This week, when Stadler plays in the Sanderson Farms Championship that starts on Thursday in Jackson, Miss., Koepka is No. 1 in the world, Thomas is fourth and Molinari sixth.
Yes, it’s been that long.
Stadler — a part-time Denver resident who won a state high school title while at Kent Denver, notched victories in two CGA Match Plays and captured the Colorado Open championship in his pro debut in 2002 — this week will be competing on the PGA Tour for the first time since missing the cut in the John Deere Classic in July 2015. The last time Stadler has made a cut on the world’s top tour was over four years ago, at the Shiners Hospitals for Children Open.
“There’s no reason to stay away now (from the PGA Tour),” Stadler said in an interview with ColoradoGolf.org after missing the cut in the CoBank Colorado Open in late July.
Stadler won the 2014 Waste Management Phoenix Open for his first victory on the PGA Tour, finished eighth at the Masters that spring and placed 36th on the Tour money list that season with more than $2.3 million in earnings. That’s in addition to being runner-up in the 2014 European Tour’s Alstom Open de France at the course that hosted the 2018 Ryder Cup.
But just as Stadler was becoming one of the better players on the PGA Tour, things went awry in a hurry. In November 2014 while competing in China, he began experiencing major pain in his left hand.
“It literally felt like I had a firecracker going off in my palm every time I’d practice,” he said in 2016. “It was a nightmare.”
It turns out Stadler had a broken hamate bone and nerve damage. But it took a l-o-n-g time for the doctors to come to that conclusion — years, in fact. In August 2017, he finally had the surgery that alleviated the pain.
“It’s 100 percent (healed),” Stadler said regarding the hand in late July. “They couldn’t diagnose it for the longest time. It was the same bone they were fixated on the whole time. But for the previous 18 months I kept being told it was fully healed. It was actually broken and kept getting worse, but I kept being told it was fine. Because I didn’t know what was wrong, I kept trying to play and dealing with the pain, which caused a lot of funky things to pop up in my golf swing. A lot of different hand motion and stuff that instinctively happened to lessen the pain. It still hurt like hell, but it was less.
“It feels fine now, but the motor skills have taken over that I’ve got to unwind. That’s what I’m working on right now.”
Stadler will compete in the 2018-19 PGA Tour wraparound season on a major medical extension. He will have 26 tournaments to earn at least $717,890 in order to keep his exempt status.
Stadler has certainly competed since initially getting injured in November 2014 — just not on the PGA Tour. There were three events in 2015 — the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, the Masters and the aforementioned John Deere Classic. Between 2017 and ’18, there have been four tournaments on the Web.com Tour, where Stadler won four times more than a decade ago. And he finished 41st in the 2016 Colorado Open and missed the cut at that same event this year. In every case, he was either still injured or trying to knock the considerable rust off his game.
“I developed a lot of really ugly habits in my golf swing that I have to unwind,” he said at the Colorado Open almost three months ago. “It’s great coming out and seeing what it is in competition.
“The whole thing (regarding damage in the hand) was a mess. I was told it was a stress fracture. A year later I was told it was fully healed, but it kept getting worse. I stopped after having about 6-8 MRIs on it. They told me it was healed for nine months in a row and I was still having pain. They couldn’t find the answer for it. The pain finally got back to day 1 excruciating last summer (in 2017). I was told it was 75 percent broken. I’d seen six different hand surgeons — and they’re all in major league baseball. I had two out of maybe six or seven guys tell me I needed surgery initially and the other guys said not to.
“But it’s doing great now. I just need to figure out how to get the game back in working order.”
Stadler has competed in 264 PGA Tour events over his career, winning about $9.7 million. And now he’s looking forward to a full-schedule season for the first time since 2013-14, when he played in 26 events.
“I can just play like a normal season,” the 38-year-old said. “Ideally I’d just make the playoffs next year and get my (card) that way and don’t have to worry about starts or anything. But worse-case scenario, if I play say 21-22 events, then I have four more for the following season to try to get whatever I may need.”
During the Colorado Open, Stadler appeared to have dropped some weight.
“I’m just trying to get rid of what I found in the last few years off,” he said. “I needed to drop some. Being away from marching on a golf course 25 times a year, five days a week, it snuck up on me and stacked them on. So starting to get rid of a few.”
Also in the Sanderson Farms field this week are several other competitors with strong Colorado ties: Jim Knous and Wyndham Clark, who like Stadler grew up in Colorado; former Fort Collins resident Sam Saunders; and former Colorado State University golfer Martin Laird.
There’s no two ways about it: AJ Ott was Ram tough on Friday.
There are examples of greater margins of victory in the finals of the CGA Match Play than the one the Colorado State University golfer dealt out this week, but not many.
When the player from Ptarmigan Country Club beat University of Colorado golfer Ross Macdonald, from the Country Club at Castle Pines, for the title in the CGA’s oldest championship on Friday, it was by a formidable 9-and-8 score.
In the 118-year history of the tournament, that made it into the top five in terms of most lopsided results in scheduled 36-hole finals for this event.
The only ones higher on that list are:
— 12 and 11: Brandt Jobe over Bill Fowler in 1985.
— 12 and 11: Harold Fisher over D.B. Ellis in 1909.
— 10 and 9: Zen Brown over Tom Glissmeyer in 2007.
— 10 and 9: N.C. “Tub” Morris over E.A. Campbell in 1927.
And there are two other finals that matched the 9-and-8 score from Friday at The Club at Ravenna in Littleton.
But suffice it to say that Ott’s performance was a rarity. In a matchup of two friends who happen to play at rival college programs in Colorado, the Fort Collins resident never trailed and ended up playing the 28 holes of the match in 8 under par, with a few concessions thrown in that might have lessened that total slightly.
It’s the first CGA championship for Ott (left and above), who was the Junior Golf Alliance of Colorado’s male player of the year in 2016.
“Ross is a year older than me and I’ve looked up to him since I was 9 or 10 years old. He’s one of my really good friends,” Ott said. “Just to be able to play him in the final was an honor. I know he probably didn’t have his best game today, but a match like that can go either way any time. But he’s been a role model to me, honestly, for 10 or 12 years, so it was cool to be able to play him.
“With the CU-CSU thing, we honestly just embrace it and have more state pride, so that was really cool. We both play in a lot of the same (college) tournaments, so it’s cool to be able to have a match against one another like this. We loved it.”
Macdonald will second that.
“To make it to finals and to play AJ, there’s no one I’d really rather lose to,” said the 21-year-old. “He’s an amazing player. It was fun playing one of your best friends.”
Ott, a junior-to-be at CSU, birdied six of the first seven holes of the match — with a bogey on No. 3 — to grab a 5-up lead. From there on, Macdonald got no closer than 4 down.
The 20-year-old Ott shot a 4-under-par 67 in the first 18 and led 7 up. He earned a conceded eagle from 12 feet on the par-4 seventh hole in the afternoon to go 9 up, then halved the final three holes. Had Ott made a 4-foot par putt on the 28th hole, he would have won 10 and 8, but he lipped it out, settling for a 9-and-8 margin.
“I didn’t think about the margin the whole round because I knew I was playing such a great player,” Ott said of Macdonald, winner of two Colorado Junior Amateurs. “I had to leave every hole behind me and focus on my next shot.”
Ott said he chatted on Thursday night with CSU teammate Jake Staiano, the 2017 CGA Player of the Year, about what to expect in the finals.
“Jake has been in a few of these matches, so I asked him if he had any advice on 36-hole matches,” Ott said. “He gave me some good input. He said to stay patient, and that was the mindset all day. That really helped.”
Macdonald (above and below), a former Colorado junior player of the year himself (in 2014), couldn’t continue his strong play from Thursday, when he was a combined 8 under par for two matches. On Friday, the 2018 Pac-12 Conference runner-up was 5 over par for the 28 holes.
“I couldn’t really get it going the whole day. It’s a long week,” Macdonald said. “AJ and I were both tired and fatigued after playing the Southwestern Amateur (in Scottsdale, Ariz.) last week, then the Match Play.
“Getting off to a slow start, especially against AJ, I knew it was going to be tough. I didn’t have my best stuff. I tried to fight, but I was just so far back. It was asking a lot. And he wasn’t going to stop (playing well). I was just in a hole and I was trying to dig myself out.”
Each of the two finalists played eight rounds of golf in five days at Ravenna, including six rounds in the last three days. To add to that, Ott was driving back and forth each day to his home in Fort Collins, often with tee times in the 7 a.m. range.
“It’s been a really long week,” he said. “We were both just exhausted all day today. I got up at 3:45 this morning and drove down at 4:30. But I was so excited. It was fun.”
CGA Match Play
At The Club at Ravenna in Littleton
THURSDAY’S QUARTERFINALS
Ross Macdonald, CC at Castle Pines, def. Chris Korte, CGA Club, 1 up
Josh Hill, Omni Interlocken Resort, def. Jake Staiano, Glenmoor CC, 19 holes
Brian Dorfman, Cherry Creek CC, def. Jackson Solem, The Fox Hill Club, 5 and 3
AJ Ott, Ptarmigan CC, def. Jake Ice, Walking Stick GC, 5 and 4
THURSDAY’S SEMIFINALS
Ross Macdonald, CC at Castle Pines, def. Josh Hill, Omni Interlocken Resort, 1 up
AJ Ott, Ptarmigan CC, def. Brian Dorfman, Cherry Creek CC, 3 and 1
FRIDAY’S 36-HOLE FINAL
AJ Ott, Ptarmigan CC, def. Ross Macdonald, CC at Castle Pines, 9 and 8
To view the brackets from the CGA Match Play, CLICK HERE.
]]>Consider it a Rocky Mountain Showdown, only with clubs.
There have been other CGA Match Play finals that have featured golfers from both the University of Colorado and Colorado State University — most recently in 2013, when CU’s David Oraee prevailed over CSU’s Parker Edens — but the current installment of the rivalry on the golf course will take place on Friday.
This time around, it will be Ross Macdonald from CU and the Country Club at Castle Pines taking on AJ Ott from CSU and Ptarmigan Country Club in a scheduled 36-hole final that will conclude the 118th CGA Match Play at The Club at Ravenna in Littleton.
“I know AJ well,” Macdonald said. “I know he’s a Ram; that’s the only thing I don’t like. No, he’s a great friend — in golf and outside. I’m really looking forward to it.”
Both of the college players won two matches for the second straight day on Thursday, highlighted by the 530-yard par-5 14th hole Thursday afternoon. That’s where Ott (left) made a double eagle in his semifinal (4 iron from 220 yards) and Macdonald narrowly missed one of his own 10 minutes later, settling for a mere eagle there after a 7-iron from 178 yards finished 5 feet from the cup.
Ott didn’t see his shot turn into an albatross — his first in competition — but was elated nonetheless.
“I couldn’t do that out of another 500 balls,” he said. “It was a lucky bounce. But it was a good match.”
Said Macdonald, who was informed of the feat as he approached the 14th green: “I was a little rattled by it. That is incredible. To make it with that (front pin), that’s almost unheard of.”
That hole gave Ott a 2-up lead and helped lift him to a 3 and 1 semifinal victory over 28-year-old Brian Dorfman of Cherry Creek Country Club, the 2012 champion and the last mid-am remaining in the bracket. And Macdonald’s eagle squared up his match after he was 3 down through eight to Josh Hill of the Omni Interlocken Resort, who was 5 under through his first seven holes.
Macdonald (left), who had 2014 champion and current Ravenna assistant pro Cody Kent caddying for him in the afternoon, went 1 up on 15 when Hill lost his ball on his tee shot and Macdonald made a conceded birdie. The CU golfer went on to prevail 1 up when Hill narrowly missed a 7-foot birdie attempt on the final hole. In the semis, Ott played his final six holes in 6 under par, while Macdonald was 5 under for his final 18 after being 3 under in the quarterfinals.
In those quarterfinals, Macdonald ended the nine-match win streak of defending champion Chris Korte in this event. The CU junior-to-be beat the recent University of Denver graduate 1 up by getting up and down from a bunker from 60 yards to halve the 18th hole.
“I shot 68 in the morning and 66 in the afternoon and made one bogey all day,” noted Macdonald. “I played really solid and didn’t do anything stupid.
“I didn’t have a great range session this morning so I wasn’t quite sure. I told myself to stay in it, one hole at a time. That’s what my assistant coach (at CU, Pat Grady) told me and he’s won this before (in 2005). He said eliminate the dumb stuff. If you don’t have a chance to look at a pin, then (hit it to) 30 feet and put the pressure on them to make a putt. I kind of did that all day, and it was good enough.”
In his quarterfinal, Ott defeated former Colorado State-Pueblo golfer Jake Ice 5 and 4.
“It’s awesome” to make the final, Ott said. “It’s been a lot of golf (six rounds from Monday through Thursday), that’s for sure. I didn’t have my best stuff in a few of my earlier matches, but I played nice this morning and played good this afternoon. Now I’ll just rest up and get ready for another 36.”
For Ott, it wasn’t like his double eagle on No. 14 in the afternoon was an isolated good shot. In fact, right after his albatross, Dorfman put the pressure on by hitting his approach on 15 to within a foot. After conceding that birdie, Ott proceeded to hit his to 4 feet and halve the hole with a birdie.
“He threw a great shot in there,” Ott said of Dorfman. “I had to sack up and hit a good one. It felt good to make birdie there, especially after making two on the last hole.”
Macdonald (left, with Kent) and Ott are certainly no strangers, having played plenty of junior and college golf together over the last seven or eight years. Both are former male junior players of the year in the state (Macdonald in 2014 and Ott in 2016). In college, Macdonald finished second in this year’s Pac-12 Championships and Ott was fifth in the Mountain West Conference tournament. Both players will be juniors, eligibility-wise, in 2018-19. Ott is 20 years old and Macdonald 21.
Asked what it would mean to prevail on Friday and earn the trophy, Ott said, “It would be awesome. It’s going to be fun. I’ve never made it even close to this far in the match play. So it would mean a lot.”
CGA Match Play
At The Club at Ravenna in Littleton
QUARTERFINALS
Ross Macdonald, CC at Castle Pines, def. Chris Korte, CGA Club, 1 up
Josh Hill, Omni Interlocken Resort, def. Jake Staiano, Glenmoor CC, 19 holes
Brian Dorfman, Cherry Creek CC, def. Jackson Solem, The Fox Hill Club, 5 and 3
AJ Ott, Ptarmigan CC, def. Jake Ice, Walking Stick GC, 5 and 4
SEMIFINALS
Ross Macdonald, CC at Castle Pines, def. Josh Hill, Omni Interlocken Resort, 1 up
AJ Ott, Ptarmigan CC, def. Brian Dorfman, Cherry Creek CC, 3 and 1
FRIDAY’S 36-HOLE FINAL
Ross Macdonald, CC at Castle Pines, vs. AJ Ott, Ptarmigan CC, 7 a.m.
To view the brackets from the CGA Match Play, CLICK HERE.
]]>Korte, who just graduated from the University of Denver, was one of two former champions to win two matches on Wednesday and earn quarterfinal berths in the CGA’s oldest championship. Likewise advancing was 2012 champion Brian Dorfman of Cherry Creek Country Club.
Korte (left) defeated 2016 CGA Amateur champion Colin Prater of The Broadmoor Golf Club 3 and 1 in the round of 16. The former DU golfer made an eagle, seven birdies and nine pars in the 17 holes of a match in which he never trailed.
Meanwhile, Dorfman was 2 down to former University of Colorado golfer Brennan Dolan of Walnut Creek Golf Preserve through 15 holes, but won three of the last four to prevail in 19 holes in the round of 16. Earlier in the day, Dolan had beaten another former champion, 2015 winner Nick Nosewicz of Meadow Hills Golf Course, 2 up.
Joining Korte and Dorfman in the quarterfinals will be Colorado State University teammates AJ Ott of Ptarmigan Country Club and Jake Staiano of Glenmoor Country Club; stroke-play medalist Jackson Solem of The Fox Hill Club, a DU teammate of Korte last season; University of Colorado golfer Ross Macdonald of the Country Club at Castle Pines; former CSU-Pueblo golfer Jake Ice of Walking Stick Golf Course; and Josh Hill of Guilford College and the Omni Interlocken Resort.
In Thursday’s quarterfinals, Korte will face Macdonald, Staiano will play Hill, Solem will take on Dorfman, and Ott will meet Ice. Then the semifinals await on Thursday afternoon, setting the stage for Friday’s 36-hole final.
For results from the CGA Match Play, CLICK HERE.
]]>Also advancing to the round of 32 were each of the top seven seeds, including stroke-play medalist Jackson Solem of The Fox Hill Club.
Korte, the former University of Denver golfer who has won both the CGA Amateur and the CGA Match Play, defeated 64th-seeded Blake Schneiter, 1 up on Tuesday.
Nick Nosewicz (left) of Meadow Hills Golf Course, the Match Play winner in 2015, posted a 4-and-2 win over Justin Weir of CommonGround Golf Course.
And 2012 champion Brian Dorfman of Cherry Creek Country Club beat former University of Colorado golfer John Luoma of Colorado Golf Club, 6 and 5.
Joining those three top-10 seeds in making the round of 32 were Solem, the DU golfer who’s seeded second and beat Freddie Gluck 3 and 2; the third and fourth seeds, AJ Ott of Ptarmigan Country Club and Colorado State University teammate Jake Staiano of Glenmoor Country Club; Jay Livsey of Lakewood Country Club (No. 5); and Jack Castiglia (No. 6)
Among those falling on Tuesday was 2017 CGA Match Play runner-up Kyle Pearson, who lost 3 and 2 to Pierce Aichinger of Glenmoor Country Club.
Wednesday will feature both the rounds of 32 and 16. Then the quarterfinals and semifinals are scheduled for Thursday, setting the stage for Friday’s 36-hole final.
For all the scores from Ravenna, CLICK HERE.
]]>Jackson Solem of The Fox Hill Club, a University of Denver golfer, earned medalist honors with a 7-under-par 64 after an eight-birdie, one-bogey day. Solem, who made the match play round of 32 at last year’s U.S. Junior Amateur, will be the No. 2 seed in the match-play bracket, behind defending champion Chris Korte, who recently graduate from DU. Korte shot a 74 on Monday.
Colorado State University golfer AJ Ott of Ptarmigan Country Club finished second in Monday’s qualifying, shooting a 65. Another CSU Ram, 2017 CGA Player of the Year Jake Staiano of Glenmoor Country Club, carded a 67 for third place in stroke play.
Among the five players who posted a 68 was 2015 CGA Match Play champion Nick Nosewicz of Meadow Hills Golf Course. Another former champion, 2012 winner Brian Dorfman of Cherry Creek Country Club, also broke 70, with a 69.
In all, 64 players will advance to match play, which begins on Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday will each feature two rounds of matches, setting the stage for Friday’s 36-hole final.
The golfers who shot 79 on Monday played off for the final spot in the match-play bracket, with Blake Schneiter earning the final berth.
Ravenna is hosting the CGA Match Play — the CGA’s oldest championship — for the second straight year, marking the first time the championship has been held at the same site in consecutive years since 2000-01.
For all the scores from Monday, CLICK HERE.
For the round-of-64 matchups, CLICK HERE.
]]>But in all the years since — or at least since record-keeping of sites for the event became consistent in 1934 — only four times has the championship been played at the same course in back-to-back years.
But after this year, make that five times.
As it did last year, The Club at Ravenna in Littleton will host the CGA Match Play, which will be contested for the 118th time next week. The oldest CGA championship will begin Monday (June 18) with a stroke-play qualifying round to set the 64-man match-play bracket. Match play will start Tuesday and continue through Friday, when the 36-hole final is scheduled.
For those who are curious, the previous sites to host consecutive CGA Match Plays are Denver Country Club (1948-49), Lakewood Country Club (1958-59), the South Course at The Broadmoor (1984-85) and Bear Creek Golf Club (2000-01).
Chris Korte, who recently graduated from the University of Denver, won at Ravenna (pictured) in 2017, completing the career sweep of the CGA Amateur and Match Play titles. He’ll try to repeat as Match Play champ next week. As the defending champion, he’ll automatically be seeded No. 1.
Other former champions in the field include Nick Nosewicz of Meadow Hills Golf Course (2015 winner) and Brian Dorfman of Cherry Creek Country Club (2012).
The Match Play, which with few exceptions has produced college-age champions in recent decades, will feature plenty of competitors in that age group this time around. That includes 2017 CGA Amateur of the Year Jake Staiano and AJ Ott from Colorado State University; 2016 CGA Amateur champion Colin Prater, recently from the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs; Ross Macdonald, the CU-Boulder player who tied for second in the Pac-12 tournament; Coby Welch from the University of Northern Colorado; Jackson Solem from DU; and 2017 Match Play runner-up Kyle Pearson from Colorado Mesa. And there are plenty of others who could get hot and advance to the late rounds.
Among the mid-amateurs entered who might make a run are Nosewicz; Jon Lindstrom of Lakewood Country Club, who recently placed sixth and took low-amateur honors in the CoBank Colorado Senior Open; and Jeff Chapman of Inverness Golf Club.
Wednesday and Thursday will feature two rounds of matches at Ravenna.
For Monday’s tee times, CLICK HERE.
For a day that ended on such a high note, Friday certainly didn’t start very well for University of Denver golfer Chris Korte.
The 20-year-old from Lone Tree Golf Club has been experiencing upper-stomach-area pain periodically in recent years, to the point that it caused him to withdraw from two college tournaments in 2017. And on Friday, when Korte played Kyle Pearson of Meridian Golf Club in the scheduled 36-hole final of the 117th CGA Match Play, the pain re-emerged.
The situation wasn’t helped by starting out the match in rain, wind and in temperatures in the 40s at The Club at Ravenna in Littleton.
But if all’s well that ends well, that’s why Korte was smiling as he walked off the golf course. Despite his abdominal pain, Korte built a 6-up lead through 14 holes and kept the advantage to emerge with a 5-and-3 victory, earning him the Richard C. Campbell Trophy.
Having won the CGA Amateur Championship in 2015, Korte became just the fourth player since 1990 to claim titles in both the Match Play and the Amateur, joining David Oraee, Steve Ziegler (who won both events in 2009), and Pat Grady. Others among the 21 people who have captured both championships are longtime PGA Tour players Hale Irwin, Steve Jones and Brandt Jobe — all members of the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame.
“It’s huge” to join them, said Korte (left and above), who had reason to jump for joy on Friday. “To add myself to that list is such a blessing. I’ve had a decent amount of OK play in college golf, but to be able to bring my ‘A’ game pretty much the whole week this week, I just feel really lucky to be here.”
Despite a big lead on Friday, it all could have gone awry if Korte’s stomach issues had become more acute during the match.
“I just try to focus on not thinking about the pain, just trying to get through it,” he said. “I was praying about it and it actually started feeling a little better — not to the point of being unbearable, which it has been in the past.
“It’s just a really sharp pain in the upper stomach area. Some doctors told me I should get my gall bladder out pretty soon, but we’re still getting some opinions and scans and things. It’s about 10 hours of just excruciating pain. I’m really happy it didn’t get to that point today.
“Late in the first round and early in the second round is where it got pretty bad. I was just trying to breathe through it. I ended up doing it pretty well and Kyle made a couple mistakes here and there and I was able to capitalize on them or halve him on a couple of holes I didn’t play too great.”
Korte never trailed against Pearson (left), the 2016 5A state high school champion who was playing in the Match Play for the first time. Korte, accompanied by his instructor for the last 5 1/2 years — Doug Wherry, the founder of Jake’s Academy — as his caddie, was 1 up through eight holes. But he won five of the next six holes — three with pars and two with birdies — to build a commanding 6-up advantage.
“The conditions at the beginning were not very good,” said Pearson, a recent Highlands Ranch High School graduate who had beaten three NCAA Division I college players to get to the finals. “I noticed a few (shots) where my hand slipped because the grip was a little wet. But obviously Chris figured out how to play through that, so that’s something I have to work on. You have to play in the rain in golf; they don’t cancel play because it’s raining outside. It’s just a learning curve, I guess.”
Pearson played much better in the second round when there was no rain and the wind subsided, going 1 over par for the 15 holes. The future Colorado Mesa University golfer was 7 down overall through 26 holes, but won three of the next six holes, all with pars, to cut the deficit to 4 down with four to play. But Pearson missed a 4-foot par putt on No. 15 to end the match.
Where his putter had rescued him in other matches, Pearson could manage just three birdies in 33 holes on Friday. In the last five holes, for instance, he missed four putts inside of 10 feet.
“I’m disappointed I didn’t win, but I learned a lot about my golf game this week,” Pearson said. “We counted this week — I played 136 holes in five days. I’ve never done that before. You’re not playing that many holes if your golf game is not good. I’m disappointed — I would have liked to win — but I’m still proud of how I played this week.
“The putter just kind of let me down today. It was a tough start, but I had a chance to come back on the back nine of the last 18. I had a few good birdie looks. I just couldn’t get them to fall. Chris is a good competitor. You’ve got to make birdies to catch up to him. I just couldn’t get any birdies in.”
Meanwhile, the title capped an impressive week at Ravenna for Korte (left). He shot a 6-under-par 65 in the stroke-play qualifying to earn the No. 2 seed, then won his matches 2 and 1, 4 and 3, 6 and 5, 3 and 2, 3 and 1, and 5 and 3. With the weather being what it was, he wasn’t quite as sharp on Friday as he was earlier in the week, but he did what it took to win.
“It was definitely a grind pretty much all day for me,” he said. “Playing in the rain hasn’t always been my forte — and there was also a lot of wind this morning. But college golf in general has prepared me really for these type of conditions. You don’t get perfect conditions in college golf. That’s been a blessing too — playing a lot of golf in these type of conditions, having your hands kind of numb.
“I just needed to stay patient because you’re not going to go out there and make a ton of birdies with the conditions the way they were. I made a lot of great pars and Kyle missed a couple of par putts that allowed me to win a few holes.
“The other thing that was huge for me was having my parents and my coach, Doug Wherry, who caddied for me today, by my side, providing me with dry towels, food, really anything I needed. And Doug knows me like almost no one else, so that helped a lot.”
CGA Match Play
At The Club at Ravenna in Littleton
THURSDAY’S QUARTERFINALS
Kyle Pearson, Meridian GC, def. Jake Kelley, Columbine CC, 3 and 2
Kyler Dunkle, Club at Pradera, def. Brittain Walton, Collindale GC, 1 up
Chris Korte, Lone Tree GC, def. Jack Cummings, Omni Interlocken Resort, 3 and 2
Jake Staiano, Glenmoor CC, def. Roy Carlsen, Walnut Creek Golf Preserve, 2 and 1
THURSDAY’S SEMIFINALS
Kyle Pearson, Meridian GC, def. Kyler Dunkle, Club at Pradera, 21 holes
Chris Korte, Lone Tree GC, def. Jake Staiano, Glenmoor CC, 3 and 1
FRIDAY’S 36-HOLE FINAL
Chris Korte, Lone Tree GC, def. Kyle Pearson, Meridian GC, 5 and 3
For complete results, CLICK HERE.
Among those joining Kelley in the final eight were 2016 CGA Player of the Year Kyler Dunkle (pictured) of the Club at Pradera, 2015 CGA Stroke Play champion Chris Korte of Lone Tree Golf Club, 2016 5A state high school champion Kyle Pearson of Meridian Golf Club and U.S. Open Sectional qualifier Jake Staiano of Glenmoor Country Club.
Also in the quarters will be Brittain Walton of Collindale Golf Course, Jack Cummings of the Omni Interlocken Resort and Roy Carlsen of Walnut Creek Golf Club. Thursday’s matches will be: Kelley vs. Pearson, Dunkle vs. Walton, Korte vs. Cummings, and Staiano vs. Carlsen. The winners will then compete in the semifinals on Thursday afternoon, setting up Friday’s 36-hole final.
Kelley defeated CGA Mid-Amateur Player of the Year Chris Thayer 3 and 1 in Wednesday’s round of 16. Korte, a University of Denver teammate of Kelley’s, beat 2015 Match Play champion Nick Nosewicz, 6 and 5.
Among the others ousted in the round of 16 were U.S. Open Sectional qualifiers Ross Macdonald and Hunter Paugh, and 2016 Junior Golf Alliance of Colorado boys Player of the Year AJ Ott.
For results from the Match Play, CLICK HERE.
Kelley, who shot a course-record 63 for the tees he was playing in Monday’s stroke-play qualifier, scored a 4 and 3 victory Tuesday over Stephen Fernandes of CommonGround Golf Course in the round of 64.
And Korte (pictured), who posted a 65 on Monday, defeated University of Northern Colorado golfer Li Chen of Legacy Ridge Golf Course 2 and 1 in their opening match.
But falling Tuesday were third-seeded Tristan Rohrbaugh, a former 3A state high school champion who plays out of Ironbridge Golf Club (3 and 1 to Pierce Aichinger of Glenmoor Country Club), and No. 4 seed Isaac Petersilie, a DU golfer from Colorado Springs Country Club (1 up to Cole Anderson of the Country Club of Colorado).
Joining Kelley and Korte in advancing to the round of 32 were the three reigning CGA Players of the Year (Kyler Dunkle-open division, Chris Thayer-mid-amateur) and Robin Bradbury-senior). Also moving on were 2016 CGA Amateur champion Colin Prater of The Broadmoor Golf Club, 2015 Match Play winnner Nick Nosewicz of Meadow Hills Golf Course, and several 2017 U.S. Open Sectional Qualifiers: Jake Staiano of Glenmoor Country Club, Ross Macdonald of the Country Club at Castle Pines, Daniel Pearson of The Fox Hill Club and former 5A state high school champion Hunter Paugh of Fort Collins Country Club.
Two rounds of matches will be contested on Wednesday, setting the stage for the quarterfinals and semifinals on Thursday and the 36-hole final on Friday.
For results from the Match Play, CLICK HERE.
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