Vista Ridge Golf Club
Texas Outside Rating: 8.8
18 Holes - Golf - Semi Private
Erie, CO
303 665-9590
Website
Online Tee Times

Texas Outside Scorecard for Vista Ridge Golf Club Beauty:   Difficulty:   Variety:   Fun Scale:   Value:   Condition:

Other Good Information: Designer/Architect: Jay Morrish Beware of water on 9 holes and the 49 sand traps. Head Pro, Jason Dumler, and his staff seem very popular with the locals I joined for this round. For reasons unknown to me they all seemed happy to no longer be part of Troon Golf Corp. Vista Ridge seems to be very well supported by the growing local co Condition of the greens is 9.4 and the green difficulty is 9.2 out of 10. Type of Greens: bent The 19th hole is good and the clubhouse food is good. The pro shop is good Walkable: yes, but some length between holes GPS: Yes

Course Yardage, Slope, and Rating: Tee Box Yardage Rating Slope Par Black 7,676 75.4 141 72 Gold 7,404 74.1 139 72 Blue 6,897 71.7 132 72 White 6,230 69.1 122 72 Red 4,790 67.2 111 72

Here's How Texas Outside Determines the Scorecard Rating

The Texas Outside rating scale ranges from 1 to 10 – a perfect 10 course would be something like this:  links along a cliff overlooking the Pacific ocean and bordered by tall trees; lush fairways on rolling hills with lots of natural hazards; water (which is crystal clear) on most of the holes; immaculate greens (but they are undulating and tough); lots of variety and character (each hole is completely different and includes blind shots, elevation changes, doglegs, and significant challenges); perfectly manicured traps with the whitest and prettiest sand you’ve ever seen; a nice club house with great food and a 19th hole; a GPS; plenty of beverage carts or your own cooler and ice; and it only costs $40 bucks! What this means is that you probably won’t find any 10s in Texas – try Cabo San Lucas, Pebble Beach, or some of the Hawaii courses! 
Texas Outside rates courses on the following:

• Beauty – tall trees, rolling hills, beautiful houses, waterfalls, and similar stuff would score high; a 1 would be flat, bushes or cactus instead of trees, and some grass but mostly weeds
• Difficulty – a straight, 300 yard par 4 with no traps or hazards, no out of bounds or water would probably get a 1; if it is a 460 yard par 4 over two ravines, with water along one side, natural hazards on the other, strategically placed traps or that dreaded tree right in the middle of the fairway, we are talking a 10. 
• Variety – what would you give a course where all the holes looked and played exactly the same (“I thought we just played that hole!”); were side-by-side, which is good for finding or dodging other people’s balls, but not much fun; and you can see the flag from every tee box?  That’s right, it gets a 1.
• Fun Scale – a 10 is where you walk off the course and say “now that was fun” and you can’t wait to get back, or you immediately turn around and play another 18 holes
• Value – a 5 is $50 to $60, a 10 is $20 to $30, and 1 is $200 or so – of course all of this is dependent upon how you liked the course.  For example, if a run down, boring municipal course, with six players on each hole was only $10; it would still get a value rating of 1.
• Condition – this one’s pretty easy – what condition are the fairways. A 10 commands very lush perfectly manicured fairways, compared to a 1, which has fire ants, weeds, and more dirt than grass!
• Condition of Greens and Difficulty – very hard to read greens with lots of undulation and tough pin placement, rate very high on the difficulty scale.  Condition is self-explanatory.  

All of the above determines the overall score for the golf course.  In other words, we like courses that are pretty, fun, very challenging with a lot of variety, and fairways and greens in excellent condition – all for $40.  We also tend to play the courses that are affordable for the masses, which means in the $30 to $80 range. We rate hard and we haven’t found a 10 in Texas yet – don’t worry we haven’t given up and we’re still looking.