Aiming at water storage drums and avoiding roads: Just another day touring munis near Denver, Colorado

DENVER – Playing Cherry Hills Country Club and Colorado Golf Club will go down as one of the best 36-hole stretches in my life.

The courses were stunning, the playing partners fun and friendly, the caddies cool and my scores, pretty darn solid.

The weird thing is I had just as much fun playing 36 holes of muni golf today around the Mile High City. That’s the beauty of the game. Playing inexpensive courses some country clubbers might thumb their noses at can be just as rewarding as fancy courses with U.S. Open and Senior PGA Championship pedigrees. Cherry Hills, the famous site of the 1960 U.S. Open won by Arnold Palmer, is coming off the 2012 U.S. Amateur and Colorado Golf Club, site of the 2010 Senior PGA Championship, is gearing up for the 2013 Solheim Cup.

My first stop today was Coyote Creek Golf Course in Fort Lupton well north of Denver. It might be the toughest 6,400-yard course I’ve ever come across in all my travels. The rough was as thick as I’ve ever seen on a public course. I didn’t play well, but the foursome of guys I went out with were the best. They even initiated me into their little club by showing me their ritual for all newcomers: Banging a tee shot out of bounds into a massive water storage drum near the sixth tee. I duffed my first attempt, but nailed it dead-on with my mulligan, producing a loud “clang!”

This afternoon I joined a beginner, a teaching pro and a golf course mechanic at Park Hill Golf Club, a downtown muni. We had another good time. We all hit it all over the map, but Park Hill – a “morale booster” according to one partner – allowed us to score well regardless. Pictured above is the 17th green.

Park Hill’s “Amen Corner” is actually the two holes that run parallel to Colorado Boulevard, a major artery through the city loaded with traffic. It can be a haunting feeling standing on the 14th and 15th tees worrying about the dreaded duck hook into the road. I was more scared hitting those tee shots than taking on a Cape Hole at the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass or some other famous course.

I capped the day with dinner and brews at Moe’s Original BBQ. I hope my flight home is as smooth as this trip to Denver has been good.