Cherry Hills Village – A misdirected proposal submitted by a national hotel chain to the 2005 U.S. Women’s Open has become something of an inside joke at Cherry Hills Country Club.
While ticket sales are on pace to reach Cherry Hills’ goal of 120,000 spectators during tournament week June 20-26 and 2,800 volunteers already have signed up, organizers admit selling women’s golf can at times be an uphill battle. The LPGA, after all, last held an event in the Denver area in 1987.
“One of our biggest challenges has been educating people who still don’t know what a huge, international sporting event the U.S. Women’s Open is,” promotions manager Sarah Knowlton conceded.
Championship director Doug Habgood discovered that lack of awareness more than a year ago in trying to secure hotel rooms for players and media.
“We had a long meeting, presenting all the info and our room needs,” Habgood recalled. “We asked them to put together a package, and everything seemed to go fine.”
Sure enough, a slick proposal arrived from the hotel chain two days later – with the cover of the proposal featuring a computer graphic of tennis balls and tennis rackets.
Habgood declined to identify the confused hotel chain.
“Needless to say, that’s not the one we selected,” he said. “Now, when we send out pictures to promote the U.S. Women’s Open, we always make sure to pick photos with players holding a golf club.”
Habgood is confident the 2005 U.S. Women’s Open will ultimately sell itself when the star power of Annika Sorenstam and phenom Michelle Wie, along with the rest of the world’s best female golfers, converge upon Cherry Hills, site of seven men’s national championships and two men’s PGA championships.
Cherry Hills golf professional Clayton Cole can’t wait to see everybody’s jaw drop when 15-year-old Wie tries to drive the green on the 346-yard first hole, just as Arnold Palmer did from the same spot to jump-start his final-round charge at the 1960 U.S. Open.
“Golfers in general are more attached to the men’s tour because it gets so much media coverage,” said Cole, who made the cut as a competitor in Cherry Hills’ last national championship event, the 1993 U.S. Senior Open. “But I think people are going to be pleasantly surprised at the skill level of the players in the Women’s Open and the excitement that week.”
Cherry Hills, which will play 6,731 yards to a par 71, figures to provide a typically tough Open test. Meg Mallon won the 2004 U.S. Open in 10-under-par at the 6,473-yard Orchard Club in South Hadley, Mass. Cole and grounds superintendent Mike Burke will be shocked if anybody approaches that score. Cole guesses 2-under will win. Burke predicts 6-over.
“If I were giving the tour player a suggestion to prepare for the tournament, I would tell them to practice their putting and wedge play around the greens,” Cole said. “The greens have some areas that are very severe.”
Burke is about to let the rough grow to the tournament height of 3 to 3 1/2 inches, as prescribed by the USGA. “I just haven’t told our members that yet,” Burke said with a grin.
The 82-year-old golf course did not require any significant modifications to host an Open. Tom Meeks, the USGA’s director of rules and competitions, recently visited Cherry Hills and proclaimed the classic William Flynn design fit to host the U.S. Women’s Open under almost the same playing conditions as it plays for the club membership on a daily basis.
The rough will be longer and some pin placements figure to be a bit more nasty, but Meeks determined there was no need to narrow the fairways or firm up the greens that already measure 10 1/2 on a Stimpmeter.
Cherry Hills is No. 58 in Golf Digest’s current list of the world’s 100 greatest courses.
“This course is very tricky,” Burke said. “It will eat you up if you’re not careful. It’s like target golf. You’d better know where to hit each shot.”
Plenty of work remains before the circus comes to town.
Preparing a country club for a major golf championship can become a daunting endeavor.
But Cherry Hills has help. Habgood works for the Bruno Event Team, a Birmingham, Ala.-based management company hired by the USGA. He arrived at Cherry Hills in February 2003 and has a small staff.
Brisk ticket sales and a staggering response from volunteers has Habgood convinced Denver fans are in for a treat. More than 300 volunteer positions have been added to accommodate those asking to help.
Meanwhile, a multimillion dollar construction project to spiffy up the Cherry Hills clubhouse is nearing completion.
Many prestigious golf clubs must stand in line for the opportunity to host a national tournament. Cole was a member of a Cherry Hills planning committee that decided in the late 1990s to seek another national championship. The target was the 2003 U.S. Men’s Open. But after the USGA granted that event to Olympia Fields (Ill.), Cherry Hills wrote a letter to the USGA asking to be considered for the 2005 U.S. Women’s Open. It won the bid four years ago.
“We had been trying to decide on either a PGA Senior Championship or a U.S. Women’s Open, and the committee just thought the time was right to host the Women’s Open,” Cole recalled.
“The USGA liked the fact that this will be the 60th Women’s Open and Cherry Hills hosted the 60th men’s Open (in 1960).”
Cherry Hills will join Hazeltine (Minn.) and Winged Foot (N.Y.) as the only facilities to host the four major USGA championships: the U.S. Open, U.S. Amateur, U.S. Senior Open and U.S. Women’s Open.
Cherry Hills has witnessed enough history to fill a hallway of bookcases, and the club has a full complement of 500 members and a waiting list. But a Cherry Hills mission statement specifies it must continually apply for national championships.
“This will keep the club at a national level, rather than just a local level,” Cole said.
The U.S. Women’s Open and men’s senior championships probably are the best remaining options. Cherry Hills can be stretched only to about 7,200 yards for a U.S. Open or PGA Championship, not long enough in today’s game. At altitude, men’s players would be hitting 5-irons into par-5 greens and wedges into par-4s.
That won’t happen for the Women’s Open, where players likely will need every club in their bag.
“Cherry Hills will be a fair, but good test,” Habgood said, adding that the pace of ticket sales indicate the excitement is building. Ticket orders have come from 49 states. The only one missing is West Virginia.
“We’ve done a little bit of legwork on West Virginia,” he said. “It would be nice to have all 50.”
Staff writer Tom Kensler can be reached at 303-820-5456 or tkensler@denverpost.com.
