More than 17 years ago, world-renowned golf-course architect Jim Engh stood on the empty land where Four Mile Ranch Golf Club is now and pondered how to design a championship-level golf course.
Where does one begin?
For Engh, it was simple. Let the land be the guide.
“Let the land tell the story,” Engh said during a private gathering Tuesday at the Skyline Theater. “I just find interesting land forms and put golf onto it, and then let nature and golf figure out what the best way to do it is.”
Engh and his wife, Monie, were passing through town while traveling from Arizona to Idaho when they agreed to stop and meet with Four Mile Ranch Golf Club’s new owners, its staff, city officials, local developers and other invited guests.
The History
“This has always been one of my favorite projects,” Engh said. “I love the land, I love the people, I really love the town.”
Engh, now retired, said the focus of every golf course that he designed is about having fun and making it unique, interesting and wacky.
Four Mile Ranch looks at future development
“There are a lot of really interesting things about this golf course, making it so unique,” Engh said about Four Mile Ranch Golf Club. “The inspiration comes from the time I spent in Ireland and basically learned to appreciate the fact that the game of golf is not necessarily about strict rules, it’s not about elitism. It’s about people going out with friends and having fun.”
The course got a fair amount of national acclaim when it opened in 2008, just before the severe economic downturn that same year. Engh said the golf industry took a hit and the Four Mile development was lost in the shuffle.
“I am so glad that somebody is resurrecting it to a point of trying to be a national powerhouse again in the golf world,” he said. “What it does, it also raises the image of Cañon City. … I’m here sort of trying to get people to understand the golf course is a great thing for driving Cañon City into the future and doing it in the right way.”
During his career, Engh has secured some prestigious accolades. He was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame as Golf Person of the Year 2002 and Golf Digest’s 2003 Golf Architect of the Year.
Along with those honors comes the nod to Four Mile Ranch Golf Club for golfers around the globe.
New owners of Four Mile Ranch Golf Club get into the swing of things
“You have something special here, and anybody who can support it is going to support the whole community,” Engh said.
In addition to Four Mile Ranch Golf Club, other notable courses designed by Engh include Carne Golf Links – Belmullet, Ireland; Dongguan Hillview Golf Club – Guangdong Province, China; Dragon Hills Golf Club – Ratchaburi, Thailand; Jangsu Golf Resort – North Jeolla Province, South Korea; Redlands Mesa Golf Course – Grand Junction; and Sanctuary Golf Course – Sedalia.
The Future
Four Mile Ranch Golf Club was purchased by a private equity group in late 2023.
“We are not a bunch of Wall Street people, this isn’t BlackRock, we put about 100 individual investors together in order to buy this deal,” said Tait Duryea, a member of the ownership group, after Tuesday’s gathering. “We’re talking middle-class people investing in a vision, an idea, and it’s through the amazing vision that these guys have and their vested interest in the local community that we’ll be able to bring this thing to life.”
He wants the community to realize they’re not an out-of-state group that is coming in to make a buck.
“We really do want to create something special here,” Duryea said. “This town is incredible, we have such an amazing asset there, and if we work together, we can do amazing things for the community in terms of job growth and economic opportunities for folks.”
Johnathan Sims, one of the nine individuals in the ownership group, gave an update on development plans during Tuesday’s gathering.
Those plans include shifting some, but not all, residential densities southward, bringing more residential rooftops closer to existing infrastructure, and not extending so much into the hills.
There will be multi-family units in between two commercial zones, and around the perimeter will be single-family, rural residential and lower-density up around the golf course and to the north.
There will be open space, as well as a hiking/biking trail. Plans are in the works for a future clubhouse.
“The future clubhouse is going to be more of a community hang, a place where you can grab a bite, hang with friends, play games,” Sims said. “It’s more of an entertainment venue than an old traditional stuffy clubhouse.”
He wants the course to continue to be an experience for the entire community and the country, he said.
“We want to provide venues for when people come here and bring their friends,” Sims said. “We want to provide golf cottages, places to stay at the golf course.”
The owners are looking at potentially building golf cottages along one of the sides of the driving range so people can play golf during the day and then hit balls into the driving range at night.
“It’s more of a 24-hour experience rather than you come here, play golf and then you leave,” Sims said.
Preliminary plans also include moving the driving range onto Four Mile’s actual property, west of the 18th hole, and building a tournament pavilion where golfers and guests can gather for award ceremonies, watch people on the 18th hole and enjoy a unique view of the mountains.
“We are very excited to build these amenities and create more of a resort-style experience with this golf course,” Sims said. “We’re really focusing on user experience and enhancing what we have and very much keeping with Jim’s ethic – to let the land build this.”
Sims said Four Mile Ranch Golf Club is finally in the black financially, but the increasing water rates could put it at risk. Owners are working to connect to raw water, and they ask the community to advocate for them with city officials.
“I want to help us all understand the rare opportunity Cañon City has to be in a category of renowned golf course destinations in the world,” he said. “We have it here. The amenity is here. That is significant. We need to nurture it, preserve it and do what we can to preserve and enhance it.”
For more information on Four Mile Ranch Golf Club, visit https://www.fourmileranchgolf.com/.
For more information on Engh, visit https://www.enghgolf.com/home.
