Playing Golf Atop Colorado’s 54 Fourteeners

Steve Bauerle is on a quest to help kids and bring golf to the top of all 54 of Colorado’s 14,000-foot-high mountains.

Jon Rizzi

Talk about your elevated tee shots. GolfTEC Senior VP of Business Development Steve Bauerle has rolled his passions for golf, hiking and philanthropy into a quest to bring golf to the top all 54 of Colorado’s 14,000-foot-high mountains. As of August 9, Bauerle, a PGA Professional, had summited 27 of these peaks and driven a wooden, biodegradable golf ball off all but five.  By the time you read this, he will have added three more in the Sawatch Range—La Plata, Harvard and Columbia—though he no longer will bring his driver.

“The environmentalists are all about leaving no trace,” Bauerle explains. “So I’m going to be doing different golf activities on the top—like making a putt, bouncing a ball on a wedge consecutively for the number of the peak I am on, etcetera.” Bauerle’s website, 14ergolf.com, chronicles his conquests and includes vertiginous videos as evidence. There’s also a purpose behind his pursuit. “My goal in doing this is to raise awareness and money for two things I love: the mountains and the game of golf,” says Bauerle, who hopes to generate $25,000 apiece for The Boys and Girls Club Gates Camp and The First Tee of Metro Denver. “One hundred percent of what I’ll raise goes to those charities,” he says. “This is all about helping kids; it’s not about me.”

Bauerle plans to summit No. 54—in all likelihood, Pikes Peak—next year. Supporters can go online and pledge $5 for each future peak he bags or make a one-time donation. All donations are tax-deductible. 14ergolf.com

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