diff --git a/django/contrib/gis/db/backends/postgis/operations.py b/django/contrib/gis/db/backends/postgis/operations.py
index eeb9105002..ddf10de673 100644
--- a/django/contrib/gis/db/backends/postgis/operations.py
+++ b/django/contrib/gis/db/backends/postgis/operations.py
@@ -413,7 +413,8 @@ class PostGISOperations(DatabaseOperations, BaseSpatialOperations):
                 # Responsibility of callers to perform error handling.
                 raise
         finally:
-            cursor.close()
+            # Close out the connection.  See #9437.
+            self.connection.close()
         return row[0]
 
     def postgis_geos_version(self):