The reputation of Colbert Hills as that really big course out in Kansas is attracting players from across the country that want to test their skills against one of the nation's toughest courses.
Although our course is less than three years old, there's a fantastic story to tell about how it came to be built in the first place.

The dream of Colbert Hills goes back to 1994 when Jim Colbert, an alumnus of Kansas State, got involved with a project to help the school build a university-run course, a place where the Kansas State golf team could train and where the school could train golf course superintendents and managers and do research on turfgrass. The university's vision and that of Jim Colbert was that the project would also be a public daily fee course and one where disadvantaged children could learn the game of golf.

Colbert found the perfect site, 300 acres in the Flint Hills area on the northwest edge of Manhattan. An alumnus was grazing cattle on this site donated the property, and Colbert donated a half million dollars. Soon other donors signed on. Jim Colbert combined with well-known Dallas architect Jeffrey Brauer to lay out the $11 million course.

God built about 14 of the holes, and we built about four of them. I hope you can't tell the difference. -- Jim Colbert, PGA Tour star and co-designer of Colbert Hills

Colbert Hills opened officially in May 2000 with a bevy of golfing celebs on hand, including Lee Trevino, Raymond Floyd and Annika Sorenstam, who played in a Founders Pro-Am. What an unbelievable effort to attract the commitment and bring all these people together, said PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem at the dedication.

What they got (at Kansas State) is a big sprawling layout that rides comfortably on the Flint Hills outside Manhattan. From the seventh tee, you can see for miles in all directions and what you see is mostly sky and prairie, with a few ranches thrown in for rustic charm. John Garrity, columnist for Sports Illustrated.

What Kansas State had built is a huge links-style course that plays at 7,525 yards from the back tees, nicknamed the Black and Blue tees. It lies on a superb site of rolling hills with changes in elevation that most Americans have no idea could exist in the prairies of Kansas.

Although the course was an almost immediate success story for the university, there was always the question: Will the public come to play here and golfers have answered with a resounding yes as they flocked here to play this course tucked away in Middle America.

Word will spread about this course. Its slope rating is 152. To non-golfers, that number means nothing. Golfers would liken it to a surfer finding that isolated beach upon which pounds monster waves. Tim Fitzgerald, editor & publisher of Powercat Illustrated of Manhattan, Kansas.

According to David Gourlay, the director of golf, the course even had a significant increase in rounds played since inception in May of 2000.  Many members of the playing public come from Kansas and the Midwest; many of them are alumni of Kansas State who have just got to see Colbert Hills to believe it. But lots of them come from parts elsewhere. The reputation of our golf course has been a tremendous thing, Gourlay said. About 30 percent of the people who play here come from out of state.

Whether you're from Kansas or not, if you're a golfer, you have to see this course to believe it and to play it. It's a place for players that love to golf!