Gold or not, Breckenridge Golf Course is a real treasure

Last summer, I was able to take my annual trip to the mountains of Colorado, and was able to play golf for three days -- first in Breckenridge and then in Keystone.

Great trip and great people up there to make it even better, and the golfing was mighty fine as well.

The Town of Breckenridge can boast that it is the only municipality in the world to own a Nicklaus-designed, 27-hole golf course. National and regional honors have been bestowed on Breckenridge Golf Club, including being named Best Mountain Course and Toughest Mountain Course by Colorado Golfer, a 4½ star rating from Golf Digest as one of the magazine’s top "Upscale Places To Play" in the nation.

The course opened for play in 1985. During the summer 2001 golf season, the Town opened another nine holes also designed by Nicklaus and every bit as challenging as the original 18-holes. The new Elk nine as it is named, offers more elevation change than the Bear and Beaver nines.

Situated in a beautiful mountain valley, the clubhouse at the Breckenridge Golf Club sits at an elevation of 9,324 feet. Breckenridge GC has three championship nine-hole layouts – named the Bear, the Beaver (above) and the Elk (below) – with each nine offering a mountain golf experience, a slew of panoramic views of the snowcapped Colorado Rockies and dense wooded areas that give way to open native grassland and wetlands. It is not uncommon to spot wildlife during a round here, as beaver, deer and elk, an occasional moose and bear, abundant red fox and red tail hawk roam the grounds as they have before the progress of man into the region.

After playing the course, I was a bit frustrated with my score, as I played better than the total showed. That’s when I looked a little harder at the scorecard and discovered that from the Nicklaus (back) tees on the Elk/Beaver rotation, the course plays at 7,145 yards and has a course rating of 73.5 with a slope of 151, making this set of tees the second hardest course rating in Colorado. The other combinations are no joke either, with the Beaver/Bear combo coming it at 73.9 and 147 and the Bear/Elk drawing a 74.0 and a 145 – all are a great challenge for even the best golfer. Each nine plays to a par of 36.

The experience at Breckenridge Golf Club is about more than just golf – but the golf here is plenty and more than a little challenging to even the savvy, low-handicap player.

See the story I wrote about my trip to Breckenridge for Cybergolf at http://www.cybergolf.com/golf_news/gold_or_not_breckenridge_golf_club_is_a_real_treasure.