LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Pat Heitz stood on the putting green at Cherokee Golf Course on Tuesday watching his golf team paint the exterior of the course's golf cart barn.

Heitz, the head coach at Trinity High School, holds this place and other Metro courses close to his heart.

"You never know who you're running into on this golf course," he said. "You see old people, young people, grandkids."

Heitz grew up playing Louisville's public courses and is teaching his golfers the importance of giving back to those places. His team is spending several days at the course this week priming, painting, cleaning and planting flowers at the course that could've used a mulligan not long ago.

"When they talked about closing this down a year ago, it made no sense," Heitz said.

The city of Louisville currently has 10 municipally owned golf courses, and Cherokee is one of three nine-hole courses in the system. For several years, the 52-acre golf course didn't have a PGA professional or nonprofit helping onsite, leaving the daily operations to Louisville Parks and Recreation.

So, facing a budget crunch in 2019, Mayor Greg Fischer put six of the city's ten courses on the chopping block: Charlie Vettiner, Crescent Hill, Bobby Nichols, Iroquois, Sun Valley and Cherokee.

"I just didn't see any good reason to close a course that so many people are so passionate about," Metro Councilwoman Cindi Fowler said.

In 2019, Olmsted Parks Conservancy submitted ideas for the golf course, which was founded in 1895. Olmsted's ideas included using the space for more walking trails, trees and wildflowers, along with adding paddle-boats and kayaks in Willow Pond and the potential to re-purpose the existing golf club house into a restaurant.

The resolution that could've closed the park was ultimately withdrawn.

"You've got a group of people here at Cherokee who are determined to make sure that it stays open," said Fowler, who was instrumental in keeping the course open.

This week, the course is seeing a different kind of stroke to help it return to the course it once was. Heitz and his players scraped and power-washed the clubhouse Monday and then began the painting process.

"It feels good being able to help out a place that was struggling, making it a lot better," Landon Elder, a junior at Trinity, said as he rolled paint onto the side of the clubhouse. "And more people are showing up. It feels good helping out and just letting the place keep open and have more people come."

A year after it could've closed its doors for good, Louisville's oldest course is now welcoming more than 100 golfers on the weekends, has a thriving men's and women's league and just welcomed a new PGA professional.

The resurgence at Cherokee, with the help of the people like Heitz and his team, is proving that keeping the course open was par for the course.

"It was always the right decision, in my opinion," Fowler said.

This year, Cherokee will host three high school golf tournaments, more than any metro course in Louisville.

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