New Bounce in the Springs

A clear vision & consistent reinvestment are bringing swagger to the County Club of Colorado at Cheyenne Mountain Resort & Spa

For more than four decades, the Pete Dye-designed layout at the Country Club of Colorado has challenged golfers with tough carries, deep bunkers and greens that are as glassy as the 35-acre lake on which the course pivots. The horned peaks and dappled flanks of Cheyenne Mountain paint a stunning backdrop for almost every hole, defining and dominating the experience to such a degree that many refer to the place as “Cheyenne Mountain Country Club.”


That name, however, actually belongs to a 125-year-old institution two miles away that plowed under its golf course a century ago and has no affiliation with the Country Club of Colorado.


The facility that does have a CCOC affiliation is the adjacent Cheyenne Mountain Resort & Club, and it would grossly understate the relationship to say the 316-room resort and conference center gets a few tee times out of the deal. In fact, the club’s letterhead reads “The Country Club of Colorado at Cheyenne Mountain Resort.”


That’s because even though CCOC is an equity club, the global financial giant MassMutual—through its subsidiary, Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers—owns the entire 217-acre property occupied by the club and resort. The same luxury property manager, Benchmark Resorts & Hotels, manages both facilities.


Since 2011, Cornerstone has invested nearly $30 million in upgrades to enhance the experience—both for resort guests, who have full access to the club’s growing array of amenities, as well as for the 1,100 club members, who, in addition to benefiting from all the upgrades and enjoying special pricing at the resort, have not had to pay a dime in assessments.


More than $3 million in upgrades have already taken place this year. “There’s a great vibe and a sense of confidence that comes with continued reinvestment,” says CCOC PGA General Manager Cathy Matthews-Kane. “The new spa and fitness center, for example, have rejuvenated the place.”


Matthews-Kane is referring to the Alluvia Spa & Wellness Center, which she and Cheyenne Mountain Resort GM Jay Rocha ceremonially opened at a June 11 ribbon-cutting. 


Housed on the first floor of the club’s fitness building and accessed through a separate entrance, the 5,000-square-foot Alluvia features six treatment rooms, manicure and pedicure stations, a private reception lobby and indoor and outdoor meditation and tranquility suites. Reiki master Katherine Bobbitt directs the spa, where many of the massages, facials, scrubs and other treatments tap into the healing power of indigenous elements.
To make space for the spa, the fitness center moved and expanded to 9,000 square feet over two tiers, replacing the seldom-used racquetball courts and one of the club’s five indoor tennis courts (there are also 12 outdoor ones). Members and guests can now shape up with all the amenities of a top-flight health club—including high-tech equipment, a juice bar and group fitness rooms—and then retreat to a private outdoor lounging patio.


Or they can head to the new multi-use SportCourt for a game of basketball, roller hockey or futsal. Or go for a swim—either indoors, beneath the new bubble over the indoor pool, or outdoors, in one of three pools or in the lake adjacent to the only beach in Colorado Springs.


The beach also now boasts three firepits for lakeside bonfires and a grassy pitch perfect for having picnics or watching concerts performed on the recently constructed covered stage.


Rocha and Matthews-Kane have driven most of these changes, says Director of Sales and Marketing Curtis Bova. “Their objective, the ownership’s objective, is to broaden our appeal to the more active and health conscious country club member and resort guest,” he says.


“We’re not trying to be exclusive and elite,” says Matthews-Kane. “We’re trying to be a quality family experience with lots of options and activities.”


One of those options, she explains, is dropping off the little ones at Cheyenne Kidz Camp, where they can swim, do crafts, bake treats and let the folks enjoy some couple time. The camp runs from 9 to 4 daily.


The resort, which had already undergone a renovation in 2011, has also seen recent changes. Serving up killer views of the course, lake and mountain, The Will Rogers Lounge has transformed into Elevations, a “sports gastropub” with expanded seating and a full-service outdoor deck that now connects to the rest of the outdoor seating area, including the Mountain View Restaurant terrace, where you can now make gourmet s’mores with peanut butter, banana chips, caramel and other treats. Elevations also serves eight beers on tap, including 6035, a pilsner made by Phantom Canyon Brewery exclusively for Cheyenne Mountain Resort and named for the number of feet in elevation at which the lounge perches.


Always looking to elevate the member and guest experience, Cheyenne Mountain Resort and Club provisionally plans to upgrade the meeting rooms, guest rooms and Mountain View Restaurant early next year. The Pine-view Restaurant in the CCOC clubhouse will also undergo a facelift, with a seldom-used windowless meeting room turning into a gaming area for kids (or golfers who can’t stop competing after their rounds). Pavilions to hold weddings and other events are also under consideration.


One area that won’t undergo refurbishing is the golf course. That happened in 2013. Under the direction of Evergreen-based Phelps-Atkinson Course Design, the course underwent a $4 million spruce-up. “We took out two bunkers and added a total of seven new ones,” says principal Rick Phelps. “All of them are in the flat-bottomed, steep-faced early Dye style.” Phelps also added about 150 yards (it now tips at 7,150), rebuilt tees and greens and, among other modifications, made the water-carry par-three 17th “even more intimidating.”


Perhaps the least intimidating aspect at the Country Club of Colorado remains PGA Director of Instruction Ann Finke, winner of the PGA of America’s 2010 Junior Golf Leader of the Year award. Talk about kid-friendly! “We’re rocking!” Finke says between lessons. “We have a new influx of young families joining. We’re doing PGA junior league, and a Drive, Chip and Putt qualifier on July 14. It’s like kid, kid, kid—which is awesome.  The management here really walks the talk when it comes to family-friendliness. It’s not always like that everywhere else.”


“It’s all really one—the Country Club of Colorado and Cheyenne Mountain Lodge,” explains Bova, who points out that that CCOC opened in 1973, 12 years before the hotel did. “But members who have been here since the early days tell me the property has never looked better.”

For more information: cheyennemountain.com; 800-428-8886