A Walk in the Park

Todd Schoeder’s revamped design, completed in 2020
Todd Schoeder’s revamped design, completed in 2020

City Park Golf Course through the years.

By Anthony Cotton

THOMAS BENDELOW was a typesetter by trade, the story goes, hired at the New York Herald in 1892 some time after immigrating from Scotland. However, Bendelow was also passionate about golf, which duffers in Denver have appreciated for more than 100 years.

Bendelow was the architect of City Park Golf Course, the self- proclaimed “People’s Course,” which over the last century has indeed seen everything from wholesome family fare to big-money hustles take place on its grounds.

Denver businessman and local golf legend Will Kellum told the Denver Post in 2008 that as recently as the start of that decade that “City Park was the No. 1 place (in the country) to go to find a money game.”

After a three-year hiatus due to a massive course renovation, City Park is planning on reopening later this summer. Here’s a look at the current design, what the course looked like before the 2017 project began and the original Bendelow design for the course, which was built on a former dairy farm.

City Park’s layout until temporarily closing in 2017
City Park’s layout until temporarily closing in 2017
Thomas Bendelow’s original layout in a 1916 rendering
Thomas Bendelow’s original layout in a 1916 rendering

This article was also featured in the August/September 2020 issue of Colorado AvidGolfer.

Colorado AvidGolfer 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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