Aspen Golf and Tennis Club

Formerly known as the Aspen Golf Course, the Aspen Golf and Tennis club used to be the only game in town. Now there's the high-dollar Tom Fazio designed Maroon Creek Club next door - a nod to Aspen's "super elite" status. Aspen Golf Course may not have the multi-million dollar budget, the mountainous, creek-side terrain nor the movie star membership, but it's a better shot-by-shot golf course, has views of Pyramid Peak and is a "fence hop" from the coziest glass of Cabernet in the valley.

The site its built on is relatively featureless, which anywhere on else on earth would be unremarkable except for the fact that it sits smack in the middle of the Rocky Mountains. This kind of flat open acreage at the base of a steep mountain valley is exactly what makes Aspen so special. Had the golf course been built by a golf savvy developer either pre-1940 or post 1995 it would likely be one of the great courses in the country, but it was designed in the architectural dead zone in between (1970) by local pro Frank Hummel. The result is a very challenging, playable and fun course routed and shaped by someone with an obvious grasp of the game. What then, ask you, is it lacking?

Character. It is one of those modern parkland courses that screams, "MUNI!" The holes are outlined by rounded humps, shallow, floral-shaped bunkers, rows of "christmas trees" and irrigation ditches. It has that soft, green, micro-landscaped, corporate campus/city park look that wouldn't be altered in the least (and arguably enhanced) by the addition of benches, garbage cans and doggie-bag dispensers. That it plays like a championship course is the remarkable thing. This is due to a great variety of shots both in length and shape and well-defended push up greens that require accuracy and a deft short-game.

With that said, part of the charm of this course is its complete lack of pretension in an increasingly pretensious community so bring on the dogs, bring on the frisbees, bring on the clueless barefoot interlopers. I am a defender of public gatherings in grassy alpine meadows!  I remember the days when Aspen was holding on to the last vestiges of counter-culture under the flag of its irreverent hero Hunter S. Thompson and there was a ratty trampoline in the backyard of one of the houses along the sixteenth fairway and the ski bums renting it would be out there cranking rock music, drinking keg beer and pulling back flips. To hell with my birdie putt, that is much more important and interesting...I just wish those same quarter-acre, sixties-style ranch houses along Cemetary Lane still cost less than two million dollars.

As for the glass of cabernet...my other favorite thing about Aspen Golf Course is that you can walk into town after your round. This is done by teeing off the back nine at dusk and playing 10-14, then hopping the fence, crossing over Castle Creek via the dramatic Castle Creek Bridge (afraid of heights? Beware) with an obligatory stop at the cute little Victorian A-frame on the left behind the busstop before the S Turn into town. This is Poppies, my favorite restaurant in the whole wide world - an intimate, candlelit, wood-everything, ski-haus, with a small bar where you are guaranteed to meet some of the more interesting locals or have a memorable chat with the wonderfully salty, world-wearied owner. Steak-au-poivre and cabernet, oh yay!