CASTLE ROCK — It was 1979, and golf legend Jack Nicklaus was walking the property that would eventually become Castle Pines Golf Club with its founder, Jack Vickers.

Gazing about the rocky, forested tableland, Nicklaus tried to wrap his head around Vickers’ vision of a championship-level golf course on such unforgiving terrain.

“We went out and walked around the (grounds), and I said, ‘You really want to put a golf course here?’” Nicklaus recalled with a laugh. “He said, ‘Yeah, I do.’ You had to be a mountain goat to walk it at the time because it was nothing but rocks and trees.”

The two Jacks went through with the plan, and Castle Pines Golf Club opened in 1981 as one of the first courses designed by Nicklaus himself. It quickly emerged as a landmark, hosting The International for 21 years from 1986 through 2006.

But in the last half-decade or so, with The International fading in memory, a new vision was required. After Vickers’ passing, George Solich took over as club president. Determined to build off Vickers’ original ambition, Solich wanted to completely overhaul the course.

And so he did.

As a result, the club will host the BMW Championship this weekend, marking the return of the PGA Tour to Colorado for the first time in 11 years, since the same tournament was held at Cherry Hills Country Club in 2014.

“Jack was reluctant to make a lot of changes in the golf course, and I understand that,” Nicklaus explained. “The two of us were getting older, and it was a pretty good golf course, so why change it, especially when the members like it?

“But then George came in, and he wanted to bring a premier tournament back. He felt like the golf course needed a bunch done to modernize it to be able to handle pros’ games now, and that (those changes) would also make the course better for its membership. I think we accomplished both goals.”

“It needed a facelift”

Had Solich not persuaded his membership to go through with his grand remodel, which cost tens of millions of dollars, the club might not have landed the prestigious playoff event — the oldest non-major tournament on the PGA Tour.

“We crammed in a lot in the last eight years, where most clubs probably wouldn’t get that amount of renovation done in 50 years,” said Castle Pines general manager Keith Schneider, who had been with the club since its inception. “We’ve worked really hard with the Tour the last three years in particular to get (the course) to what they want it to be. They’ve been a big part of this… but also, we’re 43 years old. It needed a facelift.”