The former Cherokee Country Club in Madison, Wisconsin, has been renovated by PGA Tour player Steve Stricker and reopened to members today as TPC Wisconsin. A grand opening will be planned for a later date.
Stricker, a resident of Madison, was helped in the renovation by PGA Tour Design Services. The private club becomes the 30th property in the TPC Network as part of a licensing deal signed in 2022, with ownership and operations remaining under Cherokee Park Inc.
Much of the course was rerouted and it all was re-grassed, and a new irrigation system was installed. Spectator mounding was added, as TPC Wisconsin will be the site of the PGA Tour Champions’ American Family Insurance Championship starting in 2025.
The club’s teaching center was enhanced — a new indoor hitting structure for club and putter fitting, plus Trackman technology, an indoor putting facility and an outdoor short-game area — and named the Steve & Nicki Stricker American Family Insurance Learning Center. The clubhouse was also extensively renovated.
“I’ve lived on this course for many years — since it was Cherokee Country Club,” Steve Stricker said in a media release announcing the news of the opening. “This is my home. I consider it a privilege to bring my PGA Tour career experience to bear on its re-envisioning, and I have totally enjoyed working on the project with PGA Tour Design Services. TPC Wisconsin will play to exact PGA Tour standards. It’ll be a fair test for players of all levels, and yes — it’s going to be exceptional.”
The renovation also saw the restoration of more than 35 acres of degraded wetlands that are tied to Cherokee Marsh.
“The redesign of the course has gone exceptionally well; we’ve raised our fairways two to four feet to ensure drainage and playing surface perfection,” Wisconsin golf legend Dennis Tiziani, owner and president of TPC Wisconsin as well as Steve Stricker’s father-in-law, said in the media release. “The work that has been put in on the property from 2021-2023 is an engineering marvel and an ecological miracle.
“I’ve been around the game of golf for a very long time, and I assure you that what we’ve created is not only going to be a challenging course, but a memorable one. Players will remember every hole — not just two or three ‘signature’ holes like on many courses. And because golf instruction is my passion, TPC Wisconsin will be among the best places in the world to improve your game.”