Divide Ranch & Club Review

Texas Outside Rating: 8.5

Golf - Public Course · 18 Holes · Par 72
Ridgeway, CO
Website
Online Specials

Dsc_0891 Dsc_0907 Dsc_0911

Divide Ranch & Club Review

Review of Divide Ranch and Club

Located on the top of a mesa overlooking some beautiful green meadows, the towering San Juan Mountain range, and another tall string of mountain peaks to the east is the Divide Ranch & Club.

Divide Ranch and Club is characterized by towering ponderosas, stunning views of two mountain ranges, tight fairways, and a great layout with some interesting holes.  To score well on this course you need to leave the big dog in the bag, deploy some good course management skills, hit the ball strategically, and keep it in the tight fairways.  This is one of these good news, bad news courses.  The good news is that:

  • The views are stunning – almost every hole is framed by the rugged mountain peaks, towering ponderosas, and huge beautiful vacation and mountain homes plus plenty of deer and other wildlife
  • The course is fun and memorable to play and you’ll want to play it again
  • It's fair but demanding
  • It’s peaceful and quiet, the pace of play is excellent, the staff is friendly, and the food in the True Grit Grill is excellent
  • Each nine was designed by a different architect which makes the course interesting to play

You’ll encounter a little bit of everything during your round – elevated tee boxes and greens, dog legs left and right, some uphill as well as downhill shots, berms, rolling and contoured fairways, bunkers and water that you need to avoid, and some excellent risk reward opportunities

The layout is excellent with some great holes like:

  • #2 and #7 are both par 5s with sharp 90 degree dog legs left where you need to strategically place your tee shot so you don’t overrun the end of the fairway and give yourself a shot toward the green
  • #12 is a fun 613 yard par 5 with a boomerang shaped fairway, an uphill shot off the tee, then a huge downhill shot to the green from 150 out
  • #13 is a short 309 yard par 4 with a slight uphill shot to an intimidating looking green complex that is dramatically raised and has two huge steep and deep pot bunkers (they look like big eye sockets) guarding the front and a rocky hill protecting the back
  • #18 is a fantastic finishing hole with an elevated tee box, sharp dog leg right, excellent risk reward shot to get within 80 yards of the raised green with swales on the front and a hidden bunker on the top right plus a pond along the left side – if you try the risk reward shot you need to fly the trees and the bunker and natural area to hit the tight fairway and if you play the safe route you’ll need to make sure not to overshoot the end of the fairway and OB and avoid the big bunker waiting for you if you’re tee shot is a little long

That’s all good news and makes this a must play course if you’re anywhere near it, but the bad news is that Divide Ranch has suffered through a severe drought, limited snowfall, and water restrictions which have dramatically impacted the fairway conditions.  When we played the fairways were dry and cracked with limited to no grass and the same was true of the rough.  What a shame - but management is actively working on a solution and has started filling some ponds that will help with watering the fairways. They have also lowered the rack rate to compensate for the conditions. Pray for rain.

The greens at Divide Ranch were in very good condition with few to no bare or damaged areas.  The superintendent is cutting them high to help with the water restrictions which makes them soft but very slow.  The greens are all shapes and sizes, a few are raised, most have at least one bunker, and they all have some slope or contour.  They run true and are fairly easy to read – adjusting for the slow speed was a problem for us, but that should be solved once they fix the water problem.

The fairways are fairly tight but the rough is wide and provides a recoverable shot.  Miss the fairways and rough and you’ll need to reload. The majority of the fairways have some slope and contour and lots of uphill as well as downhill shots plus the front nine has lots of berms along each side of the fairway and around the greens– so expect some uneven lies. There are some huge beautiful homes that line the fairways, you’ll see some wildlife grazing in or along the fairways, and the views of the towering San Juan Mountains are breathtaking.

The bunkers at Divide Ranch Golf Club range in size and shape but most are about average size with a thin lip – you may get lucky and hit in and roll out, but don’t count on it.  A couple of the bunkers are steep and deep.  The sand was gritty and thin and hard to get under.

Bottom line – the fairway conditions are not good but management has lowered the price to compensate for that. The layout is great and a lot of the holes are memorable.  This course has lots of potential and we can’t wait to play it again when the conditions are better.

Read all about this fun trip to Southern Colorado/Northern New Mexico where this is one of the courses we played.

Dsc_0895 Dsc_0899 Dsc_0914

Course Slope & Ratings

Tee Box Yardage Rating Slope
Blue 6,402 69.8 124
White 5,909 67.8 113
Gold 7,039 71.9 136
Red 5,291 71.4 125

Course Information

Greens Condition
8.0
GPS:
No
Course Map
Beware of water on 4 holes and the 37 sand traps.

Texas Outside Rating

Overall Rating:
8.5 out of 10
Beauty:
8.8
Difficulty:
8.5
Variety:
9.0
Fun to Play:
9.0
Value:
8.5
Condition:
6.0
Front Nine Rating:
8.5
Back Nine Rating:
8.5
Dsc_0925

FEES & AMENITIES

Approximate Weekend
Rates: $49.00 to $89.00

The pro shop has the basics, all of the staff is very friendly and outgoing, the practice facilities are adequate, the clubhouse is beautiful and upscale, and the restaurant has a great bar and some very good food.

Dsc_0917

 

Here's How Texas Outside Determines the Scorecard Rating

The Texas Outside rating scale ranges from 1 to 10 – a perfect 10 course would be something like this:  links along a cliff overlooking the Pacific ocean and bordered by tall trees; lush fairways on rolling hills with lots of natural hazards; water (which is crystal clear) on most of the holes; immaculate greens (but they are undulating and tough); lots of variety and character (each hole is completely different and includes blind shots, elevation changes, doglegs, and significant challenges); perfectly manicured traps with the whitest and prettiest sand you’ve ever seen; a nice club house with great food and a 19th hole; a GPS; plenty of beverage carts or your own cooler and ice; and it only costs $40 bucks! What this means is that you probably won’t find any 10s in Texas – try Cabo San Lucas, Pebble Beach, or some of the Hawaii courses! 
Texas Outside rates courses on the following:

  • Beauty – tall trees, rolling hills, beautiful houses, waterfalls, and similar stuff would score high; a 1 would be flat, bushes or cactus instead of trees, and some grass but mostly weeds
  • Difficulty – a straight, 300 yard par 4 with no traps or hazards, no out of bounds or water would probably get a 1; if it is a 460 yard par 4 over two ravines, with water along one side, natural hazards on the other, strategically placed traps or that dreaded tree right in the middle of the fairway, we are talking a 10. 
  • Variety – what would you give a course where all the holes looked and played exactly the same (“I thought we just played that hole!”); were side-by-side, which is good for finding or dodging other people’s balls, but not much fun; and you can see the flag from every tee box?  That’s right, it gets a 1.
  • Fun Scale – a 10 is where you walk off the course and say “now that was fun” and you can’t wait to get back, or you immediately turn around and play another 18 holes
  • Value – a 5 is $50 to $60, a 10 is $20 to $30, and 1 is $200 or so – of course all of this is dependent upon how you liked the course.  For example, if a run down, boring municipal course, with six players on each hole was only $10; it would still get a value rating of 1.
  • Condition – this one’s pretty easy – what condition are the fairways. A 10 commands very lush perfectly manicured fairways, compared to a 1, which has fire ants, weeds, and more dirt than grass!
  • Condition of Greens and Difficulty – very hard to read greens with lots of undulation and tough pin placement, rate very high on the difficulty scale.  Condition is self-explanatory.  

All of the above determines the overall score for the golf course.  In other words, we like courses that are pretty, fun, very challenging with a lot of variety, and fairways and greens in excellent condition – all for $40.  We also tend to play the courses that are affordable for the masses, which means in the $30 to $80 range. We rate hard and we haven’t found a 10 in Texas yet – don’t worry we haven’t given up and we’re still looking.