Keisers hoping for years of growth at Rodeo Dunes

Rodeo Dunes owner proud of work so far

By Jim Bebbington

Michael Keiser watched the kickoff of Dream Golf’s latest project, Rodeo Dunes, with pride and awe.

“I was blown away,” he said Thursday.

Tuesday was a sneak peek for the resort near Roggen, 45 minutes northeast of Denver. The rolling and dunes-covered ranchland in that part of Colorado had been crafted into a destination golf course. The first 18 hole golf course has been shaped over sand dunes that reach in some cases as high as 100 feet.

Hundreds of Rodeo Dunes members, guests and media tramped through the dusty sand to reach the tee box. After a day of golf one of the limited partners in the project, the Colorado-based Cervi family, held a high-action rodeo that ended with a wild stampede of horses away from the course and back home to Cervi property next door.

Michael Keiser is leading an expansion of the Dream Golf operations here in Colorado and has new projects underway in Texas and the Florida panhandle. His father, Mike Keiser, started the phenomenon of remote, resort public golf 26 years ago by launching Bandon Dunes in Oregon.

Rodeo Dunes’ first course is green, but there is much work to be done. Guests Tuesday could play just 11 of the holes and the others needed more time to mature. There are no buildings or paved roads on site yet. After the special events this week the course will be shut down again for the winter. They hope to break ground this spring on the first clubhouse, as well as a seven-acre putting course.

Keiser said he didn’t know what to expect when they hired Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw to design their first course, but knew it would be good.

Keiser said Coore has a preferred construction style in which he will have shapers take small amounts of land off of the sites of greens, and then pause to see what they have created. Then they’ll do it again and again until the final product emerges.

“Working with him as the course revealed itself over the last four years … it happened slowly,” Keiser said. “The first six or seven layers they were just looking at little moves then back up and see what we’ve got. It was this gift that kept giving. That 9^th green took well over a year – not major construction but just little layers.”

The seven-acre putting course is going to be called ‘The Rockies’ in an homage to the putting course at the St. Andrews Links courses in Scotland, the Himalayas. It is that big because they have a seven-acre bowl between dunes right near the first tee box and making the green smaller would just waste an opportunity, Keiser said.

“The shaping is done but there is a long way to go before we open the course (to the public),” he said.

The public will not have full access to the course until 2027. Next summer they plan to allow members to play and host some events while giving the grasses a full season to grow-in. They are also seeking an additional 100 founders. These founders will pay $85,000 for special access to Rodeo Dunes and the other Dream Golf sites. They have 250 founders already, and once their new target is reached they’ll begin construction on the resort’s second course, Keiser said.

Keiser said they hope to release the 2027 tee times for reservation this February.

“We hope we’ll be sold out within a week of putting out the tee times,” he said.

Jim Bebbington is the Director of Content at Colorado AvidGolfer and can be reached at [email protected]

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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