A bevy of newborn beauties: a summary of cobizmag.com reviews of the state's newest golf courses, from Ballyneal in Holyoke to upscale Ravenna and Trinidad's Cougar Canyon.

As we sit here in the forlorn, nearly empty, post-Christmas office at WiesnerMedia in the middle of a raging snowstorm, thoughts turn to the pleasant: the bevy of new golf courses that we were fortunate enough to review during the warm, sunny fall of 2007 for cobizmag.com's golf coverage.

We critiqued new or redeveloped golf courses and added a business story about the new development. Perhaps it is due to our business reader audience that the business stories are downloaded more than the course reviews. In case you missed them, here is a summary of the stories and reviews. (You can still read the complete reviews at cobizmag.com.)

Heritage Todd Creek

Veteran course architect Arthur Hills was hired to design a course that is the centerpiece of Lennar Homes Heritage Todd Creek development focused on the 50--and--over crowd. Hills did a magnificent job of designing a course that was inventive and both playable and challenging at the same time. The course is public now but is destined to become semiprivate, serving residents of the 1,300-unit mixture of single-family homes, town houses and duplexes.

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The homes are aimed squarely at the middle-class active retiree, ranging in price from the low $300,000s. The duplexes are in the high $200,000s to low $300,000s, and the town houses are in the low to mid $200,000s. A golf course that serves as a community's top amenity should fit the players who live there, and this is where Hills' wide-open design featuring large chipping areas is appropriate. It also takes into account the prevailing prairie winds.

Ballyneal

Building on the success of Prairie Dunes in Hutchinson, Kan., the O'Neal family in Holyoke turned some beautiful but previously useless dunes land in the middle of their farm into a haven for golf purists. Ballyneal was designed by hot architect Tom Doak, who lists Pacific Dunes on his resume, and features the same kind of fescue grass that grows on Scottish and Irish dunes-land courses.

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Reviewers loved that the course had no development on it and its clever routing through the dunes. No carts are permitted on the private course, which costs $50,000 to join, plus $5,000 a year in dues. There is a hunt club included in the membership, and members can rent out cabins, but there are no large group facilities.

Ravenna

Ravenna is an ultra-high end, $500 million development in Douglas County on the west side of the hogbacks that guard the approaches to the Rockies. No expense was spared in presenting residents with top amenities, including the $15 million golf course that features attractive slate rock retaining walls colored to match the surrounding geology Lots of up to an acre cost from $300,000 to $900,000, and homes start at $1.2 million. A full-service concierge at the planned $20 million Tuscan-style clubhouse provides everything from auto service to travel arrangement.

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Reviewers found the mountainous par 71, 7,263-yard course dramatic, exciting--especially the death-drop 230-yard par 3 16th that is arguably Colorado's most spectacular--and difficult, with extremely sloped greens.

Blackstone

The new Blackstone Country Club in Aurora ably fills in as the developments centerpiece, what Lennar calls its higher-end mix of homes in four developments the company created in the area. The appeal is larger homes on a golf course that range in price from the mid $300,000s to $800,000. The Jay Morrish design features the mighty 13th hole that crosses a ravine twice, "an angry, twisting dragon's back of a hole that is all you can eat from the tee to the green for its 642 yards," the review said.

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Cougar Canyon

Since the days of Kit Carson, pioneers have traveled through southern Colorado seeking their fortune.

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The group behind Cougar Canyon is doing the same in Trinidad, targeting middle-class buyers of homes from $300,000 to $500,000. For now, the course is open to the public but $15,000 deposit-style memberships ($200 a month dues) are available, and plans are that only members and guests of the 117-room attached hotel will be able to play. The hotel will be able to accommodate up to 450 people at any one event.

The course is drop-dead gorgeous, and reviewers found it a challenging mix of interesting holes twisting through arroyos and mountain pine trees, with gigantic, black-sand bunkers. A 3,000-acre nature preserve and walking trails are also on the property.