Fossil Trace Golf Club

Fossil Trace Golf Club opened in 2003 in Golden, Colorado, on reclaimed land that once served as a clay mine and quarry at the foot of the Rocky Mountain Front Range. Architect Jim Engh, whose vision for the site developed over years of work with the city's parks leadership, routed a bold, quirky municipal layout into the old excavation walls and rolling terrain west of Denver. The course's signature feature is prehistoric: exposed rock near several holes preserves roughly 64-million-year-old trace fossils, including dinosaur footprints and ancient plant impressions, making it one of the only courses in the world where such fossils sit right beside the playing surfaces. A clubhouse exhibit explains the geology and the property's mining past. Publicly accessible and widely praised, Fossil Trace is a celebrated example of creative, environmentally minded municipal golf.