Thorncreek’s $7 Million Facelift

Colorado’s second Topgolf facility isn’t the only construction project happening on the southeast side of I-25 and E. 136th Avenue. On October 9, the City of Thornton shuttered Thorncreek Golf Club until 2018 while the municipally owned and managed course undergoes $7 million in upgrades.

Following a master plan recommended by the National Golf Foundation and created by the course’s original architect Baxter Spann, the 25-year-old course will install a new irrigation system, pump station, turfgrass and cart paths. The plan also calls for major modifications to the 7,268-yard layout that will improve playability and accelerate the pace of play.

The city has sought to improve the course ever since taking over the management from Eagle Golf on April 1, 2012. “At the time, the course had the reputation as the ‘Walmart of golf,’” explains Head PGA Professional Chris Swinhart. “And not in a good way.” The city brought in the NGF and Spann to chart out a comprehensive long-term improvement plan.

Swinhart arrived from Westminster’s Legacy Ridge Golf Course in 2014 and immediately improved Thorncreek’s customer service, junior programs, food and beverage and community relations. He introduced Footgolf. Head Golf Superintendent Doug Fisher, whose resume includes long stints at Denver Country Club and the TPC Las Colinas in Dallas, came on board the same year and upgraded the condition of what had become hardpan fairways and greens.

Pursuant to the master plan, in 2015 they flipped the nines to provide easier access to the first tee and accelerate pace of play. “It’s surprising how quickly it turned around,” Swinhart says. “We shook the Walmart label and really have momentum now. We did 32,077 rounds last year. Our reputation isn’t what it used to be.”

Nor will the course be what it was after it reopens in 2018. For one, it won’t be as penal. “We’re eliminating 30 percent of the bunkers—mostly along the fairways—and relining the rest for better drainage,” Fisher explains. “We’ll fill them with rose-colored sand. We’re also widening the landing areas so they’re not as pinched off and rerouting all the cart paths so they don’t cross or intrude on the fairways.”

Additionally, almost every hole will have a new forward tee to shorten the course for certain players. “And,” Fisher continues, “we plan to strip, level and, in some cases, blow up and rebuild every tee box on the course.”

Instead of a “Heinz 57” of grass types, rye will cover the tees and fairways, with bluegrass in the rough. T1 Bentgrass will carpet the resurfaced greens—five of which will be relocated, many of which will lose their humps, and all of which will increase in width and pinnable areas.

The sixth green and seventh tee, which serve as Thorncreek’s “billboard” from the highway, will both be new.

The new irrigation system and pump station will enhance water quality and efficiency, and the dredging and enlarging of the irrigation pond will make for a more compelling ninth hole.  Perhaps the most dramatic change, however, will occur on the par-5 16th—what Swinhart calls the “bulldozer” hole. “It’s a 600-yard par five you can’t hit driver on,” he says, referring to the drainage ditch that bisects the fairway at the first landing area. A culvert will cure the problem, as will mowing down some of the adjacent native and shifting the green to the right for a better angle of approach.

Construction of on-course restrooms, renovations to the clubhouse and an overhaul of the practice range will also take place. Riverdale, Broadlands, Todd Creek and Legacy Ridge—courses all within seven miles—will absorb the Thorncreek diaspora. So will Topgolf when it debuts next door at the end of next year. Swinhart looks forward to having the golf entertainment complex as a neighbor: “It can only help us attract more players when we reopen.”

thorncreekgc.com

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With of the renovations and temporary closure, Thorncreek is not included in the 2017 Golf Passport presented by the Inverness Golf Club. However, you can save at 66 Colorado courses all year in 2017. Learn more here.
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This article appears in the Winter 2016 issue of Colorado AvidGolfer, out in December. Subscribe today!

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