In the last several years, more players from out of state have won the CoBank Colorado Open than in-staters have.

And don’t think that’s gone unnoticed.

In 2014, Ian Davis of Edmond, Okla., prevailed. In 2015, it was Scotland’s Jimmy Gunn. Two years ago, it was Neil Johnson of Phoenix/River Falls, Wis. In 2017, part-time Boulder resident Jonathan Kaye scored one for the home team with his victory at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club in northeast Denver.

And now, Coloradans have a good chance to make it two in a row.

Not only do local residents hold down the top two places after Saturday’s second round, but they have some cushion over the player in third place heading into Sunday’s final 18.

Shane Bertsch of Parker, winner of the 1998 Colorado Open and a veteran of 193 PGA Tour starts, leads going into the final round. And Riley Arp of Fort Collins, a former Colorado State University golfer who has had plenty of success on mini tours over the years, stands in second place, just a stroke behind Bertsch. (Bertsch is pictured chatting with a young fan after Saturday’s round.)

Arp finds himself where he is thanks to a bogey-free 10-under-par 62 on Saturday that matched the course record at GVR. It was the sixth time that score has been shot at the course in the Colorado Open.

Arp, for one, likes to see Coloradans excel at the Colorado Open.

“It’s our state open,” the 30-year-old (left) said. “It’s nice to come in and kind of protect your state. It’s like, ‘Everybody can show up but this is the Colorado Open.’

“The guys who play here a lot, we do have a pretty good advantage because the ball flies a long way. And if you’re not used to really knowing your distances … you can catch a flyer” that will go an unexpectedly long distance.

Through two days, Bertsch is atop the leaderboard with a 15-under-par 129 total, while Arp is at 130. The next best on the leaderboard are Chris Petefish of Cumming, Ga., a rookie pro who recently graduated from Georgia Tech (64-68–132); Dru Love, son of World Golf Hall of Famer Davis Love III (68-65); and Patrick Stolpe of Scottsdale, Ariz. (64-69).

Bertsch had only one blemish in his second-round 64 on Saturday, a bogey on his final hole, the par-5 ninth. Ironically, he had a wedge from the middle of the fairway into the green, but pushed it a bit, hit a poor chip and missed an 8-foot par putt.

But through two rounds, the 48-year-old has made an eagle and 15 birdies at GVR.

“I’m playing good,” he said. “I’m in that aggressive mindset. I was in good position for birdie (on Saturday’s final hole) and all of a sudden I walked off with a bogey. That’s how golf is. But there were a lot of good things today.

“It’s been a long year and a half. I had (left) shoulder surgery in April of ’16 and I’ve been back playing on the two tours (PGA and Web.com) without much success. But about a month ago, I started to figure out some stuff. I had lost my iron game basically — the consistency of it. But I found some stuff that’s making a big difference and has gotten me back on track.”

Indeed, Bertsch has missed the cut in his one PGA Tour appearance this season and has made just two cuts in nine events on the Web.com Tour in 2018. But he’s certainly in the groove this week at the Colorado Open.

His wedge game has been particularly sharp at GVR, where he’s competing for the first time in three years.

“I’ve hit a lot of wedges close this week — some really good ones for kick-ins,” said Bertsch, who owns three Web.com Tour victories and five PGA Tour top-10s in his career. “I hadn’t been doing that. That was the part of the game I had to excel at because I’m not the longest (hitter) so I need to take advantage of those situations. I’m starting to again.”

It’s been a while since Bertsch’s last significant victory — he won the on the Web.com Tour in 2015 — but he’s looking forward to a crack at another title.

“It’s going to be pedal to the medal” on Sunday, he said. “There’s going to be scores to be had assuming we have a typical Colorado morning with not much wind. You’re going to have to be going for it when you can and playing away from certain pins. But you’re not going to be able to just protect. I’ll be trying to go as low as I can.

“I can’t wait. It’s going to be fun.”

Arp, who Monday qualified for last week’s Web.com Tour event in Omaha, matched his career tournament low score relative to par on Saturday. He shot a 62 last year in a Monday qualifier to earn a spot in the field for the PGA Tour’s Shell Houston Open.

On Saturday, the 2010 CGA Public Links champion did the trick with 10 birdies and no bogeys.

“It has nothing to do with my golf game at all. It all has to do with me controlling myself,” Arp said of his impressive play this week. “My golf game has been fine the last month, but I haven’t been able to score and I couldn’t figure out why. I realized I was a head case and need to figure that out. I’ve been focused on that the last two weeks and trying to come up with solutions. I found one and it’s working so far and we’ll see if it keeps working.

“A buddy of my turned me onto a book — it’s called, ‘On Combat’. I just read it and was kind of thinking about (how) it has to do with heart rate and how you can calm yourself down when you start to get a little edgy or whatever It’s been working. And it helps to make a few putts here or there.”

As good as Arp’s round was, he said it easily could have been better. But he missed three putts inside 10 feet.

“I feel like I’m in a pretty good place and hopefully I’ll keep myself there tomorrow,” he said. “I think I’ve got a pretty good chance. I’m hitting it pretty good and rolling it well.”

Arp made his professional debut at the Colorado Open in 2010 and is looking for his first top-10 finish in the event.

“The Colorado Open has always meant quite a lot to me,” said Arp, who is now a full-time resident of Fort Collins again. “And now I feel like I have my head in the right place, so it’s time to play some golf.”

Two Days and Out: Two of the biggest names in the 2018 CoBank Colorado Open field, including the defending champion, bowed out after Saturday, having missed the cut.

Part-time Colorado residents and PGA Tour winners Jonathan Kaye and Kevin Stadler finished at identical 3-over-par 147 totals, which left them six strokes shy of advancing to Sunday’s final round.

“It’s kind of expected,” said Kaye (left), who finished with a 23-under-par total for four rounds at GVR in winning last year. “I’ve just been playing (poorly). It wasn’t really out of the realm for me to play (poorly).”

Though it may have been just in the heat of the moment following rounds of 76-71, Kaye said this in response to a question if he was going to play any more tournaments this year: “Nope. Done. I might not ever play again in a tournament. I just don’t like golf. I don’t enjoy the pace of play and waiting around so much. Everybody is just dinking around. No one is playing. …. I don’t get it. I can’t play like that. I don’t have the patience for it anymore.”

As for Stadler, the 2002 Colorado Open champion and winner of the 2014 Waste Management Phoenix Open is continuing the road back to the PGA Tour after first feeling the effects of a left hand injury while playing in China in November of 2014. After not receiving the correct diagnosis for more than 18 months, he underwent surgery on what was a broken hamate bone last August, and is now pain-free. But while he has made two starts on the Web.com Tour this year, he hasn’t played on the PGA Tour since 2015. He plans to change that this fall.

In the meantime, he’s trying to shake some poor habits in his game, and he shot 78-69 at GVR this week.

“It was a lot of rust and a lot of lack of ability these days,” he said with a chuckle. “Yesterday (the 78) was kind of a perfect storm getting caught in the wind and I didn’t have control of my ball, (and I) three-putted a couple of times early. Basically I made every error I could possibly make. It was pretty pathetic shooting what I shot. I played bad but I didn’t feel I played that bad. It was just a combination of everything.

“I played all right today. It’s just a lot of rusty, silly mistakes.

“The scores don’t really mean a whole lot for me right now. As poor as it was, it’s actually getting better. I’ve shot better scores in events I’ve played the last 6-8 weeks, but I can tell the motion is better and I’m starting to play a little better. Yesterday was just a disaster. All in all I was pretty happy with the way I hit it today. It’s nowhere near where it needs to be and where it used to be, but it’s going in the right direction.”

Remarkable Recovery for GVR: After a day of playing lift, clean and place on Friday after severe storms and flooding on Wednesday evening led to a cancelation of Thursday’s scheduled opening round, it was back to playing the ball down on Saturday at the Colorado Open.

Suffice it to say it was quite a task to get GVR back in playable shape after the storm on Wednesday evening, which brough heavy rain, hail and winds estimated at 60 mph.

That weather event dumped at least 1.1 inches of rain on the course, leading to the Colorado Open being reduced to 54 holes for the first time since 1981.

There were standing “lakes” on the course were there was previously fairway, and newly created pools of water where fish and frogs were stranded and sometimes died (see photos at left and below, courtesy of Kevin Laura).

On Thursday, superintendent Barry Kendall had a crew of 10 working 11 straight hours pumping the water off the course and from the bunkers. Kendall has worked at GVR since 2007 — since 2009 as head superintendent — having prepared the course for 35 Colorado Opens/Colorado Women’s Opens/Colorado Senior Opens during that 11-plus-year period.

But the bottom line was, the course was ready to play on Friday, although it was certainly still wet in spots.

Noted two-time Colorado Open champion Derek Tolan about the course on Saturday: “It’s in phenomal shape, unbelievable.”

Notable: Kyler Dunkle of Parker, the 2016 CGA Player of the Year, remains in the lead for low-amateur honors after 36 holes. Dunkle, a University of Utah golfer after transferring from Colorado State, has posted rounds of 66-70 for an 8-under-par 136 total. He played his final 10 holes in 4 under par on Saturday. Dunkle is one stroke ahead of AJ Ott of Fort Collins, the 2018 CGA Match Play champion who carded a 69 on Friday. Both Dunkle and Ott have qualified for next month’s U.S. Amateur. Sam Marley of Centennial and Griffin Barela of Lakewood share third place among amateurs at 138. … The 62 players who were at 3-under 141 or better made the 36-hole cut on Saturday. Among those who didn’t advance to Sunday — besides Kaye and Stadler — were former champions Zahkai Brown (142), Scott Petersen (142) and Ben Portie (145), 2017 runner-up Jacob Lestishen (147) and five-time Colorado PGA Player of the Year Geoff Keffer (150). … Chris DiMarco, a three-time PGA Tour winner, caddied for his son Cristian on Friday and Saturday, but the younger DiMarco missed the cut (75-74). The DiMarcos recently moved to Colorado. … Notah Begay, winner of four events on the PGA Tour, shares 44th place after rounds of 69-72. He birdied his final hole Friday to make the cut. … The leading threesome after 36 holes — Bertsch, Arp and Petefish — will tee off at 9:15 a.m. on Sunday for the final round.

For scores from the Colorado Open, CLICK HERE.

For Sunday’s tee times, CLICK HERE.

It’s been more than 250 days since it started raining at CommonGround Golf Course on Sept. 10, but who’s counting?

Well, maybe the staff and the regular players at the Aurora-based public facility are, along with the folks at the CGA and CWGA, which own and operate the course.

Ever since those 14.5 inches of rain fell in the area around CommonGround in the six days beginning on Sept. 10 — which is nearly the average total Aurora receives annually — things haven’t been quite the same at the place.

The flooding — which at one point covered nearly half the course in water, in some places 6 feet deep — took its toll. The Tom Doak-designed course, which opened five years ago this month, had eight holes substantially damaged by standing water, some of which covered the turf for weeks before draining completely. The eight affected holes were on the west side of the property: Nos. 5, 6, 7, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15. The turf on five greens died: 5, 6, 11, 12 and 14. (The 12th green is pictured at left during the reconstruction process in early April.)

But things are just about to get back to normal at CommonGround. After the championship course operated as a nine-hole facility for roughly the last eight months, all 18 holes are expected to fully reopen to the public on June 1 (next Sunday), though selected events will use the full 18 in the days just prior.

It’s something director of golf Dave Troyer and his staff eagerly await.

“It will be nice to get back to our normal routine and start trying to climb back up,” he said. “We had gotten to a really good point, then were kicked back down, and now we’re getting back up on the horse. So we’re excited to do that.”

CommonGround, home to many community-outreach and “for the good of the game” programs, will take the next step in its return to normal on Thursday (May 29) at the Colorado Golf Foundation Golf Tournament it’s hosting. The purpose of the day is threefold: One is to celebrate next weekend’s reopening of the entire 18-hole course; another is to dedicate the 21,700-square-foot community putting green; and one is serving as the annual fundraiser that benefits the Colorado Golf Foundation-supported programs at CommonGround. Those include the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy, the Hale Irwin Elite Player Program, the Colorado PGA Golf in Schools Program and CommonGround’s community partnerships. The Colorado Golf Foundation serves as a funding arm for youth development programs.

All in all, it’ll be a big day.

“When you’re operating at 50 percent of capacity, you have 50 percent of the customers through the door, you have 50 percent of the people hanging out,” noted Ed Mate, longtime executive director of the CGA. “Fortunately, our junior golf programming has not been impacted. We do the field trips, we do the Golf in Schools programs, the outreach stuff, the training of the caddies. All that’s occurred on the nine-hole Kids Course and on the (championship course) holes we have open.

“So fortunately our programming hasn’t been impacted by 50 percent. But the whole energy of the place has been cut significantly. So to get back is very exciting — and particularly this early. We had thought about July, but (instead) it’s going to be a full golf season as far as we’re concerned.”

The community putting green (left), located north of the 18th hole at CommonGround, originally was scheduled to be dedicated on Oct. 4 of last year. But the September flooding changed that.

The concept behind the community putting green is simple.

“It’s further advancement of ‘a place for all and all the game teaches’,” Mate said, echoing the motto for CommonGround Golf Course. “There’s nothing more for everyone than a putting green that doesn’t cost anything to use. And it’s a community putting green. At the very beginning when we contemplated owning and operating our own golf course, the community putting green was something that really was a critical part of it. It epitomizes the purpose: a place for everybody. Everybody can putt. Not everyone can hit a golf ball, but everybody can putt. It is absolutely fabulous, and it’s up to us to make the best use of it. It is really, really cool.”

Mate credits former CGA president M.J. Mastalir, a visionary for CommonGround, for the concept behind the community putting green.

“What’s the difference between this putting green and the putting green that people use to practice putting on?” Mate asked rhetorically. “It’s much more undulating. It’s not going to be maintained at the same speed — it will be a little bit slower. We’ll probably have some 15-inch holes cut in it. And its purpose is really to introduce people to golf — or at least the putting part of golf. Down the road we might use it for SNAG golf (a popular learning system). We don’t really know. We’ll just let the creativity of our programming dictate it. The main distinction is it’s not — underline, bold-faced — not a practice amenity for those who want to come over and work on their short games. It’s there for the community and as an extension of our junior golf laboratory.”

The community putting green wasn’t impacted by the flooding in September, but a lot of work and expense has been involved in reconstructing the affected portion of the championship course.

Troyer said there have been about $350,000 in “hard costs” of repairs, and the lost revenue has been projected at $750,000 to $850,000. But sodding the affected greens early in the spring (pictured at top) will allow CommonGround to open a month earlier than if they had been seeded.

“All our regulars are just super excited to get playing the full 18 again,” Troyer said. “I think there’s a really good buzz going on.”

In recent days, Troyer, Mate and other officials examined the flood-affected holes. Their observations? The sodded greens are smooth and in very good condition, though they are currently softer and a little slower than the other greens on the course. Regarding the areas outside the green complexes, there are some thin spots in the grass, but considering three of the five most affected holes are par-3s (Nos. 6, 12 and 14), the impact should be minimal. And winter rules will be utilized on the five holes (5, 6, 11, 12 and 14). And once CommonGround gets some dry heat for a stretch, everything should quickly fill in nicely.

“The fairways, the rough and the surrounds of the greens — the cool weather has set us back a little bit,” Troyer said. “But I was fairly surprised how much grass is out there actually. It looks like a golf course. We’ll play winter rules (on the affected holes) for however long it takes, but you can definitely find a lie pretty much anywhere within 2-3 inches of where your ball ends up.”

The grand reopening comes on the heels of some additional national exposure CommonGround recently received for one of its flagship programs — the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy, which is beginning its third season.

The Golf Channel did a feature on the Academy last year, and last week it aired an update and refresher about the program. Mate was interviewed two months ago for the recent story that was carried on “Morning Drive”.

“There’s only one thing that I’m aware of that’s put the Colorado Golf Association on Golf Channel, and it’s been (the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy),” Mate said. “Everything else we do as a golf association isn’t that unique. I’m not saying it’s not important, it’s just not that unique. What we’re doing at CommonGround, no other state or regional golf association is doing. And it’s pretty cool to have that opportunity to share what we’re doing and spread the word.”
 

Any statistician — or apple buyer, for that matter — knows as much.

That’s what makes the Colorado public golf course Rounds and Revenue Survey, which is compiled by the CGA, an interesting piece of data.

On the one hand, it’s a useful snapshot of what is happening at Colorado public courses on a year-to-year basis. On the other hand, the survey itself obviously doesn’t tell the whole story.

Such is certainly the case this year. The survey points out the fact that, over the first two-thirds of 2013, rounds and green-fee revenue at Colorado public courses dropped on average compared to the same period in 2012. But the “why” is crucial in making use of the numbers.

After good weather in 2012 yielded more than the usual number of playable days for golfers, 2013 hasn’t been nearly as nice to golf operators. April and May were unusually wet, and while the rounds and revenue survey accounts for only January through the end of August, the mid-September rain and flooding were another major setback. That’s not only from the standpoint that several courses sustained major damage, but because of lost business during the prolonged rainy period — and possibly beyond, depending on the course.

The bottom line was this in the report shared Wednesday at the public golf operators meeting held at Lone Tree Golf Club: In the first eight months of the year, rounds at the 76 public courses that responded to the survey were down an average of 8.8 percent compared to the same period in 2012. And green-free revenue dropped about 7 percent on average.

“Last year’s weather was perfect. This year’s weather has been terrible, so I think everybody has learned to adapt,” said Eddie Ainsworth, executive director of the Colorado PGA.

Added CGA executive director Ed Mate: “Last year was an outlier year. That really exacerbated the difference between 2012 and ’13.

“As I say every year, it’s the same number of golfers playing on — fortunately — the same number of courses whatever number of rounds that are available to them based on weather. There’s the same number of golfers, and the same amount of inventory (number of golf courses) the last five years. The only thing that changes year-to-year is weather.”

Proving the point about 2012 being abnormally good, weather-wise, is that when comparing the first eight months of 2013 to the average of the last five years, the decline in rounds was far less pronounced, generally speaking.

“From everybody I’ve heard and talked to at different golf courses, in some cases rounds are down but revenue has been pretty good,” Ainsworth said. “They’ve made the necessary adjustments in managing their facilities, so I think net they’re pretty good.

“Everybody was making a strong comeback from the bad spring we had until we had all that rain in September.”

While officials from most of the courses represented at Wednesday’s meeting indicated that they experienced less than five days of interruption of business due to the torrential rainfall, some courses — such as Coal Creek, CommonGround and Mariana Butte — have sustained considerable damage because of flooding. Coal Creek is closed indefinitely and CommonGround and Mariana Butte have less than 18 holes open.

Meanwhile, another public facility, the nine-hole par-3 course at Centre Hills in Aurora, closed as of Sept. 30 because it was no longer financially viable for Aurora Golf to keep it open.

While the ups and downs of the weather can’t be controlled, golf leaders like Mate and Ainsworth are generally optimistic over the long haul because they’re confident that “growth of the game” initiatives that continue to be implemented will eventually pay dividends.

Mate was particular encouraged when several operators of multiple courses indicated Wednesday that they’ve added or significantly expanded times when kids can play at their facilities for free. Such courses often take little-utilized tee times late in the day to carve out opportunities for free — or reduced-rate — junior golf.

“The thing I really took away from today is this ‘kids play free’ program has officially gone viral,” Mate said. “It’s taken a while, but it’s now being adopted as an industry standard. Everybody is focused on it because everybody realizes that we lost a whole generation of golfers by being very unfriendly to kids, basically telling them, ‘We don’t want you.’

“And now we’re the opposite. They’re expanding the number of days (free golf is available to juniors); it used to be just weekends. I think it’s fantastic. To me, it’s very, very encouraging. That will change one of the metrics, which is that people playing golf will go up.”

The Colorado PGA has teamed up with the CGA, CWGA and other major golf organizations in the state to greatly expand the Golf in Schools program in recent years, and the Section has made “Get Golf Ready” initiatives a high priority. And now the Colorado PGA has other plans designed to effectively lure juniors into the game — and keep them in it. “Team Golf”, which has been used effectively in Texas to build the participation rate of junior golfers, is among the things on the agenda.

“I think our work is still ahead of us,” Ainsworth said. “We’ve got to grow the base so everything grows. I think our best days are ahead of us. We’ve got a lot of stuff in the pipeline (growth of the game-wise) that’s going to come out next year that I think we’ll be all right.”

More generally speaking, Ainsworth believes that despite the rounds and revenue numbers just released, things are headed in the right direction.

“You saw the hands in the room of the (course operators) who are going to raise fees. That’s a good sign (for the health of the industry),” he said. “A lot of people are getting new equipment; that’s a good sign. To me, there’s a lot of optimistic indicators. When you factor in how bad the weather has been (in 2013), I would say overall it’s been a good year.”