On Saturday at CommonGround Golf Course in Aurora, 16 junior golfers — including 15 from Colorado — kept their hopes alive of doing what Trujillo, Keating and Chin did in the spring.

The top two finishers in each of eight divisions at Saturday’s DC&P Sub-Regional Qualifier earned spots in the Regional Qualifying, set for Sept. 24 at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif. And from there, the top performer in each division will punch their tickets to the 2017 national finals April 2 at Augusta National.

Among those still in the running for a 2017 trip to Augusta is Chin, a Greenwood Village resident who on Saturday finished second in the girls 7-9 division at CommonGround. She placed 10th in the national finals in that same division four months ago.

Here are all those who will advance to Riviera, with their points from each of the three skills on Saturday (drive, chip and putt) — and their total.

Girls 7-9 — 1. Livia Pett, Denver 16-46-37–99; Caitlyn Chin, Greenwood Village 23-31-36–90.

Girls 10-11 — 1. Rylee Salome, Los Lunas, N.M. 31-30-45–106; 2. Brooke Hudson, Parker 26-26-51–103.

Girls 12-13 — 1. Katelyn Lehigh, Loveland 43-36-55–134; 2. Sofia Choi, Littleton 34-45-50–129.

Girls 14-15 — 1. Gracie Olkowski, Grand Junction 52-55-55–162; 2. Marie Jordaan, Cherry Hills Village 44-50-45–139.

Boys 7-9 — 1. Landon Houska, Fort Collins 16-45-45–106; 2. Preston Brooke, Arvada 22-31-50–103 (second-place tiebreaker based on putting score).

Boys 10-11 — 1. Matai Naqica, Centennial 47-22-45–114; 2. Benjamin Starr, Cherry Hills Village 26-31-55–112.

Boys 12-13 — 1. Jake Chesler, Firestone 27-55-50–132; 2. Ben Harding, Longmont 35-40-50–125 (second-place tiebreaker based on putting score).

Boys 14-15 — 1. Jack Hughes, Aspen 55-40-50–145; 2. Davis Long, Lafayette 52-45-42–139.

All the players noted above have now advanced through both Local and Sub-Regional qualifying events.

Back in Regionals for the second straight year after competing at CommonGround will be Houska, Chin and Salome.

Each participant in the DC&P is awarded points for each skill based on his or her performance, with the points added together for an overall score.

In all, 40 boys and 40 girls will compete in the national finals of the Drive, Chip and Putt Championships, which are sponsored by the Masters, the USGA and the PGA of America. The competition is limited to players 7-15.

For all the scores from Saturday, CLICK HERE.

The Denver Golf Expo has undergone plenty of tweaking over its 21-year run. There’s always something that gets changed from year to year in attempts to make the show better or to attract more attendees.

This winter’s 22nd annual Expo will be no different in that respect. And for the first time in recent years, one of those alterations will involve a small but notable change of dates.

In recent years, the Expo has been a fixture at the Denver Mart (58th Ave. and I-25) during the first two weeks of February — usually the second weekend of the month. In the past half-dozen years, it’s always been held sometime between Feb. 6-14. But this year, the 10,000 or so regular attendees of the show will mark a different set of dates on their calendar.

With show organizers especially aware of not wanting to compete against the Super Bowl (Feb. 1 this year) or Valentine’s Day (Feb. 14), the Expo will have some of its latest dates ever, Feb. 20-22 — two weeks later than last year.

“We never want to be up against the Super Bowl, and Valentine’s Day is historically not good for us,” said Mark Cramer, who owns and operates the Denver Golf Expo along with his wife, Lynn. “Couples are doing couples’ things that day — understandably so — and attendance drops off.”

Attendance for the Expo has fallen each of the last three years, so perhaps a date change might help in that regard. As always, much will depend on the weather that weekend. But Cramer is taking some proactive steps to attract more visitors to the show.

Most notably, in order reach more people who might attend, Cramer hired a Boulder-based internet marketing firm to rebuild the Expo web site (denvergolfexpo.com) and help with search-engine optimization. That search-engine work is designed to give the show an even higher profile among golf fans, particularly in the weeks and days leading up to the Expo.

“Everything is going mobile and internet regarding marketing and advertising; newspaper, TV and radio and not pulling like they used to,” Cramer said. “All the years I’ve done this (since July of 2000), every year I hear ‘I forgot about it or didn’t see any advertising’. It drives me nuts because we always spend a lot of money on advertising in order to get as many people in as we can. So I hope what we’re doing will pop up in attendance.”

And, as in recent years, the Expo will run ads locally during telecasts of tour events as the show approaches.

During the Expo itself, Cramer is planning more interactive activities, as attendees have requested through surveys.

As has regularly been the case since the Cramers began running the Denver Golf Expo, the CGA, CWGA, CJGA and Colorado PGA will have a major presence at the show, hoping to grow the game by reaching out to attendees.

Among their efforts will be the Used Club Sale (pictured above), which benefits junior developmental programs; the newly renamed “Junior Golf Central” for kids; the Colorado PGA’s free 10-minute golf lessons; and educational seminars that will take place throughout the Expo, including the USGA Handicap Seminar that CGA and CWGA staffers will conduct.

In addition, as part of the CGA’s centennial year celebration in 2015, the association will publicly launch its new logo and branding at the Expo. Both the CGA and CWGA, with adjacent booths at the Denver Mart, will be promoting their core programming and the many and varied services that they provide. CWGA members who show their GHIN membership card — or the smart-phone equivalent — will receive a memento.

The CGA and CJGA continue to accept donations for the Used Club Sale both at their office (5990 Greenwood Plaza Blvd., Suite #102, in Greenwood Village) and at the PGA Tour Superstore (9451 E. Arapahoe Road, just east of I-25) during normal business hours. For those who can’t travel to donate clubs, the CGA/CJGA can pick up donations in the metro area. To arrange for that, call 303-366-4653. Reminder: The associations no longer accept clubs on consignment for the Used Club Sale — just straight donations.

Junior Golf Central, which evolved out of the Junior Golf Experience (left), will have a “Drive, Chip and Putt” theme this year, playing off the championship of the same name that was launched in 2013 by the Masters Tournament Foundation, the USGA and the PGA of America. The DC&P Championship is a free nationwide junior skills competition — designed to promote interest and participation in golf — that culminates each year on the Sunday before the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia.

Drive, Chip and Putt holds local and regional qualifiers throughout the U.S. for boys and girls age 7-15. This year, local qualifiers will be conducted in June and July in Colorado (CLICK HERE for sites), with winners advancing to the sub-regional Aug. 30 at CommonGround Golf Course. From there, the top players go to Torrey Pines in La Jolla, Calif., for the regionals on Sept. 19.

At the Denver Golf Expo, each of the three skills (drive, chip and putt) will be part of Junior Golf Central. The Colorado PGA, which hosts the local and sub-regional DC&P qualifiers in the state, will have a running leaderboard throughout the weekend. And the long drives for kids will be announced over the public-address system.

All in all, Cramer hopes the efforts of event organizers and participants make for a better show than ever.

“We always try to hit all the right bases,” he said.

For a list of exhibitors who plan to participate in the Denver Golf Expo, CLICK HERE.