After our morning round in Colorado Springs my friend and I returned to Denver. We had enough time for a bonus round and booked the Knolls Course at Riverdale Golf Courses. Riverdale is in Brighton, on the northeast side of town.
As the name indicates, there are two courses at Riverdale – the Dunes and the Knolls. I played the Dunes years ago and was interested in returning, however they just aerated the greens recently. So, it was an easy decision to play the Knolls and I got the benefit of adding a new course to my list.
Both courses at Riverdale are designed by Pete and Perry Dye. Given the big-name designers, I expected a bit more character from the Knolls course. I ended up playing well and enjoying the round, but the Knolls is quite nondescript. In comparison, I’d say the Dunes is one of my favorite Dye designs and worth a look on a golf trip to Denver.
We played the “square” tees which are 70.9/125/6784. The course plays as a par-71. I’d say the most difficult aspect about the Knolls is the water throughout the course. The course crisscrosses a couple of drainage canals and there are a few ponds that can come into play. It can be tricky to avoid the canals, depending on how far someone hits the tee shots. For example, the par-5 12th needs a long carry to get over the canal. Then the 13th has multiple forced carries over two canals.
As I alluded to earlier the post, the Knolls isn’t the most interesting course to play. That didn’t bother me given the price, but it might be a consideration for some. The course has large fairways, large greens and plenty of space to recover after a wild shot (assuming the ball avoids the water). There aren’t many bunkers and there isn’t much mounding in the fairways. I left feeling that the course needs some spice. Grass bunkers, tall grass, something.
As far as signature holes go, the best holes are the closing holes. The 16th is an uphill par-4 then the 17th and 18th play downhill. The 17th is a fun par-3 (172 yards) with a green that has quite a bit of slope. The pin was on the left half of the green which slopes hard to the left. The 18th is a 414 yard par-4 with a visually intimidating tee shot. A large tree is in the center of the fairway and water lurks to the right. However, there is plenty of fairway to the left that cannot be seen from the tee box.
The Riverdale courses are municipal courses and for the $31 green fee to walk, conditions were very good on the Knolls. The course was soft but everything played well. The tees and fairways were full and the ball sat up in the fairways. The greens rolled well, at a medium pace.
Overall, if someone is looking for a course that is in good shape, is playable, and has a reasonable green fee then the Knolls course is worth a look. That said, I wouldn’t recommend the Knolls to an out-of-towner since the Dunes course is on the other side of the parking lot.
Course Pictures (click any picture to scroll through the gallery):