When some of the kids from The First Tee of Green Valley Ranch were asking David Duval about the core values the organization teaches, the 2001 British Open champion couldn’t help but chuckle when “perseverance” was mentioned.

If any elite-level golfer knows about perseverance, it’s Duval, a Colorado resident since late 2003. After all, he was a stellar player in his 20s, winning 13 times on the PGA Tour from 1997-2001, ascending to the No. 1 spot in the world rankings and shooting a final-round 59 to claim victory in the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic in 1999.

But then a long stretch of injuries and poor play led to a dramatic downfall in his game, to the point that he’s recorded just four top-10 finishes — with no wins – in the 221 PGA Tour events he’s entered since the beginning of 2003. But if nothing else, he’s demonstrated remarkable perseverance in the face of adversity over that stretch.

“I’ve struggled in this game as much as anyone,” Duval said while conducting a First Tee GVR Kids Clinic — attended by about 200 people — that was sponsored by CoBank on Tuesday evening (see photos). As he noted, he’s a guy who’s shot 62 at Pebble Beach, as well as a person who’s posted an 85 at the same course.

But you have to hand it to Duval: In recent years, he’s found a vocation within a vocation, and he’s become pretty darn good at it. Since 2015, he’s been an analyst for the Golf Channel, and the more that he’s worked at it, the better he’s gotten. And as a former world No. 1 — and the winner of a major championship — he has some additional credibility that some other prominent golf analysts lack.

“I enjoy” the TV work, Duval said in an interview with coloradogolf.org on Tuesday. “It keeps you connected and around the game. It gives you a little bit of a voice. I think it’s fair to say I definitely prefer (broadcasting) live golf as opposed to wrapup shows. (About 30 percent of Duval’s work this year will be live golf.) But both are cool.

“There’s some type of learning curve to it, obviously, and getting comfortable and figuring out how to be concise and get your points across. I go about it trying to just maybe educate. If I can get you thinking about one thing or tell you one thing you didn’t know before each couple hours of the show, I think I’ve succeeded.”

Perhaps one of the reasons Duval has improved is that golf fans have gotten to know him better. During his years of playing full-time on the PGA Tour, he often came across as quiet and reserved, perhaps a little standoffish. But the role of TV analyst brings more of his personality — and knowledge of the game — to the forefront. In that sense, he’s not disimilar to golf analysts such as Nick Faldo or Curtis Strange — top-level players who could be testy at times while competing but have blossomed in the TV booth or studio.

“How a player chooses to compete — and how they need to compete to succeed … Some are quiet, some can’t shut up,” Duval noted. “I didn’t say much, Lee Trevino couldn’t stop talking. That’s just your makeup and what’s best for you as an individual to compete and succeed. On the other side of the camera, whether you like to talk or not, you have to. You’re in a position where you’re going to learn about a person now more.

“It wasn’t that hard” to transition to putting more of himself out there publicly on TV. “It’s one of those simple things that it is what it is. If you’re going to do it, this is what you have to do.

“Even though I may have been quiet when I was competing 20 times a year, I didn’t lack an opinion. I still had a pretty strong opinion. You just had to ask me for it. Now I just tell it to you without you asking me. That’s the difference.”

Duval tries to walk that fine line between being very critical of PGA Tour players at times — a la Johnny Miller — and losing credibility with viewers by virtually never finding fault with a golfer’s performance.

“I have certainly gotten on things (been critical), but when I do, I try to explain why,” he said. “‘This is why this was bad, this is why this was wrong.’ When I’ve done live golf, the reality is, when a guy hits an 8-iron and misses the green by 15 yards, it’s a friggin awful shot. What else are you going to call it? But I don’t think there’s reason to be mean for mean’s sake. That’s how I go about it. And I also recognize that having done it, how hard the game is.

“I also go about it that 98 percent of the time, the players are trying their best, trying to shoot the best score they can. There’s a few times they phone it in every now and again. If he’s shooting 73, he’s trying to shoot 72. I try to keep that in mind. I’ve shot 62, which is part of the course record at Pebble Beach. I’ve also posted 85 there, making sure I didn’t shoot 86 that day. I try to think of it that way.”

Duval said the approach he’s taken to being a golf analyst on TV is pretty straightforward.

“The best advice I’ve been given — and the thing I’ve been asked to do — is just be myself,” the 45-year-old said. “Give my thoughts, explain why I have those thoughts. That’s what they really want from me, both in studio work and in live golf. The rhythm of those shows are obviously different, but that’s what I’ve really tried to do.”

Duval, who met his future wife Susie while in Colorado for The International, has long lived in Cherry Hills Village with his family and plays a fair amount at Cherry Hills Country Club when he’s at home and the weather is decent. The Denver area is a far cry from his former home of Jacksonville, Fla., but despite occasional grumblings about a snowstorm, he’s taken to it quite nicely.

“We love it here. We feel like it’s home,” he said. “Like a lot of people, I sometimes wish the winter would shorten up a little bit. That snowstorm in May was quite annoying. But I love it. All you have to do is walk outside right now, and it tells you everything you need to know. It’s just spectacular. The people are wonderful. I love the culture of it — the food, the views, the mountains, the air. It’s just wonderful.”

Also scheduled to participate in the by-invitation-only event at Fossil Trace are instructors Trent Wearner of Colorado and Sandy LaBauve. The clinic at Fossil Trace is scheduled for 5-6 p.m. MT on Wednesday.

The PGA of America and Golf Channel are partnering to present the first National Instruction Day.

Golf Channel is devoting most of Wednesday — on and off from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. — to live programming in association with National Instruction Day. Other sites around the U.S. at which clinics will be held are Baltusrol in Springfield Township, N.J.; Ibis in West Palm Beach, Fla.; Keeton Park in Dallas; Cog Hill in Lemont, Ill.; TPC Harding Park in San Francisco, plus Golf Channel studios in Orlando, Fla.

Among the instructors scheduled to participate at one site or another — besides the aforementioned — are David Leadbetter, Michael Breed, Jim McLean, Craig Harmon, Suzy Whaley, Randy Smith and Stan Utley.

National Instruction Day marks a culmination of a 100-day celebration of the PGA of America’s centennial.
 

The CPGA and its work will be featured during Golf Channel’s “Morning Drive”, which on Friday will air from 6:30-8:30 a.m. MT.

In particular, the program that will draw attention on Friday is the Colorado PGA Golf in Schools, a joint initiative of the Allied Golf Associations of Colorado, including the Colorado PGA, CGA, CWGA, the Colorado Open Golf Foundation, the Golf Course Owners Association, the Club Managers Association and the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America.

Golf in Schools exposes kids to the game through P.E. classes, and over the last five-plus years, more than 40,000 Colorado youngsters have been reached by the free instructional program. More than 50 golf professionals from the Colorado PGA are involved with Golf in Schools.

The PGA Section Spotlight Series is running on Morning Drive on various days from Jan. 27-May 4. Each profile includes a “Get to Know the PGA Section” fact box and the Section’s signature program.

(April 15 update) For the Colorado PGA segment that aired on Friday, 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.”
 

It wasn’t planned that way, but it turned out to be very nice timing.

On Sunday, the day the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy was holding its second season wrap-up and “graduation” at CommonGround Golf Course, the Academy produced its 1,000th caddie loop of 2013.

Perhaps it was just a fitting punctuation mark for a year that has included highlight after highlight.

“From my standpoint, we have great quality kids who are working hard and doing what they’re supposed to do,” said Geoff (Duffy) Solich, who with brother George lent their name and financial support to the Academy. “From where I stand, I just see success.”

The Solich Academy at CommonGround, which many consider a model for similar programs, uses caddying and the game of golf to help teach kids valuable leadership skills. The Academy promotes the use of caddies by paying all of their base fees. It also trains teenagers who eventually will be available to caddie at other courses in the Denver metro area.


The Solich Academy is designed to teach the participating young men and women — many of whom come from families with considerable financial need — the value of a strong work ethic, social interaction and perseverance. Besides caddying, the teenagers are required to participate in community service by working with one of the junior outreach programs with which CommonGround partners.

Considering it just made its debut in 2012, the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy has drawn considerable attention with its work. This year, 31 kids participated in the program and one accumulated 54 caddie loops at CommonGround, which is owned and operated by the CGA and CWGA. Nearly 600 golfers at the course took an Academy caddie at some point this year.

While 2012 was a success in many respects, the inroads made in 2013 by the Academy have been eye-catching. Here are some of the highlights:

— Just last month, the Academy received invaluable national publicity when the Golf Channel aired a 7-minute, 46-second feature story on the initiative. To watch it, CLICK HERE.

— In June, a similarly complimentary story was televised locally on Fox 31 News.

— Earlier this year, the Daniels Fund gave the Academy a $25,000 grant.

— Late in the winter, for the first time a Solich Academy caddie (Asni Solomon) received an Evans Caddie Scholarship at the University of Colorado. The Evans Scholarship pays all the tuition and housing for the caddies who receive it. And one of the aims of the Academy is to get more qualified candidates for the Scholarship, which is national in scope and dates back to 1930.

— Notably, Solomon told her story — and the opportunities she received from the Solich Academy — as a featured speaker in front of the 1,200 people who attended the ACE Scholarships Spring Luncheon. Among those on hand were former Colorado Gov. Bill Owens and many prominent members of the Denver metro community.

— One of the people who thought enough of the Solich Academy and its mission to come to CommonGround to speak to the caddies was former Denver Broncos standout John Lynch, who made an extended appearance in June.

“I’m absolutely thrilled” with how the Academy is coming along, businessman and philanthropist George Solich said Sunday. “To see all phases of this coming together — the number of loops, the Leadership Academy, the giving back to the community — it’s been unbelievable. Then to be out here taking the kids caddying has just been really special. Every one of them that I’ve been out with has been just a terrific kid, and they’re really good caddies. So I think we’re doing something right.

“I feel like we’re really hitting it on all cylinders right now, and I think people get what this is about.” (The Solich brothers are pictured above on Sunday, with George in the red shirt.)

On Sunday, the kids in the program, along with their families, organizers and supporters celebrated Year 2 of the Academy. The youngsters participated in a Caddie Olympics (pictured at top and below), then there was a buffet dinner followed by a recap of the year, individual recognition of the caddies and an awards presentation.

From here, three more Academy caddies are expected to soon apply for Evans Scholarships at CU, and eight of the caddies or so will move on to courses such as Cherry Hills, Denver and Lakewood Country Clubs — and possibly others — to continue their caddying in future summers.

“It was just a great building year from Year 1,” said CGA executive director Ed Mate. “We got our 1,000th loop today. That’s probably the most important number, but the quality of kids this year was significantly better, partly because we had a number coming back for their second year so they were not only better caddies but they helped bring along the younger kids. And we had a really, really strong class of first-year caddies. And, like anything, you just learn what works and what doesn’t work.”

The one thing Mate and the Soliches would like to see moving forward is a larger percentage of the golfers at CommonGround utilizing caddies through the Academy program. But at Colorado public courses — like CommonGround — using caddies certainly hasn’t been the norm in recent decades.

“I would like to see it become the culture of CommonGround where it’s known and people come here because of the caddie program,” Mate said. “I don’t know that that’s happening yet. The people who are already here who embrace the mission are loving it.

“That’s the thing the Golf Channel story will do is hopefully spread the word to other parts of the country that hey, caddie programs can work. It takes a little different model than what it used to, and the economic barriers are significant, but this program has proven that if you can mitigate the economics, it works.”

With what the Solich Academy has accomplished in its first two years, the Soliches see big things ahead. Besides everything else the program brings to the table, it can open up doors to kids who might not otherwise be able to go to college.

“I think we’re going to see the effects of this here very soon, where we’re going to have to export Evans Scholars to other universities (because) we’re just going to have so many candidates,” George Solich opined. “We’re going to have to do one of two things: expand the (CU Evans Scholars) house or start exporting them. I think either of those is a possibility. It’s a great problem to have.

“I’m thrilled we have so many great kids here (at the Academy) — the ‘three D’ kids: determined, dedicated and driven. They’re all just great. And I think that’s kind of lifted the boat. Having all these great kids is making the program everything it should be.”