The CGA Women’s Dunham Chapman Championship, a tournament held annually in the mountains and/or the Western Slope, will feature a capacity field once again this year as the River Course at Keystone (left) hosts the 36-hole team event this weekend (Sept. 15-16).
Sixty-four two-person teams are entered in the 12th annual event, with competition in eight different flights.
Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Christie Austin of Cherry Hills Country Club and Laurie Steenrod of Saddle Rock Golf Course won the title in this event twice together (2013 and ’15), and while they’re both entered this weekend, it’s with different partners.
Austin will compete with Kathy West of Castle Pines Golf Club, and Steenrod with Bev Hoffenberg of Columbine Country Club. Also in the seven-team championship flight are Mary Doyen of Foothills Golf Course — winner of the 2011 CGA Women’s Senior Stroke Play and the 2012 senior division of the CGA Women’s Match Play — and partner Jill Kirkpatrick of Broken Tee Englewood.
The Chapman Stroke Play format calls for two-person teams, with each golfer hitting tee shots, then playing her partner’s ball for the second shot. After that, a scoring ball is chosen, and that ball is played alternately into the hole.
The Dunham Chapman was renamed prior to the 2017 championship as a tribute to Jo Ann Dunham, a longtime CWGA volunteer whose brainchild was the Chapman, which was first contested in 2007. Dunham passed away on Sept. 28, 2016, just shy of her 77th birthday.
The Lakewood resident served on the CWGA’s volunteer board of directors from 2004 through ’09, chairing the tournament committee during that period and serving on that same committee for years before joining the board. Besides the Chapman, she was instrumental in the creation of the CWGA Niblick Tournament, another team event.
For Saturday’s tee times from the Dunham Chapman Championship, CLICK HERE.
