Plum Creek Rises Again

Can “the Bear Dance way” return the former TPC to glory?

Jon Rizzi

Remember when Plum Creek Golf Club was a plum course? Opened in Castle Rock in the spring of 1984 as one of the PGA Tour’s first Tournament Players Clubs, the private country club with the 40,000-square-foot clubhouse boasted an exacting Pete Dye layout whose three waterlined finishing holes rivaled the stoutest closing stretches anywhere. TPC Plum Creek hosted The Denver Post Champions of Golf—a Senior PGA Tour event—from 1984 to 1987, and the first two Colorado Senior Opens, in 1999 and 2000.

But the fortunes of the club would mirror those of the oil and gas markets of the late 1980s. The Tour got out, and ownership and management changed often over the ensuing decades. So did the club’s status; the one-time members-only club went from private to public to fully private to semiprivate to public, largely in response to increased competition from better-conditioned daily-fee rivals such as The Ridge at Castle Pines North (1997), Red Hawk Ridge Golf Course (1999) and The Golf Club at Bear Dance (2002). By 2013, Plum Creek was filing for bankruptcy protection.

Now Plum Creek’s future looks brighter than ever. Southwest Greens, the owners of Bear Dance, bought the club out of bankruptcy and took ownership on January 2, 2015. They immediately set about establishing what Plum Creek’s PGA Head Professional Bo Heidrick—who held the same position at the Southwest-managed DavePelz Short Course at Cordillera—calls “the Bear Dance way.” That meant an entire upgrade of the golf experience: the pro shop, customer relations, dining and, especially, the condition of the course, which suffered from an anachronistic hydraulic irrigation system and limited water supply.

Given those restrictions, new Plum Creek Superintendent Justin Fischer applied what he’d learned as assistant to Bear Dance’s Dave Cahalane. Fischer revived the tees and greens and improved the fairways to conditions they hadn’t seen in years. And they’ll only get better. When the snow thaws, Plum Creek will punch a new well—the water from which will flow through a thoroughly modernized and computerized irrigation system. Immediate plans also call for redoing all bunkers and bulldozing and rebuilding the practice range. Updates to the crumbling cart paths and parking lots will also take place.

Within a few years, Heidrick says, the drafty, dated clubhouse will likely come down as well, replaced by a structure with a smaller footprint. “I’m sure we’ll still have the great sunset views,” he says. They’ll also still have The Chophouse at Plum Creek, a swank steakhouse which opened in November, the day after the course closed for the season. “It was supposed to be the worst time to open a restaurant, but it’s been a success,” Heidrick says. Bear Dance chef Michael Hendricks’ menu includes mini-Beef Wellington appetizers, steaks with sauce enhancements and a killer Korubuta pork chop. Originally open Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, the Chophouse in January added Wednesday to meet demand.

“In addition to the off-season income, the restaurant is a way to keep our staff together,” Heidrick says.

Plum Creek’s 2016 tee time pricing maxes at $56 during the week and $69 on weekends, including cart. “We’re very much a public facility with member options and treat you well,” Heidrick says. Annual memberships range between $1,800 and $4,450 and include discounted rounds at Bear Dance.

“There are some diehard members who have played here for years,” Heidrick says. “It’s so gratifying to see them excited about what we’re doing.”

More info: plumcreekgolf.com

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