Today a friend and I played a round at Shining Mountain Golf Course in Woodland Park. The course is about a half hour from Colorado Springs, up in the mountains. We had a tee time booked two weeks ago, but cancelled because of snow showers. Brr! But, I guess it is getting to that time of year in Colorado.
Thankfully today turned out to be a great weather day. We teed off around 9:30 AM and while it was chilly to start, it warmed up to about 75 degrees. Comfortable. If I’m honest, the nice weather was probably the highlight of the day.
I didn’t expect Shining Mountain to be a premium course, but things didn’t get off to a great start. The course was cart path only and the greens were freshly aerated. I’ve played enough golf to know that these things are needed, but also think that a course should at least put something like that on the website. Then the rack rate is $85 this late in the season. Meh.

As you’ll see in the pictures, the overall conditions left a lot to be desired considering the green fee. The greens looked to be healthy surfaces, just bumpy from the recent aeration. The tees, fairways, and rough had many areas of stress from the summer.
When it comes to the layout – I thought that was decent. Shining Mountain is a John Harbottle III design with some funk and quirk to it. I’ve played a number of other courses designed by Harbottle and enjoyed many of them. Shining Mountain doesn’t have much elevation change, but it has nice views of the area. The setting here reminded me of the California foothills, not far from where I grew up.

We played the black tees which are 70.4/135/6623. Shining Mountain is a tale of two nines. The course is a par-71 with a par-34 front nine and par-37 back nine. It appears the 16th hole played as a par-4 previously, but it is now a reachable par-5. Nice. The front nine has plenty of character and requires some strategy. The back nine is more open, with just a couple tight holes. I think the biggest difficulty here is keeping the ball out of the tall grass. There are four or five holes with very narrow fairways.
My favorite hole on the front nine is the 3rd. It is a short par-4 (323 yards) and I’m sure the bigger hitters can get close to the green off the tee, especially playing at the high elevation. The green is tucked into a small hillside and looking back towards the tee provides a nice view of the mountains. The 17th, a 183 yard par-3, is the course’s signature hole. It is a challenging par-3 that plays downhill. Trees pinch the tee shot and the kidney-shaped green sits over a hazard. Tough to pick the right club.
I think Shining Mountain has plenty of potential. The layout is fine – albeit tight in spots – and the course is in a beautiful area. But, given the cost and scruffy presentation this late in the season, I wouldn’t go too far out of your way to play here.
Course Pictures (click any picture to scroll through the gallery):