Indeed, from 1972 through 2014, there were only three years (2007, ’09 and ’12) when at least one of the three biggest tours in the U.S. — the PGA, LPGA and PGA Tour Champions — didn’t play an event in the Centennial State. In fact, six times in the 1980s, there was more than one such event in a given year. And in both 1986 and ’87, all three major tours came to the state.

But in that regard, there’s been a drought of sorts in recent years — since the BMW Championship PGA Tour playoff event came to Cherry Hills Country Club in 2014.

But that drought will end when The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs hosts the U.S. Senior Open June 28-July 1.

Such events are a big hit with local golf fans for obvious reasons. Being on hand to watch some of the best players on the planet tackle Colorado courses can leave an indelible impression.

But those events are also a big deal for the top organizations in the Colorado golf industry. After all, it’s a rare opportunity to both help out the cause and showcase what they do amid large crowds.

And so it will be for the CGA, Colorado PGA and other such local leaders in the golf business when arguably the top senior golf tournament in the world is contested in the state. For the record, the 2008 U.S. Senior Open held at The Broadmoor drew almost 129,000 people for the week.

The CGA and the Colorado PGA certainly recognize the opportunity and are planning accordingly for the Senior Open.

“When you have the eyes of golf — it’s the Senior Open, not the U.S. Open, but nevertheless, just like when the BMW was here or the Solheim Cup — it’s a chance to really showcase what we’re doing,” said Ed Mate, executive director of the CGA.

Added Eddie Ainsworth, the Colorado PGA’s executive director: “Being able to talk about our programs and the different things we’re doing, we’re pretty excited about that. It’s going to be a busy week.”

And perhaps the most notable thing being handled locally at the U.S. Senior Open is the Youth Golf Experience, which will run under the banner of the Junior Golf Alliance of Colorado, a highly successful joint venture of the CGA and the Colorado PGA.

“I’m really pleased the Junior Golf Alliance is taking center stage because of all the things we can do to highlight, that’s No. 1,” Mate said.

Here’s a brief rundown of what the CGA and Colorado PGA have planned for the Senior Open:

— The Youth Golf Experience is an area where youngsters can participate in various golf activities, get information on junior golf in Colorado and leave with a Birdie Ball with U.S. Senior Open and JGAC logos on it.

The Experience tent, which will be located on the first hole of the West Course at The Broadmoor while the professionals play the East Course, will be open all seven days of tournament week (June 25-July 1).

Also in the junior golf realm, the JGAC will oversee the first-ever Drive, Chip and Putt local qualifying event that will be held at the site of a major championship. It will be conducted at the 18th hole of the West Course on June 26.

The Drive, Chip and Putt event holds local, sub-regional and regional qualifying rounds, with the top performers earning spots to compete in the DCP National Finals, set for Augusta National Golf Club on the Sunday before the Masters.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity to showcase collaboration and the tremendous success of the Junior Golf Alliance,” Mate said. “All the banners when you go into that portion of the event are going to be Junior Golf Alliance. That just says, ‘The state of Colorado is working together to advance the game.’ Drive, Chip and Putt and all the other initiatives that will be showcased at that event will be under that umbrella. That’s first and foremost.”

Ainsworth said a Youth Experience area at the 2011 U.S. Women’s Open at The Broadmoor attracted about 8,000 kids for the week. And, of course, many parents attended with their kids.

For the U.S. Senior Open, kids 17 and under will be admitted to the tournament for free when accompanied by a ticketed adult.

— During the week prior to the U.S. Senior Open, the CGA and the USGA are co-branding a by-invitation event called the Community Play Nine. It will be held at Cherokee Ridge Golf Course in Colorado Springs, home of the Pikes Peak Linkers, a program in which kids receive golf instruction from professionals and have free access to the par-3 course at Cherokee Ridge. The Linkers receive support from the USGA and Colorado Golf Foundation. Mate is hoping Colorado Springs resident and former USGA president Judy Bell will be an honorary chair for the event as she’s played a key role in support of the Linkers. Among those on hand for the Community Play Nine will be junior golfers, community residents and perhaps a celebrity or two “to add a little cool factor to it,” Mate said.

“It’s an opportunity to showcase our initiatives to grow the game of golf in Colorado, in partnership with the USGA. It will be a nice way to connect a lot of dots” with people and organizations who have supported the Linkers over the years.

— The Colorado PGA, through its REACH Foundation, is also holding U.S. Senior Open-related events that support the military, and diversity and inclusion, two of the three pillars of the foundation — along with youth development.

In conjunction with a military appreciation concert conducted June 25 by Vince Gill and Amy Grant at The Broadmoor, the Colorado REACH Foundation, in partnership with the Military Warriors Support Foundation, will present another mortgage-free home to a combat-wounded veteran. The REACH Foundation has previously awarded two such homes in recent years in order to honor U.S. vets. Another will be given out, with support from Mile High Golf Trail, during the Colorado PGA REACH Invitational July 18 at the Golf Club at Bear Dance in Larkspur.

Also in support of the military during Senior Open week, the CPGA is co-sponsoring “The Bunker”, a hospitality area for active-duty military and vets to receive complimentary food and beverage.

As for diversity and inclusion, the REACH Foundation is hosting a Women’s Leadership Summit on June 27. Among those expected to be hand will be industry leaders in the areas of science, technology, engineering and math; young women of college and high school age; and corporate representatives.

The young women can “learn about how other women have started their own companies and businesses and receive encouragement to be in leadership roles,” Ainsworth said. “Also, (the industry leaders will talk about) how they’ve used golf to leverage their relationships and build relationships.”

The related events on June 27 will include a women’s clinic with a Drive, Chip and Putt theme. “The goal is for each woman to leave with a putter to help build their interest in the game of golf even if they’ve never played,” Ainsworth said. There will be time for attendees to watch the U.S. Senior Open practice round and have lunch. Colorado PGA REACH plans to bring in a keynote speaker and an Olympic athlete.

— On the East Course during tournament week, the CGA and some members of its board of directors and key committees will serve as honorary starters during the practice rounds. And the association and its volunteers will help out on one of the holes that they’ve “adopted” for the championship.

“It’ll be a fun opportunity,” Mate said.

Overall, about 2,500 volunteers have been recruited for the U.S. Senior Open.
 

The transition from what was long known as the CWGA Annual Meeting to what is now named the CGA Women’s Annual Meeting appeared seamless on Saturday at the Hilton Denver Inverness.

To be sure, there were some questions from attendees about how specific things will work now that the CGA and CWGA are one unified organization.

But, generally speaking, longtime CGA executive director Ed Mate seemed to sum up the mood of the day when he noted, “We’re just better together. It’s that simple.”

Saturday’s Women’s Annual Meeting featured many of the mainstays from years past — there were golf worshops, a silent auction to benefit the Junior Golf Alliance of Colorado, awards presentations, brunch and plenty of socializing among the 175 attendees, which represented about 90 clubs from around the state.

But the one thing that veered from the normal was a panel discussion featuring CGA co-presidents Juliet Miner and Joe McCleary, with Mate asking questions. (Pictured above are, from left, McCleary, Mate and Miner.) One of those queries was about the integration of the CGA and the CWGA, which became official as of Jan. 1. It’s part of a nationwide effort by the USGA to streamline its relationship with state and regional golf associations by partnering with just one full-service Allied Golf Association in each state or region. 

Subsequently, the board of directors of the two associations have formed into one leadership team — in fact it held a quarterly meeting just after the Women’s Annual Meeting. McCleary, the CGA president for the past two years, and Miner, who  served as the CWGA president for a similar time, are co-presidents of the CGA for 2018. And the staff of the associations have also merged, based out of the current CGA offices in Greenwood Village.

“We love to do course rating, we love to run tournaments, we love to run USGA qualifiers, we love to work with (members),” Miner told the audience at the Women’s Annual Meeting. “It was only obvious to our membership that this (unification) was a good thing because now we’re bigger, better, stronger, richer — and we have lots of staff. If you talk to our staff, each and every one of them loves the synergy of being in that office together. … This is not just to make the best of something that the USGA decided was a good idea for golf, but to make it the best for golf in Colorado, and to be a beacon for golf in the United States of America.”

McCleary feels similary after going through a unification process that lasted more than two years.

“From the beginning I said, ‘Let’s do what’s best for golf and golfers in the state of Colorado,” he told the attendees. “We needed to come together as one organization representing both men and women (in order) to lay the groundwork for the future. Things are changing. It’s incredibly important to do what we’ve done. I think it’s paid dividends and it will pay significant dividends in the future.”

Laura Robinson, former CWGA executive director and current managing director of membership and integration for the CGA, organized Saturday’s meeting and liked the way the panel discussion went.

“I hope the women here who heard Joe, Juliet and Ed talk gained a sense of confidence that this (integration) is really good for women’s golf,” Robinson said.

One way that the inification paid off tangibly was evident on Saturday. Last year, the silent auction at the CWGA Annual Meeting raised slightly under $7,000 for junior golf. This year, more than double that total — $15,365 to be exact — was raised for the cause (left). With increased resources being brought to bear with the merged organizations, close to 100 items were available for auction, and a nearly two-week-long online element was added this year, yielding $7,570 of the $15,365 total.

All in all, Miner saw this year’s Annual Meeting as a valuable tool in more ways than one.

“I think the meeting went as successfully as it has been for the last number of years,” she said. “The difference is that we had all of the (pre-existing) CGA board here, which is comprised of mostly men. They’re all here and they’re seeing what we do. They get to see our product — which before they’d only heard about — up close.”

Saddle Rock WGA Named Women’s Club of the Year: For the second straight year, a Women’s Club of the Year was recognized at the Annual Meeting, and this year the honor went to members of the Saddle Rock Women’s Golf Association (left).

The award is presented to a club that has demonstrated a commitment to golf or their community through innovative programs such as fundraising, programs or competitions.

Saddle Rock WGA stood out in part thanks to a tweak of the traditional member-guest tournament format that led to additional fundraising for a good cause. The club played a “Cha-Cha-Cha for Charity” and members were able to invite multiple guests, which increased participation significantly. That resulted in a donation of more than $1,100 to the Alzheimer’s Association.

Additionally, to support the teaching and development of junior golf programs in the community, money was raised for the Paul McMullen Scholarship Fund. Also, Saddle Rock has long provided volunteers for the annual Grandview High School girls golf invitational, running shuttles, registration, check-in and scoring.

The Saddle Rock WGA has celebrated 20 years as an association, with 10 of its original members still actively participating in league play.

Other nominees for the Women’s Club of the Year were:

— Aurora Hills 9-Hole Women’s Golf Association
— Kissing Camels Ladies Golf Association
— Pinery Ladies Golf Association
— Red Sky Ranch
— Riverdale Women’s Golf Association

Last year’s co-Clubs of the Year were from Patty Jewett and Fitzsimons.

Miner Honored as Volunteer of the Year: Juliet Miner has overseen much in her two  years as president of the CWGA and now as co-president of the CGA. There was the hiring of a new CWGA executive director. There was the CWGA celebrating the centennial of its founding. There was the CWGA joining forces with the CGA in establishing a single USGA-affiliated golf association in Colorado.

On Saturday, for all Miner has done for the CWGA, she was named the Volunteer of the Year. (She’s pictured speaking to attendees.)

(FYI: A feature story on Miner and her accomplishments will be published later this month on the coloradogolf.org and coloradowomensgolf.org websites.)

Players of the Year for 2017: The CWGA Players of the Year — and the winner of a related award — were announced last fall, but the three honorees were publicly recognized on Saturday.

Jennifer Kupcho of Westminster, the CWGA’s Player of the Year the previous three seasons, was given the President’s Award, the CWGA’s highest honor. Mary Weinsten of Highlands Ranch earned the Player of the Year honor. And Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Kim Eaton won the Senior Player of the Year Award for the eighth time in nine years. Eaton, now an Arizona resident, was likewise named the Arizona Women’s Golf Association Senior POY in 2017, earning that honor for the sixth time.

Kupcho and Weinstein are in the midst of their college seasons — Kupcho at Wake Forest and Weinstein at the University of Denver — and were unable to attend Saturday’s festivities. But Eaton (left) traveled from Arizona for the event.

For information on the 2017 accomplishments of the three players, CLICK HERE.

In Short: A $7,000 check — from money raised at the 2017 CWGA Annual Meeting, was presented Saturday to Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Alan Abrams, president of the Junior Golf Alliance of Colorado. … Besides CGA co-presidents Juliet Miner and Joe McCleary and executive director Ed Mate, among those in attendance Saturday were the CGA volunteer board of directors, Colorado PGA executive director Eddie Ainsworth and Colorado Golf Hall of Fame president Scott Radcliffe and executive director Jennifer Lyons. The CWGA is receiving a Distinguished Service Award from the Golf Hall of Fame in May. … Among the announcements to attendees on Saturday was a reminder that the Girls Junior America’s Cup, a tournament featuring many of the top female junior golfers from the western U.S., along with Canada and Mexico, will be played in Colorado for the first time in 18 years. The event is set for July 25-27 at Hiwan Golf Club in Evergreen. … Recognized Saturday for its fundraising was the Raccoon Creek Ladies 9-Hole Group, whose 2017 tournament to benefit the Evans Scholarship for caddies led to a $1,200 donation. … Among the former CWGA board members — and current CGA board members — who have accepted chairperson duties for CGA committees are Laurie Steenrod (Course Rating Committee) and Phyllis Jensen (Tournament Site Selection Committee). … Miner said CGA Women’s Annual Meetings will continue into the future “as long as you (attendees) keep coming.”
 

Most notably, after the Ryder Cup-style competition between the top amateurs and Colorado PGA professionals in the state was limited to an open division for its first dozen years, it broadened its reach. A senior division was added in 1983 and a women’s division in 2002.

But now, the Colorado Cup will undergo changes that make the earlier tweakings pale in comparison.

By agreement of the organizations involved — the CGA, Colorado PGA and the CWGA — the event will undergo the following alterations:

— This year’s 47th annual Colorado Cup, which will be held Oct. 17 at The Broadmoor Golf Club’s East Course in Colorado Springs, will mark the last time it’s conducted on an annual basis. From here on, it will be limited to odd-numbered years — the years the Colorado PGA doesn’t hold Taylor Cup Matches against the Sun Country PGA, based in New Mexico.

— Instead of being three separate Cups being at stake — men’s open, senior and women — the Colorado Cup will now be just a single competition.

— The event also will be streamlined. Instead of each team including a dozen open, a dozen senior and six women players, it will be eight, eight and four, respectively, for each squad.

— The Colorado Cup, which normally was held in mid-season, will be moved to October. In all likelihood, that will mean fewer — if any — college players competing, given that’s in the middle of the fall portion of the college schedule. And with college golfers often being among the best players on the open and women’s amateur squads, that may be a factor in the overall results.

“I love the changes because let’s just go back to everyone working together — collaboration, one big team,” said Dustin Jensen, the CGA’s managing director of operations. “It will kind of re-energize (the matches). That was the hope we had: Let’s have some fun with it.

“When you get to the tournament you’ve got the open division ams sitting here, the open professionals on this side, the seniors separate. Let’s get everybody together to compete. We started to see that in the Junior Ryder Cup: We pulled the girls in and had a great experience with the girls and boys playing together. We pulled the 10-and-unders in last year to get more kids in. Everybody just enjoys it. I think it will revitalize (the Colorado Cup Matches) a little. It should be kind of fun.”

The Colorado PGA and the CWGA second that thought.

“We want to make it more meaningful,” CPGA executive director Eddie Ainsworth said earlier this year. “Having it every other year will add more significance — like the Ryder Cup. And instead of squeezing it in every year for a date in June when everyone is so busy, we can do it at the end of the season.”

Said Laura Robinson, executive director of the CWGA: “We are very excited about the format as I think it will be more competitive all around. We will obviously miss the presence of our college players, all of whom helped the women amateurs to win last year. It was a great experience for them to play against the pros, but we look forward to this new format on such a wonderful course as The Broadmoor.”

The Colorado Cup Matches, which feature four-ball and singles matches held on the same day, are seen by many as a matter of bragging rights between the pros and the amateurs. Last year marked the first time the amateurs have swept all three divisions, prevailing in the open division 13-5, in the senior division 9.5-8.5, and in the women’s division 6-3.

This year will mark a record 13th time the Colorado Cup Matches have been held at The Broadmoor, but the first time since 1989.

Among the players who have competed in the Colorado Cup over the decades are Dow Finsterwald, Steve Jones, Kevin Stadler, Bob Byman, Brandt Jobe and Fred Wampler, all of whom have now won on the PGA Tour and/or PGA Tour Champions. 

Tuesday’s G4 Summit was a good example of the ever-evolving, ever-changing business of golf.

Most of the topics discussed at the annual get-together of leaders in the Colorado golf industry almost certainly would not have been on the agenda in the 20th century:

The most effective strategies for engaging the millennial generation. The importance of courses issuing “corporate social responsibility reports”. Environmental sustainability. Using golf courses as science learning labs for kids.

“I genuinely believe — and I’ll go to my grave saying — that we are part of a moment in time in a sport that has hundreds of years of history and will survive for hundreds of years beyond all of us,” said Sarah Hirshland, senior managing director of business affairs for the USGA, who was one of the speakers Tuesday at the event at The Omni Interlocken Resort in Broomfield. “I hope everybody feels as privileged to be a part of this as I do because at some point they will look back and say that was a decade-ish where the golf world changed and evolved, and it’s a really fun thing to be a part of. I hope all of you appreciate that. You may not yet, but one day I know we all will.”

Such is part of the reason for the G4 Summit, which brings together leaders of the CGA, CWGA, Colorado PGA, course superintendents and club managers for a day of meetings, panel discussions and several presentations by notable speakers. The idea is to keep abreast of — and effectively deal with — issues that face golf, preferably on a collaborative basis.

And so it was that the roughly 180 people who attended Tuesday’s fourth annual G4 Summit learned about all of the aforementioned topics — and others.

As Colorado PGA president Ty Thompson noted, “Today we were learning things outside of our wheelhouse.”

Aubrey McCormick and Gina Rizzi from IMPACT360 Sports spoke about the importance of environmental sustainability practices by golf courses — in areas such as water and energy use, health and safety, and community engagement, among others. The idea is not only to implement such practices as good business, but then to issue corporate social responsibility reports and spread the word so that governmental leaders and millennials take a more favorable view of golf, and the game has a better chance of growing.

“It’s worth investing in that care for the environment,” Rizzi said. “That resonates with millenials” and helps with government relations.

In a similar vein, but engaging a different audience, David Phipps from the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America spoke about the First Green program, in which kids go on superintendent-led field trips to learn about the ecosystem of golf courses and perhaps hit a few balls or putts. The goal is to demonstrate the environmental benefits of golf — and maybe grow the game a little.

“My takeaway is we need to make golf courses an integral part of the community,” CWGA executive director Laura Robinson said later. “The First Green is a huge step toward that by bringing the kids on. The (corporate social) sustainability report shows all the ways a golf course can be part of the community. That’s a trend we can really focus on in making it happen. Golf courses are more than a place to hold a wedding. They can be such an integral part of the community.

“It’s such an obvious resource — this big, open green space that’s quite often underutilized during school hours that has so much to offer kids in terms of the environment and animals and getting out to get fresh air. It’s great to see there’s a way we in the golf industry can take advantage of that and make it part of the community.”

Overall, with the game of golf facing significant challenges, a little innovative thinking can’t hurt. And there was certainly a fair amount of that on display at the G4 Summit on Tuesday.

“I think we once again covered a great array of topics — something for everybody,” CGA executive director Ed Mate said. “I thought it was great content. And I’m excited to apply the First Green to our (Colorado PGA) Golf in Schools model.

“(The G4) was another great event. I always want to see more participation, but mission accomplished once again.”

Several of the national G4 speakers applauded the allied golf associations of Colorado for assembling annually and addressing such issues.

“This doesn’t happen everywhere and I applaud you for this,” Hirshland said.

Which puts a smile on the face of leaders in the Colorado golf industry.

“It’s great for all of us in Colorado golf to hear from these national governing bodies that Colorado is leading, that not everybody does this, (and) that really there are very few states that do this,” said Eddie Ainsworth, executive director of the Colorado PGA. “That’s never our intent with what we do — to be a model for anybody else. But if others can learn from our example — with what we’ve done with our Junior Golf Alliance (of Colorado) and our Colorado golf alliance, more power to them. We’re glad to help. Overall, it was a tremendous day.”

119 Tourneys on Tap for Junior Golf Alliance: Speaking of the Junior Golf Alliance of Colorado — a joint effort of the CGA, Colorado PGA and CWGA — it will be expanding in its second year.

Twelve months after the name, logo and details for the JGAC were announced at the 2016 G4 Summit, organizers made it clear they aren’t resting on their laurels.

A year after conducting 81 tournaments, the alliance plans 119 this year. Many of the additional events will be part of the new JGAC Prep League, which will give competitive opportunities to junior varsity golfers and players who haven’t had the chance to compete much. In all, 27 nine-hole Prep League events are planned for boys and girls.

Also on the JGAC schedule this year will be tournaments in western Colorado.

“Year 1 was a success. Year 2 is going to explode,” said Dustin Jensen, managing director of operations for the CGA.

Numerous junior programs — both tournament-oriented and not — fall under the auspices of the JGAC. Among them: Drive, Chip & Putt Championship; PGA Junior League; the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy; Colorado PGA Golf in Schools; the Hale Irwin Elite Player Program; and Colorado competitors in the the boys and girls Junior America’s Cup.

For 2016, Colorado PGA junior golf director Holly Champion noted the following participation levels in the JGAC progams:

— 3,695 total junior rounds played.
— 836 JGAC members.
— 10,844 kids in Colorado PGA Golf in Schools.
— 1,184 kids at 88 facilities in PGA Junior League.
— 47 Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy caddies accumulating 1,444 loops.
— 950 competitors in Drive, Chip & Putt in the Colorado PGA Section.

All in all, that’s what you call collaboration for a good cause.
 

In Colorado that translates into, it may not being doing great, but it’s a little better than it was.

At least that’s what the Colorado Public Golf Course Rounds and Revenue Survey has revealed the last couple of years.

The 2015 data for the survey was recently compiled by the CGA, and one of the most notable takeaways was that for the first time since the Great Recession, the number of public-course rounds played in Colorado increased in back-to-back years.

After a 3.6 percent increase from 2013 to ’14, there was a 1.2 percent jump from 2014 to ’15. Those upticks are small, but they’re certainly better than the trend previously, when rounds decreased from the previous season in three of the four years from 2010 through 2013.

“I wouldn’t look at (relatively) flat as a negative; I’d look at flat as a positive in a down economy,” said Eddie Ainsworth, executive director of the Colorado PGA. “I’m not just trying to paint a rosy picture. I literally believe that. If we’re flat and we’re currently in the economy we’re in, that’s a good thing.”

And the results in Colorado largely mirrored the nationwide data in 2015. The National Golf Federation announced earlier this month that total U.S. rounds increased 1.8 percent last year compared to 2014.

Of course, weather variations year to year play a big role in the number of rounds played. CGA executive director Ed Mate, for one, would like at some point to be able to work a weather component into such surveys so they’d be more meaningful.

“This (Public Course Rounds and Revenue Survey) continues to be a pretty good barometer of what’s happening,” Mate said. “But (I’d like to see) somebody just lay weather on top of this so we can compare inventory of (playable) days. I think the industry has a long way to go to do this better both locally and nationally so we have our fingers on the pulse.”

In the most recent Colorado Rounds and Revenue Survey, 65 public courses — par-3 facilities included — reported specific figures for both 2014 and ’15. And the 18-hole equivalent rounds for those 65 reporting courses showed an increase from about 1.762 million in 2014 to 1.783 million in 2015.

Though Colorado public course operators share their statistics on the condition that data from individual facilities aren’t divulged publicly, trends and averages from the survey can be reported.

As for green-fee revenue, it also increased, on average, from 2014 to ’15. The norm of the jump was almost 3 percent this time around for courses that reported figures from both years.

“When you look at where we are in golf, the way we’ve positioned ourselves with what’s happening in golf, I really think our future is bright,” Ainsworth said. “I think we’re positioning ourselves with junior golf programs, with more associations working together and different things like that, so I’m optimistic.”
 

Let the celebration begin.

On Saturday, just two weeks before the official 100th birthday of the CWGA, the association will throw a wingding commemorating the occasion.

It will be part of a meeting — the CWGA annual meeting, to be precise — which is appropriate because it all started with a meeting, the one that took place on March 14, 1916 that formed the CWGA.

At Saturday’s event at the Inverness Hotel & Conference Center in Englewood, the association will kick off its centennial year with a celebration that will draw many of the most influential figures in the history of the CWGA.

Though association officials want to leave some suspense for Saturday’s festivities, among those expected to be on hand are a Colorado Sports Hall of Famer, seven Colorado Golf Hall of Famers, at least seven past presidents of the CWGA and numerous prominent past staffers. And though World Golf Hall of Famer Judy Bell of Colorado Springs won’t be able to attend due to a recent injury, the former USGA president sent a videotaped message.

“We see this as a very big event,” CWGA acting executive director Laura Robinson said this week. “It’s a great opportunity to celebrate our history, introduce our history to new members attending, and look forward to the next 100 years.”

Also expected to attend are leaders of other major golf organizations in the state, including president Joe McCleary from the CGA, president Leslie Core-Drevecky and executive director Eddie Ainsworth from the Colorado PGA, along with representatives of the Colorado Open Golf Foundation and the LPGA.

“This shows we not only have history, but we have a history of working with partners” within the Colorado golf community, Robinson said. “It’s special that we share this with them.”

In all, the CWGA expects about 230 people on Saturday, with about 120 clubs represented.

During the centennial celebration portion of the annual meeting, a 10-minute video history of the CWGA will be shown publicly for the first time. “It was humbling and touching,” Robinson said of previewing part of the video.

And three groups of outstanding people will be recognized: 10 exceptional volunteers, nine outstanding players who have won at least five major individual CWGA championships, and three especially valued friends of the association.

A “Volunteer of the Century” and “Golfer of the Century” will be singled out.

Also at the annual meeting, three items of CWGA centennial memorabilia will be available for purchase — a ball marker, bag tag and water bottle, all featuring the association’s centennial logo.

A silent auction will be held in conjunction with the annual meeting, with proceeds benefiting LPGA*USGA Girls Golf. Among the more than 50 items that will be up for auction will be an autographed photo of Bronco DeMarcus Ware, a Junior Golf Alliance of Colorado hat autographed by former LPGA standout and current CBS on-course reporter Dottie Pepper (left), a puck from the Colorado Avalanche, and plenty of rounds of golf at Colorado courses.

In addition, the CWGA is inviting people to sign up for its Centennial Club, which will raise fund for the association’s centennial events. In addition to what will take place on Saturday, that will include a celebration during the CWGA Stroke Play at Denver Country Club in early August, and a centennial celebration tournament Sept. 21 at Hiwan Golf Club.

Though the centennial celebration and related activities are a big draw for Saturday’s annual meeting, there are also some things on the agenda that take place every year at this event. Most notably, there’s a business meeting and several breakout sessions planned, including on the Rules of Golf (Karla Harding, Jan Fincher, Sandy Schnitzer), an update on GHIN/Handicapping (Gerry Brown), Test Your Golf Knowledge and Play the Rules Game (Jennifer Lorimor), a Club Presidents Roundtable (Kathy Malpass), and Acupuncture for Golfers.

People who can lay claim to beating Tiger Woods in his prime while playing head-to-head with him in the final round of one of golf’s top tournaments are indeed few and far between.

One of them helped kick off the Denver Golf Expo on Friday for its weekend run at the Denver Mart (I-25 and 58th Ave.).

Hal Sutton, who counts among his 14 PGA Tour victories the 2000 Players Championship, conducted an hour-long Q&A Friday with “In the Fairway” radio host Jerry Walters — and members of the audience.

To this day, Sutton counts the final 18 of the Players Championship 16 years ago — when he shot a 71 at TPC Sawgrass — as the best round of his career.

“I was head-to-head against Tiger and the whole world was saying I couldn’t beat him,” Sutton noted on Friday. “And I beat him head-to-head in the last round.”

Which was certainly no small feat at the time. After all, Woods had won a stunning 13 of his previous 21 tournaments. And this was in 2000, when Woods started the “Tiger Slam” by winning the U.S. Open, British Open and the PGA Championship before tacking on his second Masters in 2001. At the U.S. Open in 2000 at Pebble Beach, all Woods did was capture the title by 15 shots.

But less than three months earlier, Sutton took down Goliath by one stroke in arguably the fifth-most-important tournament in men’s golf.

At the time, “The media began to believe that Tiger was unbeatable,” Sutton recounted on Friday. “Whether he beat you or you beat yourself, the outcome was the same. Tiger was going to win and you were going to lose.

“When I went to TPC that week I knew I was playing great and I didn’t think there was anybody in the field that could beat me, including Tiger. I led the tournament from start to finish.

“Whenever I’d go into the media center when I’d get through playing, they’d tell me why I was supposed to lose. ‘You’re not going to win. Tiger is lurking back there and we all know he’s coming.’ It got to be old and I got tired listening to it. Finally the last day I got up (and said), ‘I began buying into what you guys are talking to me about until this morning when I got up off my knees from saying my prayers and realized I wasn’t praying to Tiger Woods. I knew I’d be OK. He’s just a man, just like me, but you all make him out to be a god. And he’s not.’ I ended up beating him that day.”

Given what Sutton accomplished, he seemed like a good person to ask about the state of the PGA Tour nowadays — when Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Jason Day are battling it out for the top spots in the world, with Rickie Fowler not far behind — compared to when Woods was the indisputably “the man”. Tiger, winner of 14 major championships, was ranked No. 1 in the world for a record 683 weeks.

“I think the Tour right now is in position to be really exciting to watch with a lot of good players,” Sutton said. “The Tour is better off right now is my point. … But I’ll throw one caveat into that: What if all of a sudden Tiger Woods was back on his game (and healthy)? There’s a lot of people that really like Tiger Woods, and there’s a lot of people who don’t. But the truth of the matter is, he adds a flare into the game that I think we miss a little bit right now.

“I played right along with Tiger and I was a Tiger Woods fan. I love the way he played the game. He played the game exciting. It was fun to be in the group with him because you didn’t know what to expect. You knew he was going to have the foot on the accelerator the whole time.

“And if Tiger came back right now and threw his name in the hat with those three or four or five players, it would be an exciting year. It’s not going to happen this year, I don’t think, but maybe it will down the road.”

Sutton also had interesting things to say about a couple of other subjects:

— On equipment having rendered many classic courses obsolete: “The USGA was supposed to be the police. We didn’t have any policemen there for a long time so you can imagine what happened in the game. The criminals took over. The criminals are the manufacturers because their (business) is the almighty dollar. When they didn’t slow them down, they went for speed, and speed equates to distance. They didn’t have any perimeters put on them so they kept pushing the envelope as far as they could push it. … The kids who swung the club 120 mph, they got really long and it made a lot of the golf courses obsolete. It cost the industry billions of dollars because everybody and their brother started changing their golf courses around to try to make sure they were up to standards today. Some people were spending $5 or $6 or $7 million changing golf courses, putting a mustache on the Mona Lisa so to speak. So we have no comparison from yesterday to today. So now the game is in a big uproar.”

— On the Ryder Cup (Sutton played on four U.S. teams and captained one): “The Ryder Cup is the greatest event in golf. I never felt pressure like I did at the Ryder Cup — the reason being because the world was watching. There’s 1,500 people in the media center. There’s more people in the media center for the Ryder Cup than there is for the Super Bowl. Every country in the world is there. It’s an exciting event and I look forward to it.”

— On the difference between current Tour players and those from his day (Sutton is 57 years old): “They’re better prepared (now). We didn’t know how good we were. I’ll never forget the first time I saw my swing on video. ‘That’s what it looks like?’ Now these kids have never had a week where they haven’t seen their swing on video. They’re able to monitor their swing much easier than I was able to. You’ve got things now that can (show) everything throughout every part of your golf swing. When I was growing up, I was limited to my imagination — and that’s the truth. Now we have less imagination. I think golfers from yesterday had more vivid imaginations than golfers today because they don’t have to utilize imagination today.”

Beside Sutton’s appearance, here are some of the notable tidbits from the Denver Golf Expo:

— CWGA Centennial, Junior Alliance Featured: Several of the local golf associations are participating in the Expo as they normally do, but they have a little something extra to chat about with those in attendace.

The CWGA is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, an event that will take center stage on Feb. 27 at the association’s annual meeting at the Inverness Hotel.

(Pictured at the CWGA booth Friday are, from left, Phyllis Jensen, Kate Moore and Nancy Wilson.)

Organizers recently taped a message for the annual meeting from World Golf Hall of Famer Judy Bell of Colorado Springs, the first female president of the USGA. Bell had planned to attend the annual meeting, but a leg injury will prevent that.

And the CGA and Colorado PGA, which this year are launching the Junior Golf Alliance of Colorado in partnership with the CWGA, are rolling out the alliance publicly this week. Registration for the 70-plus events on the alliance schedule opened on Tuesday.

It’s been a busy week for all the state’s major associations this week, particularly the Colorado PGA, which co-hosted the G4 Summit at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs on Tuesday, then the Teaching and Coaching Summit Wednesday (also at The Broadmoor) before three days at the Denver Golf Expo Friday through Sunday.

— Rohrbaugh Taking Aim at 4 Straight: Doug Rohrbaugh of Carbondale no longer has any status on the PGA Tour Champions after competing in six events last year, but he still has big plans for 2016.

On Friday at the Expo, Rohrbaugh was helping man the booth for Ironbridge Golf Club, where he serves as director of golf.

Rohrbaugh plans to play a more Colorado-based tournament schedule this year, and the main event circled on his calendar is the Colorado PGA Professional Championship set for Sept. 12-14 at Cherry Creek Country Club.

Rohrbaugh has won the event the last three years, and one more this year will break a tie with Ken Krieger and Ron Vlosich as Rohrbaugh would become the first to “four-peat” in the Section’s top tournament.

“That’s my goal — four of those,” he said Friday. “That’s not been done.”

— On the Air: Among those on hand at the Expo on Friday was one of the radio sports talk shows from 760 AM. Colorado Sports Hall of Famer Dave Logan and Susie Wargin hosted the program. Among their guests was Colorado PGA executive director Eddie Ainsworth (above).

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DENVER GOLF EXPO HIGHLIGHTS, ESSENTIALS

What: 23rd annual Denver Golf Expo.

When: Friday through Sunday (Feb. 19-21).
 Saturday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
 Sunday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

Where: Denver Mart (58th Ave., just east of I-25).

Tickets:
Adults, $13; Seniors, $11; Military/Vets with I.D., $11; Kids 16 and Under, $3.
Available by CLICKING HERE, or at King Soopers or the Denver Mart during Expo days.

Scheduled Educational Seminars:
— Target-Proof Your Wedges 80 Yards and In (Stan Sayers, Colorado GC), Saturday 10-10:30 a.m.
— Key Changes in 2016 Rules of Golf (Alex Crall, CGA), Saturday noon-12:30 p.m.
— Move Well, Play Well (Dee Tidwell, Colorado Golf Fitness Club), Saturday 1-1:30 p.m.
— Unlocking the Secrets to Successful Putting (Jerry Walters, Trent Wearner Golf Academy), Saturday 2-2:30 p.m.
— Key Changes in 2016 Rules of Golf (Alex Crall, CGA), Sunday 10:15-10:45 a.m.
— Unlocking the Secrets to Successful Putting (Jerry Walters, Trent Wearner Golf Academy), Sunday 11-11:30 a.m.
— Target-Proof Your Wedges 80 Yards and In (Stan Sayers, Colorado GC), Sunday noon-12:30 p.m.
— How to Hit It Farther (Kelly Plaisier, Trent Wearner Golf Academy, Sunday 1-1:30 p.m.

CGA Used Club Sale: The CGA will hold its annual Used Club Sale (located just to the right of the entry area), with all the proceeds benefiting youth golf programs and initiatives in Colorado. The Used Club Sale has netted almost $60,000 for junior golf over the last four years combined.

Major Colorado Golf Organization Booths: CGA #1215; CWGA #1218; Colorado Golf Hall of Fame #1308; the Junior Golf Alliance of Colorado #1330.

Junior Golf Central, including the Drive Chip & Putt activities, will be located at the west end of the Expo. The area where Colorado PGA professionals will give free 10-minute lessons to all interested Expo attendees is adjacent to Junior Golf Central.

For a full list of exhibitors, CLICK HERE. 

For more information: CLICK HERE. 

When the executive directors and the staffs from the CGA and the Colorado Section PGA met last October to determine what programs it made the most sense to team up on, junior golf ended up major priority No. 1.

A year later — after plenty of brainstorming, meetings and work on all sides — the seeds bore fruit on Monday, when it was announced that the CGA and Colorado PGA are joining forces in a major effort to bolster junior golf in the state.

As part of a memorandum of agreement signed by CGA president Phil Lane and Colorado PGA president Leslie Core-Drevecky (pictured) on Monday at the Section’s Fall Membership Meeting at Heritage Eagle Bend Golf Club, a Junior Tour will be created that includes four junior major championships in Colorado.

Three of those events currently exist — the CGA’s Junior Stroke Play and Junior Match Play, and the Colorado PGA Junior Championship — and will be part of the Junior Tour, along with the Tour Championship, though the names will be rebranded.

All the major championships will feature both boys and girls competitions. There will also be plenty of other Junior Tour tournaments, mostly 36-hole events on Mondays and Tuesdays, with those competitions meant for top-level junior players who aspire to play college golf (handicap 8.1 or lower).

In addition, there will be a developmental Junior Series that will help players not yet ready for the Junior Tour to progress with their game.

Staff from the CGA and Colorado PGA will jointly oversee both the Junior Tour and Junior Series.

Another aspect of the collaboration will be the creation of a website that acts as a clearinghouse for all things junior golf-related in Colorado, including but not limited to registration for Junior Tour and Junior Series events; the PGA Junior League; the Colorado PGA Golf in Schools program, which exposes school kids to the game through P.E. classes; the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy and the Drive, Chip & Putt Championship.

The name for that website as well as the name for the collaborative program in general — and many other details — have yet to be finalized. But with 2016 being the first year for the program, the plan is to have all the details ironed out in time for a Golf Summit that’s scheduled for February.

“With the two organizations and what great things they’ve accomplished, just imagine now becoming one powerhouse where our focus is all going to be about the kids and the families. How can that not be great?” said Eddie Ainsworth (left), executive director of the Colorado PGA. “For me, this is a major day. This is just huge.”

Between the CGA and the Colorado PGA, many pieces that will make up this collaborative effort have been in place, while others will be new. The bottom line is to streamline the junior golf process, fill in the voids, further build the junior golf ranks, and create some new excitement with a series of grand slam events.

“It’s the best practices of two organizations (being joined) and I think they’re really going to be complementary,” said Ed Mate, executive director of the CGA. “We’re basically taking the best of what the PGA has been doing — you’ve seen how much they’ve grown their junior golf programs in the last few years — and the history and the legacy of the CGA and the CJGA, and putting the two together. It’s really exciting.

“It will be better (for junior golfers) because it’ll be cooler. It’s going to be better because the tournamemts are going to feel different. They’re going to feel more like, ‘Wow!’ It’s going to be better for parents because the website is going to be simple to use and easy to navigate and very user-friendly. It’s going to be better top to bottom.”

The CGA plans to revamp the trophies for its oldest junior championships — the Junior Match Play, which dates back to 1951, and the Junior Stroke Play, which began in 1977. But the list of champions for those events, which include such luminaries as Hale Irwin, Mike Reid, Brandt Jobe and Mark Hubbard, will remain a fixture on the re-done trophies.

“The kids are going to want to win the ‘Grand Slam’ (in a calendar year),” noted Mate (left). “How cool will that be?”

Mate likened the impending tweaking of the championship names to what was done for the PGA Tour’s BMW Championship, which for most of its storied history was known as the Western Open.

The Colorado associations are following the lead of Nebraska and Northern California, where PGA Sections and golf associations have joined forces for the betterment of junior golf. For the CGA and CPGA, Monday’s memorandum of agreement has been more than a year in the making.

“We’re just at the beginning of a long journey,” said Mate, who once worked at the Colorado PGA. “(Nebraska and Northern California) are three or four years in, and their feedback is, ‘This is the best thing we’ve ever done.’ It’s not without its challenges. You have two organizations and a lot of people’s fingers in the pie. The thing I probably appreciate more than anything at this stage of my life is, ‘Is it sustainable?’ We’re going to build this to last.”

And beyond the benefits for junior golf, this collaboration marks another area where the CGA and the Colorado PGA have found it makes more sense to work in tandem than separately. Those areas have also included the annual Golf Summit and the upcoming Century of Golf Gala, which will celebrate 2015 marking the 100th “birthday” of the CGA.

“I’ve been saying it since the first day I’ve been in this job: We’ve all got to check our logos at the door and work together,” Ainsworth said. “We can make more things happen. I know Ed’s heart, I know my heart. It’s about junior golf, it’s about making a difference and introducing more people to the game.

“It’s like Ed said, ‘Everybody’s chips are in and we’re going to make this thing work.'”

As part of the changes, the CJGA, which was jointly created in 1984 by the CGA and the Colorado PGA but eventually was overseen exclusively by CGA staff, will go by the wayside, with many of its functions becoming part of what will be essentially a joint operating agreement.

“A lot has changed (since ’84),” Mate said. “Now we’re going back to the spirit of working together.”