Grand opening of Mike Lee 9 short course at Boomerang — honoring 2011 CGA Match Play champ — a heartwarming affair; Lee leaves ‘legacy of hope, joy and togetherness’
By Gary Baines – 8/14/2025
GREELEY — A couple of months ago at the awards ceremony for the CGA Match Play, the association’s longtime executive director, Ed Mate, made an apt comment about the ongoing work John and Amy Lee of Greeley are doing to pay tribute to their son, Michael, who passed away in December 2020 at age 28 after battling Covid-19.
Mate called it a “testament to goodness.”
On Thursday, another example of that goodness came to fruition. The Mike Lee 9, a short course built mainly for golf beginners at the Boomerang Links facility in Greeley, was formally dedicated and opened. A 24-by-18-inch cast aluminum plaque noting Michael Lee’s many personal attributes and the support the city of Greeley and others provided in making Mike Lee 9 a reality sits on a pedestal near the first tee.
About 80 people, including the mayor of Greeley, John Gates, took part in the festivities honoring Lee, a well-liked, respected, upbeat young man who played high school golf at Greeley Central and won the CGA Match Play Championship in 2011. At the Colorado School of Mines, he twice was named the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Player of the Year and earned NCAA Division II honorable-mention All-American status in 2013. In 2022, Michael Lee was inducted posthumously into the Mines’ athletics Oredigger Hall of Fame, and that same year, the Mines’ indoor golf center was dedicated to his memory and renamed in his honor.
Kids, along with Michael Lee’s younger brother Joe (left), try out the new SNAG course.
And now, Michael Lee’s name will live on the town where he grew up, thanks to a partnership of the Michael Ray Lee Foundation and the City of Greeley, along with the support of countless others.
“We want young kids to love the game,” John Lee, Michael’s dad, told Colorado Golf Journal. “And it’s so gratifying to know that Michael’s name will live on forever through this course. That really what warms our hearts. … It’s been a community effort for sure.”
John and his wife, Amy, spearheaded this project through the MRL Foundation. Gates suggested to the Lees that the foundation apply for an American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) grant, which Amy did, and they eventually received $350,000 that went to the project. In all, ARPA provided $350 billion in aid to state, local, tribal and territorial governments to help them recover from the Covid pandemic.
So the $350,000 largely funded the Mike Lee 9, with the city of Greeley picking up the rest of the cost for the roughly $500,000 project.
The Mike Lee 9 sits on about 2 acres at Boomerang.
The SNAG (Starting New at Golf) par-3 course, designed and overseen from a construction standpoint by Rick Phelps, is very short, with holes ranging from 27 to 66 yards. Golfers playing there are limited to SNAG equipment rather than traditional golf clubs and balls.
SNAG “kits” feature clubs withheads that are larger than conventional ones and are typically made of plastic or fiberglass. SNAG balls are roughly the size of tennis balls, and players tee off from an artificial grass surface mounted on a concrete pad, though the rest of the course features natural grass.
Gates called Thursday’s event “a special day for our community.
“Today we gather not to just open a new golf course, but to celebrate something much more meaningful. … The Mike Lee 9 represents more than a recreational opportunity; it’s a gathering place where families will create memories (and) young people will learn the game. … This short course embodies what makes Greeley special — our ability to honor our past while building our future.”
Many entities — from the Lee Foundation to the city — and people played a part in making the Mike Lee 9 a reality, contributing anything from financial support to planning to physical work to logistics, etc., etc.
“So many people have stepped up,” Amy Lee said. “We wouldn’t have been able to do this without people’s support; there’s no way. And it’s because Mike was who Mike was that we’ve had so much support.”
Even some very young aspiring golfers took a stab at the short course on Thursday.
Mike Lee, who earned his degree at Mines in petroleum engineering, subsequently had been working as a Colorado-based senior drilling engineer for Occidental Petroleum. He was living in the Denver metro area.
John Lee noted in his remarks to the assembled crowd on Thursday what this project has meant to the family and the area.
“This course stands as a testament to Michael’s spirit and our shared dedication to building a brighter future for our community,” John said. “… A legacy of hope, joy and togetherness. Michael, you will never, ever be forgotten. We love you. We miss you terribly. I hope we are making you proud.”
Joe Lee, at 29 Michael’s younger brother by 3 1/2 years, struck on a similar theme.
“The goal of this is to hopefully bring a little bit of joy to families the way golf has brought joy to me and my family,” he said. “The best memories that I have are playing golf with Mike and my parents. If we can even bring that a little bit to other families, then mission accomplished.”
Among those in attendance on Thursday was Greeley mayor John Gates (behind podium), who helped make the Mike Lee 9 become a reality.
Creation of the Mike Lee 9 certainly wasn’t without its hiccups along the way. Most notably, originally it was hydroseeded, but a set of heavy spring rainstorms washed that away. Then those involved went to Plan B — simply sodding the 2-acre site located near the 10th hole of the Boomerang Links championship course.
As it turned out, the Mike Lee 9 “far exceeds my expectations,” Joe Lee said. “I couldn’t have dreamed of doing something like this. It’s such a meaningful thing to us.”
Also among those who attended Thursday’s grand opening was Michael’s coach at Mines, Tyler Kimble.
“This is something special,” said Kimble, who recently caddied for former Mines golfer Jim Knous as the latter won the Inspirato Colorado Open. “Young kids playing this course and remembering Mike. They’ve got his name on everything — the plaque, the tee markers, the golf flags. It’s just really special. I’m excited about it.
“This is where he grew up. Obviously, he had a huge impact on golf in the state of Colorado with his accolades, but this is right in his community. Now the young kids will remember him forever. Maybe they’ll ask, ‘Who’s Mike Lee?’ Maybe they’ll look him up. They’ll find out a lot of cool stuff out there about him.”
Among the first to tee it up on Thursday were several local youngsters.
Among many other things they may find out is that Lee was a stellar amateur golfer. One of the reasons the SNAG course was selected as a good way to honor him was to help plant seeds among Greeley-area youngsters, some of whom might bud into formidable golfers in their own right.
That’s exactly what the Michael Ray Lee Foundation has been trying to foster through donating SNAG kids — costing $3,600 each — to 13 different elementary and middle schools in the Greeley area.
“The sooner we show kids how fun and rewarding golf can be, the more likely they are to embrace this sport that they can play for a lifetime,” noted Chris Colling, golf divisionmanager for the City of Greeley.
Noted John Lee: “This (course) ties in beautifully with what we’ve been doing with the schools.
“The Mike Lee 9 is more than just a place to play; it’s a space designed to plant seeds of greatness in our youth, nurturing their potential to become skilled golfers while fostering a love for the game.”
The cost to play the Mike Lee 9 is free this weekend (Aug. 15-17). Then the fee (including SNAG kit usage) will be $7 for adults, $5 for juniors, free for kids under 5, and $2 replays for those 5 and older.
The plaque located near the first tee of the Mike Lee 9.
The Mike Lee 9 is one of many golf-related causes the Michael Ray Lee Foundation has supported in recent years. Among the others are money for college scholarships for senior high school athletes from the Greeley and Weld County area; for junior golf development in the community and at schools; for the college golf program at the Colorado School of Mines; for the Colorado boys Junior America’s Cup team, of which Michael was a part in 2009; and for the new Team Colorado junior elite squad that’s part of the USGA’s national development program.
Much of the money for those efforts and others has come from the annual Mike Lee Memorial fundraising tournament for the MRL Foundation, with the 2025 edition having attracted a record 270 players.
It should also be noted that the winner of the CGA Match Play from the period from 2021 through ’30 receives a medal in honor of Lee, and a plaque with the names of those champions hangs in the CGA offices.
For more information about the Michael Ray Lee Foundation, CLICK HERE.
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