Last Course Standing

Shadow Hills Golf Club’s closing makes Four Mile Ranch the only course in Cañon City

Colorado AvidGolfer

Cañon City is no longer a two-course town. Shadow Hills Golf Club—which opened with nine holes in 1959, expanded to 18 in 1998 and was purchased out of receivership the Holt family in 2010—closed last year. The Holts turned the semi-private course public and spent four years upgrading and subsidizing it, but revenues never exceeded operating costs. “It was a heartbreaking but realistic business decision,” owner Beth Holt-Madone says. Viewing it as an “important community asset,” the Holts last year offered to lease the course to the city for $1 a year, but the city council turned it down.   

That leaves eight-year-old Four Mile Ranch Golf Club as the only course in a “banana belt” town that benefits from a half-million visitors to the nearby Royal Gorge and its famous suspension bridge. Four Mile Ranch has also endured a rollercoaster of financial challenges and ownership changes. That crazy ride, however, seems to be over. “The place is doing amazing,” says Ken Tanner, who has worked alongside PGA General Manager Billy Bernhardt since the course’s 2008 debut. “This winter we had 1,700 rounds in 22 days.”

Four Mile Ranch’s current business model calls for reinvestment in the course and promoting it with commercials during the U.S. Open. However, the course has yet to build a clubhouse. Nine miles southwest, there was such a structure at Shadow Hills. It now operates occasionally as an event center called The View at Shadow Hills, although it no longer overlooks an active golf course. That could change with a new owner.

More info: fourmileranch.com

This article appeared in the May 2016 issue of Colorado AvidGolfer.

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Colorado AvidGolfer is the state’s leading resource for golf and the lifestyle that surrounds it. It publishes eight issues annually and proudly delivers daily content via www.coloradoavidgolfer.com.