Snowmass Club

Snowmass Club is what makes me excited about another round of this silly, frustrating, and expensive game. When you play this fantastic course at the base of Snowmass Village and ski area, you'll find:

• magnificent panoramic views of the mountains (with peaks over 14,000 feet), the Snowmass ski runs, and some stunning homes dotting the mountainside
• near perfect conditions
• a fantastic layout with no two holes similar and each with its own personality and unique characteristics
• large but fast greens with slope, undulation, and spines
• huge steep faced bunkers with soft sand waiting for your ball
• fairly open to pretty tight perfectly manicured fairways with lots of contouring, valleys, and ridges
• plenty of challenging but fair holes
• excellent facilities and service
• multiple tee boxes to make it fun for all skill levels
• a very good 19th hole with tasty food

Snowmass Club twists and turns up and down the rolling Rocky Mountain hills at the base of Snowmass Village and has the feel of an Irish links course – open, roughs and natural areas, and no trees. To score well here, you really need to study the hole layout, check pin placement, manage the course, and deploy your "A" game on the approach shots and on putting. What makes Snowmass both fun and challenging is that it throws a little bit of everything at you including: blind shots, ups and downs, dramatic elevation changes, risk reward opportunities, strategically placed bunkers, plus water and natural areas. This is a course where you can bite off as much as you want (7000 yards and a 146 slope from the tips) or move forward one or two tee boxes and have a more relaxing round.

There are a lot of very fun holes that will make you want to come back and play Snowmass again. For example: #1 is a beaut at 595 yards as it plays along a lake and heads left over to a green that is at a right angle to the end of the fairway – which offers lots of risk reward go-for-it second or third shots; #9 requires an accurate drive from an elevated tee box to a narrow down sloping fairway and then a precise second shot to an oblong green protected by a lake; on #14 you need to nail your tee shot to avoid trouble and make the turn to carry a waste area to a green with pin placement that can be a killer; and 18 is a fantastic finishing hole – an elevated tee box with dramatic panoramic views to a dog leg right narrow and well protected green. Not wanting to end the round, I was tempted to order lunch and just sit on the 18th tee box soaking up the sun and views for a couple hours.

When we played in early September 2009, the conditions were near perfect. The sculpted fairways were lush and green, the rough was cut playable, greens were in fantastic condition, and the course was well manicured and maintained. The greens can be killers and can make two putting rare. They are fast with lots of slope and undulation and pin placement can add multiple stokes. So practice putting before you head out, study the pin placement, and take your time reading the green. The bunkers can also be killers – do whatever you can to avoid these deep, big, steep faced monsters, some of which could swallow a school bus!

Wow, what a fantastic course – can't wait to get back and play it again.