Former Colorado State University golfer Martin Laird and former Fort Collins resident Sam Saunders took advantage of an event which uses the same format as the old International at Castle Pines to post their best finishes of the season on the PGA Tour on Sunday.
At a tournament held the same week as the WGC-Bridgestone, Laird had his best Tour showing in 17 months, while Saunders recorded just the second top-10 finish of his PGA Tour career.
Laird (pictured) tied for seventh at the Barracuda Championship in Reno, Nev., while Saunders was ninth. Laird racked up 31 Stableford points in an event in which an eagle is worth 5 points, birdie 2, par 0, bogey minus-1, and double bogey or worse minus-3. Saunders, Arnold Palmer’s grandson, eagled his final hole to finish with 30 points. Saunders’ other PGA Tour top-10, a second at the 2015 Puerto Rico Open, was also held opposite a World Golf Championship event.
Mark Hubbard, who grew up in Denver, also had a strong showing in Reno, placing 20th with 26 points.
Greg Chalmers won the Barracuda Invitational with 43 points.
In other tour events:
— At the Made in Denmark Challenge, a European Challenge Tour event in Aalborn, Denmark, former University of Colorado golfer Sebastian Heisele finished eighth. Heisele came on strong on the weekend, going 71-72-65-68 for an 8-under-par 276 total, which put him four strokes behind winner Bernd Ritthammer. It was Heisele’s fifth top-15 showing of the year on the Challenge circuit, where he ranks 20th on the 2016 money list.
— And former University of Northern Colorado golfer Carleigh Silvers posted her first top-10 finish ever on the Symetra Tour, tying for seventh in the Tullymore Classic in Canadian Lakes, Mich. Silvers carded rounds of 71-66-72 for a 7-under-par 209 total. That left her five strokes behind champion Paola Moreno.
