CommonGround Golf Course in Aurora opened five years ago this month, but just in the short period since 2009 it’s gone through plenty of ups and downs.

Only two months before its grand opening, a fire swept through about 130 acres of land just west of the course, but it burned itself out just left of CommonGround’s fifth hole.

Then last September, with more than 14 inches of rain falling in just six days, the Westerly Creek Dam that borders the course did its job — flood control — by protecting land and real estate in nearby areas of eastern Denver and northwestern Aurora. But in the process, it also collected the overflowing water from Westerly Creek on the golf course for weeks on end, killing a lot of grass in the process. At one point, nearly half the course was under water, at some points 6 feet deep of it.

It took nearly a month before the water drained off the course completely, and by then eight holes were damaged severely and the turf on five greens died.

But there have been plenty of positives at CommonGround as well. The Tom Doak-designed course, which is owned and operated by the CGA and CWGA, has drawn accolades to the point that it served as the second stroke-play course for the 2012 U.S. Amateur. And CommonGround became the home of the highly respected — and imitated — Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy, as well as the Hale Irwin Elite Player Program and many community outreach programs that have benefited both youth in the area and the game of golf. Along the way, the course received a $175,000 USGA grant that helped the associations build the nine-hole Kids Course at CommonGround.

In the grand scheme of those ups and downs, suffice it to say that Thursday most certainly fell into the “up” category. After a concerted recovery effort following the flooding, $350,000 in repairs and $750,000-$850,000 in lost revenue, CommonGround held a grand reopening of all 18 holes of the championship course during the Colorado Golf Foundation golf tournament presented by Citywide Banks. (Note: The course will fully re-open to the general public on Sunday.) In addition, the new community putting green at CommonGround (left) was dedicated — in memory of David Herlinger, a golf lover and former Lowry Redevelopment Authority chairman. And the day raised money for Colorado Golf Foundation-supported programs at CommonGround, including the Solich Academy, the Hale Irwin Program, the Colorado PGA Golf in Schools Program, and CommonGround’s community partnerships.

To get the championship course back up to full speed after 8 1/2 months and so much work was gratifying to many of those in attendance.

“It’s exciting for me,” said Tom Lawrence, president of the CGA last year when the floods hit. “Since going out there in the fall, I had been holding off to really take a look. I’ve only played the nine hole (modified course) once or twice since then. I stayed away from looking at the damage. I was pointing to this day so when I got out there, I wanted to see it when it was all finished. So I’m really excited today.

“It’s like a rebirth. I think the whole community is pretty excited about it.”

Five greens — Nos. 5, 6, 11, 12 and 14 — on the west side of the course — were resodded this spring, using about 46,000 square feet of sod grown on a farm in Idaho. (The 11th green is pictured above on Thursday.) Other areas of the course affected were dormant seeded in the fall. All told, about 22 acres of the course required significant work post-flood.

“The resodded greens, you can’t believe how good they are,” said Will Nicholson, the former USGA president who serves as the manager of the CommonGround board. “The key to playing golf is the greens. There are some rough spots in the fairway, but people put up with that as long as the greens are good. And the grass has really popped in the last week now that it’s warmed up.”

CommonGround superintendent Bobby Martin has been roundly credited in helping get the course back fully on its feet, and CGA vice president Joe McCleary has been of considerable assistance given his professional background. McCleary is a former superintendent at Saddle Rock Golf Course and currently serves as a superintendent of stormwater operations for the City of Aurora. He’s also been on the CommonGround board of directors since it was formed.

“If you look at (CommonGround) every day like Bobby and the staff do, you don’t see the improvements as much,” McCleary noted. “If you come back and visit it every week — like I kind of have done — you’re pretty amazed. We’re just hoping the golfers feel the same way. You’ve got to understand it’s not going to be perfect (right away), but you had to open it sometime.”

Getting CommonGround back to operating fully after eight months of being curtailed has taken considerable effort from many individuals, including CommonGround, CGA and CWGA staff, and the CommonGround board of directors.

“Everybody put their shoulder to the wheel and it’s back where it is right now,” Nicholson said.

Lawrence remembers making multiple calls on a daily basis for a couple of months to deal with CommonGround-related matters in the wake of the flooding — to Nicholson, to CGA executive director Ed Mate, to other board members, to the CommonGround management staff.

“Will Nicholson and I got on the phone when it was raining, then I came out two days later because quite frankly you couldn’t get out here (at first),” Lawrence noted. “But once I got out here it was shock. It was just a giant lake. It was shock and it was sadness because the golf course had matured over the years it’s been open to become this gem. Then to see that happen …”

Added McCleary: “I never imagined what happened happening. It was one of those things I never thought I’d see in my lifetime. I’ve been all involved in planning of the golf course and we’d talked about the flood-control dam. (But) you never think it’s going to happen. Driving over and looking at it was pretty unbelievable.”

But, said Lawrence, “then you quickly transfer into a business mode. What do we do? How can we fix it and where do we go from here?”

That eventually brought CommonGround to the point it was on Thursday — reopening all 18 holes of the championship course five years to the month after initially opening.

As CommonGround director of golf Dave Troyer noted on Thursday, “After the first grand opening five years ago, I didn’t think we’d have to do this again.”

Besides getting the full golf course back, Thursday marked the dedication of the 21,700-square-foot community putting green, which was originally supposed to be dedicated last October.

The staff at CommonGround wasted no time utilizing the undulating putting surface. Just hours after local dignitaries and officials hit the first putts on the green toward a nine-inch-wide hole (pictured above), Big Brothers and Big Sisters were stroking putts there (pictured at left). And for good measure, Ping donated 15 putters for use on the new green.
 

It’s been more than 250 days since it started raining at CommonGround Golf Course on Sept. 10, but who’s counting?

Well, maybe the staff and the regular players at the Aurora-based public facility are, along with the folks at the CGA and CWGA, which own and operate the course.

Ever since those 14.5 inches of rain fell in the area around CommonGround in the six days beginning on Sept. 10 — which is nearly the average total Aurora receives annually — things haven’t been quite the same at the place.

The flooding — which at one point covered nearly half the course in water, in some places 6 feet deep — took its toll. The Tom Doak-designed course, which opened five years ago this month, had eight holes substantially damaged by standing water, some of which covered the turf for weeks before draining completely. The eight affected holes were on the west side of the property: Nos. 5, 6, 7, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15. The turf on five greens died: 5, 6, 11, 12 and 14. (The 12th green is pictured at left during the reconstruction process in early April.)

But things are just about to get back to normal at CommonGround. After the championship course operated as a nine-hole facility for roughly the last eight months, all 18 holes are expected to fully reopen to the public on June 1 (next Sunday), though selected events will use the full 18 in the days just prior.

It’s something director of golf Dave Troyer and his staff eagerly await.

“It will be nice to get back to our normal routine and start trying to climb back up,” he said. “We had gotten to a really good point, then were kicked back down, and now we’re getting back up on the horse. So we’re excited to do that.”

CommonGround, home to many community-outreach and “for the good of the game” programs, will take the next step in its return to normal on Thursday (May 29) at the Colorado Golf Foundation Golf Tournament it’s hosting. The purpose of the day is threefold: One is to celebrate next weekend’s reopening of the entire 18-hole course; another is to dedicate the 21,700-square-foot community putting green; and one is serving as the annual fundraiser that benefits the Colorado Golf Foundation-supported programs at CommonGround. Those include the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy, the Hale Irwin Elite Player Program, the Colorado PGA Golf in Schools Program and CommonGround’s community partnerships. The Colorado Golf Foundation serves as a funding arm for youth development programs.

All in all, it’ll be a big day.

“When you’re operating at 50 percent of capacity, you have 50 percent of the customers through the door, you have 50 percent of the people hanging out,” noted Ed Mate, longtime executive director of the CGA. “Fortunately, our junior golf programming has not been impacted. We do the field trips, we do the Golf in Schools programs, the outreach stuff, the training of the caddies. All that’s occurred on the nine-hole Kids Course and on the (championship course) holes we have open.

“So fortunately our programming hasn’t been impacted by 50 percent. But the whole energy of the place has been cut significantly. So to get back is very exciting — and particularly this early. We had thought about July, but (instead) it’s going to be a full golf season as far as we’re concerned.”

The community putting green (left), located north of the 18th hole at CommonGround, originally was scheduled to be dedicated on Oct. 4 of last year. But the September flooding changed that.

The concept behind the community putting green is simple.

“It’s further advancement of ‘a place for all and all the game teaches’,” Mate said, echoing the motto for CommonGround Golf Course. “There’s nothing more for everyone than a putting green that doesn’t cost anything to use. And it’s a community putting green. At the very beginning when we contemplated owning and operating our own golf course, the community putting green was something that really was a critical part of it. It epitomizes the purpose: a place for everybody. Everybody can putt. Not everyone can hit a golf ball, but everybody can putt. It is absolutely fabulous, and it’s up to us to make the best use of it. It is really, really cool.”

Mate credits former CGA president M.J. Mastalir, a visionary for CommonGround, for the concept behind the community putting green.

“What’s the difference between this putting green and the putting green that people use to practice putting on?” Mate asked rhetorically. “It’s much more undulating. It’s not going to be maintained at the same speed — it will be a little bit slower. We’ll probably have some 15-inch holes cut in it. And its purpose is really to introduce people to golf — or at least the putting part of golf. Down the road we might use it for SNAG golf (a popular learning system). We don’t really know. We’ll just let the creativity of our programming dictate it. The main distinction is it’s not — underline, bold-faced — not a practice amenity for those who want to come over and work on their short games. It’s there for the community and as an extension of our junior golf laboratory.”

The community putting green wasn’t impacted by the flooding in September, but a lot of work and expense has been involved in reconstructing the affected portion of the championship course.

Troyer said there have been about $350,000 in “hard costs” of repairs, and the lost revenue has been projected at $750,000 to $850,000. But sodding the affected greens early in the spring (pictured at top) will allow CommonGround to open a month earlier than if they had been seeded.

“All our regulars are just super excited to get playing the full 18 again,” Troyer said. “I think there’s a really good buzz going on.”

In recent days, Troyer, Mate and other officials examined the flood-affected holes. Their observations? The sodded greens are smooth and in very good condition, though they are currently softer and a little slower than the other greens on the course. Regarding the areas outside the green complexes, there are some thin spots in the grass, but considering three of the five most affected holes are par-3s (Nos. 6, 12 and 14), the impact should be minimal. And winter rules will be utilized on the five holes (5, 6, 11, 12 and 14). And once CommonGround gets some dry heat for a stretch, everything should quickly fill in nicely.

“The fairways, the rough and the surrounds of the greens — the cool weather has set us back a little bit,” Troyer said. “But I was fairly surprised how much grass is out there actually. It looks like a golf course. We’ll play winter rules (on the affected holes) for however long it takes, but you can definitely find a lie pretty much anywhere within 2-3 inches of where your ball ends up.”

The grand reopening comes on the heels of some additional national exposure CommonGround recently received for one of its flagship programs — the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy, which is beginning its third season.

The Golf Channel did a feature on the Academy last year, and last week it aired an update and refresher about the program. Mate was interviewed two months ago for the recent story that was carried on “Morning Drive”.

“There’s only one thing that I’m aware of that’s put the Colorado Golf Association on Golf Channel, and it’s been (the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy),” Mate said. “Everything else we do as a golf association isn’t that unique. I’m not saying it’s not important, it’s just not that unique. What we’re doing at CommonGround, no other state or regional golf association is doing. And it’s pretty cool to have that opportunity to share what we’re doing and spread the word.”