Bill Coore felt something familiar. As he walked Rodeo Dunes—a massive 2,000-acre site with six planned courses 30 minutes north of the Denver airport—the legendary architect couldn’t help but reminiscence on his first time exploring Sand Hills.
Sand Hills, built by Coore and his design partner Ben Crenshaw 30 years ago on an incredibly natural site that would pave the way for both the modern minimalism movement in architecture and also the pursuit of remote sites that proved people would travel for great golf, is different land than Rodeo Dunes. The chop dunes of Colorado, similar to the land where Ballyneal was built two hours away, are more abrupt and provide different-looking landforms than Sand Hills. But Coore, now 78, couldn’t ignore the emotions as he studied Rodeo Dunes.
“In a nutshell, that’s why I’m still doing what I do,” Coore said. “It does conjure up memories for me personally. Those early days of walking on the site that became the Sand Hills and the initial days and weeks of walking on the site that is now becoming the Rodeo Dunes, it’s what me and Ben started out hoping for all those years ago: Finding truly interesting different types of sites that have the opportunity to yield very distinctively different golf courses.”
Rodeo Dunes sits within the abrupt dunes of northeast Colorado, which some might compare to what you’d see in Ireland.
Jeff Marsh
Coore and Crenshaw’s course at Rodeo Dunes opened for preliminary preview play last week, and we had the opportunity to be one of the first to play the course. Dream Golf, which owns and operates Bandon Dunes and Sand Valley, in addition to another new project in Texas, Wild Spring Dunes, and another property to come in Florida, invited its founders and some other select guests to see the course for the first time. Rodeo Dunes will open for only its founders and VIPs in Spring 2026 with public tee times available for 2027. Tee times will open up in February 2026 for a chance to book reservations for 2027.
The first hole is a perfect introduction into what you’ll see at Rodeo Dunes. The ideal line is over the left fairway bunkers, and if you clear them, you’ll have a clear shot into the green. Bail out right off the tee, and a massive sand dune guards your view of the green.
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(All visuals courtesy of Jeff Marsh/Dream Golf)
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It’s a bit of an unlikely story how Rodeo Dunes came to be. Michael Keiser Jr., who has taken over the day-to-day oversight from his father, Mike, to run Dream Golf, found his mind wandering in an airport one day. He had been in search of the next great site to build a golf destination, and he wondered: “I wonder if there’s any land that might be similar to Ballyneal.” Keiser started doing some Google Earth sleuthing, tracing the chop dunes of Ballyneal in northeast Colorado and looking at land around the outskirts of Denver. That’s how he stumbled across the 70,000-acre ranch of the Cervi family in the small town of Roggen, Colo., which has a population of 500 or so people, surely outnumbered by cattle.
The par-3 ninth hole with the Cervi’s grain ladder in the distance.
Jeff Marsh
Keiser decided to explore the land himself, traveling to Roggen and jumping over a fence one day about eight years ago. He was met by a younger cowboy who politely asked him to leave—but the visit confirmed what the Dream Golf CEO had thought—this would be perfect land for golf.
Eight years later and after a four-plus-year negotiation for 2,000 acres of the Cervi family ranch (the family had never sold its land in over 140 years of owning land), and Rodeo Dunes is here. Coore and Crenshaw’s course will be followed by a second course by Jim Craig, a shaper on many Coore and Crenshaw courses in the past. Craig’s first big opportunity came at Sand Valley, where his 12-hole Common course opened in 2025. He’ll get to follow in his mentors’ footsteps, literally, at Rodeo Dunes. Craig’s land is very different than where the first course sits, Keiser says.
The 17th is one of the most fun holes at Rodeo Dunes—a short par 4 where a bold tee shot can get you in trouble—or result in an eagle opportunity.
Jeff Marsh
“Within each course, there’s a huge amount of variety,” Keiser said. “And [Coore’s] routing took advantage of that so nicely. Every hole is distinct and memorable. I love that we really tried to leave as much of the quirky stuff as possible out there.”
Coore acknowledges that Rodeo Dunes is “without question” one of the boldest, brawniest courses his firm has ever built. You’ll have more blind shots than any Coore and Crenshaw course you’ve played.
A look at the intriguing par-4 fourth hole from the upper-left plateau, which is your ideal line—or else you’ll face a blind shot.
Jeff Marsh
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Some people might not like the quirkiness. In sticking to their theme of minimalism, in this case and in all their courses, it’s what the land dictated, Coore said.
“If we’re just talking about our courses, it is uniquely quirky. I’d like to think it’s wonderfully quirky,” Coore said. “Some people will no doubt disagree with that I guess.
“We talked about doing some major earthwork to level some of the valleys that lay beyond the ridges. We stood out there at length, and we decided that this is old-fashioned golf. They would not have changed this land in Ireland or Scotland. They would’ve said, ‘Hey, this is pretty good. Let’s go.’ While we could have done some major work to change it, maybe for more visibility on a few shots, we didn’t perceive that as detrimental.”
Here’s a look at a few of our favorite holes, thanks to drone footage from Jeff Marsh.
We absolutely love the fourth hole. It speaks to exactly what Coore is talking about. The fairway is split by a massive ridge that runs from the right side of the fairway, but there’s a landing zone on the left side to hit, and if you do, you have a great look into the green, which is guarded by a delightful mound that was there.
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The 12th hole has a similar ridge cutting through the fairway, sort of the inverse of the fourth hole, where a tee shot on the right side of the fairway is the ideal line of play.
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The 17th is a terrific short par 4 in the perfect place in the routing, a great risk-reward penultimate hole. It reminded us a bit of Ballyneal’s all-world seventh hole, just with more visibility from the tee. The Ballyneal comparisons are only natural out here.
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There are similiarities at Rodeo Dunes to the massive dunes of courses in Ireland or some of the quirkiness of courses in Scotland. There’s also bits of Shinnecock and other great classic courses. But the comparisons to Ballyneal or Sand Hills, given Rodeo Dunes’ location, is unavoidable.
Coore is thankful for another opportunity on gifted land, as he often starts interviews at new course openings acknowledging how lucky he feels that course developers trust him and Crenshaw with fabulous pieces of land to build new courses. Of course, with great opportunity comes great challenge, and with those Sand Hills memories, he remembers also feeling a bit of pressure about getting the course right.
“It is one of those things, as you’re walking around the land, you think, ‘If we don’t do something really pretty darn special here, we failed,’ ” Coore said.
“I’ve been asked so many times about Sand Hills. People say, it must have been so much fun. It was fun in many ways. It was really not fun in others because potential. We knew the potential of that site. And potential, as you know, is a very sharp edge-to-edge sword. That brings me lot of pressure. If you live up to it, OK. If you don’t, it’s not really much fun. So that’s always in the back of your mind and to a degree, certainly to a slightly lesser degree, but that same feeling existed at the Rodeo Dunes.”
Golfers will be thankful Keiser trespassed on this land off I-76. We’re thankful Coore devoted nearly 150 days exploring this land for a routing that will endure.
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This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
