Turning a Cornerstone

photo credit:Todd Langley

Reflecting the pioneer spirit of the Western Slope, Greg Norman’s bold new design highlights an exclusive luxury development southwest of Montrose.

An autumn sun warms a group of well-groomed men and women as they mingle around the eighth tee of the golf course at Cornerstone Colorado, a private, 6,000-acre residential community and resort club straddling Montrose and Ouray counties on the Uncompaghre Plateau. They’re “homesteaders,” founding members of the club, which has helicoptered many of them from Telluride, 45 minutes away by car but only 10 by chopper. Three of Colorado’s most picturesque mountain ranges—the West Elks, Cimarrons and Sneffels—surround the property, rising from behind the groves of quaking aspens and rugged, piñon-studded hillsides to serrate the skyline with white, shark-like teeth. 

The snow-capped peaks, however beautiful, aren’t today’s attraction. These well-heeled Westerners have come to meet Greg Norman—legendary golfer, entrepreneur and the designer of the course, slated to open this July. Norman and his team have been on-site for hours, going over the progress with Course Superintendent Tom Huesgen and General Manager Jim Mikula.

Wearing jeans and a mock turtleneck that approximates the golden hue of the turning aspens, Norman finally arrives to address the gathering. “You’re going to have a magnificent golf course,” he announces to an awe-struck group. He then asks: “You know the secret? I did my first visit on a snowmobile.”

According to Norman, the snow dictated the design of the course. “You could see the snow parting around the trees where the glades were. You could see the golf course laid out in the snow. When the snow melted, we knew exactly where we wanted to go.”

Where Norman went covered nearly 400 acres, nearly three times the footprint of an average course—but only 5 percent of the Cornerstone property. If anything, he says, the property’s massive scale presented the biggest challenge. “The long slopes on the mountain ranges tend to dwarf the holes. The bunkers look small, but they’re huge.”
The 7,921-yard layout climbs from 8,500 to 9,361 feet and required moving only 270,000 cubic yards of dirt to construct. “That’s less than half what most courses require,” he says, “and most of it was topsoil. This is diametrically opposed to the course we did in Vail at Red Sky, which required massive earthmoving and dynamiting.”
As they gather to take ceremonial drives and have Norman sign the soles of their commemorative MacGregor MacTec drivers, the members can only hope Cornerstone gets the kind of national fanfare Norman’s course at Red Sky Golf Club received. Odds are, it will.

That’s because Norman, an Australian by birth and a Floridian by choice, holds a special place in his heart for Colorado. It’s a love affair that predates his much-publicized involvement with erstwhile Aspenite Chris Evert and his 2003 course design at Red Sky. The 52-year-old, who counts the 1989 International at Castle Pines among his 20 PGA Tour wins, became so smitten during his annual visits that he purchased an 8,200-acre ranch near Meeker in 1997 and added to it seven years later by acquiring a contiguous 3,300-acre tract that includes the exclusive Seven Lakes Lodge. ”I love what the mountains and Mother Nature give me in Colorado,” he says. “I plan on keeping my place here for years to come.”
At Cornerstone, this connection has resulted in a course that follows a “least disturbance” design philosophy—maximizing open vistas, gulches and meadows, and framing holes with rock outcroppings, scrub oak and aspen. To oversee the rapid, flawless construction of the course, Cornerstone poached Course Superintendent Tom Huesgen from Pebble Beach Golf Links. Working hand-in-glove with Norman, he brought in snow-white sand from Emmett, Idaho, to fill the bunkers, adding high contrast to the Kentucky bluegrass fairways and bent-grass greens. Boulders embed the 10th, a stunningly beautiful par four that overlooks the valley leading to the West Elk Mountains; two holes later, you’re staring straight through to Mount Sneffels at the course’s highest point, the par-four 12th, the green of which seemingly perches at the end of the earth.

“Like all golfers, I love seeing the ball go forever on a beautiful mountain course,” Norman says. He compensates for Cornerstone’s high elevation with four par-fives that crack the 600-yard mark and three par-fours longer than 500 yards. The seventh, a 512-yard par four, requires a 280-yard carry. While these lengths seem a tad brutal—and would appear to validate Norman’s reputation for punishing course designs—those distances represent yardage from the “Shark” tees; in contrast, the middle and back tees challenge in more manageable ways. The seventh hole actually has eight sets of tees, making it more hospitable to all players.

Those players are the “homesteaders” who each have purchased one of Cornerstone’s 412 “homesteads” (home sites currently ranging in area from one-quarter acre to 200 acres and costing between $400,000 and $1.5 million) and have paid another $75,000 for golf privileges. This may be a far cry from the $16 the original homesteaders paid for land back in 1862, when they marked their properties with rock piles called “cornerstones.” But the Cornerstone team, supervised by five-star-hotel veteran Mikula and generously financed by Hunt Realty Corp. of Texas, ensures the warm, unpretentious spirit of “pioneer hospitality” endures. 

Amenities include classic concierge service, in-home catering, home preparation and care, vacation planning and more. The Cornerstone Lodge will offer swimming, a spa and fitness facility, and a restaurant headed by noted chef Peter O’Brien (who previously owned and operated Si Bon in Austin, Texas). Members enjoy the intimacy of the Mountain Club, a private lodge just steps from the gondola in Telluride Mountain Village, and get VIP access to the Telluride Film Festival. There’s also a program called Camp Cornerstone, a four-season, multi-generational club that organizes everything from mountain biking, bouldering, camping, hiking and horseback-riding trips on the property’s 3,000 acres of open space to cooking, fly-fishing and golf lessons.

Another perk is Cornerstone’s “virtual golf club,” organized by Director of Golf Mark Wood, a top-ranked instructor by both Golf and Golf Digest, who came from New Jersey’s exclusive Hamilton Farm Golf Club. “Because Cornerstone is a second home to so many people, we have members at some great clubs around the country,” he says. “We have the makings of something that could be really, really special. This year, I’ve already gone with members to the Masters and the Byron Nelson.” In addition, Wood’s wife, Kathy, a Golf for Women Top 50 instructor, will head the ladies program.
A proponent of golf as a sport, not a game, Wood will encourage players to walk the course. “The whole Colorado thing is being outdoors and part of nature,” he says. “We’re not going to mandate walking, but we’re going to provide forecaddies, so you can walk when you want, or ride when you want. And these caddies aren’t just bag-toters; they’re professional caddies who will enhance your experience.”

Wood is joint-venturing with Norman on the construction of Cornerstone’s practice facility, having achieved some notoriety in Sports Illustrated for the one he designed for Wayne Huizenga at Florida’s Grande Oaks Golf Club. “A practice facility shouldn’t be an afterthought, but so many are,” says Wood, explaining that “they’re usually the last thing to be built, and whoever is building the course can’t wait to leave, so they don’t really care about them. I’ve made my reputation by my instruction. So it matters to me. At Cornerstone, I’ve got the San Juans and Mount Sneffels as a backdrop. If I can’t make this facility great, then shame on me.” Wood plans on having all the latest testing equipment, full-length holes to play, and uphill and downhill lies on the practice range. “There’s nobody who plays this game who doesn’t want to play better,” he explains. “Even tour pros. The trick is to get people relaxed enough that they can perform. Then their confidence soars.”

With the help of Cornerstone’s pioneer hospitality to relax them, Wood’s homesteader members—even those who nervously skulled their ceremonial drives last autumn—should find themselves supremely confident once the course opens next month.