In Sleepy Ridge, golfers have another winner

Sleepy ridge, Utah's newest 18-hole golf course, is gaining acclaim as a fun, playable track that will draw its share of players in Utah County, according to golfers.

This county has exploded with golf holes in recent years. In just a few playing seasons, TalonsCove, The Ranches and Cedar Hills Golf Club have hatched. Add a back-nine layout to Orem's Cascade and there are 91 new golf holes sprinkled around this central Utah community.

Sure, competition is getting tough for the golf dollar, but players are the winners.

They've got choices.

When Sleepy Ridge, located west of Geneva Road just off Orem's 1300 South freeway exit, opened this summer, an offer of free carts drew a crowd for nine-hole rounds.

The Matthew Dye-designed course has met stark approval from golfers — high handicappers and those with real game. The back-nine layout opened for the first time on Friday. Before then, a free-cart deal for nine holes drew between 200 to 300 rounds played per day through July into August, according to head professional Devin York.

Reviews indicate that the easy-on, quick-to-play newcomer will make a splash.

Veteran East Bay women's association player LaRee Wilkinson said she will take the group's closing social to Sleepy Ridge.

"I think it's a great course, so well-cared for for a new course that just opened," she said. "I was stunned that there are no mosquitoes out there like there are at East Bay where they just love me. I've got sweet blood."

Built on a combination of farmland, swamp and wetland reserves, Sleepy Ridge has apparently succeeded with an effective bug abatement program. They've dragged around a fogger that sends out a cloud 200 to 300 feet to kill insects. Similar insecticide foggers are used at places like WingPointe and East Bay.

"Here, it worked," Wilkinson said.

John Koener is assistant athletic director at Southern Methodist University and lives alongside a golf course in a Dallas suburb. He likes Orem's new Sleepy Ridge more than his home course.

Koener played Sleepy Ridge this past Friday, the first day the back nine opened for a full 18 layout. "He liked it for the same reasons I did," said his brother-in-law, former BYU assistant football coach Dick Felt, now retired and a regular player at Riverside and Alpine country clubs.

"It has scenery, the setting is great and there is room to hit the ball," Felt said. "I think this new course is going to be a favorite, if not the most played in Utah Valley in years to come. The thing I like about it is this is a golf course where you can really go out and hit the ball, really hit it. Everyone likes to get out and get after it."