Rodeo Dunes golf resort tees up 2027 public debut

WELD COUNTY — While a few select golfers have already teed it up at Rodeo Dunes, the highly anticipated new golf resort in rural Weld County is on pace to make its public debut next year.

Since May, “it’s been limited play,” available to Rodeo Dunes founding members and golf-world bigwigs, Tom Ferrell, the course’s vice president of communications told BizWest. But starting in the 2027 season, the links-lovers of all stripes will be able to check out the resort’s first course

And while nearly all of the 2027 tee times have already been snatched up, additional slots will be released in the coming months. 

“We’re looking forward to welcoming the public,” he said. “Demand is high, but the public will get to play.” 

Rodeo Dunes has established a virtual waitlist for future tee times.

Meanwhile, construction of a second course (Rodeo Dunes could eventually feature as many as six) is underway. “We’ll have some level of preview play next year,” Ferrell said. An eight-acre putting course is also expected to open in 2027.

Visitors to Rodeo Dunes can expect an experience not offered at any other nearby course, Ferrell said.

“Golfers from Denver would have to travel either overseas or six hours into Nebraska for this kind of links-style golf,” he said. “It’s pure sand; it’s rolling dunes.”

Links courses, invented centuries ago in Scotland by some of the game’s first players, typically feature rugged, undulating landscapes and firm fairways flanked by tall, native grasses.

“It’s the way the game was born,” Ferrell said of links golf. “You’re connected to the ancient premise of golf, which was shepherds with crooks knocking rocks out to the grazing fields and then knocking them back into town.”

Playing a links course requires golfers to think hard about their strategy and shot selection.

At Rodeo Dunes, “you are given the opportunity to hit just thrilling golf shots,” Ferrell said. “You can run the ball low to the ground — the wind is a factor — and you can use slopes and embankments. If you keep it on the manicured grass, you’ll play good golf. But if you get out into the native (grassy areas), you might be in a little bit of trouble. It’s not a severely penal golf course; it’s a strategic and fun golf course.”

Shifting winds over the Eastern Plains create an environment where golfers are likely to face new conditions each time they play the course, Ferrell said, making every round at Rodeo Dunes a unique challenge.

“The key is patience and adaptability.”

Rodeo Dunes provides “a real showcase for an area of Colorado that doesn’t get a lot of tourist attention,” Ferrell said. “… I really believe that the Eastern Plains communities will benefit economically as we grow. We have been very conscious of being a good neighbor. We’re very conscious of showing respect for the history and the communities that we’re interacting with now, and we look forward to being an economic driver in Colorado.”

Located on a sandy 4,000-acre site north of Roggen in Weld County with 125-mile views of the Rocky Mountains, Rodeo Dunes feels a world away from the hustle and bustle of the Front Range. But it’s close enough for golfers in the Boulder Valley and Denver areas to drive to in under an hour or so. 

Rodeo Dunes is also only about 35 minutes from Denver International Airport, and Ferrell said that the course is already drawing players from around the country and globe.

“The travel has already begun — this is a golf course worth traveling for,” he said.

Rodeo Dunes is being developed by Sandborn, a company founded by Michael Keiser Jr. of the famed Keiser golf clan, and was designed by Ben Crenshaw, a retired PGA champion, and his long-time partner Bill Coore.

“I think it’s their boldest work in many years,” Ferrell said.

The pair designed the Colorado Golf Club in Parker and the Sand Hills Golf Club in Mullen, Nebraska. The Rodeo Dunes project marks a return to the type of inland-links landscape that defined their work at Sand Hills.

“It’s hard to look at this site and not think of Sand Hills,” Crenshaw said in 2024 when construction began at Rodeo Dunes, referring to the design duo created in 1995 that was ranked no. 11 on Golf Magazine’s 2023-24 list of Top 100 Courses in the World.

Rodeo Dunes has taken on some of the personality of the Weld County property’s former owner, Cervi Enterprises Inc. The Cervi family produces rodeo events and has used parts of the land for rodeo training, as well as ranching and livestock.

“We are part of the rodeo world because of them,” Ferrell said. “I’ve discovered that the rodeo culture — the close-knit community of it, the land-use ethic of it — shares a lot with golf.”

As Rodeo Dunes prepares to welcome the public, course leaders are looking forward to a future when it could also host professionals.

While he didn’t reveal which competitive circuits the Rodeo Dunes team may be angling for, Ferrell said that its yet-to-be-built championship course ought to be a draw for pro events.

Currently, the only regular professional golf event held in the Boulder Valley and Northern Colorado is The Blue Championship, a Korn Ferry Tour tournament hosted each summer at Berthoud’s TPC Colorado.

“We support competition and the growth of the game, so we want to be a part of” tournament golf, Ferrell said. “Exactly what that could look like is TBD.”

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