Panoramic views abound on CommonGround.
Sean Zak
Just a few miles from downtown Denver, CommonGround offers golfers unique views throughout the round: the city skyline in the foreground, snow-capped mountains in the distance. But don’t let its height fool you, this is a flat piece of land.
When I first visited Denver, I expected a course so close to the Rockies to be a pretty tough hike, full of elevation changes. After all, CommonGround played a key role in the end of my colleagues Sean and Dylan 9-9-9 Challenge success, where they skied nine slopes, played nine holes of golf and saw nine baseball games all in one day.
Instead, my local playing partners insisted that CommonGround was a walker’s paradise, with easy uphill climbs only on the 9th and 18th, two of the course’s most difficult holes. Most holes were a flat or slightly downhill walk. We played in April and the firm ground made for excellent contouring conditions.
As the only Tom Doak song you will find on our site The best golf courses for Under $100 List, CommonGround offers fun, thought-provoking holes and features. Despite the lack of natural hills you’d expect to find on a Doak-designed course, the fairways and greens have plenty of intricate undulations.
There aren’t an overwhelming amount of bunkers, but they are well placed, forcing players to constantly make important risk-reward decisions throughout the round. On the course’s most difficult hole, the par-5 third, an attempt to reach the green in two looks welcoming, until your ball rolls into one of the few pesky bunkers on its way to the green bowl.
At the 11th hole, another par-5, water to the left and back of the green also makes players think twice before hitting a wood onto the green, but a fairway bunker sits just right. in the ideal stretch area. The approach is directly smacked into the view of downtown Denver and the Front Range Mountains behind it.
Even though my round was full of three bogeys, it was a great day of golf at one of Colorado’s most affordable gems. CommonGround is an ideal model of what a metro area municipality should be. As the home of the Colorado Golf Association, the facility regularly hosts clinics for Denver kids and encourages them to enroll in their coaching and leadership program heading into high school. The par-3 course there is available to players of all ages and skill levels. Locals get great rates on green fees and annual packages. But even for out-of-towners, CommonGround is an excellent golf course, in solid condition, for a very fair price.
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