RainDance National, a Fred Funk Design

Everything about RainDance National, a new golf course in Northern Colorado, is BIG, except for the guy who helped design it and the odds that it won’t hit. It’s big news that there’s a new golf course being built. According to the National Golf Foundation, there were only 18 new ones in 2019, and some of those were only nine holes. The number on the RainDance National scorecard, from the back tees, will be over 8,400 yards, which will make it one of the biggest and longest in the country. The 1,000-year-old arroyos that the course is built around are big. The mountains that surround the course are even bigger. The landing areas, greens and expectations for the finished product are also all big. And then there’s Fred Funk, one of the littlest and shortest hitters in professional golf, who’s the co-designer of RainDance National. Nothing is bigger than his smile as he walks the routing and talks about how much fun he has had getting the opportunity to break into the business of course design. Funk, who won the 2005 Players Championship, is quick to point out that at an elevation of 5,000-feet, with most holes playing downhill and with the ideal playing conditions being hard and fast, the length could be deceiving. In this episode of the Fire Pit, while sitting around a fire overlooking the arroyos, you’ll hear from Funk, Harrison Minchew, Funk’s co-designer who spent most of his career working for Arnold Palmer Design, and Martin Lind, the third-generation farmer who finally pulled the trigger on a project he’s been sitting on for over a decade.