Beautiful golf in Steamboat
This 233 acre, city-owned public golf course features at least four sets of tees per hole, playing from 5,059 to 7,308 yards. It has been described as a core golf course built for golfers. There is no residential development, no distractions except for the broad vistas of the Yampa Valley and Mount Werner. The course offers good green size with different cupping positions. It also has a substantial practice area driving range, sand trap, chipping and putting green. Haymaker accommodates and challenges golfers of all ability levels from novice to professional. Nationally acclaimed golf course architect Keith Foster was given a challenge to design a championship-caliber course in the heart of Colorado s Yampa Valley and integrate the rich pastoral background of this ranching community while maintaining a precious balance with nature. Foster, designer of the award-winning Quarry golf course in San Antonio, Texas, went to work designing a course that would be challenging, but user friendly. The design would also incorporate the 360 degree views of the surrounding valley, mountains and maintain native grasses and wetland areas. There, out of the rock piles created by previous attempts to build a golf course, emerged Haymaker. With only 110 acres used for fairways and greens, Haymaker preserves the open space legacy that is important to the local community. Native grasses and wetlands enhance the wide open fairways that exhibit links-style characteristics. The course itself was molded to resemble the contours of the surrounding valley and mountains. Working closely with the Audubon Society s Signature Status Program, Foster and Wadsworth Golf Construction Co., of Phoenix, built a spectacular course that even blue herons call home.
