CoBank Colorado Open officials received more good news on Friday as part-time Denver resident Kevin Stadler, winner of the 2014 Waste Management Phoenix Open on the PGA Tour, committed to play next week at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club in northeast Denver.
Stadler won the Colorado Open in his pro debut in 2002 at Sonnenalp Golf Club in Edwards, where his dad, 1982 Masters champion Craig Stadler, caddied for him. Kevin Stadler overcame PGA Tour player Gary Hallberg and Brian Kortan in a playoff at Sonnenalp.
Stadler has played very little on the PGA Tour since the fall of 2014, when he fractured two bones in his left hand. He competed in 2015 at only the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, the Masters and the John Deere Classic. His last PGA Tour event was a year ago, and he’ll have major medical status going into the 2016-17 Tour season.
But when Craig Stadler was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in May, he said Kevin had indicated he was 100 percent recovered at that point.
Kevin Stadler, who also has four Web.com Tour victories to his credit, recorded eight top-25 finishes in the 2013-14 PGA Tour wraparound season, including an eighth-place in the Masters, in addition to ending up second in the European Tour’s Alstom Open de France.
Stadler, winner of the 1999 and 2002 CGA Match Plays, has earned almost $10 million in his PGA Tour career.
Stadler received a sponsor’s exemption for the Colorado Open. He is exempt for the tournament as a past champion, but he didn’t enter before the exempt player deadline.
Stadler will be one of four PGA Tour winners scheduled to compete next week, July 21-24. The others are Keith Clearwater, former University of Colorado golfer Jonathan Kaye and Parker McLachlin.
This year’s CoBank Colorado Open will feature a $250,000 purse, with $100,000 going to the winner.
