CHERRY HILLS VILLAGE — Golf’s future superstars are coming to Colorado.
The U.S. Amateur Championship returns to Cherry Hills Country Club next month, when local golf fans get a chance to get an up-close look at the PGA Tour’s household names of tomorrow.
It will mark the third time the country’s oldest golf championship has come to Cherry Hills, where Phil Mickelson prevailed in 1990 and Steven Fox won in a dramatic playoff in 2012. U.S. Amateur senior director Ben Kimball called the seven-day tournament, set for Aug. 14-20 with two rounds of stroke play followed by a 64-man match play tournament, “the most democratic championship in all of amateur golf.”
“The names etched in the Havemeyer Trophy confirm the greatness of this championship,” Kimball said. “There’s no grander stage in golf for an amateur, and it’s fitting that it’s annually conducted on what many look to as some of the great venues in our game.”
In 2012, the Cherry Hills field consisted of four of the world’s current top 11 players, 75 future PGA event winners and eight future major wins. Since the tournament’s inception in 1895, a total of 20 U.S. Amateur champions went on to win majors, including Mickelson, Tiger Woods (a three-time winner from 1994-96), Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus (two-time winner), Bobby Jones (five-time winner, all of which count as majors due to the time period) and most recently 2022 U.S. Open victor Matt Fitzpatrick.
Last year’s winner, Sam Bennett, has already made a mark on tour as well, flirting with the Masters’ amateur course record in April and becoming the talk of that tournament before finishing 16th.
So it’s no hyperbole to say future legends will be walking the greens at Cherry Hills. A record 8,253 golfers entered this year’s tournament, topping the previous all-time mark of 7,920 in 1999 at Pebble Beach. Those hopefuls are then whittled down to a 312-player field via 91 sectional venues across the U.S., Mexico and Canada — qualifying which remains ongoing.
“We intend this to be the toughest test of golf these players will face all year,” Kimball said. “A total examination of not only a player’s playing ability, but their mental stability as well.”
The 123rd U.S. Amateur will be the 10th USGA championship at the storied Denver-area course, which first opened in 1922. Cherry Hills hosted its first major in 1938 (the U.S. Open) and then the PGA Championship just three years later. But it was the 1960 U.S. Open, which sportswriter Dan Jenkins dubbed “three generations of golf colliding,” that gave Cherry Hills its signature moment.
While aging legend Ben Hogan faded down the stretch in the final round, the then-reigning amateur champion Nicklaus turned in a dazzling performance that foretold the Golden Bear’s greatness, and Palmer engineered the greatest comeback in U.S. Open history.
Down seven shots entering the final round, Palmer began his afternoon by driving the green on the first hole en route to a six-under 65 performance, good for 280 overall (four-under) and a two-stroke victory over Nicklaus in the first U.S. Open held in the western United States. A plaque and trophy on the first tee-box commemorate Palmer’s famous final round to this day.
“That tournament is often cited as the beginning of the modern golf era… and the king was crowned in 1960,” explained Jim Hillary, championship chair for the U.S. Amateur. “That day, a great rivalry between (Nicklaus) and Arnold Palmer was born, along with a friendship that lasted 60 years.”
Cherry Hills also hosted the 1978 U.S. Open, 1985 PGA Championship, 1993 U.S. Senior Open (won by Nicklaus) and 2005 U.S. Women’s Open, when Birdie Kim holed out from a greenside bunker on the 72nd hole to win in show-stopping fashion. Its last big event came in 2014, when Billy Horschel won the BMW Championship (coming to Castle Pines Golf Club in 2024).
History aside, the return of U.S. Amateur to Cherry Hills Village this August also presents an opportunity for Colorado Golf Club, which is serving as the championship’s stroke-play co-host over the first two days.
The Parker course, which has previously hosted marquee events like the 2010 Senior PGA Championship, 2013 Solheim Cup and 2019 U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship, sees next month’s event as a showcase for its potential as a premier tournament host.
“We’ve been open for 17 years, so I’ve told my board and our membership that we can’t be a 100-year-old club until we’re 100 years old,” Colorado Golf Club president Matt Kellogg said. “But what we can do is do all the right things between now and then (to be a destination course for championship tournaments like Cherry Hills).”
Like Colorado Golf Club, Fort Collins native Gavin Hagstrom is also looking to use the U.S. Amateur to boost his profile. Hagstrom played his first two collegiate seasons at Colorado State before transferring to the University of Minnesota, and qualified for last year’s U.S. Amateur at Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, N.J., where he shot 77/74 in stroke play before missing the cut.
“Ever since I found out the U.S. Amateur was going to be at Cherry Hills and Colorado Golf Club, I’ve wanted to play in it,” said Hagstrom, a Fossil Ridge alum. “I know there’s going to be a lot of people out here who maybe haven’t heard of me, but who will support me because I’m from Colorado. I’m excited for that.”
As the 1,305th-ranked amateur in the world, Hagstrom is a longshot. But he’s feeling confident about his chances to advance to match play this time around. He’s one of two golfers with CSU ties in the tournament, in addition to Rams star Connor Jones, a Mountain Range alum who is the 74th-ranked amateur.
Such is the beauty of the U.S. Amateur, a grueling seven-day tournament that produces Cinderella stories as well as the next generation of PGA Tour stars. The former happened in 2012, when the 63rd-seeded Fox emerged to become the biggest underdog winner in the modern history of the event.
“The goal is to make some money playing golf some day,” Hagstrom said. “To get there, I’m going to have to keep working hard and keep getting better every day, and embracing the big moments like the U.S. Amateur. I think all the golfers in the field grinding (for a professional golf dream) will tell you the same thing.”
2023 U.S. Amateur Championship Ticket/TV Info
The 123rd U.S. Amateur runs Aug. 14-20 at Cherry Hills Golf Club and Colorado Golf Club. Ex-Broncos quarterback and Pro Football Hall of Famer Peyton Manning, a Cherry Hills member, is the honorary chair of the tournament.
Tickets
All gallery tickets grant access to both courses during stroke play on Monday and Tuesday. Fans ages 17 and under will be granted complimentary admission for any day of the event by visiting the ticket office with a ticketed adult to receive a hand stamp. There’s a max of four junior tickets per ticketed adult.
Link to purchase tickets online
One-day gallery tickets: $25 (good any day)
Gallery five-pack: $20 each (min. 5/max 10, good any day)
TV Schedule
All times Mountain; Sunday’s championship match at Cherry Hills is 36 holes.
Wednesday, Aug. 16 (Round of 64): 3 p.m. – 4 p.m. (Peacock); 4 p.m. – 6 p.m. (Golf Channel)
Thursday, Aug. 17 (Round of 16): 4 p.m.- 5 p.m. (Peacock); 5 p.m.- 7 p.m. (Golf Channel)
Friday, Aug. 18 (Quarterfinals): 3 p.m. – 4 p.m. (Peacock); 4 p.m. – 6 p.m. (Golf Channel)
Saturday, Aug. 19 (Semifinals): 1 p.m.- 3 p.m. (Golf Channel); 3 p.m. – 4 p.m. (NBC)
Sunday, Aug. 20 (Championship Match): 1 p.m. – 3 p.m. (Golf Channel); 3 p.m.- 4 p.m. (NBC)
