Courtesy of the club
Overview
Driving up, this public course in the center of Golden, Colo., seems to hold little promise. The locale is a hodgepodge of urban blight, with remains of a 19th-century clay pit mine edged by a high school, juvenile detention center, water park and fast-food joints. Which is why Jim Engh was the perfect architect to design Fossil Trace. His style, with recessed fairways and greens that twist, turn and funnel shots toward the center, dips beneath the urban landscape and places it out of view. What's more, Engh's emotional architecture aims to surprise and delight golfers. The back nine is one-of-a-kind—with the 11th through 15th playing beneath sandstone bluffs and rock monoliths, particularly on the 12th, where walls of fossils split the fairway and hide the green. Even the fishhook par-5 18th, all grass and water and no rock, is intriguing. Any time a course exceeds expectations, it's a fun day of golf.
About
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Ratings from our panel of 1,900 course-ranking panelists
100 GREATEST/BEST IN STATE SCORES
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Reviews
Review
“Fossil Trace is a fun course to look at...and even more fun to play. Engh makes excellent use of remnants, including bulldozers with rock piles, an abandoned chimney, dramatic rock outcroppings, and, yes, fossils as he sends the player across a very good site for golf. For such a busy course, playing conditions were terrific."
Read More2024
Review
“fun course that I recommend"
Read More2023
Review
“Interesting and challenging golf course built amongst massive outcroppings and pillars of clay and stone including actual dinosaur fossils on exhibit on the outstanding par 5 hole 12. The course includes a very good variety of golf holes requiring accurate tee and approach shots all impacted by the fact the course is played at an evaluation of 6000 feet. Shot options were available on the majority of holes either off the tee or into the greens. The course is well bunkered albeit the traps are not your typical variety. Instead, the majority of the bunkers are deep (3-5 feet) bordering the fairways and greens and were consistently narrow - there is no round or egg shaped bunker on the course. Clearly, the bunker design was a unique design feature of this course. Overall, enjoyable and challenging course."
Read More2023
Review
“Fossil Trace is an avant-garde design from the mind of Jim Engh that offers the golfer a ton of chances for birdie, but numerous chances for disaster as the player navigates the moonscape of wild mounds, scar bunkers, and multi-sectioned bowl greens. For the purist, Fossil Trace will not be your cup of tea, for the open-minded, it just may be your favorite course, or home to your best score!"
Read More2022
Review
“The 12th hole at Fossil Trace is one that exudes ingenuity, design and uniqueness. The fairway of this narrow Par-5 is lined with sandstone that contains trace fossils of palm fronds and triceratops footprints. You can get a closer view when you head from the 12th green to the 13th tee as the fossils are on the backside of the sandstone that lines the fairway."
Read More2022
Review
“Course is beautiful, and offers one of kind entertainment through fossils on the back. Course will feature all of Jim Engh signatures, such has bumper hills to kick your ball back into the fairway off the tee, and soup bowl greens to pad your GIR."
Read More2018
Review
“Fun course with prehistoric rock formations."
Read More2018
Review
“Some of the holes feel straight out of Golden Tee and can be gimmicky. Course maintains your interest by having variety throughout."
Read More2018
Review
“Jim Engh always is inventive. If you like quirk, FT has it in spades. I enjoyed the course, even the scattered boulders. It is a crowded course so be prepared for a long day."
Read More2018
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