Long View on the Short Course: Dave Pelz’s Short Course at Cordillera

Long View on the Short Course: Dave Pelz’s Short Course at Cordillera

Jon Rizzi

The only one of its kind in the country, Dave Pelz's often over-looked course at Cordillera can make you a better player.

Dave Pelz is stoked. The renowned short game instructor has returned to Cordillera, where the Short Course he designed and debuted in 1997 has reopened for play now that the development’s much-publicized legal and financial situation has resolved itself with a trifurcated ownership structure.

“It’s been closed for two years,” he says while seated in a booth at the Grouse on the Green restaurant adjoining the Short Course’s golf shop. “But even before then, with the management and ownership changes, the philosophy of the course was totally lost.”

That philosophy is “to help anyone who plays it a significant number of times to play better on every other course in the world, because it embraces about 85 to 90 percent of the shots in golf on 25 percent of the land and 25 percent of the time of a full 18-hole course.” To achieve this, Pelz designed holes between 100 and 200 yards long on 43 acres, with two types of tees (level and uneven) and two basic sets of rules (one for playing target golf through the air; the other for bumping-and-running along the ground). To Pelz’s dismay, however, over the years those rules evaporated like so much morning dew. The 10-hole par-3 layout basically became a pitch-and-putt afterthought to Cordillera’s 18-hole Valley, Mountain and Summit courses.

But when representatives of the Cordillera Property Owners Association— which as of January 1 owns the Short Course—asked him to bring back his highly successful Scoring Game Schools, Pelz first needed to know what the plans were for the course that bore his name.

And after meeting with CPOA Principal Dan Bennett and touring the course with superintendent Kenny Haynes and PGA Head Professional Bo Heidrick, Pelz felt exhilarated. “They all gave me a commitment that the course will be restored to its original design and be put into as perfect condition as we can get it,” he says. “All the lanes, cutlines and the trajectories have been designed in, and the fairways will run firm and fast— if there’s a little tinge of yellow in the green, that’s perfect. You can’t bumpand- run on spongy green turf.”

The course, which reopened last month, features three sets of tees—not for men, women and juniors, Pelz explains, but for different bump-and-run shots. He maintains hitting off the uneven teeing area rather than the level one approximates more accurately what you’ll face during an 18-hole round. “I don’t know about you, but I have never played golf on a level fairway or level green surround,” Pelz says. “Laser-leveling on practice tees is the new buzzword, and it’s just not in the best interest of the game. All lessons are given on flat tee areas. Then you go on the course and you say, ‘I was so good on the range. And can’t take it to the course. Well, the ball’s above your feet, it’s below your feet. Your right foot’s above your left, your left is above your right. There’s not a golf course in the world that’s flat.”

Players who choose the play the “in the air” or “target golf ” game can hit off the level or uneven teeing areas. There are separate scorecards for each of these “regular” approaches, just as there are for players who elect to bump-and-run their way around the course.

“The ground game is much more challenging because you only take two clubs—say, a putter and a 6-iron,” explains Pelz. “And you’re not allowed to land your tee ball on the green or you have to knock it off—a two-shot penalty, in essence. It teaches you not to lay the club open, cut a shot and try to stop it on the green. That’s not what this is about. It’s about hitting the ball somewhere out on the fairway with the right spin and right curvature of trajectory, to bounce up and roll onto the green.”

Pelz designed four of the holes to promote left-to-right bumpand- runs; four run right-to-left and the other two are dead straight. “The reason I have made it this way is that many courses that are not flat have trees, bushes or lakes or water or whatever obstacles and other things in the way,” he says. “If you’re in the woods, you can’t pop the ball into the fairway, you’ll hit a tree. If you can hit it on the ground and you can move it right to left or left to right, you have a good shot of getting on.”

And what of hitting out of sand with only a 6-iron? “Well, then, just imagine you’re Seve Ballasteros. You wouldn’t believe the high, soft spinning sand shots he could hit with a 3-iron. I can get out of bunker with a 6-iron. You have to lay the club open, aim way left, and slice under it, and the ball spins and kicks a little to the right. I’m not saying you’re going to use that shot—it’s a lot easier with a sand wedge—but it makes you realize when you’re in the woods, don’t knock it in a bunker. Play a little to the safe side of green.” 

To shed the Short Course’s pitch-and-putt identity, Heidrick is posting course records for all four approaches on a big board in the clubhouse. “There are some people who just want to play with their kids and practice,” explains the pro, “but we also attract a clientele that’s a bit more competitive.”

Playing the Short Course can take an hour or less. There are no long walks between greens and tees, and no time wasted walking between big long drives and big long second shots. The pro will explain the different ways you can play The views—which take in the Vail Valley and four other golf courses—are spectacular, as is the confidence gained by executing the shots that make up 80 percent of your handicap.

“Every shot you hit out there will be required of you at some point on a regular golf course, including those here at Cordillera,” says Pelz.

The Short Course is the only one of its kind in the country. But with the USGA and PGA intent on making the game more accessible, Pelz’s Short Course—with or without its byzantine rules (box)—could portend a trend. He has another one planned along Lake Keowee in South Carolina.

But first he has to make sure to get the word out about the one in the Rockies. “People don’t know it exists and they don’t know how well it would fit with golf as we know it. This is not competing with golf as we know it. It supports it.” golfcordillera9.com; 970-926-5550

From July 25 to 27 the Short Course will host the only Pelz Signature Session in the U.S. this year. Students have the opportunity to interact and learn from Dave Pelz and his expert teaching staff. 800-833-7370.

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. Jon Rizzi is the founding editor and co-owner of this regional golf-related media company producing magazines, web content, tournaments, events and the Golf Passport.