by Andre Sanchez

If you are a golfer, like scenery and have a family that is into winter sports, then Colorado is the just the place for your annual vacation.  If you time it right you can fit in skiing and golfing at the same resort, and many of the best courses are open most of the year, if not all year round. In fact a large number are open all year round, perhaps closing for Christmas Day.

There is nothing worse than going on vacation and having the rest of your family complain when you shoot off for a round of golf. If you are like most of us, you only really get  the chance for one main annual vacation, and if you want to fit in some golf it can be a real  pain if you are the only keen golfer in your family.

The answer is to find a resort where you can get your golf and the rest can get up to whatever they are interested in.  If that is winter sports, then Colorado is the place to go.  Perhaps you have a main vacation in the sun, and have another week free in the winter. A week is ideal for a golfing vacation mixed in with some great winter sports, and Colorado is the ideal place to take it, with the magnificent scenery, great slopes and loads of championship courses.

Vail and Beaver Creek are the paces to go for great skiing and fantastic mountain scenery.  Wherever you look there are mountains, forests and magnificent lakes, and these two resorts share four marvelous championship golf courses that will test any golfer.  Don’t forget that you are playing at altitude, and your drive will be 10% farther  than normal.  Your 300 yarder will soar a magnificent 330 yards in Vail, but there is more to Colorado that just these mountain resorts.

Denver itself offers plenty of good golf from the par 70 Inverness Golf Course, open all year round, to the hilly course at Arrowhead with its backdrop of the Rockies.  Colorado Springs is home to the Patty Jewett Golf Course, another course that is open all year, and the city offers a massive range of winter sports from skiing and skating to snowboarding and everything else you can think off.  You can head off for the course while your partner and the kids head off for the slopes.

One piece of advice you should take is to have plenty of balls with you on each round.  With the hilly courses and lots of streams, forests and lakes, you have to be pretty accurate if you want to leave with the balls you started with. The kids do a roaring trade with lake balls all over Colorado, so make sure they are not yours they are selling.

If you want a really great course designed by a professional – Jim Engh, named Architect of the Year by Golf Digest in 2003 – try Redlands Mesa Golf Club at Grand Junction.  This championship course was the Best New Affordable Course in 2003, and is again open all year round.  The Powderhorn Ski Resort is not far away, and you can also go biking if you want to really enjoy the fabulous scenery.  There is no better way to get away from the noise and the hustle and bustle of city life.

You are also not far from the Colorado National Monument, and the Tiara Rado Golf Club, a very popular course littered with water hazards – so watch these balls again. If you prefer a links type of course, try the high plains course of Saddle Rock in Aurora.  Each hole is styled differently and you can have some golf instruction thrown in.

I could go on and on,. But you get the idea now that Colorado is more than just skiing and skating. Tell the family that you are taking them for a winter sports holiday, but don’t let them know that golf is also a winter sport in Colorado. They will think it too snowy for golf, but that is a misconception many people from out of state have. Once you are all there, it’s too late for them to complain!

Golf exploded in Colorado, because many of the resorts noticed that most of their facilities were unused in spring and summer, so they discovered golf to make best use of the tourist infrastructure built around the ski slopes. It proved very successful for the state, and it was soon discovered by visitors that they could golf all year round and fit in golf and skiing on the one vacation.  Colorado is ideal for a family golf vacation combined with winter sports.

Take advantage of that and have yourself the vacation of your dreams:  golfing all week long without a single murmur of complaint.  Shear heaven!

Colorado for a Family Golf Vacation and Winter Sports was originally published at http://www.golfplayernow.com