The Evans Scholarship for caddies is one of golf’s favorite charities, but things didn’t look very good a decade ago for the part of the program based at the University of Colorado.

The house at 1029 Broadway in Boulder (left) has been the home of the CU Evans Scholars since the 1960s. For the great majority of the half-century since, the norm has been 40-50 caddies living at the house any given school year, receiving full tuition and housing scholarships at CU.

But for the three school years beginning in 2005-06, the numbers at the CU Evans Scholars house dipped below 30 for the first time since the building was purchased in November 1968 to house the caddies.

There were just 28 CU Evans Scholars in 2005-06, 27 in 2006-07 and 29 in 2007-08. The long-term health of the Colorado chapter was in question, and it’s not unprecedented for the Illinois-based Western Golf Association, which administers the scholarship nationwide, to close an Evans Scholars house if things aren’t working out.

“I think I was” worried when the numbers of CU Scholars dropped into the 20s, said Geoff “Duffy” Solich, a CU Evans Scholar alum and now the WGA’s state chairman for Colorado. “We thought at first it might have been an abberation, but that was concerning.”

But at that pivotal time, instead of things going south to the point of no return for the CU Evans Scholars, the situation rebounded — and in a major way. And now, due to a variety of reasons, the number of Evans Scholars at CU starting this school year was a record 62, with three-quarters of them having caddied in Colorado.

That means that in the course of a decade, the caddies based at the house have more than doubled.

“I am really excited about the growth of the program in Colorado and especially excited about the quality of young men and women we are seeing as finalists,” George Solich, who played a key role in the turnaround on several fronts, said via email. “The need is greater than ever, so our ability to change more lives through the Evans Scholarship is rewarding beyond words.  From a community-living standpoint, the energy, enthusiasm and quality of experience for the kids is so much greater when the Scholarship house is bursting at the seams.”

The WGA has long partnered with the CGA in supporting the scholarship at CU. The Evans Scholarship, awarded to high-achieving caddies with significant financial need, is a flagship program for the CGA. Through the association’s bag-tag sales and Par Club contributions, Colorado donors fully fund the year-to-year scholarship costs at the CU Evans Scholars house.

With the soaring cost of college, it’s now estimated that the scholarship is worth an average of $100,000 if renewed for four years.

To qualify for an Evans Scholarship, applicants must have excellent caddie records and academic results, show strong character and leadership, and demonstrate financial need.

Last week, more than 100 people — including alums, many representatives of the CGA and WGA, and other supporters of the program — interviewed finalists for the incoming class of Scholars at Denver Country Club. Coincidentally, that’s where scholarship founder Charles “Chick” Evans won one of his Western Amateurs, in 1912, before later capturing titles in the U.S. Amateur (twice) and the U.S. Open. Nationwide, the Evans Scholarship dates back to 1930 and has produced more than 10,600 alums.

Thirty-two Colorado caddies applied for the scholarship this time around.

Among the reasons the number of Evans Scholars at CU (some of whom are pictured at left) has surged in the last decade are:

— The creation of the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy, starting at the CGA-owned CommonGround Golf Course. The program is named after the aforementioned Solich brothers, George and Duffy, both CU alums and longtime major supporters of the program. The Academy, now with chapters at CommonGround, Meridian Golf Club and in Grand Junction, has produced more than 7,000 caddie loops over the last six years, as well as plenty of Evans Scholars.

— The WGA’s long-stated goal of reaching 1,000 Evans Scholars in school nationwide by 2020. The figure for this school year is 965, who are attending 19 universities around the country, with scholarship costs reaching $20 million annually. Nationwide, Evans Scholars are a high-achieving bunch, averaging a 3.3 grade-point average and a 95 percent graduation rate.

— The creation of a staff position at the CGA dedicated to caddie devolopment and recruitment, initially funded by George Solich. Erin Gangloff and Emily Olson have both played key roles at the CGA in that regard over the last decade.

— The $6 million expansion and renovation of the CU Evans Scholars house, which was completed early in 2016 under the guidance of project manager Rick Polmear, a University of Michigan Evans Scholars alum. The project added about 2,000 square feet of finished space, making room for roughly 10 additional Scholars to live there. “We call it a house that’s better than new,” said Jeff Harrison, the WGA’s senior vice president of education.

— Concerted effort by WGA directors in Colorado, including former state chairman Bob Webster and his successor, Duffy Solich, to identify and bring forward qualified candidates for the Scholarship, and to build support for the program financially and otherwise.

— And, of course, as a practical matter, the rebound in the economy following the Great Recession that hit almost 10 years ago. That’s helped money flow much more readily into the program, not only in Colorado but nationwide.

“In my view, the growth (of the number of CU Evans Scholars) is due to several factors,” George Solich noted. “First, our focus at the CGA on developing and promoting strong caddie programs throughout the state is starting to pay off. Second, it is undeniable the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy is reaching high-performing inter-city kids that are proving to be very deserving of an Evans Scholarship. These young men and women in many cases would have never stepped foot on a golf course without this program at CommonGround Golf Course and now Meridian Golf Club. Now we have (many) kids from this program earning a full tuition and housing scholarship to CU.

“And finally, with our partnership with CU Boulder, the CU Evans Scholarship house has become a truly national house with approximately 20 percent of those Scholars coming from out of state. This makes for such a rich and diverse mix of Scholars, making the Colorado Chapter more like the university demographic as a whole — kids from all over the country.”

CGA co-president Joe McCleary has been a longtime supporter of the Evans Scholarship and of the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy. He was among those in attendance at the selection meeting last week at Denver Country Club.

“The relationship the Colorado Golf Association has with the Evans Scholars and the creation of the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy made a real difference,” he said. “That was one of the goals of the Academy: to generate candidates who could fill those scholarship spots at the house. Just like anything, it takes a group of people to get things done, and that’s what’s happened. It is an incredible milestone, and it makes the difference in a lot of lives.”

Janene Guzowski serves on the Executive Committee of the CGA Board of Directors, chairs the CGA Caddie Development Committee and has been a WGA director for roughly eight years.

“There’s so much more awareness about the scholarship now through all of the work of (Olson and Gangloff),” Guzowski said. “Regarding kids at the house, they can have that many more with the remodel. I’ve been a (WGA) director eight years and it’s tended to grow and grow and grow. They started bringing in kids from other states and that helped fill the house and diversify it.”

After going sub-30 in the number of CU Evans Scholars, the total returned to the 40-plus mark in 2010-11, then reached 51 in 2015-16. Since then, it’s jumped to 57 last school year and to 62 this one.

Kevin Laura, the current CEO of The First Tee of Green Valley Ranch and of the Colorado Open Golf Foundation, served as president of the CGA in 2006-07. Given that, and also being a CU Evans Scholar alum, he finds the doubling in the number of CU Evans Scholars over the last decade to be a job well done in many respects.

“What I like the most is when we hit that bottom number (of less than 30 CU Evans Scholars), we didn’t sit there and sulk about it,” he said. “We almost kind of absorbed it. We not only doubled our efforts but quadrupled them by increasing the number of (WGA) directors that are supportive (and encouraged) more golf clubs and caddie programs to be more supportive. George (Solich) and Bob (Webster) went back to the university saying we’ve got to bring back that out-of-state (Scholar) element and figuring out how to do that affordably (tuition-wise). And obviously the house being (expanded).”

The CU Evans Scholars program now has more than 460 alums dating back to the 1960s, and it looks like that number will be reaching the 500 mark in the near future.

“I think the longevity of the house in Colorado is more secure based on having 62 kids up there rather than 30,” Duffy Solich said. “And it’s better for the kids to have more people there.”
 

Not surprisingly, more than 95 percent of those loops came from either private clubs or resorts, with caddie-friendly Cherry Hills alone accounting for almost 30 percent of the state’s total.

On the other hand, a notable number of public courses in the state feature some sort of organized caddie program, though almost all of them are very modest in size.

And this year, that number will increase as the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy starts a small pilot program in Grand Junction at Lincoln Park and Tiara Rado (READ MORE), both municipal courses.

Among the other Colorado public courses that have caddies available through a formal program are CGA-owned CommonGround Golf Course in Aurora, Green Valley Ranch Golf Club in northeast Denver, and five City of Denver courses: City Park, Willis Case, Wellshire, Kennedy and Overland.

In the case of CommonGround and the Grand Junction courses, the caddie programs are part of the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy, which also has a chapter at the private Meridian Golf Club. As for the City of Denver facilities and GVR, they’re linked with The First Tee chapters of Denver and GVR.

Suffice it to say caddie programs in Colorado are by no means limited to private and resort courses.

“You’ve got to build the demand for (caddies) at a public course,” said Kevin Laura, the president of GVR who attended the University of Colorado on an Evans Scholarship for caddies. “Public golfers don’t expect to take a caddie, but we (at GVR) have 40 percent walkers.”

Laura said GVR caddies accumulated a total of about 125 loops in 2016, with roughly half of them coming through the three CoBank Colorado Open championships held at the club — the Open, Women’s Open and Senior Open.

Of course, CommonGround Golf Course has proven to be the gold standard for caddie programs at Colorado public courses. Thanks to being the original home of the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy — which promotes the use of caddies by paying the base caddie fees through an educational grant, with participating golfers having the option of adding a tip — CommonGround was the site of 1,108 caddie loops in 2016. To put that number into perspective, less than 10 private clubs produced more caddie loops.

“Admittedly it’s a subsidized program so we’re trying to create a culture or an awareness that wouldn’t otherwise exist,” said CGA executive director Ed Mate, who’s also a CU Evans Scholar alum. “We know the economics of a caddie program at a public facility just don’t mesh. That’s the most important underpinning of the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy: it is subsidized. I think we need to be very sensitive to any unintended consequences of making subsidized caddie programs the norm. I don’t think that should be. Ultimately, we want these independent contractors working for the players. But if we can use the subsidies smartly to kind of fill that pipeline …

“Our intention with that (Solich) program is to generate applicants for the Evans Scholarship. That’s a separate and distinct goal from having healthy caddie programs. Most people in that (Caddie Summit) room recognize the value that our society can benefit from by having kids that are hard-working and that have the ability to communicate — and not (just) on a phone or an app or whatever.”

The Solich Academy, named for philanthropists and ES alums George and Duffy Solich (the latter being the Western Golf Association’s state chairman), isn’t just a caddie program. A major component of the Academy is that all of the caddies are required to attend weekly leadership classes and do volunteer community-service work each summer. And, as Mate noted, the hope is that some of the participants will become good candidates for the Evans Scholarship at CU.

Laura, a former CGA president, certainly has seen how successful the Solich program has been. And he hopes GVR can offer something similar.

“We’ve applied for a grant through the Colorado Golf Foundation about doing what they do at CommonGround — saying ‘Take a caddie, we’ll pay for it,'” Laura said. “The kids really want to loop more. They just don’t have the demand and it’s really frustrating. But if we had all six or eight of our kids waiting to get out and our golf shop was actively trying to push it, they would come four to five days a week if the players are going to take the kid because the base rate is covered.

“Those kind of ways to create demand by eliminating the cost factors, that can work at a public, private, resort — any of those courses. We’re hoping to be able to do that with some financial support. We can double and triple our number of loops if we just have that hurdle (eliminated). That’s why CommonGround is so great because you know you can get a caddie and just pay a tip. A $20 or $30 tip is well worth it, but if someone is looking at a $50 or $60 fee on top of their $50 or $60 public green fee, that’s where a decision is made and most of the time it’s against taking a caddie.”

The Colorado Golf Foundation, by the way, was founded with a $2 million gift from George and Carol Solich.

“We’re trying to get our sea legs around the foundation, but we’re very much open to (Laura’s idea regarding GVR),” Mate said. “I love the (idea of a potential) partnership with The First Tee because they already have kids who know golf. They’re looking for programming for kids who get to be 13-14 years old; that’s when they kind of fizzle out with The First Tee. And I think they lose them because they have to start earning money. So what a great segue — from knowing the game and having the base knowledge (to caddying regularly). I’d love to have a lot of First Tee kids in our program. That would be awesome.

“That’s one other thing that’s being discussed: How can we scale the Solich program nationwide? We’re not saying that; the World Golf Foundation has started a discussion around this. Is there some place for a nationally-supported caddie initiative? The fact that that conversation is going on is encouraging for sure.”

Strong Showing for Caddie Summit: More than 50 people attended last week’s Caddie Summit, presented by the CGA. That included representatives of 18 courses/clubs in Colorado that feature a caddie program.

The Summit is held annually to discuss various issues regarding caddies, including best practices; to release results of the survey of caddie clubs; and give updates on caddie-related programs in the state. That includes the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy and the full-tuition and housing Evans Scholarship.

This time around, there was also a caddie club profile, with head professional Bryan Heim discussing the situation at Columbine Country Club, where a once-thriving program largely went away for a while but has been brought back, to the point that now it features 40-50 caddies accumulating about 1,300 total loops annually.

Also, there was a talk by Boulder-based Evans Scholar alum Jeremy Stroiman, the CEO of a company he and his twin brother Jason run that was named after the scholarship: Evans Senior Investments, which deals with senior housing and skilled nursing solutions.

Heim, for one, always gets a few useful tidbits out of the Caddie Summit.

“If nothing else it gives you a check and balance — some new ideas to say, ‘Hey listen, have we thought about that or that’s maybe a better way of doing something’,” Heim said. “It gets your wheels turning a little bit just to make sure we’ve got that down or we’re doing this.”

Each clubs which sends multiple participants to the Summit receives a $500 grant for its caddie program from the Colorado Golf Foundation.

“I thought it was our best one yet,” Mate said of the 2017 Caddie Summit. “The attendance was great. We didn’t stretch the agenda. Like they say about a vacation, it’s always better when you wanted to stay a little longer. I felt like that best practices discussion could have gone on longer. But I filled up my notepad of notes and I hope everybody else did too.

“There was some inspiration in this one that we haven’t had in the past, with Jeremy (Stroiman). Janene Guzowski (a new CGA board member who chairs the caddie committee) has brought some great new energy. It’s great to have more voices and not just have a few of us drone on. I thought it was very successful.”
 

You could take it to the (Co)Bank.

Almost exactly a year after the purse for the men’s Open jumped to $250,000 — with an amazing $100,000 going to the winner — Colorado Open Golf Foundation officials announced a comparable increase, percentage-wise, for the CoBank Colorado Women’s Open. Not coincidentally, CoBank has been the title sponsor for the Colorado Open championships since the beginning of 2016.

For the 2017 women’s tournament, set for Aug. 30-Sept. 1 at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club in northeast Denver, first prize will more than quadruple — to $50,000 from $11,000 — and the overall purse will double — to $150,000. In both cases, those are records for a women’s state/regional open and the $50,000 is considerably more than the winner receives for any 2017 event on the Symetra Tour, the LPGA’s development circuit.

“We’re very excited that we’re a big girls’ game now,” Colorado Open Golf Foundation CEO Kevin Laura said during Thursday’s announcement at Topgolf in Centennial.

Roughly $135,000 of the purse total will be devoted to the championship competition, with $15,000 (the same as in 2016) going for the pro-am.

“This is the best state open and it’s getting even better,” said Denver’s Becca Huffer, a two-time Colorado state high school champion who went on to win the 2013 Colorado Women’s Open.

“This is a huge day for women’s golf in Colorado,” said 2005 CWO champ Erin Houtsma, the tournament’s all-time money leader. “As someone who’s played in this tournament since I was about 16 years old, I love this event so much and this is long overdue. I thank everyone for their hard work and dedication to this process.”

Ironically, Houtsma is in the midst of getting her amateur status back, so even if she wins the 2017 CWO, there will be no $50,000 first prize for her. Instead, the highest-finishing professional would get that payday.

With the substantial increase in money, tournament organizers now feel there will be enough demand for a qualifying event — a first for the CWO — and have scheduled one for Aug. 28 at CommonGround Golf Course in Aurora. Five to 10 spots will be available through qualifying. Meanwhile, exemptions will be held for select players from the LPGA and Symetra Tours.

Laura indicated the increased prize money for the Women’s Open is being funded by $75,000 in new sponsorships, with another $10,000 coming from a $100 increase in entry fees from the 100 or so championship players. It will now cost those players $400 to enter the championship alone, and $500 for the championship and the pro-am.

(Entries for the Colorado Women’s Open, the CoBank Colorado Open and the CoBank Colorado Senior Open all will open on Monday, March 6. For more information, CLICK HERE.)

The money hike for the Women’s Open — which will continue to feature a format in which the championship and a pro-am are conducted simultaneously — has been on the radar since organizers first started putting a similar plan in place for the men’s Open.

“We knew when we first did the men’s purse increase that shortly thereafter we needed to figure out how to handle the women,” said Pat Hamill, the founder of the Colorado Open Golf Foundation and the owner of GVR. “Alex (Ringsby, who serves on the foundation’s board of trustees) had called me and said, ‘We thought women should come first. Isn’t that the right thing to do?'”

All three of the Colorado Open championships have always been very highly regarded among state and regional opens, but the huge purse increases for the Colorado Open and the Colorado Women’s Open since CoBank became title sponsor certainly take those tournaments’ reputation up a notch.

The Colorado Open “clearly was a premier state tournament, but … we wanted to take it to the next level,” said Bob Engel, former CEO of CoBank. “And we saw the engagement of anyone that has anything at all to do with the (tournament or course). Everyone pulled together on this. And the excitement just kind of continued to grow.

“For me what was really (eye-catching) was when we had these individual clinics with The First Tee kids last year (conducted by Hale Irwin, Ryan Palmer and Paula Creamer). And when I saw the attendance by the young ladies for that (Creamer) event, it was absolutely tremendous. And Pat (Hamill) had whispered to me at the end of the men’s tournament, ‘We’re going to get this going for the women also.’ It really is tremendous. … So (with these increases) we think it brings a whole lot more and that the community will continue to rally around it.”

Many players like the ones who attended Thursday’s announcement — Houtsma, Huffer and three-time state high school champion and veteran CWO competitor Ashley Tait — have seldom played in a tournament with a $50,000 first prize (though Huffer competed in the 2012 U.S. Women’s Open). (Pictured above, from left, sharing a laugh Thursday are Engel, Hamill, Houtsma, Huffer and Tait.)

“I’ve always looked forward to that day that I have a chance to win (the Women’s Open) — and I’ll look forward to that day even more (now),” Tait said with a laugh. “($50,000) could change your life, open up some doors, especially for us having to pay for your own expenses and travel on tour.

“Especially coming down that stretch at Green Valley and those last four holes, which can be brutal, they’ll be even more stressful now with that on the line.”

The hope from the perspective of tournament organizers is a step up in the caliber of field for the Women’s Open like that that happened for the men’s Open, which in 2016 sold out all four of its qualfiers for the first time.

“We know this is going to do for the CoBank Colorado Women’s Open what the purse increase did for the men,” said Chris Nordling, a former CGA state amateur champion who now chairs the Colorado Open Golf Foundation. “We’re excited about the better field, the lower scores and the more money for the women.”

Just how much of a draw the money increase will be should be apparent this year as both the Symetra Tour and the LPGA Tour have events directly opposite of the CWO. With the top 10 players on the final 2017 Symetra Tour money list earning spots on the 2018 LPGA Tour — and with that being the stretch run for the Symetra schedule — some players will be conflicted about whether to come to Colorado. That’s what happened with Huffer last year when she was high enough on the Symetra money list that she decided to skip the Colorado Women’s Open to further help her cause on the Symetra money list.

“I hated missing this event last year,” Huffer said. “(With the money increase) I can’t imagine people not having it on their radar. It would be a really hard decision not to come here. … I think it will bring anyone who has ever been on the fence about playing in it.

“I can see it being a star on the calendar for everyone.”

The field for the 23rd CWO will feature 104-106 championship players, including probably 18-25 amateurs. With 38-40 net amateurs competing, the total field will number 144.

Big Names Expected for 2 Clinics at GVR: A year after holding three clinics featuring two winners of major championships (Irwin and Creamer, in addition to Palmer), the folks from the Colorado Open Golf Foundation are planning to host a couple of other major winners for clinics at GVR this summer.

Laura said arrangements aren’t yet finalized, but a major champion on the men’s side and another on the women’s are expected to lead the clinics for the kids from the area’s First Tee programs, including the one at GVR.

The clinic with the men’s major champ will likely be held in mid- to late-June, with the women’s LPGA Tour player probably coming two months later.
 

The CoBank Colorado Open made a big splash earlier this year when officials announced a doubling of the tournament purse, with first prize more than quadrupling, to $100,000.

But that certainly isn’t the only thing the Colorado Open Championships have done this year to make even more of a mark in the Colorado golf community.

On Friday, tournament organizers held the second of three junior clinics conducted by big-name professionals. In May before the CoBank Colorado Senior Open, World Golf Hall of Famer Hale Irwin did the honors at The First Tee of Green Valley Ranch in northeast Denver.

On Friday, leading up to this month’s Colorado Open, three-time PGA Tour winner Ryan Palmer did likewise at GVR.

And on Aug. 29, the same week as the CoBank Colorado Women’s Open, 2010 U.S. Women’s Open champion Paula Creamer, a major promoter of The First Tee, will host kids clinic No. 3 at GVR. Hers most likely will be a girls-only affair.

“I think it’s a unique thing to do, and CoBank said they liked the first one (with Irwin) so much they’ll do this every year unless we come up with an even better idea,” said Kevin Laura, CEO of the CoBank Colorado Opens and of The First Tee of GVR.

The junior clinics were the result of CoBank becoming title sponsor of the Colorado Open Championships starting this year, and the company’s desire to make an impact on the local golf scene through the tournaments.

“They said, ‘We need to promote our involvement’ — what we call ‘activate their sponsorship,'” Laura said. “They said, ‘Why don’t you guys come up with some ideas?’ The first thing we thought of was bringing in some other name pros that have some ties to the Colorado Open or First Tee and use those for each of the three championships to try to get a kick-start. They loved that idea.”

So there was Palmer (pictured), ranked No. 70 in the world and winner of more than $20 million in his PGA Tour career, demonstrating his golf skills Friday at GVR in front of about six-dozen spectators, many of them kids, and answering questions about golf and relating to The First Tee’s nine core values. Before the clinic, he played about 10 holes at GVR, chipping in for eagle on the short par-4 seventh and driving it over the middle of the cross-fairway hazard from the blue tees on the ninth hole.

“There are so many things you can do from a charity standpoint for the younger generation of kids,” said Palmer, who will depart for the British Open on Sunday. “The smile you can put on these kids’ faces is unbelievable. And giving the kids a chance to play golf and a great place like (The First Tee facility and par-3 course) to practice and learn the game is neat. It’s a place where they can learn not only how to play the game, but the values of it. It’s pretty remarkable what (The First Tee and other similar organizations) are doing to teach these kids the game of golf, how to be a good person on the golf course and overall becoming a better person.

“The work they’ve done here is unbelievable. I saw the facility and it’s pretty cool what Pat (Hamill, the Colorado Open Golf Foundation founder) has done with The First Tee and here at Green Valley Ranch.”

Palmer learned some of the lessons The First Tee teaches through his dad back in Texas, a state he still calls come.

“What I learned from my dad growing up was to be the kind of person that treats people the right way and how to act on the golf course,” Palmer said. “That’s what he told me more than anything. When I’d get mad and frustrated, he was quick to bring me down. He’d get into me pretty good. ‘If you do that again, we’re done.’ You want kids to learn that. When you’re not playing well, at least they can act the right way and respect the game — and respect the people around you. The worst thing you can do is show your frustration and kind of make a fool of yourself.”

Palmer hasn’t spent a lot of time in Colorado, but he has good memories from the smattering of times he’s come to the Centennial State. He loved competing at The International at Castle Pines Golf Club and he finished fourth at the BMW Championship two years ago at Cherry Hills Country Club.

“To me The International was one of the greatest tournaments we played,” he said of the PGA Tour event that had a 21-year run, ending in 2006. “It was so much fun — the format — and Castle Pines in general is a cool spot for sure.

“I love Cherry Hills. It reminds me a lot of Colonial (Country Club in Fort Worth) where I’m a member. (Cherry Hills) was so much fun to play, the fans were unbelievable, and I had some success there, which was nice. It’s a great city, Denver. Hopefully we get to come back.”

Though Palmer has been a regular on the PGA Tour for about a dozen years, he played the mini tours for 2 1/2 years shortly after turning pro. That makes him appreciate what the Colorado Open is doing with its purse, going from $125,000 to $250,000 overall, and from $23,000 to $100,000 for the winner.

“That’s unheard of really,” he said. “The mini tours I played, your first-place check was $20,000, and that’s how it is today. It’s unheard of to have a professional event (in the U.S. other than the PGA Tour or the Web.com) have that kind of purse. That’s awesome. Once the word gets out, more and more guys will want to play.”

This year, Laura said among the players expected to compete in the Colorado Open are PGA Tour winners Jonathan Kaye (a former University of Colorado golfer), Parker McLachlin and Keith Clearwater, who finished third last month in the Colorado Senior Open.

Just as notably, the major purse increases have caught the attention of top players aspiring for Web.com and PGA Tour status.

“We’ve never sold out the (Colorado Open qualifying tournaments before) and we sold them out a month before the first one this year,” Laura noted. “The (demand) for wanting to get into this tournament has doubled, tripled, quadrupled.

“I think there’s going to be 30-40 guys who could win this year, as opposed to 20.”
 

It’s still almost five months before the Colorado Open Championship is contested under the banner of its new title sponsor, but big changes are already in place.

On Tuesday at Topgolf Centennial, tournament organizers announced that the purse for this year’s CoBank Colorado Open will double from 2015, with the winner taking home a record $100,000, more than quadruple the $23,000 check Jimmy Gunn claimed for winning last summer’s tournament at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club.

The $250,000 purse this year far exceeds the previous record for the Colorado Open — the $180,000 the tournament paid out in 2000 and 2001. The winners those years, Scott Petersen and Brett Wayment, respectively, each made $32,400. In fact, the CoBank Colorado Open now has the distinction of having the largest purse among all the state opens, according to Kevin Laura, CEO of the Colorado Open Golf Foundation. Some of the highest purses in comparable events are $190,000 for the Waterloo Open, $165,000 for the Long Beach Open and about $151,000 for the Texas State Open.

“Players are going to view (the Colorado Open) as one of the best — if not the best — state opens in the country,” said Petersen (left), who has a Web.com Tour victory to go with his Colorado Open win. “With the purse increase … everybody’s going to want to come now.

“Growing up here, the tournament had all these great players — Senior Tour players, PGA Tour players (including World Golf Hall of Famers Sam Snead, Phil Mickelson, Billy Casper, Hale Irwin and Fred Couples). We’re going to start to get back to that.”

That thought was seconded by another former University of Colorado golfer, current Metropolitan State University of Denver women’s coach Ben Portie, who won the Colorado Open in 2011. Portie sees just about anyone who isn’t exempt on the PGA Tour, Web.com Tour or PGA Tour Champions as a possibility for the Colorado Open. 

“Every good professional golfer will want to come here the end of July,” said Portie (left). “And if they’re not in the event, they’ll want to qualify. I always thought this was my major, being from Colorado. But this will make it even better.”

Last year, after four-time PGA Tour winner Notah Begay and other prominent PGA Tour veterans such as Shane Bertsch and Chris Riley noted how well the tournament was run and that the event could draw an even stronger field with a larger purse, his words weren’t lost on Colorado Open Golf Foundation founder Pat Hamill.

“Pat challenged me when he said he wanted to double the purse,” Laura said. “I swallowed hard. And when he said he was thinking about $100,000 for the winner, I swallowed even harder.”

But Laura put together a plan that’s become a reality.

“Getting first place to $100,000, it makes me want to go work on my golf game,” joked Hamill (left). “$100,000 is significant. There’s no other open in the country that has that amount. I think we’re going to get a lot of Web.com players.”

And how will Colorado Open organizers come up with the additional prize money?

Laura said two-thirds of the increase will come through new sponsorship deals with eight companies — including Oakwood Homes, where Hamill is CEO — and the remaining third through increased entry fees. The professional entry fee for the championship will increase to $600 from $400, and the fee for entering the qualfiers will jump to $250 from $175. More than a third of the 156-person field is filled through qualifying tournaments. This year’s qualifying events for the July 21-24 Colorado Open at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club are scheduled for July 6 at Inverness Golf Club in Englewood, July 12 at Eagle Ranch Golf Club in Eagle, and July 14 and 18 at Legacy Ridge Golf Course in Westminster.

This year’s Colorado Open will be the 52nd. It debuted in 1964 at Hiwan Golf Club in Evergreen and has been held every year but one since (2003).

Since the Colorado Open Golf Foundation was formed and started running the event in 2004, the tournament has consistently featured a $125,000 purse. Now the winner alone will earn six figures.

“That first place of 100 grand — that in itself is going to grab people’s attention,” Petersen said. “That can do a lot of things for you. That’s a lot of money.”

Given the dramatic increases in the purse and the winner’s portion, suffice it to say that Colorado Open officials expect some notable names to compete in July at Green Valley Ranch. More than 60 percent of the hike in the purse will go to the champion that week.

“I think we’ll be creating a lot of buzz,” Laura said.

Registration for the 2016 Colorado Open and its four qualifiers opened on Tuesday — as did registration for the CoBank Senior Open (June 1-3) and the CoBank Women’s Open (Aug. 31-Sept. 2). For more information, CLICK HERE.

Speaking of the Women’s Open, Hamill said one of the next priorities for tournament organizers will be to increase the purse for that event, which currently stands at $60,000, plus $15,000 for the pro-am.

On Sunday afternoon, after the conclusion of the 51st Open and with Denver mayor Michael Hancock on hand, tournament officials announced that Greenwood Village-based CoBank has signed a five-year agreement to become title sponsor of the Colorado Open, Colorado Women’s Open and Colorado Senior Open.

Starting with the 2016 versions of each event, CoBank will be tacked onto the front end of the name of each tournament. In other words, for example, the flagship tournament will be known as the CoBank Colorado Open.

A new logo (above) reflecting the change was unveiled as part of Sunday’s announcement at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club, the home to the Colorado Open Championships since 2004.

Kevin Laura, CEO of the Colorado Open Championships, said CoBank’s financial commitment is the same as was HealthOne’s in recent years, so the purse is expected to remain similar to what it has been, which is $125,000 overall, with $23,000 going to the winner.

The Colorado Open Championships benefit The First Tee of Green Valley Ranch, LPGA/USGA Girls Golf of Green Valley Ranch, and the Colorado PGA Golf in Schools program.

“We view these championships as an important asset for the Denver community and quite frankly for the entire state of Colorado,” Bob Engel, CoBank’s CEO, said on Sunday. “We think a great state deserves a great Open, and this one is as good as it gets. We think the Colorado Open Foundation plays a really critical role in our community, not only by organizing these state Opens, but certainly through their support of The First Tee of Green Valley Ranch and all the work that it does for kids.”

HealthOne has been the title sponsor since the Colorado Open was resurrected in 2004 after being canceled in 2003 due to financial issues and mismanagement. But the company recently tweaked its charitable giving priorities to directly emphasize more health-related programs, leading to the change, according to Laura.

CoBank is the largest financial institution headquartered in Colorado, with more than $100 billion in assets. It employs about 900 people, including approximately 650 in the Denver metro area.

According to the company’s website, it’s a national coop bank “serving vital industries across rural America. The bank provides loans, leases, export financing and other financial services to agribusinesses and rural power, water and communications providers in all 50 states.”

The company is no stranger to the Colorado Open as it was the volunteer sponsor for the tournament in 2014 and the pro-am sponsor this year.

As for becoming title sponsor, “They really want it to be a subtle exposure,” Laura said. “Sometimes, you lose the name of the event (with certain title sponsors). They’re not like that at all. They want the tradition of the Colorado Open to be preserved, not ‘we want our logo to be in everybody’s face’ or ‘we want to change the name to the CoBank Open.’ None of that was part of the negotiation. That’s great.

“What I like is they as a company are going to use our tournament as one of the platforms to really tell the marketplace who they are. They like that this will be a good launching pad for them. (The tournaments) have got such good equity and community involvement already.

“I think they’re really going to take it up a notch as far as exposure and involvement and engagement and activation of the sponsorship. They’re advertising in the places that are going to promote it as a community asset, not just a golf tournament.”

Previous title sponsors of the Colorado Open have been First Data Corporation and HealthOne. And during many of the years the tournament was based at Hiwan Golf Club, Craig Hospital was the name most linked to the tournament as it was the event’s beneficiary.
 

It’s been almost a half-century since Colorado hosted the NCAA golf national championship finals — at any level — but the drought will soon end.

Both the men’s and women’s NCAA Division II tournaments will be coming to the Centennial State next May as part of the 2016 DII Spring Championships Festival that brings national finals in several sports to a single venue over a six-day period.

In the case of May 2016, the NCAA has announced that Metropolitan State University of Denver will host DII nationals for men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s tennis, women’s lacrosse and softball.

As for the golf, the women’s DII nationals are set for May 18-21 at CommonGround Golf Course (above) in northwest Aurora, while the men’s DII finals will be May 17-21 at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club in northeast Denver.

The only NCAA golf national finals held in Colorado have been hosted by the Broadmoor Golf Club in Colorado Springs, which held the men’s Division I championships five times between 1953 and ’69. So next year will mark the first Colorado visit for an NCAA women’s golf national finals or a men’s or women’s NCAA DII golf nationals.

It should be noted that Colorado has hosted NCAA men’s and women’s regional tournaments, most recently at Colorado National Golf Club in Erie in 2012 (women) and 2011 (men).

“This is another feather in the cap for the state that we can host this kind of championship golf, like we have with amateurs, juniors and pros,” said Kevin Laura, the president of Green Valley Ranch Golf Club (left).

Indeed, the announcement of the DII national golf venues comes as both courses get ready to host significant championships. The AJGA Hale Irwin Colorado Junior, presented by MusclePharm, will be played at CommonGround Tuesday through Thursday, while the HealthOne Colorado Senior Open is set for Green Valley Ranch Wednesday through Friday. CommonGround is owned and operated by the CGA and CWGA, and served as the second stroke-play course for the 2012 U.S. Amateur, along with host Cherry Hills. GVR, meanwhile, is home to all three HealthOne Colorado Open championships — the Colorado Open, Colorado Women’s Open and Colorado Senior Open.

“We are extremely excited for the NCAA Division II Men’s and Women’s Golf Championships to be hosted in Denver at Green Valley Ranch and CommonGround as part of the 2016 NCAA Division II Spring Championships Festival,” said John Baldwin, assistant director of championships and alliances for the NCAA. “We are confident that our student-athletes will enjoy competing on courses with great championship pedigree, and we look forward to crowning a couple of national champions in May 2016.”

Ben Portie, winner of the 2011 Colorado Open, was responsible for getting the ball rolling on setting the golf venues for the DII Spring Festival. Portie has been the women’s golf coach at Metro State for the past two seasons — the Roadrunners don’t have a men’s golf program — and he led his team to the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference title this year.

CommonGround and GVR both serve as home courses for the Metro State women’s team, and both courses have been proven as solid championship venues. The NCAA agreed after paying a visit to the two sites.

“They fit the right mold,” Portie said. “GVR hosts the biggest events in state, and that’s what the NCAA looks for — courses that have hosted big events. And the same for CommonGround. It’s hosted CGA championships and helped with the U.S. Amateur.”

Portie likes the thought of golf national championships coming to Colorado, especially with the state not having had a chance to host any NCAA finals in many decades.

“The national championships are in May, and a lot of times they go to warmer weather sites,” he noted. “But (the University of Colorado) has hosted men’s and women’s regionals. I think it’s pretty neat we are able to hold both national championships in our city. The two facilities will be great for them. GVR will probably be set up similar to a Colorado Open, and CommonGround held up nicely for a U.S. Amateur.”

Both Ed Mate and Ann Guiberson, respective executive directors for the CGA and CWGA, are looking forward to the associations’ home course hosting the best women’s players in Division II.

“It’s great to have a national women’s event at CommonGround,” said Guiberson, who played college golf at the University of Nebraska. “It’ll be interesting to see how they score and how they set it up. It’ll be fun. And I think Division II has gotten stronger players (over time).”

Mate believes having a high-level women’s national tournament at CommonGround presents many possibilities for course set-up.

“I’m really excited that we’re going to host the women here because I think it’s a great golf course for women,” he said. “The beautiful thing about setting up the course for women is you’re not looking behind you all day, thinking we’ve got to build another set of tees. You can look at the tees that are there and start mixing and matching. I’m really looking forward to seeing how the course plays for a higher caliber of women player. It’s exciting and it’s just further testament of what this golf course was built for — programming, but also great championship golf. That’s just further validation of everything we aspire to be.”

NCAA Division II has held its own national championship in men’s golf since 1963 and in women’s golf since 2000. From 1996 through ’99, Division II and III women competed in a combined championship.

One of the top DII women’s golfers in the country goes to school in Colorado. Leina Kim, who will be a senior at Colorado State-Pueblo, finished 12th this spring in the DII nationals.

While the women’s tournament will be 72 holes of stroke play, the men’s event features a mixed format, with three days of stroke play and two days of team medal match play, with quarterfinals, semifinals and finals on tap. The men’s competition will include 108 golfers, while the women’s championship will feature 72.
 

As one of three lucky winners of $12,000 pro-am spots in the BMW Championship, Pete Knutson was beside himself with joy at the prospect of playing alongside a PGA Tour professional Sept. 3 at Cherry Hills Country Club.

“I’m giddy, just absolutely giddy,” he said. “My mom said I’d never amount to anything by golfing all the time. Look at me now, mom.”

On Saturday evening at CommonGround Golf Course, the pro-am contest winners were announced, as was the CGA’s donation of $51,700 to the Evans Scholars Foundation to help provide scholarships to worthy caddies. CommonGround, which is owned and operated by the CGA and CWGA, is the site of the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy.

George Solich — for whom, with brother Geoff, the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy is named — personally purchased and donated the three spots in the Gardner Heidrick Pro-Am which immediately precedes the BMW Championship. The hope was that the pro-am contest that culminated on Saturday would further incentivize the use of caddies through the Solich Academy, support the Evans Scholarship, and raise awareness about the BMW Championship, which is set for Sept. 1-7 at Cherry Hills. Solich is the general chairman of the tournament and a former Evans Scholar at the University of Colorado. The Evans Scholarship is the sole beneficiary of the BMW Championship.

“We also wanted to see if we can give three guys a chance to play in a (PGA Tour) pro-am that maybe otherwise would have never had the chance,” Solich said Saturday. “So this is really cool. These guys are going to love this pro-am. It’s really considered the best pro-am on the PGA Tour because you’re guaranteed to play with one of the top 70 players in the world and you play as a threesome (of amateurs) with a pro. It’s awesome. (The pro-am contest) is exactly what I hoped for.”

Landing the three BMW Championship pro-am spots through the contest were Mike Stolze, 37, of Greenwood Village; Pete Knutson, 38, of Denver; and Andy Harwood, 45, of Denver. Each will play Cherry Hills as part of 56 groups in the Gardner Heidrick Pro-Am, with each group featuring a PGA Tour professional and three amateurs. And given that only the top 70 Tour players in the FedExCup standings qualify for the BMW Championship, it will be pretty heady company for the participating amateurs. Among the professionals expected to be at Cherry Hills are reigning British Open and PGA Championship winner Rory McIlroy, U.S. Open champ Martin Kaymer, Masters winner Bubba Watson, Phil Mickelson, Rickie Fowler and Adam Scott.

Harwood is a CU Evans Scholar alum who caddied at Cherry Hills in the 1980s, while Stolze and Knutson have never before played the prestigious course. (The three are pictured above, with George Solich. From left: Stolze, Harwood, Knutson and Solich.) All three of the contest winners are solid players, with handicaps between 3.8 (Harwood) and about a 6 (Knutson).

“The fact that I get to play in the pro-am is wildly fun, partly because I did all my caddying at Cherry Hills,” said Harwood, who served as caddiemaster for the Solich Academy in its first year, 2012. “I have a unique knowledge of that golf course, having been around it 300-400 times.”

Knutson earned his pro-am spot by utilizing Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy caddies more than anyone else in 2013 and ’14 combined (48 times as of when the contest ended). Harwood won a lottery drawing limited to the players other than Knutson who used Solich Academy caddies for at least five 18-hole rounds in 2013 and ’14. Stolze won a raffle in which each ticket ran $100, with all the proceeds going to the Evans Scholars.

Stolze bought “a handful” of raffle tickets, notably from Geoff (Duffy) Solich, with whom he works.

“He was soliciting contributions from those of us who play golf in the office,” Stolze said. “It’s a big deal for him (as an Evans Scholar alum), so I obviously wanted to support the cause. I didn’t have any inclination I’d actually win something. But hey, what do you know?

“Geoff called me on Wednesday or Thursday and I thought he was just kidding me. He said, ‘I think you won the prize.’ Finally, one of the ladies from the Colorado Golf Association called (and notified him). I thought, ‘Maybe he’s not kidding.’ It’s fantastic. I’m super excited about it.”

With 517 raffle tickets sold, $51,700 was raised for the Evans Scholars program, which has about 840 students currently on full-tuition and housing scholarships nationwide, including close to 50 at CU. A check for that amount was presented to Western Golf Association directors Solich, Kevin Laura and Rick Polmear on Saturday. (Pictured at left are CGA executive director Ed Mate, Solich, Laura and Polmear.) The WGA administers the Evans Scholarship and runs the BMW Championship.

“Tonight was the culmination of a two-year-long effort,” noted Mate, himself also a CU Evans Scholar alum. “Like everything George does, he seems to have a Midas Touch. We raised $50,000-plus for the Evans Scholars and we generated a tremendous amount of interest in the caddie program here. It’s just been a home run. Fantastic.

“The best thing we did is put the charge on the WGA directors from Colorado. Every WGA director was given 20 tickets and it was just, ‘Go sell them.’ You’re not going to sell those through the internet; it takes a personal tough to get somebody to plunk down $100, even though a $12,000 prize is a big deal.”

The Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy, now in its third year at CommonGround, provides incentives to take caddies by paying all of their base fees. Some of the best Solich Academy caddies go on to work at other caddie programs in Colorado, and some have been and will be candidates for the Evans Scholarship.

“Taking a caddie is the way to golf,” Knutson said. “It’s so pleasant. These kids are great. I’ve really enjoyed it.

“I love these kids (from the Solich Academy). At first I thought it was just somebody to carry my bag. But you come out here and they give you a high-five every time. They’re excited about your golf. You hear about their life and what they want to do and their dreams. My caddie today wants to be a world-class pianist. My best friend’s mom teaches at CU. I’m trying to hook them up together. If I can influence one or two kids, that’s a bonus on top of getting to play a lot of golf.”

Besides getting to playing alongside a PGA Tour player, each Gardner Heidrick Pro-Am participant receives four weekly badges for the BMW Championship, a commemorative picture plaque of his pro-am group, and two invitations to the Sept. 2 pro-am draw party and two to the Sept. 3 awards reception.
 As for which Tour players the pro-am contest winners will be paired with come Sept. 3, that will be decided at the private pairings party held Sept. 2. Some of the Tour players even show up for that event.

“It’s essentially a raffle,” explained Solich, who personally is going to be caddying for John Elway on Sept. 3. “You put all the numbers in the pot, No. 1 through 56, and when your number come up, you get to pick the pro (although the sponsor reserves some rights). It’s like a draft. It’s really fun.”

Stolze, for one, is going to savor this whole BMW Championship pro-am experience.

“We’re playing a nice course the day before the tournament opens and I’ll enjoy watching somebody that’s fantastic at their craft playing alongside me,” he said.

Many of the pro-am competitors are likely to have some butterflies playing with PGA Tour professionals and in front of galleries. And Knutson may encounter an additional obstacle.

“I have a bunch of friends who are going to be out there and they said they’re going to harass me,” he said with a smile. “But I’m just beyond belief excited. As a kid it’s a dream to play on the PGA Tour. I know I don’t have the game, but this is as close as I’ll ever get.”

“Game of a Lifetime Statue” Unveiled: Besides lending his name and providing significant financial support for the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy, George Solich recently donated a statue (left) that was unveiled Saturday near the practice putting green at CommonGround.

The statue is titled “The Game of a Lifetime”. A young boy, with his feet in adult golf shoes, is toting a golf bag, with an accompanying plaque reading: “Inspiring future generations to discover the passion, honor the tradition, and fully embrace this amazing game and all it has to offer.”