowing (revenue earned) back into the facility and community,” Mate said. “We put it into programs for people.”
CommonGround’s nine-hole Kids Course, funded in part by a $175,000 “For the Good of the Game” grant from the USGA, is not only designed to help grow the game of golf, but also to benefit “economically disadvantaged” youngsters, according to the USGA. A longstanding junior outreach program will be taken to another level with the opening of CommonGround. Among the programs that will benefit are Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Special Olympics, LPGA-USGA Girls Golf of Aurora, Open Fairways, Venturing Program, Eisenhower-Evans Caddie Scholarship, Ridgeview Academy and a number of other local schools. In fact, the golf associations will hold a fundraising tournament for their junior programs on Friday (May 22).
Part of the idea with CommonGround’s youth programs is not only teaching youngsters the game, but also the values that are so intertwined with golf. In that vein, it was no coincidence that two youngsters were picked to hit the first drives at CommonGround on Wednesday. Elizabeth Wang of Parker and Coby Welch of Highlands were the Colorado Junior Golf Association’s 10-and-under champions last year.
On another subject many also hold dear to their heart, CommonGround will promote walking as an alternative to riding in a cart. To that end, the course will have 12 trained caddies available with 48 hours notice. And each Saturday, the 8 a.m. tee time will be reserved for a group using caddies.
“We want more players to walk,” said Mate, who attended the University of Colorado on an Eisenhower-Evans caddie scholarship. “It’s the way the game was meant to be played.”
All in all, CommonGround is an ideal facility through which the golf associations can fulfill their missions.
“This is the next phase in the evolution of the CGA and CWGA,” Bill Fowler said.
