Played here Oct 4. I try to go to CO once a year in the fall for some last minute CO golf. I love this course because it is a Pete Dye course (one of his earlier ones) former Senior Tour stop and a re... Continue »

Played here Oct 4. I try to go to CO once a year in the fall for some last minute CO golf. I love this course because it is a Pete Dye course (one of his earlier ones) former Senior Tour stop and a really mature, demanding layout. It is in Castle Rock right off the freeway, so very close to Denver. As I see I was the last reviewer, I will stay on course details. Course is in great shape. Tee boxes are level/playable. Fairways had abundant coverage and great lies and roll. Rough is thick and deep. And there are many OB areas surrounding the holes. Sand traps very playable, deep and large. Greens were outstanding (loved them). This course does not get as much recognition with the many courses in the Denver area, but IMO it is a great track, with great customer service, inexpensive and well worth the effort to play it.

Played yesterday afternoon. This a Pete Dye course, built in 1984 as a TPC course and hosted the Champions Tour for many years. It is in Castle Rock, a short drive S of Denver and DIA ( a must play). ... Continue »

Played yesterday afternoon. This a Pete Dye course, built in 1984 as a TPC course and hosted the Champions Tour for many years. It is in Castle Rock, a short drive S of Denver and DIA ( a must play). The elevation is 6200 FT with spectacular views of the Rockies and Pikes Peak. This course (IMO) has a great selection of par 3's (pics to follow). # 12 is downhill and has over 10 K railroad ties surrounding the green. # 17 (which I made a hole-in-one) is all over water from the tee box. Over 7000 yards from the tips, it has many of the signature designs (moguls, waste areas, long carries) we are all familiar with of Dye. The course is in tremendous condition (and they charged us $42 - nice). Tee boxes level/clean. Fairways were lush/green and provided great roll and lies all round. Bunkers are large and deep, like a few small ones around some greens, that have stairs to get to the bottom. And they are great to play from. Rough was 1 " and wet from recent rain and penal. Greens were just beautiful and they chipped/putted great but very fast (12). They are currently remodeling the clubhouse and have a nice trailer set up for the clubhouse. If you like old fashion courses and Dye layouts (some don't I know) you will love this course. There are some tremendous courses between CO Springs and Denver to choose from. But I would highly recommend you don't miss this one.

Played here in early August:

We found ourselves at Plum Creek Golf Club on Tuesday morning which is south of town off of I-25. The course doesn’t come up too much when searching for courses in the ... Continue »

Played here in early August:

We found ourselves at Plum Creek Golf Club on Tuesday morning which is south of town off of I-25. The course doesn’t come up too much when searching for courses in the area either online or on the golf forums. I wasn’t too excited about playing it because of the lack of information, but we needed a filler course. We were trying to build the day around an afternoon tee time at Bear Dance just down the road. The price here was $55 which was line with what we wanted to pay.

While booking a tee time I discovered that there are two websites for the course and both were pretty simple designs. They do allow online bookings so I was able to snag an 8:40am tee time. The course is the old TPC course and hosted the Champions Tour a few times years ago from what I read. So in all honesty, I was expecting and older, run down course that had seen better days. I got a little more worried when we checked in at the proshop as there was hardly any merchandise and the decor was in serious need of updating. These things don’t bother me personally when reviewing a course, but they can be indicators of the course conditions. Based on some research that I’ve done while typing this, it appears that the management recently changed. That would be consistent with the two websites and understocked proshop.

We teed off on the 1st, which was originally the 10th, and I was immediately surprised with the condition of the course. We played the Two Plum tees which play 6583/70.7/133. Like all of the courses in Colorado that we played on the trip, Plum Creek was very green and looked great. The tees, fairways, and greens were all in good shape and I couldn’t blame any of my poor shots on the conditions. While the greens were a little slower than they looked, they were smooth and would have been a good speed to give some putts a run if we hadn’t played on quicker greens the last couple rounds. Some of the downhill putts, even from a short distance, could easily run way past the hole so I had to be careful with those. The rough was thick and a lot could go wrong from it. Most of the time I was just trying to advance the ball from the rough and hoping that it would end up near the green. Many of the short game shots were also played from thick rough so some practice with an open faced lob wedge would be helpful, at least with the current conditions.

The layout isn’t a wicked Pete Dye design. I’m not a Pete Dye fan and I typically try to avoid his courses, especially on vacation. Here however, I don’t think he overdid it with the railroad ties, deep bunkering, or mounding. These features added to the aesthetics and were not in play on every hole. There were some chipping areas and grass bunkers around the greens but nothing too severe. This is a community course with homes on every hole so if that isn’t your thing then I’d stay away. The homes take away from the scenery and there are out of bounds stakes all over the place. However, I think Dye did a good job using the property to create some elevation change and bring some pine trees into play. Years ago I played The Ridge at Castle Pines North, which isn’t too far away, and was amazed at how many homes line that course and it costs a lot more. There are some Pete Dye courses that I cannot stand, but this isn’t one of them.

I enjoyed golfing in this part of town and had a nice morning once I figured out that I didn’t bring any game. Plum Creek isn’t a destination course in the area, but I’d say it is a great value compared to all of the premium courses nearby.