commonground golf course

CommonGrounds Golf Course is conveniently located east of downtown Denver. The course is quite flat and easily walkable plus they have a great caddie program. Caddies work on a no charge, tips only basis. I was told the course opened in 2002 and has hosted many tourney events. Last year they suffered a flood that caused closures for some time but it was it super shape when I played it with my nephew late July this year.The course was built on an old Air Force base for the benefit of the Colorado Golf Association (CGA) and the Colorado Women's Golf Association (CWGA). Favorable rates are given for members of the State Golf Associations.Tom Doak used his "width that matters" concept in designing the layout with bunkers, marshland, water, etc. in strategic positions. The fairways are generally wide and the adjacent roughs are soft and thick but the deep roughs are very penal. The course has 4 tee boxes (black, gold, white and red). But it offers two more good options: gold/white and white/red. My nephew and I played the Gold/White at 6,497 69.3/120 and that was perfect for us as we'd been beaten up playing blue tees in the mountain courses for the previous 3 days.We played on a Tues AM after suffering some tough Denver morning rush hour traffic so we had no time to warm up. We started on the 10th hole following a relatively slow ladies league. But when we made the turn to the front side play was nice and fast.The greens were in excellent shape. The fairways were very wet and lush due to heavy recent rains. The course has a nice mix of old cottonwood trees, pines, marshlands and some neat combinations of green-fairway-tee box all neatly closely cropped.On the par 5 3rd hole stay to the right side of the fairway to avoid a mean left center bunker. Then use the backstop behind and left of that green to hold your approach shot.The par 3 14th hole is a tough one. Hit the club that gives you the confidence for a straight shot between the mounds protecting this little rascal.Check out the number of holes that are 400+ yd par 4s before you select your tee boxes for the round.Although we were near downtown Denver the course was very peaceful. We even had 7 deer run past us on the 8th tee box.CommonGrounds obviously does a great job with their teaching programs. I didn't get a chance to try it but I saw their Par 3 course south of their practice field. This course is only $10- for adults and free for juniors.I'll give that a try before my 18 next time I'm in Aurora.