Colorado Golf Club will serve as 2nd stroke-play course for 2023 U.S. Amateur that Cherry Hills will host
By Gary Baines – 3/7/2022
Almost four years to the month after Colorado Golf Club in Parker hosted its first USGA championship, it will play a significant role in another one — regarded as the top men’s amateur tournament in the world.
The USGA announced on Monday that CGC will be the second stroke-play course for the 2023 U.S. Amateur where the champion will be crowned at Cherry Hills Country Club.
The event — marking the first U.S. Am held in Colorado since 2012 — and the fifth overall — will be conducted Aug. 14-20 of next year.
During the 36-hole stroke-play portion of the Amateur, set for Aug. 14-15 with a possible playoff on the morning of Aug. 16, each competitor will play one round each at Cherry Hills and Colorado Golf Club. From an original field of 312, the 64 players with the best stroke-play totals will advance to match play, which begins on Aug. 16 at Cherry Hills.
Colorado Golf Club was the primary host of the 2019 U.S. Mid-Amateur, with CommonGround serving as the second stroke-play course. The picturesque Colorado GC, home to a wide variety of wildlife, also has been the site of the 2010 Senior PGA Championship and the 2013 Solheim Cup. It was designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, and opened in 2007.
Winners of those major competitions at CGC have included Tom Lehman (2010 Senior PGA), the European team (2013 Solheim Cup) and Australian Lukas Michel (2019 U.S. Mid-Am).
“Colorado Golf Club is a strategic and demanding championship venue, and we could not be more proud to showcase it during stroke play for the 2023 U.S. Amateur Championship,” said Matt Kellogg, the club’s president. “With its unrivaled history, the U.S. Amateur is a pinnacle moment for many, and we’re excited to have the world’s best amateurs tee it up at our venue.”
The previous four U.S. Amateurs conducted in Colorado have produced two champions who are among the game’s all-time greats — Jack Nicklaus in 1959 at The Broadmoor and Phil Mickelson in 1990 at Cherry Hills. Other U.S. Amateurs in Colorado are 1967 at The Broadmoor (winner: Robert Dickson) and 2012 at Cherry Hills (winner: Steven Fox).
By the way, CommonGround was the second stroke-play course in 2012, when the competitors there and at Cherry Hills included Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, Bryson DeChambeau, Hideki Matsuyama, Xander Schauffele, Daniel Berger and Max Homa, plus others such as Talor Gooch and Beau Hossler.
The winner — and possibly the runner-up — in the 36-hole championship match of the 2023 U.S. Amateur on Aug. 20 will be exempt into the 2024 U.S. Open. Spots in the Masters and British Open could also be available, depending on policies in place at the time.
This year’s U.S. Am is set for Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, N.J., Aug. 15-21.
(About the Writer: Gary Baines has covered golf in Colorado continuously since 1983. He was a sports writer at the Daily Camera newspaper in Boulder, then the sports editor there, and has written regularly for ColoradoGolf.org since 2009. He was voted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2021. Email: ColoradoGolfJournal@mac.com)
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One response to “2 Top-Notch Venues”
[…] 12. Twenty three months after the U.S. Girls’ Junior — in this case scheduled for Eisenhower Golf Course at the Air Force Academy — was canceled for the first time in its history (due to Covid-19 safety concerns in 2020), the USGA announced that the 2023 championship will come to the site just north of Colorado Springs. It will be the first USGA championship to be held at a course affiliated with a military academy. The CGA will serve as a “host group” for the event, partnering with the USGA in many respects, most notably fundraising, just as the Junior Golf Alliance of Colorado had been scheduled to do in 2020. According to CGA executive director Ed Mate, the CGA is going to be the responsible party for the all the administration leading up to the tournament. Once the competition starts, it will be handed over to the USGA, the Eisenhower staff and the volunteers. The U.S. Girls’ Junior has been held three times in Colorado — in 1957 at Lakewood Country Club, 1965 at Hiwan Golf Club in Evergreen and in 1982 at Greeley Country Club. READ MORE Meanwhile, in the second USGA championship that will be held in Colorado in 2023 — the U.S. Amateur that Cherry Hills Country Club primarily will host — Colorado Golf Club will serve as second stroke-play course. READ MORE […]
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