Winter 2012

Answers:

FACT  Denver Country Club has a polo pony buried under the 6th hole

FACT  The logo for Grand Elk Golf Club actually depicts a caribou forming the initials of Caribou Ranch, the development for which it was originally designed

FACT  Castle Pines Golf Club was in line to host the 2001 U.S. Open until Southern Hills made the USGA a better offer

FACT After winning the 1948 Denver Open, Ben Hogan didn’t bother staying at Wellshire Golf Club long enough to receive his trophy or check

FICTION President Dwight Eisenhower suffered a heart attack at Cherry Hills Country Club.
Eisenhower’s heart attack occurred early in the morning of September 24 at his mother-in-law Elvira Doud’s house the day after he complained of chest pains after playing 27 holes at Cherry Hills Country Club.

FICTION Officials at the 1963 Denver Open mistook Chi Chi Rodriguez for a caddie before the event, which he eventually won.
The reed-thin Rodriguez, who had been a caddie in his native Puerto Rico, had already played in 25 Tour events before his first professional win in Denver.

FICTION RE/MAX founder Dave Liniger built Sanctuary because Castle Pines Golf Club denied him admission.
“It’s completely false,” Liniger told Colorado AvidGolfer in 2003. ” It’s become some folklore of some kind. I guess it makes for good gossip, with the courses being close by. I already belonged to Castle Pines Country Club…a much easier course and better for a higher handicap like me. (Castle Pines Golf Club founder) Jack Vickers is a super nice guy. I’m very fond of him. I never had any interest in joining Castle Pines Golf Club.”

FACT Liniger refused President Bill Clinton’s request to play Sanctuary before it officially opened because he didn’t agree with his politics.

FICTION Willis Case Golf Course takes the name of a wealthy bachelor murdered there by a jilted lover.
According to Rob Mohr and Leslie Mohr Krupa’s Golf in Denver, in 1934 Willis Case, a successful stockbroker and member at Lakewood and Cherry Hills Country Clubs, was shot by his girlfriend, Anna Wendelin, at the corner of 15th and Arapahoe Streets in downtown Denver. She then committed suicide. Case left about $60,000 to Denver to build a golf course. The city used the endowment to purchase two adjacent courses—Rocky Mountain Country Club (owned by the adjacent El Jebel Shrine) and Berkeley Park—to form Willis Case Golf Course.

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