By Jon Rizzi
On Monday, August 24, Ravenna Country Club will host the 12th Annual Ravenna Invitational benefiting the Infinite Hero Foundation. Since its founding in 2012, Infinite Hero has injected more than $6 million into innovations that are revolutionizing the rehabilitation of mentally and physically injured military veterans.
Many of these vets are invited to attend the event, joining or filling out foursomes. Some sport prosthetic limbs. Others bear burns and scars. And still more have endured the invisible wounds of war- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), depression, and other debilitating psychological conditions.
Kevin Collins, Ravenna’s president and CEO, started the tournament in 2014 with Neil Duncan, a club member who had lost both legs in an IED explosion in Afghanistan. “We cannot support our veterans enough for their service and sacrifice to our country,” Collins said at the inaugural invitational. “Due to the importance of the cause, we are committed to making this Ravenna’s flagship charity event.” And they have. Collins now also serves as the Infinite Hero Foundation’s treasurer, and the Ravenna Invitational has raised more than $3.3 million to date for the cause.
What’s more, Ravenna members-whose monthly dues cover unlimited golf but not the $5,000-per-foursome sponsorship for the tournament-comprise close to 80 percent of the participants.
While such support speaks to their patriotism, it also reveals what Infinite Hero Executive Director Courtney Janes calls a “unique mindset” among the membership.
“A lot of what we’re doing is so new and cutting edge, and sometimes people shy away from that,” she explains. “And the community of Ravenna has done just the opposite. They’ve embraced it. They believe in the importance of investing in ground-breaking programs to improve quality of life-whether they’re looking at supporting military veterans and their families or serving the members of their own community.”
MEMBER BOUNCE
Ravenna’s commitment to next-gen well-being manifests itself most visibly in the Ravenna Performance & Longevity Center, where Fitness and Pool Director Zane Bickler and his team (Wellness Operations Director Rachel Gendler and Personal Trainer Chris Smith) take a data-backed, holistic approach to overall health, training, performance, recovery and longevity.
Gendler administers a body-composition analysis on the InBody 970, which bioelectrically measures muscle mass, body fat, intracellular and extracellular water, metabolic rate, nutrition and other key metrics. It literally sees what you’re made of without drawing a drop of blood. Smith reviews the results with the member, isolating key data points to identify areas for improvement and develop a personalized training routine. A biweekly or monthly InBody test and report provides insight into the results of the routine and charts progress over time. “The best part is all the data,” Bickler says. “I don’t have to convince somebody this is what’s happening. I’m like, look, here’s your data. Do these things for the next three to eight weeks and I promise you on the next scan this will be different.”
Those looking for a quicker recovery from a tough workout or round of golf can opt for the pneumatic pulsing of Normatec Compression leggings. As you sit in a reclining chair, the pressure-the intensity of which the user can control-moves upward from the foot, enhancing circulation, reducing swelling, and eliminating metabolic waste.
A more recent addition is the AI-powered BackHug, an ergonomically designed therapeutic device with robotic fingers that sense where the tightness lies. As you lie in a supine position, a legrest lifts the legs to a 90-degree angle, allowing the spine to decompress. By relieving pressure from the joints and muscles, BackHug’s robotic fingers can reach the deep tissue.
Brain function gets just as much attention. “My ultimate goal for our membership and really just our general society is to understand that slowing down can actually help you perform better,” Bickler says. A Heart Rate Variability (HRV) test-which measures the millisecond timing variations between consecutive heartbeats as a real-time proxy for brain function-enables members to tap into BrainTap, a neurotechnology entrainment system featuring headphones with a visor. Through a combination of binaural beats, guided audio, and light therapy, BrainTap influences brainwave patterns and shifts the brain from a stressed, fight-or-flight sympathetic state to a parasympathetic state characterized by reduced tension and improved cognition, focus, and sleep quality.
If all goes according to plan, by next year the Performance & Longevity Center will feature even more leading-edge amenities and put longevity, performance and wellness, and mobility on different floors. “We’re going to get actual NIR (Near-Infrared) therapy, not just red-light saunas,” Bickler says of the invisible therapeutic wavelength just beyond the red end of the spectrum. “It operates at a higher frequency so you can get into the body about an inch and a half and actually start healing at the cellular level.”
Another addition: “An Ammortal Chamber, which uses red-light and infrared-light therapy, shock waves and Hz frequencies to vibrate the bed you’re lying on while oxygen and molecular hydrogen flow through a cannula. So, you’re getting the gases to help the oxygen through the muscle, the red lights to help cellular regeneration and the vibrations at frequencies to help heal the bones and realign your DNA a little bit faster.”
While Bickler is committed to Ravenna’s members living longer, stronger and better, the club’s Director of Grounds Steve Datwyler is dedicated to ensuring that the course they play remains as resilient as the veterans Infinite Hero has helped. And he has relied on forward-thinking technology to do so. Last year, Ravenna was the only golf course in Colorado-and one of only 10 in the country-to beta-test the Swiss-made turfRad soil moisture mapping system, which can collect in excess of 10,000 root-zone soil moisture readings per fairway. Resembling mini solar panels, the turfRad scanners mount on the back of a mower or truck, which spends about two hours each morning gathering the data on the course. Using Spatial Adjust, a Toro product, Datwyler syncs the data with the course’s irrigation system. This allows him to fine-tune water usage by the sprinkler head.
More than half of the course’s 1,200 sprinkler heads are enabled with this program-all on the fairways. For now, the greens get handheld moisture readings, and the scanners don’t like the rough. (“It’s L-Band microwave that provides consistent readings on fairways,” Datwyler explains, “but they haven’t been able to calibrate the rough in a repeatable way.”) Not watering the rough as often has made it easier to escape and to find errant shots.
Implementing turfRad resulted in a 25 percent reduction in water in 2025 and portends even greater savings during this year’s drought. Ravenna also shrank its electricity usage and reduced wear and tear on the irrigation system, yet the course’s turf remains as playable as ever, with the greens regulated by the USGA GS3, a smart, rechargeable golf ball that measures putting green performance by capturing more than 15,000 data points across the metrics of speed, firmness, smoothness and trueness.
And as with the eleven tournaments that preceded it, all will roll smooth and true on August 24.
Ravenna’s signature charity event honors military heroes while highlighting the club’s forward-thinking commitment to wellness, sustainability, and giving back to those who served By Jon Rizzi On Monday, August 24, Ravenna Country Club will host the 12th Annual Ravenna Invitational benefiting the Infinite Hero Foundation. Since its founding in 2012, Infinite Hero has injected more
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