TPC Colorado: Golf in Berthoud, Colorado

From Denver International Airport (DEN), the driving distance to Berthoud, Colorado is 53 miles. By road: north on I-25 to Exit 250 at Johnstown, then west on Colorado State Highway 56 for 9.5 miles to its western terminus at US 287 in Berthoud. Northern Colorado Regional Airport (FNL), between Loveland and Fort Collins, has no scheduled commercial airline service, so DEN is the airport for this trip.

Arthur Schaupeter Golf Course Architects designed TPC Colorado's championship course. The club's own site gives the par-72 layout as stretching to more than 7,991 yards from the tournament tees and playing from 4,157 yards forward. No opening year is published here: the ASGCA's own account of the project says only that a grand opening was "scheduled for 2018," which is not a record of when the course actually opened, and the operator's own site states no opening year at all. What is confirmed is that the Korn Ferry Tour has played TPC Colorado every year since 2019, under three tournament names in sequence — TPC Colorado Championship, The Ascendant presented by Blue, and The Blue Championship, with Blue Federal Credit Union named title sponsor of the event starting in 2026. The surrounding Heron Lakes community is home to one of the largest Great Blue Heron rookeries in Colorado; more than 90 acres there are dedicated land that cannot be developed, part of a conservation partnership among GOCO, the Town of Berthoud, the City of Loveland, Larimer County and Colorado Parks and Wildlife. That is a conservation designation, not a historic one — no historic designation was found for the property. On site, the club names three dining outlets: Center Stage & 773 Prime, overlooking the water by the 16th hole; the Golf Café; and the Waterfront Grill.

TPC Colorado is not an unrestricted public course. Non-members book by phone on (970) 663-5063, up to seven days in advance. The club states that non-member tee times are available Monday through Thursday after 11:00 AM and Friday through Sunday after 1:00 PM, subject to availability. It also states that Thursday through Sunday are reserved for TPC Colorado members and the TPC Network, with any remaining starting times released for sale only 24 hours in advance. The club's own wording places Thursday in both categories, so a Thursday time should be confirmed by phone. There is no lodging requirement: nothing on the club's site conditions play on a hotel or resort stay, and TPC Colorado has no lodging of its own — the property is a golf course, clubhouse and residential community. The club quotes its own rate when you call to book; no green fee is published here, since no figure found for TPC Colorado carries a date or a season.

Mariana Butte Golf Course, at 701 Clubhouse Dr, Loveland, is a City of Loveland municipal course open to the public, in Larimer County. Two independent aggregators, ForeTee and GolfPass, agree on its type as public/municipal, its par of 72, its architect Dick Phelps, and that it first opened for play in 1992. Book by phone at (970) 667-8308; the city's own booking site and facility pages return only a browser-verification page to automated requests, so no operator quote or online booking link is published here. No yardage is published, since the sources disagree on the figure, and no green fee is published, since none carries a date.

TPC Colorado has no lodging of its own. Its own About the Area page describes Berthoud — "approximately halfway between Fort Collins and Denver," "The Garden Spot of Colorado" — and names no hotel, no partner property and no stay-and-play package, and its navigation runs Golf, Membership, Outings and Events, Clubhouse and About with no lodging section at all. Loveland, not Berthoud, is the basecamp, and the road distances are the argument: downtown Loveland is 6.51 road miles from TPC Colorado and 4.27 from Mariana Butte, while the two courses are 7.10 miles apart, so the town centre is closer to each course than the courses are to each other. Door 222, this guide's downtown restaurant, is already in it. An OpenStreetMap sweep of every lodging-tagged property across Berthoud and Loveland returned twenty-one hotels, and not one of them is in Berthoud.

Of those twenty-one, exactly one has an operator site that could be read, and it is Sylvan Dale Guest Ranch at 2939 N Co Rd 31D — 13.78 road miles from TPC Colorado by TPC Parkway, Grand Market Avenue, North Berthoud Parkway, CR 17 South Taft Avenue, West 8th Street, North Wilson Avenue and US 34, and 6.87 miles from Mariana Butte by Clubhouse Drive, Rossum Drive, US 34 and CR 31D. The rest are chains — Embassy Suites and Hampton Inn on hilton.com, Residence Inn, TownePlace Suites, Courtyard, Fairfield Inn & Suites and SpringHill Suites on marriott.com, the Best Western Plus Loveland Inn on bestwestern.com — and every one of those operator pages returned HTTP 403. That is not a claim that any of them is shut or unsuitable; several stand closer to both courses than the ranch does. It is a statement that nothing could be read from their own pages, and this guide does not build a place record from an aggregator.

Sylvan Dale is a 3,200-acre working horse and cattle ranch. Its own footer reads "Family owned and operated since 1946, Sylvan Dale is located in the foothills west of Loveland, Colorado," and its about page dates the ranch itself to the 1920s, listing game courts for tennis, pickleball, shuffleboard, foursquare and basketball, a game room and a seasonal outdoor heated pool, with "complimentary wireless internet… throughout the main ranch grounds, including lodging rooms." The nightly product is what the ranch calls Bunk & Breakfast — cabins and shared guest houses sleeping two to ten, named the Side by Side Cabin, Fireside Cabin, Sir Sylvan, Tommy House, Oh Rainbo, Baronet Bar, Homestead, Isabella Bird, J-House and Mama J's, and available year-round. Check-in is between 3 and 5pm and check-out between 10 and 11am; a deposit equivalent to one night secures a B&B reservation; dogs are accepted in some units at a $50 charge per dog; and a 3.95% sales tax is applied at check-out. The ranch warns on its own page that mobile coverage is patchy, with Verizon strong in the Heritage, AT&T reliable at the entry gate, and other carriers likely to need a trip into town, "seven miles to the east." The Census geocoder returns Larimer County and no incorporated place at all at the ranch, so Loveland is its mailing address rather than its municipality.

One limitation travels with it, and a reader planning a golf trip needs it up front. The operator's own booking rule reads: "Reservations can only be made 2-3 weeks out from the expected arrival date for B&Bs! November through March will offer the most availability." A room here cannot be held six months ahead. The ranch posts its open windows by date and takes bookings on 970-667-3915 or at ranch@sylvandale.com, and its summer availability is thin because vacations and weddings have the property. Two further notes. Nothing on the ranch's site says its dining room serves the public, so it is offered here as somewhere to sleep and not as somewhere to eat — Door 222 and the club's own Center Stage & 773 Prime remain this guide's two restaurants. And no room rate is published: the Bunk & Breakfast page does carry a full seasonal rate table, but no year or dated qualifier is attached to any figure on it, so under this guide's price rule none of it can be quoted.

Door 222 Food & Drink, at 222 E. 4th Street in downtown Loveland, describes itself on its own site as "Upscale Casual Dining in Downtown Loveland," with "a creative menu featuring modern twists on traditional cuisine." It is open Tuesday through Sunday, from 4:00 pm until close; phone (970) 541-3020.