Last week was a national coming-out party for CommonGround Golf Course, and the event certainly attracted many dignitaries.
Jack Nicklaus was on hand to watch his son, Gary, play a stroke-play round in the U.S. Amateur. Former USGA president Will Nicholson Jr., was likewise there, along with USGA Executive Committee member Christie Austin and course architect Tom Doak.
And, of course, there were the U.S. Amateur competitors, including most of the biggest names in amateur golf: U.S. Open low amateur Jordan Spieth; Beau Hossler, the 17-year-old who led the U.S. Open during round 2; and the world’s No. 1-ranked amateur Chris Williams. (Spieth is pictured in orange above at CommonGround with No. 2-ranked Justin Thomas.)
CommonGround, just 39 months after opening, put its best foot forward to all. And now we’ll see if being the second stroke-play course for the U.S. Amateur leads to a sole hosting role for another USGA championship in the next five or 10 years.
As for how CommonGround — which is owned and operated by the CGA and CWGA — fared in the stroke-play portion of the U.S. Am, several officials came away impressed.
“I think it held up exceedingly well,” said Nicholson, a member of the CommonGround Board of Directors as long as there’s been such a board. “And I have heard nothing but compliments about the golf course from players and officials. One of the (USGA) Executive Committee members played out there (a couple days after the stroke-play rounds) and said, ‘I wasn’t impressed when I drove up, but when I played the golf course I walked away impressed.'”
Added USGA executive director Mike Davis: “In full disclosure, I didn’t get here until we started match play, but based on everything I heard (CommonGround) was a wonderful, wonderful venue. It couldn’t have been a better companion course for stroke play.
“It’s got so many great storylines that go with it beyond just being a marvelous architectural, fun course that’s well-conditioned. I think the thing that’s so appealing is it’s a great story. Very affordable golf, it focuses on junior golf and now it has a great caddie program (the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy). And it’s close to the city. It’s a model we’d love to see in a lot of other cities around the country.”
CommonGround was certainly a stark contrast to Cherry Hills Country Club, the primary host of the U.S. Amateur. And not every player liked the public layout, but many thought it was a worthy venue.
“It was good. I really like it actually,” Hossler said. “The greens are really good and firm and pretty fast. You have to definitely drive it well because of the fescue and everything off the fairway. It’s a good track. This is definitely a challenge, especially if it gets windy.”
Thomas, who advanced to the semifinals of the Amateur, concurred.
“I liked (CommonGround). It was really cool,” he said. “It’s very similar to the other course we played for the U.S. Am two years ago (the Home Course in Washington, which will host the 2014 U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links). It’s really firm and fast and it’s in perfect shape. It’s just a good course.”
Probably no one would have expected it, but the lowest round of the stroke play came from Cherry Hills, not CommonGround, as medalist Bobby Wyatt fired a 7-under-par 64 on Day 1. But that was certainly the exception rather than the norm. Overall, CommonGround’s stroke average for the two days of stroke play was 72.3. Meanwhile, Cherry Hills yielded 76.2.
“A lot of people say, ‘No one will remember the companion course,’ but we will,” CGA executive director Ed Mate said. “The other thing that’s kind of neat, comparing and contrasting, (Cherry Hills) is not a golf course that yields driver. But at CommonGround, that opportunity was there. I think it produced a more well-rounded 36-hole qualifier because the two courses complemented each other pretty well. And the green complexes are every bit as challenging at CommonGround as they are at Cherry Hills.”
Most importantly, when looking ahead, the movers and shakers at the USGA thought CommonGround stood up well as a USGA championship test.
“I think it was a wonderful choice for our companion course,” said Austin, who as a member of the Executive Committee has plenty of pull in deciding on future USGA venues. “Not only is it a good story, but it’s a good track. It’s a good test of golf. I thought it played hard but fair for a lot of the field, The course was in perfect condition considering our heat this summer. So we were very pleased — really really pleased.”
So the time might come in the not-too-distant future that CommonGround hosts a USGA championship on its own. A U.S. Public Links Championship has been mentioned, but a U.S. Women’s Amateur or a U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links might be more likely.
“Assuming that CommonGround wants us and invites us, I can’t imagine the committee wouldn’t look favorably on that,” Davis said.
As a longtime resident of Colorado — and an at-large member of the CWGA Board of Directors — Austin knows CommonGround’s story well and is a big supporter of the course and all the “for the good of the game” initiatives that take place there.
“I hope someday we can have one of our championships there — the WAPL or a Publinks,” she said. “I think the CGA and CWGA are open to that idea. We’ll have to talk to them about it and get a letter in. That’s really what initiates our interest is the course saying, ‘We’d be interested’. They need to show some interest — and I think verbally they have. We’ve already been out there, so that helps, but we’d need to do a little bit more work on which (championship) would be appropriate.
“But (the USGA) loves coming to Colorado. If you were out there (Sunday at Cherry Hills, where 4,500 people attended the final of the U.S. Amateur) you saw the support. This is a great sports town, and they just don’t see enough national ranked amateur golf here.”
Mate, for one, is certainly interested in CommonGround hosting a future USGA championship, but there are financial aspects to be considered.
“We built the golf course to host championships, and that’s high on the priority list,” he said. “But we have to weigh all the other things we’re trying to accomplish there, including cash flow. Hosting USGA championships is great and wonderful, and it’s great to see the best players play on your golf course, but it also costs you a lot of money. The USGA doesn’t pay you a course fee, so you’re displacing a lot of rounds and revenue, not to mention some of your out-of-pocket expenses like trailers and roping and transportation and all the things that go into it. If money weren’t an object, we’d be hosting something right away. But we have to consider the whole thing.”
That said, Mate makes it clear he would love to see a future USGA championship at CommonGround, and if he had his druthers, it would be a women’s championship of some sort.
“We could do so many more things with the course from a set-up standpoint,” he said. “We had to build five new tees for (the U.S. Amateur) to make some of the strategy of the bunkering be relevant. For the women, we could do all kinds of things.”
For the record, sites for the U.S. Women’s Amateur, Women’s Publinks and men’s Publinks are set through 2014.
