Architects Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw have started construction on the first of two scheduled courses on the 4,000-acre Rodeo Dunes property outside Denver, Colorado, according to brothers Michael and Chris Keiser, the owners and developers. Preview play on the 18-hole course, which will feature massive sand dunes and views of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, is expected to begin in 2025, with a formal opening in 2026.
“The dunes are perfect, tall and rolling, with unlimited possibilities for great golf holes,” Michael Keiser said.
For Coore and Crenshaw, the Rodeo Dunes course reminds them of the one they built at Sand Hills Golf Club in Mullen, Nebraska. Completed in 1995, the inland links is credited with launching a second Golden Age of golf course architecture and establishing the designers’ reputation as among the best in the modern era.
“It’s hard to look at this site and not think of Sand Hills,” Crenshaw said.
Coore agrees, adding that Rodeo Dunes “is the type of property that goes back to the very beginning of golf being played by the sea in Scotland, a link to 500 years of history.”
Construction of a second course at Rodeo Dunes, designed by Jimmy Craig, a longtime Coore and Crenshaw associate, will begin next year. That layout is expected to come on line in 2028.
A public golf resort, Rodeo Dunes is located off I-76 some 50 miles northeast of downtown Denver. The Keisers say the site can support as many as six golf courses.
Established by the USGA in 1991 and named after a former executive director, the P.J. Boatwright Internship Program was designed to provide experience for those looking to get into the golf business as well as short-term, entry-level employees – and potential candidates for full-time positions – at state and regional golf organizations.
That first year produced 20 interns for work at 13 of those associations across the country. Thirty-three years later, the program has found paid positions this summer for 201 individuals, a number USGA officials say is the most in program history.
As it revealed those numbers, the association cited other examples of how that initiative has grown and prospered over the years. All told, more than 3,300 workers in the golf business have launched their golf careers as Boatwright interns, with 35 percent of those employed as staffers through the USGA’s network of Allied Golf Associations being Boatwright alumni – and 33 percent of AGA executive directors.
In addition, 16 USGA staff members came through the Boatwright program, and that includes a pair of USGA executive team members in Emily Palmer and Thomas Pagel.
TAP-INS
TMRW Sports, a technology-focused entertainment company backed by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy and owner of the planned TGL golf league, announced three executive hires: Wendy Caves as chief people officer; Jason Longwell as chief revenue officer; and Regina O’Brien as chief marketing officer. READ MORE
Catherine Carmignani has been named executive director of the Arizona Golf Association and will start work in mid-August, the AGA announced. Carmignani had been the assistant executive director at Mass Golf. READ MORE
Compiled by John Steinbreder and Steve Harmon
