CHERRY HILLS VILLAGE, Colo. – Tom Doak said he hasn’t sought out renovation or restoration work in recent years after having done plenty of such work earlier in his career. But working with Eric Iverson of Renaissance Golf, they made an exception at iconic Cherry Hills Country Club.
Commissioned in 2007 and finishing in 2022, Doak and Iverson touched almost every part of Cherry Hills. They restored Little Dry Creek that meanders across the course, reintroduced cross bunkers at No. 17, renovated other bunkers and restored greens to the original form as designed by William Flynn in the 1920s.
Doak said the work was focused on how the members play the course more than hosting large tournaments, of which Cherry Hills has seen many.
“The funny thing is, the best players in the 1920s hit the ball about as far as club members do today,” Doak said. “So if it was designed for Bobby Jones, it works really well for the membership at Cherry Hills right now.”
The course features some of the best “tilt” greens in the world, with sometimes strong slopes across the entire length of a putting surface instead of many internal contours. It can be more difficult to build tilted greens with notable slopes today because greens speeds have increased as agronomy has improved.
“We’re envious that they got to build greens like that back in the day, when that was easy to do and made sense,” he said “It’s hard to build just a simple, tilted green now, because it’s either half a percent too much slope and it doesn’t work at all, or half a percent too little and it’s boring. But we didn’t really have to do much to those greens. They’re really good.”
Editor’s note: Golfweek’s Best course raters judge courses in 10 categories on a points basis of 1-10, then offer a non-cumulative overall rating.
No. 7 of Cherry Hills Country Club in Cherry Hills Village, Colo. (Courtesy of Cherry Hills/Evan Schiller)
How well the holes individually and collectively adhere to the land and to each other.
Set inside a shallow valley, the clever design features a figure-8 front nine at the interior with the back nine looping counter-clockwise around it. Little Dry Creek – don’t let the name fool you, it’s full of water – meanders through the western side of the property and features prominently on six holes (while crossing another), especially since the 2022 restoration.
My rating: 8 out of 10
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