Some of the best amateurs in the world — a handful of whom could very well be competing on the PGA Tour within several years — will be on hand April 28-30 when Boulder Country Club hosts the men’s Pac-12 Conference Championship.

Don’t believe it?

Last year’s individual champion at the event was Jon Rahm of Arizona State, who in his rookie season on the PGA Tour has won the Farmers Insurance Open and posted three other top-five finishes.

Other past Pac-12 (or Pac-8/Pac-10) champions include Tiger Woods (Stanford), Phil Mickelson (Arizona State), Al Geiberger (USC), Dave Stockton (USC), Corey Pavin (UCLA), Paul Casey (Arizona State), Scott Simpson (USC) and Peter Jacobsen (Oregon).

As for this year’s field, it includes:

— The No. 1 player in the World Amateur Golf Rankings, Stanford senior Maverick McNealy. He’s one of six Pac-12 competitors ranked among the top 50 amateurs in the world. The others are USC junior Sean Crocker (eighth), Cal sophomore Collin Morikawa (ninth), ASU senior Jared du Toit (13th), USC senior Rico Hoey (17th), Oregon freshman Norman Xiong (34th) and Oregon senior — and Colorado resident — Wyndham Clark (48th).

— The No. 1-ranked college player in the nation — by both Golfstat and Golfweek, Clark, whose many successes include two college individual wins this season, along with two Colorado state high school titles and the 2010 CGA Amateur Championship. Clark is one of five Pac-12 players currently ranked among the nation’s top 10 collegians.

— The No. 1 team in the land, Southern California, along with two other top-10 men’s golf schools: three-time defending Pac-12 champion Stanford and 2016 national champion Oregon.

“(How big a tournament this is), that’s the message we’re trying to get out there for sure,” University of Colorado coach Roy Edwards said at Wednesday’s Pac-12 media day event at BCC. “Jon Rahm, a PGA Tour Rookie of the Year shoe-in guy, won the championship last year. There’s a number of those (kind of) guys this year. That’s something people need to know. And this is a fun environment to watch those players because they’re competing for their school and for a championship. It’s not just like they’re playing a recreational round out here.”

With admission to the Pac-12 Championship being free to the general public, Boulder Country Club officials said they wouldn’t be surprised if crowds reached into the “thousands”.

After an April 27 practice day — which is also open to spectators — the competitors will play 36 holes on April 28 and 18 holes each on April 29 and 30. Unlike most college tournaments, each school will feature six players, with the best five scores from those six each day counting toward the team total.

For CU, this will mark the first men’s conference championship it has hosted since 1972, when the Big Eight meet came to Boulder CC.

“It means a lot being a Colorado kid and coming up and representing your state, representing your school and competing against some of the best teams and best players in the country,” said CU’s Spencer Painton, an Aurora resident who won a 5A state high school individual title while at Regis Jesuit. “I’ve had some nice success here in the past (he was runner-up in the 2016 CGA Amateur at BCC) and it feels like home to me. I’ll have a lot of family and friends coming over. It’s going to be a pretty special week for the entire Buffs team.”

Certainly CU is treating it as a special week. The school is even bringing in two of the four CU players who have won individual conference championships to be honorary starters and hit the first tee shots on April 28 — not unlike what the Masters does. Former BCC head professional Terry Kahl (the 1981 Big Eight champion) and Bob Kalinowski (the ’93 and ’94 winner of the Big Eight meet) will do the honors. (The other individual conference champions from CU are Hale Irwin (1966 and ’67) and Keith Alexander (1954).

“It’ll be a special, unique touch to the tournament that all the participants will enjoy,” Edwards said.

Of course, the Buffs would like to make the weekend even more special by contending for a team title. CU hasn’t won a conference championship, team-wise, since 1968 in the Big Eight. The Buffs are currently ranked 25th in the nation by Golfweek and 32nd by Golfstat, but they suffered a significant blow this week when their all-time scoring leader, Jeremy Paul, announced he is going pro immediately.

“Jeremy was obviously a great player — one of the best in our history,” Edwards said. “At the same time, everybody has the ability to play well. We fully expect to perform at a high level. …

“We don’t go to any tournament expecting to finish worse than first place. At the same time, it’s not like ‘Ricky Bobby’ — if you’re not first you’re last kind of thing. We’re probably ranked around sixth in the league or so. We expect at home to play to a higher level than that. If we do our business we’ll be competitive on Sunday for a high finish, if not winning the tournament.”

Whatever the case, CU and Boulder Country Club hope a significant number of fans show up for the festivities. They’ve certainly made a point of making golfers around the state aware of the event.

“The CGA and the (Colorado) PGA have sent some stuff out about it, and we sent (informational) posters to every club within 50 miles of campus — 97 facilities,” Edwards said. “We’ve emailed every high school coach in the state. We’ve had a lot of print (ads). We’ve done a ton of stuff at our games — football basketball, lacrosse — and some radio stuff, online. It’s gotten out there pretty well.”

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Men’s Pac-12 Conference Championship: Just the Essentials

When: April 28-30 (April 27 practice rounds). Tee times begin at 7:30 a.m. on April 28, 10 a.m. on April 29, and 8 a.m. on April 30.

Where: Boulder Country Club (7350 Clubhouse Rd., Boulder).

Admission: Free.

Format: 72 holes of stroke play: 36 on April 28 and 18 each on April 29 and 30. For the team competition, each school counts the best five of its six individual scores each day.

Boulder Country Club Course: 7,129 yards, Par-70.

Coloradans Expected to Compete: Ethan Freeman and Spencer Painton from the University of Colorado, Wyndham Clark from Oregon, Kyler Dunkle from Utah and possibly one more CU player.

TV: Taped coverage airing May 7 at noon on Pac-12 Network.

Defending Champion: Stanford, which has won the last three years. The Cardinal claimed the title by 29 strokes in 2016. Jon Rahm of Arizona State won the 2016 individual title as a senior and has since turned professional and won on the PGA Tour.

Where Did CU Finish Last Year: Tied for sixth.

How Did Top Returning CU Player Fare in 2016?: Ethan Freeman (35th place).

CU’s Top Finish Since Joining Pac-12: Fourth in 2014.

Top 25 Nationally Ranked Teams in Field: Southern California (No. 1 by Golfstat and Golfweek), Stanford (No. 5 by Golfstat and No. 8 by Golfweek), Oregon (No. 8 by Golfstat and No. 10 by Golfweek), Arizona State (No. 22 by Golfweek), CU (No. 25 by Golfweek).

Top 10 Nationally Ranked Individuals in Field: Senior Wyndham Clark, Oregon (No. 1 by Golfstat and Golfweek); junior Sean Crocker, USC (No. 2 Golfstat, No. 4 Golfweek); senior Maverick McNealy, Stanford (No. 3 Golfweek, No. 4 Golfstat); freshman Norman Xiong, Oregon (No. 7 Golfstat, No. 8 Golfweek); sophomore Collin Morikawa, Cal (No 8 Golfstat, No. 9 Golfweek).

Players in Field in Top 50 in World Amateur Golf Rankings: 1. senior Maverick McNealy, Stanford; 8. junior Sean Crocker, USC; 9. sophomore Collin Morikawa, Cal; 13. Jared duToit, Arizona State; 17. senior Rico Hoey, USC; 34. freshman Norman Xiong, Oregon; 48. senior Wyndham Clark, Oregon.

Honorary Starters: Prior to the first round on April 28, two former Big Eight champions from CU — Terry Kahl (1981) and Bob Kalinowski (1993 and ’94) — will serve as honorary starters and hit the first tee shots, a la the Masters.
 

We’ll be writing plenty about the Pac-12 tourney in the coming two weeks, but that’s just one of eight DI conference championships involving Colorado schools that will start before the end of the month. So here we’ll take a brief look at each tournament.

The University of Denver women will be attempting to claim a remarkable 14th consecutive league title, this one at the Summit League Championships April 23-25 in Nebraska City. A year ago in that event, the Pioneers prevailed by a whopping 52 strokes.

All told, there will likely be three Colorado-based DI teams that go into the conference tournaments ranked in the top 50 in the nation. The University of Colorado men’s and women’s squads are both in the top 25 in at least one ranking, while the DU women are as high as 48th.

But whether the conference championships mark the end of the season for a given local team, or just the beginning of a postseason run, here’s the rundown of what’s on tap for the nine NCAA Division I schools located in Colorado. We’re also including the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference tournaments, which feature the state’s DII programs.

— CSU Women at Mountain West Championships, April 17-19 in Rancho Mirage, Calif.

Last year’s finish by CSU: Sixth out of nine teams. Katrina Prendergast was runner-up individually.

Current national ranking for CSU: 120th (Golfstat), 120th Golfweek.

Top Season Stroke Average for CSU: Sophomore Katrina Prendergast (74.31).

— CSU Men and Air Force Academy Men at Mountain West, April 21-23 in Tucson, Ariz.

Last year’s finish by CSU: Fourth out of 11 teams. Dominic Kieffer (graduated) was sixth individually. Max Oelfke (now a junior) was 15th.

Current national ranking for CSU: 76th (Golfweek), 81st (Golfstat).

Top Season Stroke Average for CSU: Sophomore Jake Staiano (71.73).

Last year’s finish by Air Force: 10th out of 11 teams. Sunwoo Choi (now a senior) was 22nd individually.

Current national ranking for Air Force: 194th Golfstat, 199th Golfweek.

Top Season Stroke Average for Air Force: Senior Brenden Bone (73.9).

— UNC Women at Big Sky, April 21-23 in Boulder City, Nev.

Last year’s finish by UNC: Eighth out of 12 teams. Janet Yeo (transferred from UNC) was 21st individually. Kala Keltz (now a senior) was 37th.

Note: Coloradan Jaylee Tait of Montana State finished third individually in 2016. Tait was named third-team All-Big Sky this year.

Current national ranking for UNC: 144th (Golfstat), 145th (Golfweek).

Top Season Stroke Average for UNC: Freshman Morgan Sahm (75.4), named third-team All-Big Sky.

— DU Women at Summit Legaue, April 23-25 in Nebraska City

Last year’s finish by DU: First (13th consecutive conference title for the Pioneers). DU’s Jessica Carty (now a senior) earned the individual championship.

Current national ranking for DU: 48th (Golfstat), 52nd (Golfweek).

Top Season Stroke Average for DU: Senior Jessica Carty (74.8).

— Division II Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Men, April 24-25 in Chandler, Ariz.

Colorado Teams Competing: Colorado-Colorado Springs, Colorado Mines, CSU-Pueblo, Colorado Christian, Colorado Mesa, Regis, Fort Lewis.

2016 Championship: UCCS won team title. Top individual finishers from the Colorado schools were Colin Prater of UCCS and Jacob Allenback of CSU-Pueblo, who shared second place.

Top National DII Team Ranking for Participating Colorado Team: Colorado-Colorado Springs (47th).

Top National DII Individual Ranking for Participating Colorado Player: Colin Prater of UCCS (ninth).

— Division II Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Women, April 24-25 in Chandler, Ariz.

Colorado Teams Competing: Metro State Denver, Colorado Mesa, CSU-Pueblo, Colorado-Colorado Springs, Regis, Colorado Christian, Fort Lewis, Adams State.

2016 Championship: Metro State Denver won team title. Taylor Walters of Colorado Mesa (now a senior) claimed individual championship.

Top National DII Ranking for Colorado Team: Regis (37th).

Top National DII Individual Ranking for Participating Colorado Player: Freshman Mary Weinstin of Regis (58th).

— CU Women at Pac-12, April 24-26 in Tucson, Ariz.

Last year’s finish by CU: Fifth out of 11 teams. Alexis Keating (graduated) was fifth individually. Brittany Fan was 12th.

Current national ranking for CU: 22nd (Golfstat), 26th (Golfweek).

Top Season Stroke Average for CU: Senior Esther Lee (73.0).

CU Women Ranked in Top 100 Nationally: Esther Lee (34th, Golfstat; 35th, Golfweek); freshman Kirsty Hodgkins (61st, Golfstat; 91st, Golfweek).

TV: Taped coverage airing May 2 at 5:30 p.m. on Pac-12 Network.

— UNC Men at Big Sky, April 28-30 in Boulder City, Nev.

Last year’s finish by UNC: Fourth out of eight teams. Steven Kupcho (graduated) was sixth individually. Joshua Matz was 11th.

Current national ranking for UNC: 130th (Golfstat), 147th (Golfweek).

Top Season Stroke Average for UNC: Freshman Coby Welch (73.1).

— CU Men at Pac-12, April 28-30 at Boulder Country Club.

Note: 36 holes April 28 and 18 each April 29 and 30.

Admission: Free.

Last year’s finish by CU: Sixth out of 12 teams. Jeremy Paul (a senior who turned pro on April 17, 2017) was seventh individually.

Current national ranking for CU: 23rd (Golfweek), 25th (Golfstat).

Top Season Stroke Average for CU: Jeremy Paul (71.75). Note: Paul turned pro on April 17, thus ending his college career.

CU Men Ranked in Top 100 Nationally: Jeremy Paul (81st, Golfstat); senior Ethan Freeman (95th, Golfstat). Note: Paul turned pro on April 17, thus ending his college career.

TV: Taped coverage airing May 7 at noon on Pac-12 Network.

— DU Men at Summit League, April 30-May 2 in Newton, Kan.

Last year’s finish by DU: Seventh out of nine teams. Chris Korte (now a junior) was second individually.

Current national ranking for DU: 114th (Golfweek), 119th (Golfstat).

Top Season Stroke Average for DU: Junior Chris Korte (73.3).