Just three years after opening, CommonGround Golf Course will play a significant role when the 2012 U.S. Amateur comes to Colorado.
When Cherry Hills Country Club hosts the 112th Amateur Aug. 13-19 of next year, CommonGround will serve as the second course for the stroke-play portion of the event Aug. 13 and 14.
The 312 contestants will play one round each at Cherry Hills and CommonGround, with the top 64 finishers after 36 holes advancing to match play. The entire match-play portion of the Amateur will be held Aug. 15-19 at Cherry Hills, the recently announced site of the 2014 BMW Championship PGA Tour playoff event.
CommonGround is owned and operated by the CGA and CWGA and is located partly in both Denver and Aurora. The public facility was designed by renowned course architect Tom Doak, and opened in May 2009.
CommmonGround hosted its first statewide events last year, including the CGA and CWGA Match Play tournaments, but the U.S. Amateur will be its first national championship.
“It’s pretty amazing,” CGA executive director Ed Mate said of CommonGround’s selection by the USGA. “Who would have guessed that in 2012 that our course would host any part of the U.S. Amateur — the Super Bowl of amateur championship golf? Luck and timing had a lot to do with it, but we were thrilled to be asked.”
The process of choosing CommonGround as the second stroke-play course started when a group led by Mike Davis — now the executive director of the USGA — and fellow USGA director Robbie Zalzneck took a tour of the facility late last summer. And it certainly didn’t hurt that Doak, besides designing CommonGround, headed a major restoration of the Cherry Hills course a couple of years ago.
During the USGA’s visit to CommonGround, “They were very impressed,” Mate said. “They had some comments about adding some length (to the course), but it was exactly what they were looking for. It’s very walkable and they like the classic look of the course. (The tour) was like showing a really good wine to a connoisseur.
“My take is that Mike really wanted to do it, but the golf course had to be able to stand on its own. And his excitement increased tremendously when he got out on the course. It was cool to show it off to someone who got it (the design nuances of the layout). Everything just felt right, and the fact that the course is owned by the CGA and CWGA made it a no-brainer.”
Next year’s tournament will mark just the fourth U.S. Amateur ever held in Colorado, with Cherry Hills hosting the most recent, in 1990, and the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs being the venue in 1959 and 1967.
Those U.S. Amateurs in Colorado produced two winners who have gone on to claim 112 PGA Tour titles between them — Jack Nicklaus (1959 champion) and Phil Mickelson (1990). Robert Dickson (1967) rounds out the trio who have won U.S. Amateur championships in Colorado.
Mickelson’s victory at Cherry Hills marks his only USGA title to date.
The winner of the 2012 U.S. Amateur will earn a spot in the 2013 U.S. Open and British Open, and likely the 2013 Masters, provided he is still an amateur.
