Anna Stonehouse / Aspen Times archives
Even though golf season is months away, the ability to purchase a season pass at the Aspen municipal course is a few days from now and judging from the number of people who have prequalified, it will be an online race to secure one on Monday.
The Aspen Golf Course has capped the number of season passes to 865, as it did last year due to a surge in popularity of the sport and the inability to get tee times in 2020 when the pandemic hit.
Because of the capping of the number of passes to avoid overcrowding the tee sheet, there were many longtime locals who got shut out and unable to get a pass last year.
That is why the golf advisory board, a citizen-based group who makes decisions on behalf of the city’s golf course, decided to prioritize people who could prove residency in the valley.
Valley residents had until Jan. 31 to show proof of residency via a driver’s license, and 770 people have been prequalified, according to Jim Pratt, head golf professional at the Aspen Golf Course.
“We will be able to provide a pass for the bulk of people who are preregistered,” he said. “There’s no guarantee on getting a certain pass type but we do feel confident that everyone will get a pass.”
An email was sent Friday to those who have prequalified informing them that a link to the online pass platform will be sent on Monday at 11 a.m., one hour before the sale at noon.
The link will not be active until noon, Pratt noted.
The Aspen Golf Club has transitioned to a single program for all pass sales and the purchasing process is different than last year.
The biggest difference is that people must have their credit in hand to purchase a pass on Monday, Pratt said.
The vendor that the golf club is using is chronogolf.com, and it’s designed to handle heavy activity all at once, according to Jeremy Douglas, who is part of the business intelligence team for the city’s recreation department.
“They have assured me that they can handle the traffic we expect,” he said. “They provide their cloud-based software to many other golf courses with the same or higher demand and have not experienced issues during these onslaughts.”
Pratt attributed the increase in people playing golf to the pandemic, more people living here full time and the fact that the only other 18-hole course that is public in the valley is River Valley Ranch.
“We are the only public course in the upper Roaring Fork Valley,” he said.
The Aspen Golf Club operates on nine-minute interval tee times, which is six tee times an hour and of those, four are set aside for passholders and two are for guests. If guests do not book during any given hour, tee times are made available to passholders.
If people who are prequalified are unable to purchase a golf pass on Monday they can be added to a waitlist by emailing the city’s director of golf, Steve Aitken, at steve.aitken@aspen.gov.