Colorado Golf Club aims to be “Top 100 Club”

New GM John Easterbrook plots a path for growth

By Jim Bebbington

John Easterbrook, the new general manager for Colorado Golf Club, is a career golf administrator and knows a good thing when he sees it.

“It’s a very stable, very solid future for the club,” he said this week, one month into his new job. “The golf course is one of the best. This place is golf first; it’s not a city club, not a lot of business meetings. We have to get the core golf perfect. The golf course is really, really good.”

Easterbrook, 63, returns to Denver after spending 20 years as one of Troon Golf’s top executives and nearly a decade with the PGA of America working out of Dallas.

Easterbrook’s golf industry career began in 1985 working in the Colorado section of the PGA out of Jacoby Park in Laramie, Wyo. He had gone to the University of Wyoming intending to play football but ended up playing on the golf team for four years instead.

He worked at Camelback Mountain in Phoenix then for Marriott Hotels and Hyatt Hotels directing their resort golf operations. When a golf management startup called Troon opened up in 1997 he was hired as employee No. 12. He became COO of operations and by the time he departed in 2017 Troon had become the largest golf management company in the world with more than 15,000 employees.

After working with the PGA of America as director of operations for the past eight years, Easterbrook and his wife Lori moved to Parker when the Colorado Golf Club role came open.

“It’s a tremendous, great club and we have a great team that aspires to be considered in the top 100,” he said. “I think we can do that and we’ll align the membership. It’s going to be one of the truly great clubs in the western US.”

Easterbrook said they are seeking to grow their national membership, which will entail the construction of residential cabins or accommodations for members traveling in from out of state. In addition, he arrived just as jackhammers began renovations to parts of the men’s and women’s locker rooms.

“The membership has supported the need to continue to re-invent the club,” he said. “ They continue to support that.”

As the golf boom has continued in Colorado clubs like Colorado Golf Club are seeing a new wave of potential members. Club membership is an important relationship, and Easterbrook said potential members should look into not just whether they like the amenities at a club, but its financial condition and whether the current members are a good fit for them and vice versa.

When it works, it can offer immediate benefits, Easterbrook said.

“Instant gratification, really,” he said. ” I mean, people gravitate in any environment to people they like to hang out with and be with. And so, it’s instant connection to other club members like them that have a common goal. Again, there are many clubs across the United States, some of them are more focused on golf, some of them are more focused on social, and they could be right across the street from one another. And some members may be entering the membership at a later stage in life where they’re not playing as much golf, but they still want that social interaction and they still want that fun social environment at private clubs. Others may still want to just play golf until they’re 90. And you know, that’s the most important thing for them.”

“Everything. It goes back to understanding what you’re getting into,” he said,. “So you have to understand the financial stability of whatever club you’re going to join.”

Colorado Golf Club was just recently named as a host the USGA’s 2030 U.S. Junior Amateur. The appointment was part of a strategy that the club has to keep its course under consideration for some of the most prestigious tournaments in the world. The course was designed by Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore, who of the most sought-after designers who recently completed construction on the first Rodeo Dunes course in Roggen. CGC has already co-hosted a U.S. Amateur, in 2023, the 2013 Solheim Cup, the top international team competition in women’s golf, and the 2010 Senior PGA Championship.

Easterbrook said he is looking forward to continuing that tradition and making it even stronger.

“I’m an operator by heart; I’ve always wanted to get back in operations and run a club,” he said.

Colorado AvidGolfer Magazine is the state’s leading resource for golf and the lifestyle that surrounds it, publishing eight issues annually and proudly delivering daily content via coloradoavidgolfer.com.

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