(Updated Feb. 8: Shane Bertsch withdrew from the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am due to back issues.)
Two players with major Colorado ties — Shane Bertsch of Parker and David Duval, who just moved back to the Centennial State after a brief stay in Florida — are scheduled to make their first PGA Tour starts of the season this week at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
Bertsch (pictured) last played on the PGA Tour in August and faces a formidable task if he wants to play many more events on the world’s top circuit. He has just two events remaining on a medical extension — the result of a shoulder injury — to earn $597,069 in order to keep PGA Tour status moving forward.
The 47-year-old, winner of the 1998 Colorado Open, has played 192 PGA Tour events in his career, with five top-10 finishes. He’s won three times on the Web.com Tour, most recently in 2015.
Duval, 46, plays very little on the PGA Tour anymore, but is a regular at the Pebble Beach stop. In fact, his last top-five finish on the Tour came in the 2010 AT&T, where he was runner-up. This week’s tournament starts on Thursday.
Duval, a Golf Channel TV analyst, hasn’t made a cut on the PGA Tour since the 2015 British Open.
Also in the AT&T field this week is Sam Saunders, who moved from Fort Collins to Florida two years ago.
Meanwhile, two-time PGA Tour winner Jonathan Kaye will be making his second straight Web.com Tour start at the Club Colombia Championship in Bogata, starting Thursday.
Kaye, who won his second CoBank Colorado Open last year, withdrew in the midst of the second round at last week’s Panama Championship. Before that, he hadn’t competed in the Web.com Tour since April.
Also in the Colombia field are locals Wyndham Clark, Mark Hubbard, Jim Knous and Andrew Svoboda.
And at the PGA Tour Champions’ Boca Raton Championship, World Golf Hall of Famer Hale Irwin will make just his third tour start in the last seven months. The former University of Colorado golfer will be joined in the Florida field — starting on Friday — by fellow Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Brandt Jobe and former Castle Pines resident Esteban Toledo.
