Highland Meadows lands on best-courses list

WINDSOR – Highland Meadows Golf Course, entering its third year of play in Windsor, has landed in the No. 5 spot among best new affordable public golf courses in the United States as chosen by editors of Golf Digest.

The ranking is published in the current edition of Golf Digest, the world’s largest and most prestigious golf publication.

“I knew we had a great golf course here, but to actually get ranked is a big step,” Highland Meadows head pro Brad Bogard said. “We’re thrilled to be on this list.”

The course is owned by Jon Turner and Dino DiTullio, partners in Hillside Commercial Group and developers of the residential community that surrounds the course on a 622-acre site in southern Windsor.

Designed by St. Louis-based golf architect Art Schaupeter, Highland Meadows opened to rave reviews from Northern Colorado golfers in 2004. Schaupeter described Highland Meadows as “a thinking person’s golf course” in a trade magazine interview shortly after the course opened.

“It is a course where the game is in the player’s hands,” he said. “They have to play to their strengths.”

The 18-hole par-71 course, with five sets of tee boxes, plays as long as 7,011 yards or as short as 4,624 yards, making it accessible to golfers of all abilities.

“The key here is playability for everyone,” Bogard said. “You can be a high-handicap new player and have a great time. Scratch players can make it as tough as they want.”

Eight of Highland Meadows’ holes skirt or cross deep canyons, adding challenge and visual interest to a round of golf.

Golf Digest judges visited Highland Meadows last year to evaluate its entry in the nationwide competition for best new courses.

“We had a few out here from as far away as New York,” Bogard said. “We had nothing but great responses from all of them.”

Topping the list in the category was the Bully Pulpit Golf Course, chiseled out of the rugged badlands on the edge of Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota.

Courses in Georgia, Kentucky and Alabama rounded out the top five.

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