Its Name is Rio
FLY-FISHING AND GOLF take center stage at the semi-private Rio Grande Club and Resort in tiny South Fork.
The former activity takes place on more than a mile of private Gold Medal waters near where the Rio Grande and South Fork rivers meet; the latter on a 7,155-yard course designed by Ric Buckton and Jay Benson of Redstone Golf. Framed by ponderosa pines, scrub oak and aspen, Rio Grande’s front nine flows along and across the club’s trout-filled namesake on holes three through eight.
“There are a couple of ‘angler beware’ holes,” superintendent Bill Tanner jokes, singling out the par-3 sixth, which requires a long-iron carry over the rushing waters. The layout shifts from riparian to alpine as it climbs a verdant ridgeline on the back nine. Plunging tee shots await on the par-4 11th, par-3 12th and drivable par-4 17th. All of it foreshadows the 200-foot drop from tee to fairway on the long, par-5 18th that curls sinisterly around the lake fronting the clubhouse.
www.riograndeclubandresort.com
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