LITTLETON, Colo. - Imagine playing golf in one of the more spectacular settings your mind can envision. The 18th hole at Pebble Beach most likely will come in to focus.

If you are a Coloradan with a passion for golf that vision might just be Arrowhead Golf Club located in Roxborough State Park just south of Denver.

Arrowhead Golf Club is by far the most photographed golf course in Colorado. Thank you Henry S. Persse for seeing the same vision more than 100 years ago. That vision however was 300 million years in the making geologically.

Around 1889 Persse was one of the original settlers of this spectacular front-range area that is famous for its dramatic red-rock formations. In fact, Persse’s vision was of a resort with gardens, a hotel and golf links.

During the next several years, Persse acquired additional properties and in 1902 bought out the remaining partners, making him the sole owner of much of the land that would eventually become Roxborough State Park. The name Roxborough came from his families’ estate back in Ireland.

Today, the golf course winds through the formations. Geologically, these formations were formed by erosion of “steep monoclinal sedimentary sections that resulted in a series of three major hogbacks and strike valleys, exposing highly scenic dipping plates, spires and monoliths. The formations are conspicuously red due to oxidation of iron minerals.”

Huh? Yeah, yeah, let’s play golf.

“Most people are just floored at the view just getting out of their cars in the parking lot,” said Bob Persichetti, General Manager. “Then they get to the clubhouse and see the view from the restaurant. Some lucky golfers get to see deer, fox and even a bear. It is just a unique experience, a great layout with unique characteristics. This is not a cookie-cutter golf course by any means.”

Robert Trent Jones II, the designer said: “When I first saw the site of the golf course at Roxborough Park, I was overwhelmed by the magnificent gifts that nature has bestowed on the property. The cathedral-like conglomerate rocks jutting up from the rolling terrain at the foothills of the Rockies is a majestic setting in which to establish a unique golf course.”

Run by American Golf, Arrowhead has not always been praised to high heaven. The setting is worth the expensive ticket, but its bentgrass greens are under attack by poa anna and the 40,000 golfers a year alone could wear down a golf course. But these guys are trying.

There have been improvements made to the tune of $3.1 million recently. A new clubhouse to replace one that was burned to the ground, cost $2.1 million. And another million was spent on bunker reworking, improved drainage and maintenance.

Golf carts are equipped with the Global Positioning System, which keeps score, is your yardage book with tips and will actually tell you how far you have to the pin on your second shot.

“In the future we plan to enclose the patio of the On the Rocks Grille and increase the inside seating, replace the entire irrigation system and redesign all tee complexes in the next two to three years,” Persichetti said.