A man synonymous with golf and the City of Westminster for longer than either of the city’s courses—Legacy Ridge Golf Course or Walnut Creek Golf Preserve—have been open, Lance Johnson arrived in Colorado in 1993 as an alumnus of Arizona State University. The Iowa native started as a golf maintenance supervisor during the construction and grow-in of Legacy Ridge Golf Course, working alongside course architect Arthur Hills. He became the course superintendent in 1996 and got even more involved with the building and grassing of the Heritage Golf Course at Westmoor.
Architects Michael Hurdzan’s and Dana Fry’s masterpiece, which opened in 1999, was certified as—and still remains—one of only two Colorado courses (Haymaker in Steamboat Springs is the other) that belong to the elite Audubon International Signature Sanctuary Program. With Johnson’s input, Westminster rechristened the course as Walnut Creek Golf Preserve.
Since becoming the City of Westminster’s Golf, Parks and Open Space Manager in 2015, Johnson not only oversees Westminster’s two golf courses, but also its 63 parks, 3,800 acres of open space, and Standley Lake Regional Park. Under his leadership, Westminster’s courses have hosted more than 120 CGA, USGA, PGA and AJGA events, as well as qualifiers for the Colorado Open and Korn Ferry Tour’s Ascendant tournament in Berthoud.
A longtime member of the CGA’s Board of Directors, Johnson has consistently championed sustainable environmental practices. He has served as president of both the Rocky Mountain Golf Course Superintendents Association and its nonprofit arm, the Rocky Mountain Environmental Golf Institute—which he co-founded in 2013. Johnson also co-chaired the statewide committee that developed the Colorado Golf Industry’s Best Management Practices Guide for Golf Courses, published in 2019—a resource now adopted by more than 140 courses across Colorado.
His involvement in the Colorado Golf Coalition—an alliance of golf governing associations that lobbies at the Capitol— helped create an eye-opening 2021 economic and environmental study of Colorado’s multibillion-dollar golf industry and its environmental benefits. Johnson has shared more than 40 years of marriage with his wife, Lynn, with whom he has three adult children. In 2021, the couple founded ALL IN Empowering Futures, a nonprofit that supports young adults who have aged out of the foster care system. To date, they have worked with 170 young adults from across the country, many of whom consider the Johnson home in Lakewood their own.
