Further details finalized about Bella Ridge Golf Club, which plans a fall opening in Johnstown
By Gary Baines – 8/5/2025
The first regulation golf course to debut in Colorado since 2022 plans to open this fall, likely sometime in September.
The home page of the website for Bella Ridge Golf Club in Johnstown, just north of Firestone and a mile or so east of I-25, says “Opening Fall 2025!” And it provides some photos and videos of the site. An August newsletter and course update that was emailed on Friday, Aug. 1, said “we will be open for preview play soon!”
“Our team is putting the finishing touches on the course, and we’ll be announcing the official opening date soon — stay tuned!” the email said.
The email and the website did provide some additional details about the public course, located at 2990 Weld County Road 44.
— The par-72 course will play anywhere from 3,566 to 7,315 yards and to a par-72. As many as eight sets of tees can be utilized in that range. Bella Ridge is designed by Art Schaupeter, who also was a the architect for two other courses in the area between the northern Denver suburbs and Fort Collins — TPC Colorado in Berthoud and Highland Meadows in Windsor.
— The site of a former dairy farm, the course will have 50 bunkers and numerous water features, with “expansive” fairways. It features almost 200 feet of elevation change and includes featured views of Longs Peak.
The scorecard from the Bella Ridge GC website.
— Practice-wise, there’s a 400-yard driving range that’s 150 yards wide, two 15,000-square-foot putting greens, and three dedicated short-game holes.
— The course includes four par-3s, 10 par-4s and four par-5s. From the back tees, par-5s range from 527 to 646 yards, the par-4s from 276 to 506 yards, and the par-3s from 151 to 261 yards. The layout features three short par-4s — 276, 303 and 310 yards. From the back tees, the course rating is 74.6 and the slope is 140.
(Photo: BellaRidgeGolf.com)
— The holes are named; among them are Valley of Risk … Reward?, Dare Ya, Ridge Runner, Udderly Long, Bolder … Boldest … Bold, Carried Away, Dam Deceptive, and Podtburg Point, named for the family who long worked a dairy farm on the site.
For more information about Bella Ridge GC — a Troon-managed facility — visit the website by CLICKING HERE.
The Bella Ridge GC logo from the course’s website.
About the Writer: Gary Baines has covered golf in Colorado continuously since 1983. He was a sports writer at the Daily Camera newspaper in Boulder, then the sports editor there, and has written regularly for ColoradoGolf.org since 2009. The University of Colorado Evans Scholar alum was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2022. He owns and operates ColoradoGolfJournal.com