Ballyneal opens its tee sheet for a good cause

One of Colorado’s most exculsive courses offers rare access for women’s charity tournament

By Jim Bebbington

With all the hoo ha about more golf courses being built on the American plains, one of the original plains courses is content to continue quietly serving its members.

It’s no secret that Ballyneal Golf Club, on Colorado’s eastern plains, is one of the best courses in the world and arguably the best in Colorado. The course is routinely ranked by Golf Magazine, Golf Digest and all the other list makers as one of the best golf experiences available on earth.

Its members are from Colorado and around the country. Typically they and their guests are the only players who get to experience the 18 rolling holes.

But once a year – for a good cause – Ballyneal opens up its tee sheet for visitors.

Each year Ballyneal hosts one charity fundraiser – just one. Its Chop Hills Classic, a two-day extravaganza, is held on odd-numbered years and is played almost exclusively by men. On even-numbered years it’s the ladies’ turn and the club hosts them for the Bunker Bash. The two-day event includes two rounds, meals and lodging in some of the club’s visitor cabins and lodges.

This year’s Bunker Bash is May 2 to 3 and for a contribution of $1,050 per player women from across the U.S. will have one of the world’s premier courses to themselves for at least two rounds. If a group gets done early one round and wants to get back at it for some extra holes, the staff has been known to make that available too.

The event is in its third iteration. The first year 20 women played; two years ago 26 signed up. This year the deadline for entries is March 20.

“We max out at 60, maybe 64,” said Ballyneal General Manager Brian Vest. “We’re just going to continue to grow it. We get a lot of support from a contingent of our lady numbers and then some from as far as California.”

The money goes into several good causes that are supported by the Ballyneal Foundation, but the primary one is to help the club’s caddies and young employees with tuition assistance to college or trade schools.

Because the course is so remote, the operation depends upon local teens and people in their 20s from surrounding farm communities to operate. If they did not work there, the course literally could not function. The club is eight miles from the Nebraska border, and the nearest town, Holyoke, has a population of around 2,400 people.

Which is why the club’s members set up the Ballyneal Foundation to give back in a meaningful way.

“We’re very dependent on our students and our members have been very generous over the years,” Vest said. “We’ve helped 21 students over the past year.”

Other Foundation funds go to help the Evans Scholars Foundation.

For the workers graduating from high school the Foundation has sought to help them whether they intend to go to college or not.

“We’re not blind to the fact too that not everyone is a college driven student; over the past three, four years we’ve encouraged non-traditional students and we’ve funded HVAC training and welding school,” Vest said. “We’re just trying to help the one’s here that have helped us.”

Ballyneal Golf Club opened in 2006 but the dream began back in the late 1970s. Coloradan Jim O’Neal and his brother Rupert bought 700 acres of rolling sand dunes – chop hills – because they thought it was reminiscent of the dunescapes which are common along Irish and Scottish courses. Tom Doak designed the course in the early 2000s and since it has opened there has been a waiting list for new members wanting to join.

Today there are dozens of excellent plains and dunes golf courses in remote corners of the Midwest, but Ballyneal remains one of most sought-after destinations for an invitation. For a lucky few, that opportunity comes each year with the cost of a little charity.

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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