This week marks the first full-field event in 2019 for any of the three major professional golf tours based in the U.S.

When the PGA Tour’s Sony Open in Hawaii starts today (Jan. 10), two players who grew up in Colorado will be in the field — Wyndham Clark and Jim Knous — along with former Fort Collins resident Sam Saunders.

Clark and Knous are rookies on the PGA Tour for the 2018-19 wraparound season after graduating from the Web.com circuit. Two other golfers who spent their entire youth in Colorado — Jennifer Kupcho and Becca Huffer — will be rookies on the LPGA Tour after successfully negotiating Q-school. The 2019 LPGA season begins on Jan. 17, though Kupcho has deferred becoming a member until she completes her college eligibility at Wake Forest in May. Former University of Colorado golfer Robyn Choi likewise will be an LPGA rookie in 2019.

The remarkable thing about this year is the number of golfers who grew up in Colorado and will be competing on the three major U.S.-based tours — PGA, LPGA and PGA Tour Champions, which starts its season on Jan. 17.

On the PGA Tour, there’s Clark, Littleton-based Knous and part-time Denver resident Kevin Stadler.

On the LPGA circuit, there’s Westminster’s Kupcho and Monument’s Huffer.

And on PGA Tour Champions, there’s Hale Irwin, Brandt Jobe and Steve Jones. And depending on how you classify Mike Reid, who lived in the Denver area for a year and a half and helped Cherry Creek High School win a state team title in 1971, he might be included as well.

Add up the total for the three major circuits, and it’s an unusually high representation from Colorado. And that’s without including other major tour golfers who have lived in the state as adults or who played their college golf in the Colorado.

Some recent historical perspective may be in order.

The number of golfers who grew up in Colorado and have competed in at least 10 tournaments on one of the three major U.S.-based tours in the last decade is relatively small, indicating how tough it is to become a regular at the very highest level of golf.

Here’s the rundown:

PGA TOUR

— Kevin Stadler 159 events since the beginning of 2009.

— Mark Hubbard 84 events.

— Brandt Jobe 80 events since the beginning of 2009.

— Shane Bertsch 65 events since the beginning of 2009.

— Jonathan Kaye 28 events since the beginning of 2009.

— Leif Olson 22 events since the beginning of 2009.

— Wyndham Clark 13 events.

LPGA TOUR

— Jill McGill 38 events since the beginning of 2009.

PGA TOUR CHAMPIONS

— Hale Irwin 159 events since the beginning of 2009.

— Mike Reid 130 events since the beginning of 2009.

— Steve Jones 68 events.

— Brandt Jobe 64 events.

— R.W. Eaks 49 events since the beginning of 2009.

So with eight or nine Colorado-grown golfers competing on the big-three U.S.-based golf tours this year alone, it’s certainly a high-water mark for the Centennial State.

In fact, on the women’s side, just one golfer who grew up in Colorado has competed in an LPGA Tour event since the end of 2013 — Kupcho, who has played in three since 2016.

For a look at all players with strong Colorado connections on major professional tours around the world, CLICK HERE to view our weekly local pro roundup, which is updated weekly.

Each year has its own distinctive makeup. That’s true regarding life in general, or in Colorado golf.

And so it was in 2018, which is quickly coming to a close.

Since 2009, we’ve made it an annual habit to go back through the golf stories of the year, pick out the most prominent ones and rank them for a retrospective on the CGA website.

For most of the last several years, we’ve broken the list into two installments to keep things a little more manageable. We go in reverse order, for the sake of suspense, and add an honorable-mention list that will be included with Part II, which will be published in the coming days.

Today, we’ll cover Nos. 25 through 13.

So, without first ado, here’s our 10th edition of Colorado golf-related stories of the year:

25. Second Colorado Topgolf Site Gearing Up: Since August 2015, there’s been one Topgolf location in Colorado — the one in Centennial. But three months ago, ground was broken at a second site — at I-25 and 60th Ave., in Thornton. The 65,000-square-foot, three-level facility is scheduled to open to the public in late 2019. It will have 102 climate-controlled hitting bays — where players hit microchipped golf balls at targets with varying point values — in addition to a restaurant and three bars. There will be 250 HD televisions, a rooftop terrace with fire pits and 3,000 square feet of space devoted to private events. The Centennial Topgolf employs about 500 people, the same number that is expected in Thornton.

24. Annika Returns to Colorado for First Tee Event: Over the last three years, the folks who run the CoBank Colorado Open Championships and The First Tee of Green Valley Ranch have brought in tour players to conduct exhibitions and chat with kids from The First Tee programs in the state. During the first two years, doing the honores were Hale Irwin, Ryan Palmer, Paula Creamer, David Duval, Lexi Thompson and Mark O’Meara. This year, there was no letdown in talent as Matt Kuchar came for a late June exhibition at GVR, and World Golf Hall of Famer Annika Sorenstam (above) for a CoBank PEAK Performers event in August at The Broadmoor, where Sorenstam won her first LPGA title — the 1995 U.S. Women’s Open. The PEAK Performers event was particularly unique as nine kids from First Tee programs around the country had the opportunity to play golf with Sorenstam for six holes each as part of a four-day, all-expenses-paid outing. READ MORE

23. Sibling Sweep for Bryants: A year after Davis Bryant and younger sister Emma completed the “Bryant Slam” by jointly winning all four Junior Golf Alliance of Colorado majors in 2017, they posted a “Sibling Sweep” when they prevailed at both the boys and girls 5A state high school tournaments in the same school year. Almost eight months after Davis Bryant claimed the 5A boys crown as a senior at Eaglecrest, Emma held up her end by capturing the 5A girls title as an Eaglecrest freshman in May at Boulder Country Club. It’s the first time two players with the same surname have won the boys and girls state individual prep championships in one school year. READ MORE

22. High Honor for Irwin: Hale Irwin (left) had to contend with Jack Nicklaus on the golf course plenty of times over the course of their careers. But in June, it was Nicklaus and the Captains Club that honored Irwin — a three-time U.S. Open champion and World Golf Hall of Famer who grew up in Boulder — as the 2018 Memorial Tournament honoree. And it’s no small tribute. Others who have received similar status since 2010 include Seve Ballesteros, Nancy Lopez, Tom Watson, Ray Floyd, Annika Sorenstam, Nick Faldo, Johnny Miller and Greg Norman. “I have a hard time putting myself in that category with the greats of the past, so I am absolutely delighted.” Irwin said.

21. Schalk Still Undefeated in High School Ranks: When then-Holy Family sophomore Hailey Schalk won the girls 3A state high school tournament in May, it gave her two titles in two seasons of high school golf. But even more impressively, Schalk remained unbeaten in her two years of high school tournaments and kept alive her chances for an unprecented four Colorado girls state high school golf titles. Schalk became the eighth player to win at least two Colorado girls state high school championships, joining Lynn Ann Moretto (3), Ashley Tait (3), Jennifer Kupcho (2), Becca Huffer (2), Kelly Jacques (2), Jennifer McCormick (2) and Emily Wood (2). Schalk, now a junior, later verbally committed to play her college golf at the University of Colorado beginning in 2020.

20. 25 and Counting for Eaton: Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Kim Eaton wasted no time in 2018 tying Carol Flenniken’s record for career CGA/CWGA women’s titles. In May, she teamed with fellow Hall of Famer Janet Moore in winning the Brassie Championship, giving her 25 such victories in her career. Though Eaton came up short — in a playoff — of notching No. 26 at the CGA Women’s Senior Stroke Play at her own home course at Greeley Country Club, she’ll have additional opportunities at the outright record in 2019. READ MORE

19. Spiranac Continues to Make a Splash: It’s hard to fathom how big a social media sensation 2015 CGA Women’s Match Play champion Paige Spiranac has become. At last check, the former Colorado resident had 1.5 million followers on Instagram and 215,000 on Twitter. Before largely giving up competitive golf, Spiranac not only won the 100th CWGA Match Play, but finished ninth in the 2016 CoBank Colorado Women’s Open and won the 2010 CWGA Junior Stroke Play as well as the 2006 CJGA Tournament of Champions — all in Colorado. Spiranac, who appeared in the 2018 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, is now a periodic columnist for Golf.com. READ MORE

18. 25 Years and Counting for Denver Golf Expo: What started out relatively modestly at the Colorado Convention Center in the early 1990s has turned into quite an annual affair. In 2018, the Denver Golf Expo, now run by Mark and Lynn Cramer, celebrated its 25th anniversary. The Cramers, who bought the show from Colorado PGA professional Stan Fenn in 2000, will be honored in June by the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame with a Lifetime Achievement Award. READ MORE

17. Memorable Year for Andonian-Smith: It was a year of “firsts” for Colorado PGA professional Sherry Andonian-Smith. She, along with fellow Coloradans Janet Moore and Marilyn Hardy, qualified for the inaugural U.S. Senior Women’s Open. The Centennial resident became the first woman to qualify for the national Senior PGA Professional Championship and ended up finishing 29th out of a field of 264 there. She was named the Colorado PGA’s inaugural Women’s Player of the Year after tying for second place in the Colorado PGA Professional Championship and winning the Section’s West Chapter Championship for the second time in three years. And Andonian-Smith and Alexandra Braga became the first women from the Colorado PGA to qualify for the national PGA Professional Championship.

16. And Love-ing It: After getting advice from World Golf Hall of Famer Davis Love III, son Dru (left) made an eagle in a playoff to win the CoBank Colorado Open. The younger Love carded an eagle and nine birdies in his final 19 holes of the tournament. It was the biggest win of Dru Love’s career, and he made $100,000 in the process. Davis Love III won the PGA Tour’s International twice in Colorado, while Davis Love II claimed the title in the CGA Junior Match Play in both 1953 and ’54. READ MORE

15. Kevin Stadler, Kaye Make Long-Awaited Returns to ‘The Show’: The year 2018 marked the return to PGA Tour action for two Colorado-based veterans who hadn’t competed in golf’s top circuit for quite a while. Part-time Boulder resident Jonathan Kaye, a two-time PGA Tour winner, had last played in a PGA Tour event in 2011, but in March he landed a spot in the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship, where he missed the cut. And part-time Denver resident Kevin Stadler, who hadn’t competed on the PGA Tour since 2015 due to a broken hand, returned for the Sanderson Farms Championship in October, but likewise missed the cut. Stadler is expected to be a regular in PGA Tour events in 2019 as he plays on a major medical extension.

14. ‘Youth on Course’ Debuts in Colorado: A year ago, CGA executive director Ed Mate predicted that the Youth on Course program could become a “game-changer for player development” in Colorado. The initiative, which makes golf more accessible to juniors by capping their cost for a round at $5 at participating facilities, came to Colorado in 2018. Fifteen Colorado courses participated this year, and many more are expected to be on board in 2019. READ MORE

13. Web Tournament Formalized for TPC Colorado: Colorado last hosted an open-age PGA Tour-affiliated event in 2014, when the BMW Championship PGA Tour playoff tournament was held at Cherry Hills Country Club. But in a September announcement, the Web.com Tour confirmed what had long been known — that a Web.com Tour event would be conducted at the new TPC Colorado course (left) in Berthoud for at least five years, starting in 2019. The event, known as the TPC Colorado Championship at Heron Lakes, will debut the week of July 8-14, with 156 players competing for a $600,000 purse. The Web circuit — then known as the Nike Tour — previously had a tournament in Colorado in 1996 and ’97, when Riverdale’s Dunes Course in Brighton hosted the Nike Colorado Classic. READ MORE

Also on the subject of new courses in Colorado, Fred Funk said in late June that the Raindance National Golf Club course in Windsor that he’s co-designing may open as soon as the fall of 2020.

Despite a bogey on his final hole, Laird shared seventh place Sunday in the Sanderson Farms Championship in Jackson, Miss.

The Scotsman (left) recorded rounds of 72-67-66-70 for a 13-under-par 275 total, which left him eight strokes behind winner Cameron Champ.

The last better showing by Laird came in the 2017 Quicken Loans National, where he placed third. He also tied for seventh last April in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, a team event where his partner was Russell Knox.

Laird now has 36 top-10 finishes in his PGA Tour career, including three wins.

Also in the Sanderson Farms Championship, part-time Denver resident Kevin Stadler made his first PGA Tour start since 2015, but missed the cut by two after rounds of 70-75. Stadler will tee it up again at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, which starts Thursday in Las Vegas. For more on Stadler’s return, CLICK HERE.
 

Jobe Back in Champions Season Finale: Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Brandt Jobe, like Stadler a product of Kent Denver High School, will advance to the final event of the PGA Tour Champions Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs.

Jobe finished 37th on Sunday in the Invesco QQQ Championship in Thousand Oaks, Calif., but easily made the field for the 36-player Charles Schwab Cup Championship, which will be held Nov. 8-11 in Phoenix.

Jobe will go into the season finale 19th on the Schwab Points list, having dropped two spots from last week.

It will be the third straight year Jobe has qualified for the Charles Schwab Cup Championship.

One player with Colorado ties who didn’t advance on Sunday — and therefore saw his season end — was former Castle Pines resident Esteban Toledo, who finished 51st in Charles Schwab Cup points.
 

This week, when Stadler plays in the Sanderson Farms Championship that starts on Thursday in Jackson, Miss., Koepka is No. 1 in the world, Thomas is fourth and Molinari sixth.

Yes, it’s been that long.

Stadler — a part-time Denver resident who won a state high school title while at Kent Denver, notched victories in two CGA Match Plays and captured the Colorado Open championship in his pro debut in 2002 — this week will be competing on the PGA Tour for the first time since missing the cut in the John Deere Classic in July 2015. The last time Stadler has made a cut on the world’s top tour was over four years ago, at the Shiners Hospitals for Children Open.

“There’s no reason to stay away now (from the PGA Tour),” Stadler said in an interview with ColoradoGolf.org after missing the cut in the CoBank Colorado Open in late July.

Stadler won the 2014 Waste Management Phoenix Open for his first victory on the PGA Tour, finished eighth at the Masters that spring and placed 36th on the Tour money list that season with more than $2.3 million in earnings. That’s in addition to being runner-up in the 2014 European Tour’s Alstom Open de France at the course that hosted the 2018 Ryder Cup.

But just as Stadler was becoming one of the better players on the PGA Tour, things went awry in a hurry. In November 2014 while competing in China, he began experiencing major pain in his left hand.

“It literally felt like I had a firecracker going off in my palm every time I’d practice,” he said in 2016. “It was a nightmare.”

It turns out Stadler had a broken hamate bone and nerve damage. But it took a l-o-n-g time for the doctors to come to that conclusion — years, in fact. In August 2017, he finally had the surgery that alleviated the pain.

“It’s 100 percent (healed),” Stadler said regarding the hand in late July. “They couldn’t diagnose it for the longest time. It was the same bone they were fixated on the whole time. But for the previous 18 months I kept being told it was fully healed. It was actually broken and kept getting worse, but I kept being told it was fine. Because I didn’t know what was wrong, I kept trying to play and dealing with the pain, which caused a lot of funky things to pop up in my golf swing. A lot of different hand motion and stuff that instinctively happened to lessen the pain. It still hurt like hell, but it was less.

“It feels fine now, but the motor skills have taken over that I’ve got to unwind. That’s what I’m working on right now.”

Stadler will compete in the 2018-19 PGA Tour wraparound season on a major medical extension. He will have 26 tournaments to earn at least $717,890 in order to keep his exempt status.

Stadler has certainly competed since initially getting injured in November 2014 — just not on the PGA Tour. There were three events in 2015 — the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, the Masters and the aforementioned John Deere Classic. Between 2017 and ’18, there have been four tournaments on the Web.com Tour, where Stadler won four times more than a decade ago. And he finished 41st in the 2016 Colorado Open and missed the cut at that same event this year. In every case, he was either still injured or trying to knock the considerable rust off his game.

“I developed a lot of really ugly habits in my golf swing that I have to unwind,” he said at the Colorado Open almost three months ago. “It’s great coming out and seeing what it is in competition.

“The whole thing (regarding damage in the hand) was a mess. I was told it was a stress fracture. A year later I was told it was fully healed, but it kept getting worse. I stopped after having about 6-8 MRIs on it. They told me it was healed for nine months in a row and I was still having pain. They couldn’t find the answer for it. The pain finally got back to day 1 excruciating last summer (in 2017). I was told it was 75 percent broken. I’d seen six different hand surgeons — and they’re all in major league baseball. I had two out of maybe six or seven guys tell me I needed surgery initially and the other guys said not to.

“But it’s doing great now. I just need to figure out how to get the game back in working order.”

Stadler has competed in 264 PGA Tour events over his career, winning about $9.7 million. And now he’s looking forward to a full-schedule season for the first time since 2013-14, when he played in 26 events.

“I can just play like a normal season,” the 38-year-old said. “Ideally I’d just make the playoffs next year and get my (card) that way and don’t have to worry about starts or anything. But worse-case scenario, if I play say 21-22 events, then I have four more for the following season to try to get whatever I may need.”

During the Colorado Open, Stadler appeared to have dropped some weight.

“I’m just trying to get rid of what I found in the last few years off,” he said. “I needed to drop some. Being away from marching on a golf course 25 times a year, five days a week, it snuck up on me and stacked them on. So starting to get rid of a few.”

Also in the Sanderson Farms field this week are several other competitors with strong Colorado ties: Jim Knous and Wyndham Clark, who like Stadler grew up in Colorado; former Fort Collins resident Sam Saunders; and former Colorado State University golfer Martin Laird.
 

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.

And the trend will continue this week when the 54th Open is held at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club in northeast Denver. The $250,000 championship runs Thursday through Sunday.

Between players with plenty of experience on the PGA Tour — and some with famous surnames — the Colorado Open won’t be lacking for names recognizable to golf fans.

Here’s a rundown of some of the entrants that fall into that category:

— Jonathan Kaye (left), a part-time resident of Boulder, former University of Colorado golfer, and a two-time Colorado Open champion, having won last year and in 1996. Owns two PGA Tour victories. Has competed in 320 PGA Tour events in his career, including last week’s Barbasol Championship, where he missed the cut.

— Kevin Stadler, a part-time resident of Denver, Kent Denver High School graduate and the winner of the 2002 Colorado Open and two CGA Match Plays. Won the 2014 Phoenix Open on the PGA Tour, one of 264 PGA Tour events in which he’s competed in his career. (He’s also won four Web.com Tour tournaments.) He hasn’t played a PGA Tour event since 2015 due to a stress fracture in his left hand, but has competed in two Web events this year. He has 26 events left on a major medical extension, needing to earn $717,890 in those events to keep his exempt status on the PGA Tour. Stadler last played in the Colorado Open in 2016, when he finished 41st.

— Notah Begay. Winner of four PGA Tour events in 217 starts. Previously played in the Colorado Open in 2015, missing the 36-hole cut by one stroke. Begay called the British Open for NBC/Golf Channel last week.

— Shane Bertsch of Parker. Won the Colorado Open in 1998 and finished 10th in 2015. Has played in 193 PGA Tour events in his career, with five top-10 finishes. He has one PGA Tour event left on his medical extension, needing to earn $597,069 to keep his card.

— Jeff Gallagher, the 2017 CoBank Colorado Senior Open champion. Has played in 134 PGA Tour events in his career, recording six top-10 finishes.

— John Riegger, the 2018 CoBank Colorado Senior Open champion. Has played in 224 PGA Tour events in his career, earning three top-10 finishes. Also has won once on the PGA Tour Champions, in 2013.

And, for the record, four sons of former prominent PGA Tour players are in the Colorado Open field — Dru Love (son of Davis), Sean Jacklin (son of Tony), Cristian DiMarco (son of Chris) and Stadler (son of Craig).

Beyond the PGA Tour flavor, the Colorado Open will have plenty of big-name local competitors. That includes — besides Kaye, Stadler and Bertsch — Colorado-based former champions Derek Tolan (a two-time winner), Zahkai Brown, Ben Portie and Scott Petersen, along with former Pueblo resident Dustin White.

Also among the entrants are five-time Colorado PGA Player of the Year Geoff Keffer,;U.S. Amateur qualifiers AJ Ott, Coby Welch and Kyler Dunkle; 2018 U.S. Senior Open competitor Doug Rohrbaugh; Michael Schoolcraft and James Love, Coloradans who just finished in the top 20 at a PGA Tour Canada event; Coloradan Nick Mason, who qualified for the 2014 U.S. Open; and several players with strong local ties who finished top 10 at the 2017 Colorado Open (besides Kaye): Jacob Lestishen (second), former Colorado State player Blake Cannon (seventh) and Steven Kupcho (eighth).

The field at GVR will be cut to the low 60 players and ties after Friday’s second round.

Tournament organizers are having some fun with the pairings for the first two rounds. For example, paired together are Dru Love, James Love and Samuel Love. Then there’s one for three of the competitors with PGA Tour event-winning dads: Kevin Stadler, Sean Jacklin and Cristian DiMarco.

Meanwhile, 15 more players qualified for the Colorado Open Monday at Legacy Ridge Golf Course in Westminster. That includes four Coloradans: amateurs David Leede of Greenwood Village (4-under-par 67 on Monday), Tyler Zhang of Lone Tree (70) and Tyler Severin of Johnstown (70), and pro Neil Tillman of Arvada (70).

Stuart Thomas of Knoxville, Tenn., shot a 7-under-par 64 to earn medalist honors at Legacy Ridge. For all the scores from Monday’s qualifier, CLICK HERE.

For Thursday’s first-round pairings at the CoBank Colorado Open itself, CLICK HERE.
 

Stadler (left), winner of the 2014 Waste Management Phoenix Open on the PGA Tour and four events on the Web.com Tour, hasn’t competed on the PGA Tour since 2015 due to a stress fracture in his left hand. He played in the Digital Ally Open on the Web.com Tour last summer, but withdrew after one completed round.

“It’s a long, stupid story, but in the long run I ended up getting cut (having surgery) last August,” Stadler said. “I still wasn’t sure that was going to fix anything, but it took six, eight months. I was kind of able to swing January, February of this year. It really rapidly got better the last few months. I’ve been pretty much been pain-free for the last couple months.”

At the Rust-Oleum, Stadler went 71-69-71-68 for a 9-under-par 279 total, which left the 38-year-old eight strokes behind champion Chase Wright. The Kent Denver graduate made an eagle, five birdies and three bogeys in the final round. Another Colorado product, Wyndham Clark, also tied for 22nd place (73-68-67-71).

Stadler is on a major medical extension from the PGA Tour, and when he returns to that circuit, he’ll have 26 events left on that extension, needing to earn $717,890 in those events to keep his exempt status on the PGA Tour.

Stadler won the Colorado Open in 2002 and the CGA Match Play in 1999 and ’02.

CoBank Colorado Senior Open Champ Notches Top-10 on PGA Tour Champions: John Riegger parlayed his victory earlier this month in the CoBank Colorado Senior Open into a ninth-place finish on PGA Tour Champions, in the Principal Charity Classic in Des Moines, Iowa.

Riegger, who won a PGA Tour Champions event in 2013, now owns eight top-10 showings on that circuit, but managed his first since 2016.
In Des Moines, he shot rounds of 69-67 for an 8-under-par 136 in the weather-shortened event. Tom Lehman won with a 131 total after weather washed out Sunday’s action.

Another Top-10 on Symetra Tour for Ex-Buff Lee: Former University of Colorado golfer Esther Lee finished a professional-best seventh on Sunday and notched her third top-10 since May 1 on the Symetra Tour.

Lee carded rounds of 70-69-69 and posted an 8-under-par 208 total in the Four Winds Invitational, which put her three strokes behind winner Maia Schechter in South Bend, Ind.

Since the beginning of May, Lee has finished 10th, eighth and seventh on the Symetra Tour, in addition to missing two cuts.

— Sam Saunders, grandson of Arnold Palmer, moved from Fort Collins to Atlantic Beach, Fla., in 2016. Saunders grew up in Florida.

— David Duval moved last year from Cherry Hills Village, also to Atlantic Beach. Duval has lived most of his life in northeast Florida.

— And Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Mark Wiebe departed Aurora in 2017 to become the director of instruction at San Jose Country Club. Wiebe played college golf at San Jose State.

— Meanwhile, 1997 British Open champion Justin Leonard moved in, to Aspen from Dallas, in 2015. Leonard, winner of a dozen PGA Tour titles, played in just one PGA Tour event in 2017. He serves on the broadcast team for the Golf Channel.

As the first full-field events of 2018 are held this week on the world’s top golf tours, we’ll continue with that theme and explore what’s new and different with the major tour players who have significant Colorado ties.

On the Mend: Two Colorado golfers who have had plenty of starts on the PGA Tour are on major medical extensions from the Tour.

Kevin Stadler, a part-time Denver resident, hasn’t competed on the world’s top golf circuit since the summer of 2015 due to a stress fracture in his left hand that he suffered late in 2014. Stadler, who withdrew after one round of a Web.com Tour event in July, has 26 starts remaining on his PGA Tour medical extension to earn $717,890, the amount he’ll need to keep his PGA Tour card.

In November, Stadler was among 18 new inductees into the University of Southern California Hall of Fame. Stadler, who counts a Colorado Open and two CGA Match Plays among his victories, won the 2014 Waste Management Phoenix Open on the PGA Tour.

Shane Bertsch of Parker, meanwhile, has two events left to earn $597,069 on his PGA Tour medical extension, which was due to a now-healed shoulder injury. The Denver native made two cuts in nine PGA Tour starts in 2017, and four cuts in 10 Web.com tournaments last year. He’s entered in the Web.com Tour’s Bahamas Great Exuma Classic, which begins on Saturday.

New on the Web.com Tour: Wyndham Clark, who lived in Colorado for all of his pre-college years, played in one Web.com Tour event in his first year as a pro in 2017 (along with seven tournaments on the PGA Tour). But in 2018 — starting Saturday in the Bahamas — Clark will be an official Web.com Tour member after finishing 23rd in the final stage of Q-school. After wrapping up his amateur career with three individual college wins in 2017 — including the Pac-12 Conference Championship in Boulder — the former University of Oregon golfer turned pro last June. Since then, he finished as high as 17th on the PGA Tour and 23rd on the Web.com Tour.

Meanwhile, Denver native Mark Hubbard is no stranger to the Web.com Tour, though he’s spent most of the last three seasons on the PGA Tour. But the former Colorado junior player of the year lost his PGA Tour card last year and failed to regain it through Q-school, so he’s back to the Web circuit in 2017, starting this weekend in the Bahamas. Hubbard has played in 34 Web events, posting seven top-10 finishes.

Also in the Bahamas field this week is Jim Knous of Englewood, who is back for his second year on the Web circuit, along with Bertsch and former Golden resident Andrew Svoboda.

U.S. Senior Open in Colorado Awaits: The 2018 PGA Tour Champions season begins Jan. 18 with the Mitsubishi Electric Championship in Hawaii. That’s the first official event of a 2018 schedule that is highlighted by the U.S. Senior Open that The Broadmoor Resort in Colorado Springs will host June 28-July 1.

World Golf Hall of Famer Hale Irwin, the Boulder High School and University of Colorado graduate who has won a record 45 times on PGA Tour Champions, is among a half-dozen PGA Tour Champions players with major Colorado ties. But the one who figures to make the most noise at The Broadmoor, based on recent seasons, is Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Brandt Jobe. Jobe (pictured) won on PGA Tour Champions for the first time in 2017 and finished third in the U.S. Senior Open after a third-round 62. He ended up seventh on the 2017 PGA Tour Champions money list with almost $1.4 million.

Players with significant Colorado ties entered in the Mitsubishi Electric Championship include Irwin, Jobe, Craig Stadler, Esteban Toledo and Wiebe.

LPGA Tour Absence: No Colorado locals will compete regularly on the LPGA Tour this season as former CU golfer Jenny Coleman lost her card in 2017 after making just one cut in 10 events. Coleman and her twin sister, Kristin, will likely play mainly on the Symetra Tour in 2018.

In Europe: On the European Tour, former CU golfer Sebastian Heisele has returned for his second straight season after improving his status by finishing 18th in the final stage of Q-school. He posted third- and fourth-place finishes last season on the top European circuit. And former University of Denver golfer Espen Kofstad has returned to action after missing 10 months following wrist surgery. He’s missed his first two cuts this wraparound season.

On the Ladies European Tour, returning are former DU golfers Eleanor Givens and Tonje Daffinrud, who finished 70th and 73rd, respectively, on the 2017 LET money list.
  

Stadler, winner of the 2014 Waste Management Phoenix Open on the PGA Tour, is in the field for the Web.com Tour’s Digital Ally Open, which runs Thursday through Sunday (July 27-30) in Overland Park, Kan.

Stadler (pictured) last played in a PGA Tour-sanctioned event in July 2015, at the John Deere Classic on the PGA Tour. His one tournament since then was the 2016 CoBank Colorado Open, where he finished 41st.

In November 2014 while competing in China, Stadler started having major issues with his left hand.

“It literally felt like I had a firecracker going off in my palm every time I’d practice,” he recounted to coloradogolf.org at last year’s Colorado Open. “It was a nightmare.”

It turns out, he had two fractured bones in his hand. Since then, he’s played in a grand total of three events on the PGA Tour — the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, the Masters and the John Deere Classic, all in 2015.

(July 29 Update: Stadler withdrew after shooting a 1-over-par 72 in the first round in Overland Park. “It’s been a lot better the last couple of months, so I thought I’d come and give it a try (but) it was really ugly today, so it’s kind of a setback I wasn’t looking for,” Stadler said on Web.com Tour video. “… It’s incredibly frustrating.”)

Whenever Stadler returns to the PGA Tour, he’ll do so with a major medical extension that gives him 26 tournaments to earn $717,890 in order to remain exempt.

Stadler was one of the best players in Colorado during the late 1990s and early 2002. He won the CGA Match Play twice and the 2002 Colorado Open in his professional debut.

Stadler, now 37, last competed on the Web.com Tour — where he won four times total between 2004 and ’06 — in September 2011.

Stadler will be joined in the Digital Ally Open by Michael Schoolcraft of Denver and former University of Colorado golfer Josh Creel, both of whom Monday qualified to get into the tournament. Likewise competing are Colorado-based Web.com Tour regulars Jim Knous and Tom Whitney and former Golden resident Andrew Svoboda.

Meanwhile, in the PGA Tour’s RBC Canadian Open this week, Coloradan Wyndham Clark, the 2017 Pac-12 champion, will make his fourth PGA Tour start on a sponsor exemption. He’s made one cut in his previous three PGA Tour events (placing 51st in Quicken Loans National), and tied Knous for 23rd in last week’s Web.com Tour tournament after Monday qualifying. Also in the Canadian Open field are Shane Bertch of Parker, Denver native Mark Hubbard and former Coloradan Sam Saunders.
 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Colorado PGA and the CWGA second that thought.

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

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

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

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

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