With officials from RainDance National in Windsor and TPC Colorado in Berthoud saying they hope to have planned courses open in the next few years, Ballyneal announced last week an addition to its private golf club complex in Holyoke.
A new 13-hole short course — designed by Tom Doak and Renaissance Golf, as was the original 18-hole championship layout at Ballyneal — is being constructed. Officials say the short course is expected to be completed this fall, with a formal opening scheduled for July 2017.
Ballyneal opened a decade ago and is currently ranked No. 4 in Golfweek’s list of the “Best Modern Courses” in the U.S. (opened 1960-present).
Ballyneal’s short course is being built on the largest of the “chop hills” on its property in northeast Colorado, within the front-nine loop of the existing course.
“There are so many dramatic possibilities out there, we’ve got to build three or four holes that rival certain ones on the original 18,” Doak said in Ballyneal’s news release.
Colorado last hosted a USGA championship in 2012 when the U.S. Amateur paid a visit, but there are now two national events on the horizon.
Less than three months after the USGA announced that The Broadmoor will be hosting the U.S. Senior Open in 2018, the association on Thursday revealed its plans for the 2019 U.S. Mid-Amateur to come to Colorado Golf Club in Parker, with CommonGround Golf Course in Aurora serving as the second stroke-play course for the tournament.
The dates are set for Sept. 21-26, 2019, with two rounds of stroke play preceding 64 players advancing to match play.
“The USGA is pleased to bring a championship to Colorado Golf Club (pictured) for the first time,” said Diana Murphy, who is set to become the president of the USGA in February. “The course has a proven record in both stroke-play and match-play competition, and the variety of risk-reward options will allow for exciting and dramatic play, helping to identify a champion worthy of hoisting the Robert T. Jones Jr. Memorial Trophy.”
It will mark just the second time the U.S. Mid-Am — a championship for players 25 and older — will be contested in Colorado. The 1983 Mid-Am was held at Cherry Hills Country Club, with Jay Sigel winning one of his five USGA titles, this one coming just a month after capturing the U.S. Amateur championship.
Overall, it will be the 33rd USGA championship played in Colorado, with the first being the 1938 U.S. Open at Cherry Hills.
Colorado Golf Club, designed by Bill Coore and two-time Masters champion Ben Crenshaw, has hosted the 2010 Senior PGA Championship (won by Tom Lehman) and the 2013 Solheim Cup (where Europe defeated the U.S.) in its first decade of existence, but this will be its first USGA national championship for the club that opened in 2007. However, Colorado GC has hosted numerous USGA qualifiers over the years, including U.S. Open Local Qualifying in 2009.
“We’ve always wanted to work with the USGA, so this is really exciting,” Graham Cliff, head professional at Colorado Golf Club, said on Thursday. “From Day 1 we’ve wanted to give back to amateur golf. For guys that don’t turn pro, this is a huge event. And it fits in with our mission to give back to the game.”
CommonGround (left), which is owned and operated by the CGA, served as the second stroke-play course for the 2012 U.S. Amateur that Cherry Hills hosted. Designed by Tom Doak, CommonGround opened in 2009.
“If you told me in 2009 that in the first decade of the golf course that it would play a significant role in two (USGA) championships, I’d have said we’re hitting it out of the park,” said Ed Mate, executive director of the CGA. “But it’s one of the main reasons we did what we did in hiring a (big-league) architect who designs a course worthy of them.”
After the USGA progressed in discussions with Colorado Golf Club officials about hosting the Mid-Am, USGA director of regional affairs Mark Passey called representatives of CommonGround to see if they were interested in being the companion course.
The USGA said, “We’d love your golf course (to co-host the stroke-play rounds),” Mate relayed. “They said your golf course complements Colorado Golf Club really well. It all just made sense.”
The U.S. Mid-Amateur dates back to 1981. Coloradan Bill Loeffler captured the championship in 1986 in Madison, Miss. Traditionally, the U.S. Mid-Am champion receives an invitation to the following year’s Masters.
With the 2019 U.S. Mid-Am, Colorado will add to the extensive and diverse list of significant golf championships it has hosted — or is scheduled to host — since The International PGA Tour event ended its 21-year run after the 2006 tournament.
That list includes:
— The 2008 U.S. Senior Open at The Broadmoor
— The 2008 U.S. Amateur Public Links at Murphy Creek
— The 2009 Palmer Cup at Cherry Hills
— The 2010 Senior PGA Championship at Colorado Golf Club
— The 2010 Trans-Mississippi at Denver Country Club
— The 2011 U.S. Women’s Open at The Broadmoor
— The 2012 U.S. Amateur at Cherry Hills and CommonGround
— The 2013 Solheim Cup at Colorado Golf Club
— The 2014 BMW Championship at Cherry Hills
— The 2018 U.S. Senior Open at The Broadmoor
— The 2019 U.S. Mid-Amateur at Colorado Golf Club and CommonGround.
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Who better to conduct a short-game clinic than a player who posted his lone PGA Tour victory by chipping in from more than 40 feet for birdie in a playoff?
That’s what Matt Jones did in early April to win the Shell Houston Open. Not only did the chip-in give him a PGA Tour victory, but it earned him a spot in the Masters the following week.
Jones (left), a 34-year-old Australian, and Will MacKenzie, a two-time Tour winner originally from Greenville, N.C., were finalized Tuesday as the professionals who will conduct the PGA Tour Player Short Game Clinic on Wednesday (Sept. 3) from 5-6 p.m. at CommonGround Golf Course in Aurora.
The event, which is free and open to the general public, will take place at CommonGround’s new Community Putting Green, located west of the clubhouse. CommonGround, which is owned and operated by the CGA and CWGA, is located at 10300 East Golfers Way in Aurora, near the intersection of Havana and 1st Avenue.
Both Jones and MacKenzie are among the 69 players competing this week at the BMW Championship PGA Tour playoff event at Cherry Hills Country Club. MacKenzie comes into the penultimate playoff tournament No. 58 in the FedExCup standings, while Jones is No. 67.
MacKenzie (left), who will turn 40 on Sept. 28, won PGA Tour events at the 2008 Viking Classic and the 2006 Reno-Tahoe Open. The runner-up in the 2014 Valero Texas Open has earned more than $6.4 million on the PGA Tour.
But MacKenzie has an unusual background — at least for a Tour player. After being a top junior golfer, he quit the game for nearly 10 years after his sophomore year in high school. His Tour bio also notes that the outdoor enthusiast lived out of his van in Montana for five years and is a professional kayaker.
Jones played college golf at Arizona State. He’s won more than $7.1 million in his years on the PGA Tour, but in the 2013-14 wraparound season his victory at the Shell Houston Open is his only top-10 finish. He’s currently ranked No. 56 in the world.
CommonGround, a Tom Doak-designed public course which opened in 2009, served as the second stroke-play course for the 2012 U.S. Amateur that Cherry Hills hosted. It is the home of the acclaimed Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy. George Solich — for whom the Academy is named, along with his brother, Geoff — is the general chairman of the BMW Championship at Cherry Hills.
The Short Game Clinic at CommonGround will be emceed by Jerry Walters, longtime host of the “In the Fairway” radio show which airs on Saturday mornings on 102.3 ESPN. Walters is also a putting and short game instructor.
]]>With golf returning to the Olympics in 2016 after a hiatus of 112 years, a decision will be made late this week about who will design the official course for the Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Eight design teams are each making 45-minute presentations in Rio this week, and some of the biggest names in golf will be involved, including Jack Nicklaus and Annika Sorenstam (one team), Greg Norman and Lorena Ochoa (another) and Gary Player.
Among the others making a bid is Tom Doak, head of Renaissance Golf. And that’s where Mate becomes involved as he’ll be part of Doak’s presentation team. Doak and Mate (right and left, respectively, in photo) worked together when Doak and Renaissance Golf designed CommonGround Golf Course, the facility that is owned and operated by the CGA and CWGA. The public course, located in both Denver and Aurora, opened in May 2009.
A while back, Mate wrote a letter on behalf of the CGA and CWGA supporting Doak’s Olympic bid, and Doak was impressed enough with Mate and his thoughts that he invited the executive director to accompany him in Rio. Mate departed for Brazil on Saturday and will return on Friday. The four-person committee that’s hosting the course designers is expected to announce its selection by Friday.
“I was shocked — very flattered, but mainly shocked” about being invited, Mate said recently after scrambling to update his travel documents. “I’ve never been south of the equator, so I plan to make the most of it. But this is definitely a real honor.”
Mate admits he’s daydreamed a little about what it might be like in the hours leading up to this week’s presentations.
“I’ve thought about it — how it would be interesting to be in a waiting room chatting with Greg Norman, Annika or Jack,” he said with a laugh, admitting he doesn’t know how things will be set up in Rio.
All that aside, Mate will be on hand because he’s obviously a big believer in Doak, having been part of a group that selected him to design CommonGround after interviewing several other finalists.
Doak certainly has some eye-opening credentials in the design business. Of Golf Magazine’s list of the top courses in the world, five of Doak’s designs are in the first 80: Pacific Dunes in Bandon, Ore. (19), Cape Kidnappers in New Zealand (33), Barnbougle Dunes (with Mike Clayton) on the Australian island of Tasmania (41), Old Macdonald in Bandon (74) and Ballyneal here in Colorado (79).
And when lists are limited to “modern” courses, Doak’s work figures in even more prominently. In Golfweek’s rundown of the best modern courses in the U.S., Doak’s layouts have five spots in the top 15: Pacific Dunes (2), Old Macdonald (3), Ballyneal (6), Sebonack (with Nicklaus) in Southampton, N.Y. (8), and Rock Creek Cattle Company in Deer Lodge, Mont. (15).
And, of course, CommonGround is regarded highly enough that it will serve as the second stroke-play course for this year’s U.S. Amateur, which is being hosted by Cherry Hills Country Club. By the way, Doak and Renaissance Golf oversaw a major restoration project at Cherry Hills several years ago.
“When it comes to course design, no one can claim more than him,” Mate said of Doak. “Winning championships, he can’t compete, but as far as (course design) work goes, he’s eminently qualified. He has a lot of courses in the top 100.”
Twenty-four design teams submitted the necessary paperwork to be considered for the Olympic project, but that number was cut to eight in early December. In addition to Doak, Nicklaus/Sorenstam, Norman/Ochoa and Player, the finalists for the job are Gil Hanse, Martin Hawtree, Robert Trent Jones II/Mario Gonzalez and Peter Thomson/Ross Perrett/Karrie Webb. Thomson, a five-time British Open winner, joins Nicklaus, Sorenstam, Norman, Ochoa, Player and Webb as winners of major championships.
After serving as the Olympic venue for both men’s and women’s golf competitions, the Rio de Janeiro course is expected to operate as a public facility with a teaching academy, a consideration which also will factor into this week’s selection.
The winning designer will receive a relatively modest fee of $300,000, though the accompanying media attention for working on such a high-profile project could be a big boon.
As Doak noted in an e-mail for a Wall Street Journal story, “It’s a rare chance to define (or redefine) what a great championship course is supposed to be, on a very big stage.”
Groundbreaking for the Olympic course is scheduled to take place in October.
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