Boomerang Links, Greeley. William Howard Neff, 1992.

I have to admit I didn’t see this course under ideal circumstances. I played on a day so cold that at the turn my dad and the other guys we were playing with were sucking down hot cocoa with peppermint schnapps just to “warm up.” Then we went out for the back nine as snow started coming down and by the time we finished the last hole we were giving putts because the snow was sticking to the green.

The “links” in the name reflects that the bunkers are little round pot bunker style and that they build a few mounds along the sides of the fairway to distract you from the fact this course is otherwise as flat as the farmland from which it came. I can say that on a day when the ground was near frozen, the course certainly played firm, but this is no links course.

The fairways are narrow and for the life of me I don’t understand courses where they go to the trouble of moving earth to build mounds in the rough but leave the fairways dead flat, which is the case here. The back nine can play tough, even on a sunny day, as water threatens on five of the holes coming in—especially significant in a place like Greeley where the wind usually is blowing.

For a course with uninspiring bunkering and flat, narrow, mostly straight fairways, the way the greens are positioned and angled keeps it from being an entirely boring day. Most greens are offset or angled away behind bunkers, meaning you need to be sure of your distance and line, especially if you’ve missed the fairway, which is not hard to do around here.

Colorado 9th Decile [1993]