2023 was a landmark year at the Vail Golf Club, as we completed our three-year greens renovation project.

Challenges for Vail Golf Club in 2023 included the latest opening of the course (June 17) in over 20 years due to inclement weather and construction. This was challenging for our residents and guests, as well as for our staff. Fortunately, despite the closed course, we were able to complete extensive training of staff. Our four PGA interns assisted maintenance staff with several projects prior to the golf course opening.

Once the golf season got underway, we enjoyed a great season with high participation numbers. We are looking forward to 2024, when we plan to open mid-May and stay open through the second week of October - construction-free!

Finally, we were very pleased to bring onboard Andrew Villescas, PGA, as our First Assistant Golf Professional. Andrew is responsible for organizing and running many of the junior golf programs throughout the season, in addition to assisting in operations around the course. He has done a stellar job with junior programming and won the 2023 Youth Player Development Award, Colorado PGA West Chapter.

We had another successful PGA-PGM Intern Class for 2023: Andrew Blair from University of Las Vegas, Luc Gagnon from Campbell University, Josiah Meek from Sam Houston State University and Tae Jang from University of Las Vegas.

Total golf rounds for 2023: 18,440 (down from 22,859 in 2022, accounting for the shorter season)

A little rain didn't stop the 10th Annual Businesses, Bogeys & Bragging Rights Charity Golf Tournament from being a blast! With a Viva Las Vegas theme and 120 participating players, we raised $27,600 for the Tom Slaughter, Jr. Youth Recreation Grant.

JUNIOR GOLF

Over 300 young players participated in the Vail Junior Golf Program throughout the 2023 season - including the second year of the Vail Junior Series, and the Junior Club Championship. We also continued our relationship with the First Tee junior coach program, providing four youth golfers the opportunity to assist with our First Tee junior programming.

Vail Golf Club ranger Steve Thomson caught video of one of our favorite visitors we've had out on the course!

MORE NUMBERS:

• Our adult weekly programs had a total of 153 participants, including our Senior Clinic on Sundays, our Swing Tips & Sips coed clinic on Tuesdays and our Ladies, Lessons & Libations clinic on Thursdays.
• We hosted the two-day Lady Golf Camp in early June for the sixth year. This is a popular event that had 18 ladies participating in 2023.
• We offered our weekly Men's League and Women's League on Wednesdays. We had a significant increase in our Women's League participant numbers for 2023, with 45 ladies total (up from 30 participants the past several seasons). Our Men's League was also well attended with 57 men playing. Our Vail Senior Club League on Mondays was also full each week, and is our largest league with 80 participants.