The teams representing Colorado and the CGA have finished in the top half of the field in four of the last five USGA Men’s State Team Championships, and the Coloradans will be looking to add to their resume when the biennial competition is held Sept. 28-30 at the Country Club of Birmingham in Alabama.
Each of the 50 states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, field teams consisting of three in-state residents, none of which can be an active college golfer. Each round of the 54-hole event, the top two scores from each state’s representatives count toward its team total.
The three players that will comprise the Colorado team this year — Jon Lindstrom of Broomfield, Nick Nosewicz of Aurora and Keith Humerickhouse of Eagle — have significatly varying experience at the event.
Lindstrom, the 2008 and ’15 CGA Mid-Amateur champion, will be representing the state in the event for the fifth consecutive time the State Team has been conducted, and for the sixth time overall. In fact, Lindstrom has been the top Colorado individual finisher at the last three State Teams.
Nosewicz, the 2015 CGA Match Play winner, was part of the 2014 Colorado squad at the State Team, along with Lindstrom and Steve Irwin.
Humerickhouse, winner of a record-tying four straight CGA Mid-Amateurs starting in 2010, will be a first-timer at the USGA Men’s State Team, but is no stranger to other USGA championships, having advanced as far as the round of 16 at the U.S. Mid-Amateur.
The Colorado team was selected by vote of the Tournament Committee, with candidates coming from the top performers on the 2015 and ’16 Player of the Year points lists. Chris Thayer of Denver was among the Coloradans invited, but couldn’t participate this year.
The Colorado team finished 22nd in 2014 — the last year the Men’s State Team was held — and 20th in 2012. Colorado’s best showing ever in the event was seventh place in 1997, the second year the championship was conducted.
The Men’s State Team will be the final USGA championship of 2016.
