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.
Former Castle Pines resident Esteban Toledo tied for sixth at the PGA Tour Champions’ Allianz Championship, the event he won last year.
Meanwhile, former University of Denver women’s golfer Tonje Daffinrud posted her best showing ever on the Ladies European Tour by sharing sixth place at the season-opening Oates Vic Open in Australia.
And Pat Hamill (pictured), founder of the Colorado Open Golf Foundation and the CEO of Oakwood Homes, teamed with PGA Tour player Matt Every to likewise tie for sixth in the Pebble Peach pro-am competition. Despite Every missing the cut by 10 shots, he and Hamill carded rounds of 62-68-67-64 for a 26-under-par 261 total, which left them seven strokes behind winners Ken Duke and amateur partner Carson Daly. Hamill and Every played with former Colorado State University golfer Martin Laird and his partner on Sunday.
Daffinrud, who placed 10th at the women’s NCAA finals as a DU senior in 2014, shot rounds of 70-74-70-69 for a 9-under-par 283 total at the Vic Open. In ending up seven strokes behind champion Melissa Reid, Daffinrud earned 10,290 euros.
As for Toledo, who’s won four times in his Champions career, he carded scores of 69-67-66 for a 14-under-par 202 total in Boca Raton, Fla. Scott McCarron prevailed at 17-under 199.