Course of the Week: Cherry Hills CC completes decade-long restoration
Cherry Hills Country Club in Cherry Hills Village, Colo., completed a decade-long restoration of its 1922 William Flynn golf course, which has hosted 14 major championships and will welcome the 2023 United States Amateur Championship.
Cherry Hills commissioned golf course architect Tom Doak and Renaissance Golf Design in 2007 to restore the Flynn design while also lengthening it. Much of the work has taken place over the past decade under the direction of Renaissance associate Eric Iverson.
(Photo: Cherry Hills CC)
Part of the restoration was the return of Little Dry Creek to its original orientation. Iverson oversaw the creek’s repositioning along several greens and fairways on both the front and back nines. The project re-engineered the creek to reduce flood potential and better manage water flow.
To restore Flynn’s original design, the crew rerouted the creek closer to the front of the green on the 14th hole, next to the green on the seventh and then continues to flow alongside the newly re-designed eighth hole.
“You can see from all the hole drawings that Flynn routed the holes and implemented a strategy based on Little Dry Creek,” Iverson said. “The way the creek plays now on these key holes brings exceptional strategy and challenge to these iconic approach shots.”
The Renaissance team also reintroduced cross bunkering on the 17th hole, which features the first island green on a par 5 built in the U.S., and other strategic bunker work.
The project also restored green complexes on holes three and 13 while the crew restored other greens to their original forms to ensure all green complexes match the original Flynn plans. The crew also implemented a major tree management plan and lengthened several holes.
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