Bella Ridge, a new 18-hole golf course in Colorado, has opened for preview play, with plans for an official opening in spring 2026. Designed by golf course architect Art Schaupeter, who is now a vice president at Troon’s TCS Construction Services. The course is located between Denver and Fort Collins on land that was formerly a dairy farm operated by the Podtburg family.
Schaupeter was first contacted to look at the property in 2017 where he met Stephanie and Sandy Podtburg to determine if building a golf course on the site was feasible. The architect completed some initial concept work to establish an acceptable routing for the golf course, and in 2021, the Podtburg family contacted the architect to indicate that they were ready to move forward with formal design and construction of the golf course.
Official opening of the course, as well as the practice facility – which includes a 400-yard range, a short-game area and a putting green – is scheduled for spring 2026. GCA spoke with Schaupeter to hear the story of the project.
What has been the vision for Bella Ridge?
The golf course was envisioned from the beginning by the Podtburg family to be a daily fee, public-access golf course, the first in the town of Johnstown. This was a stated priority of theirs. As the course sits only one mile to the east of interstate 25, it will be easily accessible for golfers who want to drive up from the Denver area or drive down from the Fort Collins area.
The golf course is very playable for all levels of players, with tees ranging from 3,300 yards up to over 7,300. It will be an ideal place for new golfers to learn the game and be comfortable playing while also providing all sorts of fun and challenge for established golfers of all levels. It is a unique golf property for this region of Colorado, with a lot of undulation and elevation change. The vision was to create a real adventure for the golfers as they wound their way through the property during their round, to engage them emotionally with very interesting and unique golf holes.
Why is this project so important from a public golf standpoint?
In terms of new golf course, there does seem to be a lot more private and high-end resort courses being built nowadays. The Bella Ridge project is important in that it is a real community asset that the family is developing. With that will come a sense of community pride as well as creating a great access point into golf for those who don’t currently play. New private courses and high-end resort courses cater to mostly existing golfers. Bella Ridge creates an opportunity to ‘grow’ new golfers, to introduce new players to the joys of playing golf.
Short tee areas have been incorporated into each hole with no forced carries from those tees. This will encourage family play and will create a more comfortable playing experience for beginner golfers of any age. To further encourage non-golfers to give the sport a try, there is also a very comprehensive, 20-acre practice facility that will give players expansive room to work on all aspects of their game. It is also positioned as a standalone facility, with its own parking area and check-in building so that players can conveniently go straight to the practice facility if they aren’t playing a round on the course.
This will create an inviting atmosphere for new golfers to come develop their skills. Besides a 400-yard-long range, the practice facility will include a large, short-game practice area, a precision chipping and pitching range and a large, 15,000-square-foot practice green.
I expect that Bella Ridge will pull a lot of public golfers from a wide area due to its accessibility, practice amenities and quality of golfing experience. Bella Ridge is the first new golf course in the region in recent years that is really focused on being accessible for all golfers.
Can you provide some insight into the routing process?
The routing process went well, primarily because the family was focused on creating a great golf course first and foremost. They allowed me to use the property as needed to create great golf with development being positioned around the layout. This allowed for the somewhat rare opportunity of creating a public golfing experience that is uninterrupted by the adjoining development. Golfers don’t traverse any neighbourhoods from start to finish – there are no holes that have development on both sides of them – it’s a core golf course that prioritises the golfer’s experience.
The divergent characteristics of the site also made the routing somewhat straightforward. The most interesting ground for golf wasn’t necessarily going to be good ground for development, and conversely, the ground that I left for development had very little natural interest for golf holes. It was then just a question of getting the holes organised on the interesting ground.
There were definitely a handful of found holes when I started routing the course, what I call ‘anchor’ holes. Regardless of how the initial, various routing concepts were laid out, these holes were always going to be a part of the mix. This group includes what ended up being holes eight, nine, eleven, twelve, fourteen and fifteen.
Holes eight and eleven are routed through a couple of beautiful valleys and it was very easy to envision strong golf holes in each of those locations. Holes nine and twelve are both played along dramatic ridgetops. Each hole is distinctly unique, utilising the existing terrain completely. These two holes bring golfers up to the highest elevation they’ve been to at that point in the round, so the increasingly dramatic views from the tees is a nice addition to the experience.
Hole fourteen is a unique, very reachable par four that completely uses the site as it was found. I think this will be a really fun and memorable hole for the golfers. The fifteenth is the ‘original’ golf hole. The family used to hit balls in the pasture in this location, hitting across the ravine into the dairy pens. They discovered the hole, I just formalised it into the shortest hole on the golf course, albeit with a bit of bite if players aren’t mindful of the precision required on such a short hole. This hole is appropriately named ‘Genesis’.
Another focus of the routing process was the opportunity to create multiple smaller golf course options. The layout has players returning to the clubhouse after the sixth and ninth. This will allow Bella Ridge to offer three- and six-hole rounds besides the traditional nine- and eighteen-hole rounds. These condensed rounds will be great for certain times of the day, week or year; for possible events; or just in general for golfers who want to play some golf but maybe don’t have three to four hours available. Each smaller loop has a great mix of holes, giving players a little taste of everything. The six-hole loop has a par three, a par five and four par-four holes with one of those being a short, risk-reward hole and one being a very long par four. The three-hole loop that starts and finishes at the clubhouse has one par three, one par five and a short par four.
Art Schaupeter’s routing for Bella Ridge (Image: Art Schaupeter)
In terms of creativity needed for some tight spots, the one challenging area on the property was getting around the large, existing pond in the middle of the property. It created a bit of a pinch point relative to the surrounding high ridges, and it also helped dictate the eventual clubhouse location.
One of the original clubhouse locations envisioned by the family and used for the initial routing layouts was up above hole seventeen on the high ridge overlooking most of the back nine and looking straight at the Front Range mountains. While spectacular for a clubhouse setting, this area wasn’t conducive to having two starting and two finishing holes that would’ve had to play out of and into it. Letting the ground dictate the routing resulted in holes ten, seventeen and eighteen playing through this area, which also allowed me to use the two anchor holes that would become holes eleven and twelve.
Holes seventeen and eighteen turned out to be really strong finishing holes with a lot of options and a lot of risk-reward strategy. The tenth was one I was a bit worried about in design and initial construction, but it really turned out good, a bit of a sleeper hole for me as the finished result far exceeded my initial expectations. The eventual clubhouse location, while at a slightly lower elevation, still has a fantastic setting and view of the Front Range, with far better golf holes playing out of it and back into it.
What will the playing experience be like at Bella Ridge?
I hope players will use words like ‘fun’, ‘adventurous’ and ‘engaging’ once they have played at Bella Ridge. As I’ve said since I started my own design firm over 20 years ago, 'fun is the foundation’. That applies to the golfers' experience as well as my general design philosophy. Throughout the design and construction process I’ve tried to refine the quality of the finished golfing experience always with an eye on making decisions that will add more fun to the experience.
The way this is accomplished at Bella Ridge is by giving players as many options of play as possible. I want to put the golf in the player’s hands and let them choose how they want to play each hole. Golfers that want to score well will need to pay attention to hole locations and then plot out a strategy that will give them good angles from which to approach the hole from. There aren’t a lot of bunkers on the course relative to most courses nowadays, I think 48 total. One of the main defences of the course that players will need to be aware of throughout the round are the ground slopes in the fairways and around the greens. Once the course gets firm and fast, the slopes will be big factors either helping players or potentially hurting them depending upon where the slope takes the ball. There will be a lot of room in the fairways and a substantial amount of short, bentgrass surrounds that will give players plenty of options with how to play shots around the greens.
Could you talk about the strategies players will have to employ to score well at Bella Ridge?
I’ll describe three holes that I think provide a wide range of strategic options in different ways. The par-five fifth will play longer than its yardage as the second and third shots play slightly uphill. It doesn’t have the extra-wide fairway or the split fairway that creates obvious options of play, but it does have subtle advantages that can make birdie or par much more manageable once players learn where to and where not to hit the ball, hence the name of the hole, ‘Line of Charm’. A relatively straight line from tee to green is the best line, but that requires players to flirt with the native depression on the left with their tee shot. If they can carry it to the top of a steep slope in the fairway on that line they’ll be on a great angle and gain an advantage on the second shot as they’d only need to flirt with a couple of bunkers on the right side short of the green to gain the advantageous position short-right of the green to approach any hole location along the length of the green. The long, skinny green sits at a 45-degree angle to the hole and alternatively, approaching from the left side brings the deep greenside bunker into play, leaving players with a forced carry over it while also being mindful of not reaching the back of the green where a quick falloff slope awaits. Third shots from short-right are very manageable and many players will likely chip and one-putt for birdie from this location.
Hole fourteen is the shortest of the three short, potentially reachable par-four holes on the course. On the scorecard this will look like an absolute ‘go-for-it' hole, but as players arrive at the tee, they’ll likely realise that the decision isn’t quite so automatic. The green sits on top of a hill, 30 feet above the players as they stand on the tee. The fairway is located down in an adjacent valley to the right and looks a lot more inviting than the green from the tee. A series of bunkers and grass hollows in the hillside below the green make it an all-or-nothing proposition if players want to hit to the green. Short-cut bentgrass on the side slopes of the green make things even more slick. For players that do go for it, there is a strong backstop slope two-thirds into the green that will help to corral well-played shots. There is a wide variety of potential results with tee shots and as with most of the holes on the course, most of those results leave players still in play and with an opportunity… an opportunity to hit a heroic and memorable recovery shot that will leave them thrilled if they’re able to pull it off. It’s part of the essence of what makes golf so much fun. The surprisingly short length of this par four is going to really tempt golfers to give it a go, especially if there is a bit of goading from their playing companions. It will be fun and it will be adventurous.
The third hole I will highlight is the seventeenth. While hole five was subtle with its strategic options, hole seventeen is the ultimate, obvious, options-of-play hole. Inspired by Alister MacKenzie’s ‘Lido’ hole, players arriving at the tee are faced with three very obvious options for their tee shot. Looking out from the tee towards the left side of the hole, there is the ‘bolder’ option of play – this will require a long water carry off the tee to a more undulating part of fairway left of a centreline bunker. Executing this tee shot leaves players with a long second shot to the peninsula green, but with no other hazards to negotiate other than some strong ridges that cross the fairway and leave the player with a semi-blind shot to the green.
Players playing straight down the hole will be taking on the ‘boldest’ option of play. The tee shot carry over the ponds and creek is the longest carry, and the shot must land in a narrow area of fairway situated between the bunker on the left and the pond on the right. Pulling it off will leave players in position A though, with the shortest shot to the green, full visibility of the surface and a great angle from which to approach most hole locations.
The final option off the tee is to the right side of the hole, the ‘bold’ option, which removes the tee shot water carry altogether. Players can play unobstructed to this alternate fairway area to the right of all water hazards. A strong ridge runs across this fairway just about where they’d want to land their tee shots. Carrying a more aggressive tee shot over this ridge will bring the end of the fairway… and the adjacent pond, very much into play. Leaving the tee shot short of the ridge will be very safe but will leave players with at least 190 to 200 yards to the green with a full carry over the pond to the peninsula green.
Hole seventeen will create a lot of drama towards the end of the round, challenge players to execute their chosen strategy and will generally be a lot of fun for all players to navigate, especially as the penultimate hole in the round.
Who helped to create Bella Ridge?
Besides the complete involvement and guidance of the entire Podtburg family, particularly Greg and Stephanie during construction, there was an entire team that deserves recognition for bringing the course to life. Troon was brought on board early in the development process to provide project oversight during construction before transitioning to helping the family manage and operate the golf course. Troon’s role included the set-up of the maintenance programme and course conditioning to ensure that it meets the established Troon standard.
Mitch Bryden slid over to Bella Ridge from TPC Colorado to grow-in the golf course and be the course superintendent. Ryan Flamm is the general manager, using his experience opening new golf courses to lead the transition from construction and grow-in to being open and operational.
Wadsworth Golf Construction was the contractor that built the course, with Art Jenkins being fantastic as the on-site project manager – always very organised and moving the project forward despite dealing with a variety of issues that cropped up throughout the process. Wadsworth president Pat Karnick was also committed to the project throughout construction, making regular visits to the site to help expedite decisions and shepherd the project along to a successful completion.
The irrigation system, provided by Toro/LL Johnson, was designed by Brian Keighin. Profile Products partnered with Golf & Sport Solutions to provide the greens mix and the bunker sand, and the irrigation pump was supplied by Precision Pumping Systems.
A shout-out goes to the Podtburg’s neighbour and friend Tom Cate and his crew, who provided a multitude of heavy equipment operations throughout the project, especially associated with initial site and dairy pond clean-up, irrigation pond excavation, dam construction, drainage swale construction, waterfall construction and any other random item that popped up and needed to be addressed quickly. He and his crew were indispensable, and they did a little bit of everything, filling in and helping to keep construction moving forward.