49 we did a sample project, and it went well,” he says. “They wanted to give me a perk, an upside. ‘We want you to be our architect, but we also want you to be part of the club’. So, they gave me a membership. I worked for free for a number of years – there’s no way I will ever catch up – but eventually we renegotiated and I started getting paid for the work!” Given that Atkinson lives on property, he is a very active member of the club. “My friends are here, and I socialise here,” he explains. “Everyone knows me – I’ll go to a holiday party, see some old friends, people I really want to hang out with, and I will run across a member who has a bone to pick about a particular hole. I’ll say, ‘Look, I’m happy to talk to you about it, but I’m here to socialise with friends. This isn’t the time or place; I’m a member of this community and I’m here to hang out’. “The golf course was originally designed in 1975 by Stanley Harwood, the rancher who lived on the property. The members ended up acquiring the course in the late 1990s, and there was a lot of work that needed doing. It had kind of a funky routing and several holes that needed improving. He definitely had his heart in the right spot – he tried to keep on top of technology and built his greens with the Purr-Wick method. The setting of the community is stunning, with beautiful views of the Red Rocks amphitheatre, downtown Denver and the Rocky Mountains. We must have done 15 projects in the time I have been out here. It’s almost like I’m a full-time staff member. Four years ago, we did a greens reconstruction – to make them drain properly. “Generally, I love the role I play, but there are times when you just want someone to ask about your kids, or your business, rather than complaining about a new bunker. There are many times when I think, ‘I just want to go have a beer with my buddies and not be hassled about the golf course. That gets tiring after a while. But I do love what I do, and I’m very proud of what the place has become, so it’s a badge of honour. When I first started as their architect, I was just their architect. But as I became more involved, I became more interested in the area, and the property, so we wrote a book about the history of Red Rocks Valley. Now, we’re integrating that into the clubhouse so the members can share in what we have learned about what has happened on this land over the last few hundred years.” David Hoekstra knew the municipal Bos Landen course in Pella, central Iowa, long before he became a golf architect. “It’s literally my parents’ backyard,” he laughs. “It was built in 1994 by Dick Phelps, and I actually played the back nine before it was grassed. I was only 12 at the time – very neat to see that process so close to home. I worked on the maintenance crew, which got me into the turfgrass side, and I did my internship there. It has gone through some ups and downs and in 2020 the superintendent HOME COURSES David Hoekstra learned to play golf at Bos Laden in Iowa and has been overseeing renovations there since 2020 Photo: David Hoekstra
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