And the 53-year-old native of Mexico will have another opportunity of a lifetime next month, albeit one that came about in an unusual way.

After never competing in a Masters — or even attending one — the former Coloradan will be at Augusta National in three weeks for the year’s first major championship. Though he won’t be in the field, he will be inside the ropes — as a caddie.

Toledo (pictured) persuaded fellow PGA Tour Champions player Sandy Lyle to let Toledo carry his bag for the Masters starting on April 7. Lyle won a green jacket at Augusta National in 1988.

Toledo had asked two-time Masters champ Ben Crenshaw to caddie for him last year. “I wanted to see what was going on inside the ropes,” Toledo told PGATour.com this week. “So I asked Crenshaw. I said, ‘Hey, I can donate $10,000 to your charity. Let me caddie for free and I’ll take care of the whole thing.'”

But last April was going to mark Crenshaw’s final Masters, so Gentle Ben wanted his regular Masters caddie, Carl Jackson, to do the honors.

Not one to give up, Toledo approached Lyle with a similar offer. And the Scotsman took him up on it last week, calling Toledo in Los Cabos, Mexico to give him the good news.

“He said, ‘You’re on.’ So I’m going,” Toledo said. “It will be fantastic.”
 

Colorado last hosted a USGA championship in 2012 when the U.S. Amateur paid a visit, but there are now two national events on the horizon.

Less than three months after the USGA announced that The Broadmoor will be hosting the U.S. Senior Open in 2018, the association on Thursday revealed its plans for the 2019 U.S. Mid-Amateur to come to Colorado Golf Club in Parker, with CommonGround Golf Course in Aurora serving as the second stroke-play course for the tournament.

The dates are set for Sept. 21-26, 2019, with two rounds of stroke play preceding 64 players advancing to match play.

“The USGA is pleased to bring a championship to Colorado Golf Club (pictured) for the first time,” said Diana Murphy, who is set to become the president of the USGA in February. “The course has a proven record in both stroke-play and match-play competition, and the variety of risk-reward options will allow for exciting and dramatic play, helping to identify a champion worthy of hoisting the Robert T. Jones Jr. Memorial Trophy.”

It will mark just the second time the U.S. Mid-Am — a championship for players 25 and older — will be contested in Colorado. The 1983 Mid-Am was held at Cherry Hills Country Club, with Jay Sigel winning one of his five USGA titles, this one coming just a month after capturing the U.S. Amateur championship.

Overall, it will be the 33rd USGA championship played in Colorado, with the first being the 1938 U.S. Open at Cherry Hills.

Colorado Golf Club, designed by Bill Coore and two-time Masters champion Ben Crenshaw, has hosted the 2010 Senior PGA Championship (won by Tom Lehman) and the 2013 Solheim Cup (where Europe defeated the U.S.) in its first decade of existence, but this will be its first USGA national championship for the club that opened in 2007. However, Colorado GC has hosted numerous USGA qualifiers over the years, including U.S. Open Local Qualifying in 2009.

“We’ve always wanted to work with the USGA, so this is really exciting,” Graham Cliff, head professional at Colorado Golf Club, said on Thursday. “From Day 1 we’ve wanted to give back to amateur golf. For guys that don’t turn pro, this is a huge event. And it fits in with our mission to give back to the game.” 

CommonGround (left), which is owned and operated by the CGA, served as the second stroke-play course for the 2012 U.S. Amateur that Cherry Hills hosted. Designed by Tom Doak, CommonGround opened in 2009.

“If you told me in 2009 that in the first decade of the golf course that it would play a significant role in two (USGA) championships, I’d have said we’re hitting it out of the park,” said Ed Mate, executive director of the CGA. “But it’s one of the main reasons we did what we did in hiring a (big-league) architect who designs a course worthy of them.”

After the USGA progressed in discussions with Colorado Golf Club officials about hosting the Mid-Am, USGA director of regional affairs Mark Passey called representatives of CommonGround to see if they were interested in being the companion course.

The USGA said, “We’d love your golf course (to co-host the stroke-play rounds),” Mate relayed. “They said your golf course complements Colorado Golf Club really well. It all just made sense.”

The U.S. Mid-Amateur dates back to 1981. Coloradan Bill Loeffler captured the championship in 1986 in Madison, Miss. Traditionally, the U.S. Mid-Am champion receives an invitation to the following year’s Masters.

With the 2019 U.S. Mid-Am, Colorado will add to the extensive and diverse list of significant golf championships it has hosted — or is scheduled to host — since The International PGA Tour event ended its 21-year run after the 2006 tournament.

That list includes:

— The 2008 U.S. Senior Open at The Broadmoor
— The 2008 U.S. Amateur Public Links at Murphy Creek
— The 2009 Palmer Cup at Cherry Hills
— The 2010 Senior PGA Championship at Colorado Golf Club
— The 2010 Trans-Mississippi at Denver Country Club
— The 2011 U.S. Women’s Open at The Broadmoor
— The 2012 U.S. Amateur at Cherry Hills and CommonGround
— The 2013 Solheim Cup at Colorado Golf Club
— The 2014 BMW Championship at Cherry Hills
— The 2018 U.S. Senior Open at The Broadmoor
— The 2019 U.S. Mid-Amateur at Colorado Golf Club and CommonGround.

Ernie Els is without a doubt a man of the world. He’s South African by birth, and as an adult he’s also lived in London and in Florida. And he plays golf all over the globe on a regular basis.

On Monday alone, he finished up his final round of the BMW Championship in the Chicago area in the morning, flew to Denver to become the youngest recipient of the Nicholson Award (given for a lifetime of commitment and dedication to the game of golf), then took a red-eye flight back home to Florida. (Els is pictured Monday at Lakewood Country Club with Will Nicholson Jr.)

In Lakewood, Els noted that he loves Colorado so much from his visits to play The International at Castle Pines that he very nearly became a resident of the state — at least part-time.

“I made so many great friends here,” the 43-year-old said. “I was this close to buying a house at Castle Pines about 10 years ago. I used to stay with a heart specialist here in town — he’s an ex-South African — and he had a house on the 11th tee. (My) whole family came every year; we’d come on a Sunday and stay until Tuesday (of the following week).

“I saw his kids grow up and he’s seen my kids grow up. He lives near Cherry Hills here now. I said to Liezl (Els’ wife), ‘You know, next year we’re going to come to Cherry Hills (for the BMW Championship) and maybe I’ll still buy that house.'”

Colorado reminds Els a great deal of his native land — “You can take a picture of this and Johannesburg and it’s absolutely the same; everything is just unbelievable here.” — but his fondness for the state is understandable for another reason.

The International PGA Tour event was held in Colorado for 21 years, from 1986 through 2006, and in many respects Els was the king of Castle Pines. He won the tournament in 2000 and finished in the top 10 a remarkable nine times. He’s also the top money winner in the history of the event (more than $1.8 million) and the top cumulative point scorer (with 371) in the Stableford format.

And it doesn’t hurt that Els, who now has four major championships and 19 PGA Tour titles overall to his credit, has a soft spot in his heart for The International because it gave him an opportunity to compete before just about anyone else on the PGA Tour would.

When The International invited the Big Easy to play in 1991, he had competed in a grand total of one previous PGA Tour event, the 1990 Buick Southern Open.

“I didn’t even have a card — no Tour card, no nothing,” Els remembers. “I was as green as they come.

“That was the great thing about The International — it was truly an international tournament. They invited guys from everywhere around the world. I remember they invited Carlos Franco from Paraguay and the Argentine guys. (The officials from The International) were the first guys with this World Championship mindset, letting international players play.”

All things considered, it’s little wonder why Els ended up competing at The International virtually every year from 1991 until the tournament folded after it was played in 2006. When the event left the schedule for good, Els felt the departure down deep.

“I miss this place like I can’t tell you,” he said. “I have so many memories here. Kaye Kessler, Jack Vickers and the Vickers brothers, they invited me to play in 1991. I was absolutely nowhere. I was playing my first big event and I missed the (54-hole) cut, but the impression Castle Pines left with me — it’s the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. I came back every year.

“I was absolutely heartbroken when the tournament got canceled or whatever happened. I remember speaking to Tommy (Vickers) just before they saw (PGA Tour commissioner) Tim Finchem and he was in tears — we were both in tears — that the tournament wasn’t going to make it. To this day, I miss it. It’s been a big loss for the Tour and for the area because obviously it was an unbelievable event.”

In fact, before lousy weather Sunday led to a Monday finish for the BMW Championship, Els said he was planning to arrive in Colorado Sunday evening and spend the night at Castle Pines, then perhaps play some golf there on Monday.

“It’s really one of our favorite places,” he said. “(Unfortunately) it didn’t work out that way, so it’s a short visit.”

One of the people who Els got to know through The International — as well as through his longtime leadership role at the Masters — was Nicholson, the onetime USGA president. This is the eighth year for the Nicholson Award, and Els was a natural to receive it, with all he’s done in golf, as well as for the betterment of society through golf.

Ernie and Liezl have been major fundraisers for autism-related matters since their son Ben, now nearly 11, was diagnosed with the disorder. And Els put his name on the Ernie Els & Fancourt Foundation, which provides major support to selected disadvantaged South African youngsters who demonstrate talent and potential in golf. Louie Oosthuizen, winner of the 2010 British Open, is the most notable success story of the foundation.

Previous recipients of the Nicholson honor are Nicholson himself, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Ben Crenshaw, former USGA president Judy Bell and Hale Irwin.

The last seven who have received the Nicholson Award are members of the World Golf Hall of Fame, including Els, who was inducted two years ago. Els subsequently won the 2012 British Open, making him the first male inductee to go on to win a major since Lee Trevino claimed the 1984 PGA Championship title.

Asked about his relationship with Nicholson, Els said, “We’ve known each other for most of my career. Will is one of the pioneers in our game through the USGA, really leading the game into the direction it should be going — the right direction. The fundamentals — he’s a stickler to that. He’s basically showing the young (administrators) the way. I’ve always admired Will with his work at Augusta, with the Colorado Golf Association and the USGA.”

Though Els hasn’t visited Colorado much since The International departed, he’s looking forward to playing in the state next September when Cherry Hills hosts the BMW Championship, the third stop in the FedEx Cup Playoffs. Els hasn’t ever competed at Cherry Hills, but he’s no stranger there either.

“What a place,” he said. “I played it a couple of times back in the day when we used to come out here for the International. My great friend Tommy Vickers (and I) used to play a lot of golf around here and Cherry Hills was probably my favorite.”
 

Including this year’s honoree, the last six recipients of the award are members of the World Golf Hall of Fame. And the inaugural honoree — Denver’s Will Nicholson Jr., who the award is named for — will be inducted into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame next month.

This year’s Nicholson Award winner, like last year’s, has long since been enshrined in the Colorado Sports Hall. Hale Irwin, who graduated from Boulder High School and the University of Colorado before embarking on a career in which he won three U.S. Opens, will receive the Nicholson honor May 8 at the University Club in Denver.

Irwin will follow this stellar cast in earning the Nicholson Award, which is given for a lifetime of commitment and dedication to the game of golf: Nicholson himself, a former USGA president and a man who for many years was responsible for setting up Augusta National for the Masters; Arnold Palmer; Jack Nicklaus; Tom Watson; Ben Crenshaw; and Colorado Springs resident Judy Bell, the only woman ever to serve as USGA president.

Add it up and those honorees account for a combined 38 major championship victories and two USGA presidencies.

“When informed (about receiving the 2012 award), I was surprised and honored,” Irwin said in a recent e-mail. “To be in that illustrious company is wonderful stuff! … I am delighted.”

Irwin’s credentials fit in quite nicely with his predecessors. With his U.S. Open victories in 1974, ’79 and ’90, only four players in history have won the national title more times (Nicklaus, Ben Hogan, Bobby Jones and Willie Anderson claimed four victories each). And, in capturing the crown in 1990 at age 45 (pictured), Irwin remains the oldest U.S. Open champion.

Beyond that, Irwin owns a total of 20 PGA Tour wins, a record 45 Champions Tour victories (16 more than all-time runner-up Lee Trevino) and the 1967 NCAA title while at CU. He also played on five U.S. Ryder Cup teams and captained the American squad in the inaugural Presidents Cup in 1994. He’s competed in more than 1,000 tournaments on the PGA and Champions Tour combined.

Besides all his accomplishments in golf, Irwin quarterbacked the Boulder High football team as a senior and led BHS to the 1963 state golf title while winning the individual championship, and he was an All-Big Eight safety at CU.

As an amateur golfer, Irwin claimed three straight CGA Stroke Play championships (1963-65) and a Match Play crown in 1966.

On top of everything else, Irwin has made his mark as a golf course architect. Among the Colorado courses he’s designed are Indian Peaks in Lafayette, the Mountain Course at Cordillera in Edwards, and Highlands Ranch Golf Club.

Though Irwin now lives in Arizona, his Hale Irwin Golf Services and Irwin Golf Management, with Irwin’s son Steve as vice president, are based in Colorado. The latter company was recently selected to manage Terradyne Country Club in Andover, Kan., near Wichita.

With their prominent positions in golf, and their strong ties to Colorado, Hale Irwin and Nicholson are certainly no strangers to one another.

“I have known Will for a long time,” Irwin said. “He is a man of great integrity and has shown that by example with all the positions in business and golf that he has held.”

Those who wish to attend the seventh annual Nicholson Awards dinner on May 8 (reception at 5:30 p.m. and dinner at 6:30) can contact Gary Potter at gpotter@mho.com or at 303-885-4538 for more information. The cost is $125.