The LPGA Tour will begin its 70th season this week as 26 pros and 49 celebrities tee it up in the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., starting on Thursday (Jan. 17).

With that milestone in mind, and the fact that three local players — Colorado residents Jennifer Kupcho and Becca Huffer, plus former University of Colorado golfer Robyn Choi — will be LPGA rookies in 2019, it prompted us to revisit the long, rich history the LPGA Tour has in Colorado.

Many local golf fans are very familiar with the many visits the PGA Tour has paid to the Centennial State, including 21 straight Internationals and six major championships. But the LPGA’s time in Colorado is less well remembered, mainly because its run as a regular tour stop ended in 1987, the year after The International’s began.

All told, 22 LPGA Tour events have been held in Colorado over the last 70 years, in addition to the 2013 Solheim Cup team event that Colorado Golf Club hosted. That includes four LPGA majors — three U.S. Women’s Opens and the 1950 Women’s Western Open, which was just the ninth event following the launch of the LPGA Tour in January of that year.

The LPGA made an annual tour stop in the Denver metro area for 16 straight years beginning in 1972, with seven courses hosting or co-hosting over that stretch:

— Green Gables Country Club (six times).

— Columbine Country Club (five times).

— The Club at Rolling Hills (once).

— Pinehurst Country Club (once).

— Lone Tree Golf Club (co-host three years).

— Meridian Golf Club (co-host two years).

— Glenmoor Country Club (co-host one year).

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about LPGA Tour events held in Colorado is the number of current World Golf Hall of Famers who have won them. Sixteen times in the 22 LPGA tournaments (73 percent), the champion has been a current World Golf Hall of Famer.

Here’s a quick summary of the LPGA Tour events — plus the Solheim Cup — that have been held in Colorado (winners that are members of the World Golf Hall of Famers are noted with an *):

— 1950 Women’s Western Open — an LPGA major at the time — at Cherry Hills Country Club, won by Babe Zaharias* in a match play final over Peggy Kirk. That year, Zaharias was named the top women’s athlete of the first half of the 20th century by the Associated Press. Zaharias, who lived in the Denver area during part of the 1940s, ended up winning eight LPGA events in 1950 alone. She was one of the founders of the LPGA Tour and was part of the inaugural class of the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame, being inducted posthumously in 1973.

— 1955 Mile High Open at Lakewood Country Club, won by Marilyn Smith*.

— 1956 Denver Open at Lakewood Country Club, won by Marlene Bauer Hagge*.

— 1972 National Jewish Hospital Open at Green Gables Country Club, won by Sandra Haynie*.

— 1973 National Jewish Hospital Open at Green Gables, won by Sandra Palmer.

— 1974 National Jewish Hospital Open at The Club at Rolling Hills, won by Sandra Haynie*.

— 1975 National Jewish Hospital Open at Pinehurst Country Club, won by Judy Rankin*.

— 1976 National Jewish Hospital Open at Green Gables, won by Sandra Palmer.

— 1977 National Jewish Hospital Open at Columbine Country Club, won by JoAnne Carner*.

— 1978 National Jewish Hospital Open at Green Gables, won by Kathy Whitworth*, now the LPGA Tour’s career leader in victories with 88.

— 1979 Columbia Savings Classic at Green Gables, won by Sally Little.

— 1980 Columbia Savings LPGA Classic at Columbine, won by Beth Daniel*.

— 1981 Columbia Savings LPGA Classic at Columbine, won by JoAnne Carner*.

— 1982 Columbia Savings Classic at Columbine, won by Beth Daniel*.

— 1983 Columbia Savings Classic at Columbine, won by Pat Bradley*.

— 1984 Columbia Savings Classic at Green Gables, won by Betsy King*.

— 1985 LPGA National Pro-Am at Lone Tree Golf Club and Meridian Golf Club, won by Pat Bradley*.

— 1986 LPGA National Pro-Am at Lone Tree and Glenmoor Country Club, won by Amy Alcott*.

— 1987 Columbia Savings LPGA National Pro-Am at Meridian and Lone Tree, won by Chris Johnson.

— 1995 U.S. Women’s Open (the 50th ever held) at the East Course at The Broadmoor, won by Annika Sorenstam* (left). It was the first of Sorenstam’s 72 LPGA Tour victories and of her 10 major titles.

— 2005 U.S. Women’s Open at Cherry Hills, won by Birdie Kim after she holed out for — you guessed it — birdie from a deep greenside bunker on the 72nd hole of the tournament.

— 2011 U.S. Women’s Open at the East Course at The Broadmoor, won by So Yeon Ryu in the first three-hole aggregate in tournament history. The 2005 and ’11 Women’s Opens each drew more than 130,000 spectators for the week.

— 2013 Solheim Cup at Colorado Golf Club, where Europe won the event for the first time on American soil, 18-10 over the U.S.

But in the meantime, she keeps checking off accomplishments on the amateur end of things.

On Wednesday, when the World Amateur Golf Rankings released its updated lists, the Westminster resident reached the top spot in the world among female amateurs for the first time in her career. Kupcho moved up to the No. 1 position from the No. 2 spot, flip-flopping with UCLA’s Lilia Vu, with whom Kupcho won a four-ball match on Saturday in the Arnold Palmer Cup in France.

Being on top of the world, so to speak, was a heady accomplishment indeed for Kupcho, who, just since turning 21 on May 14 has won the women’s NCAA Division I individual title and has helped U.S. teams cruise to victories in both the Curtis Cup and the Arnold Palmer Cup.

And this week, the Wake Forest senior-to-be is in the midst of another big item on the agenda: competing in her first LPGA Tour event not named the U.S. Women’s Open. By virtue of her victory in the NCAA Finals, Kupcho earned a spot in the LPGA Marathon Classic in Sylvania, Ohio.

And the Coloradan played on Thursday a lot like a golfer who belongs at that level. Competing as an amateur, she opened with a 3-under-par 68 and shares 17th place in the 72-hole event. After a five-birdie, two-bogey day, Kupcho trails leader Thidapa Suwannapura by three. (Kupcho is pictured from the tournament on Thursday. Photo courtesy of the Kupcho family.)

In her two U.S. Women’s Open starts, Kupcho missed the cut in 2016 and finished 21st in 2017.

For all the scores from the Marathon Classic, CLICK HERE.

When it comes to sheer candidness, there are few players who have won on the PGA Tour who are more forthright than Jonathan Kaye.

The former University of Colorado golfer seldom hesitates to voice his true opinions — good, bad or otherwise.

Last year, in the week in which he won his second CoBank Colorado Open title, Kaye was talking about the subject of money and purses on the PGA Tour. And he said something that was both illuminating and candid.

“I passed Jack Nicklaus (in career PGA Tour earnings) my third year on the Tour,” Kaye said. “There’s no way I should ever pass Jack Nicklaus.”

With the Masters on tap this week, we decided to take a look at where the most prominent players in the history of Colorado golf stack up in a statistic seldom mentioned anymore: career money leaders on the major professional tours.

It’s not surprising that the PGA Tour competitors in the Tiger Woods era have received a disproportionate boost in money earnings compared to their earlier counterparts. What was eye-opening was just how much an effect that had.

For instance, regarding Nicklaus and Kaye, the Golden Bear may be the greatest player of all time, with 18 majors among his 73 PGA Tour victories. Kaye, meanwhile, has won twice in his PGA Tour career.

Yet look at the PGA Tour career money list and Nicklaus is No. 271 ($5.734 million) and Kaye is No. 164 ($10.585 million, just ahead of Bernhard Langer). Many people debate whether Nicklaus or Woods is the greatest golfer ever, but on the PGA Tour’s career money list the Bear is a pauper compared to Tiger, who has won more than 19 times as much money ($111.183 million).

Hale Irwin (pictured above), a Boulder High School and University of Colorado graduate, is unquestionably the most successful golfer the Centennial State has produced from an early age, with three U.S. Open victories among his 20 PGA Tour wins. But you’d never know it by looking at all-time PGA Tour money won. The World Golf Hall of Famer checks in at No. 263 ($5.966 million).

Another former CU golfer who won the U.S. Open is just a little ahead of Irwin. Steve Jones, whose eight-win career included the 1996 U.S. Open title, is No. 249 ($6.519 million).

As for other prominent players who grew up in Colorado and have had extensive PGA Tour careers, Brandt Jobe is 195th in career money at $9 million and one-time winner Kevin Stadler is 180th at $9.698 million. Both played their high school golf at Kent Denver.

Others with strong Colorado connections in the top 200 are Evergreen resident Craig Stadler (Kevin’s dad), winner of 13 PGA Tour events including a Masters (174th at $10.022 million); former Colorado State University golfer Martin Laird, a three-time PGA Tour champion (91st at $16.155 million); and Colorado resident David Duval, winner of 13 PGA Tour events including a British Open (78th at $18.984 million).

And, the top PGA Tour career money winner with major Colorado ties is Aspen resident Justin Leonard, who owns a dozen Tour wins including a British Open (22nd at $33.885 million).

Other PGA Tour winners with strong Colorado ties made less than $1 million in their PGA Tour careers, including Paul Runyan (28 wins), Ed Dudley (15 wins), Dow Finsterwald (11 wins), Dale Douglass (3 wins), Bob Byman (1 win) and Fred Wampler (1 win).

Dave Hill made $1.13 million in a career that included 13 victories, and Mark Wiebe earned $4.314 million in a career that featured two wins.

On the LPGA Tour, part-time Colorado resident and World Golf Hall of Famer Hollis Stacy (left, with Annika Sorenstam) earned $2.58 million in winning 18 times on the LPGA circuit, including four majors. Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Jill McGill earned $2.342 million, though she didn’t win a tournament on that circuit. World Golf Hall of Famer Babe Zaharias, a Denver-area resident in the 1940s, won 41 times on the LPGA Tour but earned just $66,237. Sharon Miller, like Zaharias and McGill a member of the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame, won $164,274 on the LPGA circuit, on which she posted two victories. Lauren Howe racked up $236,084 in career LPGA money after winning once. Sorenstam, who won the 1995 U.S. Women’s Open at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, leads the LPGA career money list, with $22.573 million.

As for PGA Tour Champions, Irwin was a check-cashing machine for many years. The former Buff, winner of a career-record 45 PGA Tour Champions events, has won a remarkable $27.089 million on the 50-and-over circuit, putting him No. 1 all-time.

Also ranking among the top 100 in what was once know as the Senior Tour are Craig Stadler (35th at $8.979 million with nine wins); Douglass (56th at $7.019 million with 11 wins), Wiebe (73rd at $5.69 million with five wins) and R.W. Eaks (91st at $4.693 million with four wins). 

The tournament features a $2 million purse and the 144-golfer field includes 80 of the top 100 players in the world.

Coleman, who played for the Buffs from 2010-14, earned conditional LPGA Tour status for 2017 by finishing 29th in the third and final stage of Tour qualifying in December in Daytona Beach, Fla. The 24-year-old from Rolling Hills Estates, Calif., is the only player with strong Colorado ties to have LPGA Tour privileges in 2017. She’s also the first former CU golfer to earn LPGA Tour status.

Although the Lotte Championship will be Coleman’s first tournament as an LPGA Tour member, she did compete in the 2015 U.S. Women’s Open, missing the 36-hole cut by three. Last year, she ended up 31st on the Symetra Tour money list, placing in the top 10 three times, with third-place her best showing.

Waiting for her first LPGA Tour start this year, Coleman finished 14th last week in the Symetra Tour’s POC Med Golf Classic.

(April 14 Update: Coleman missed the cut at the Lotte Championship, posting back-to-back rounds of 4-over-par 76.)
 

Stage I of LPGA Tour qualifying will take place this week — Thursday through Sunday in Rancho Mirage, Calif. — with at least eight players with strong Colorado ties among those who will compete.

Then next week, the Web.com Tour qualifying process begins with the Pre-Qualifying Stage tournaments.

And in mid-November, Regional Qualifying for the PGA Tour Champions gets things rolling for the 50-and-over set.

As for this week’s LPGA Tour Stage I in California, 347 players will vie for the 90 spots and ties into Stage II that will be at stake. The ultimate goal is to advance to Stage III of qualifying — Nov. 30-Dec. 4 in Daytona Beach, Fla. — where 2017 LPGA Tour cards will be handed out to the top finishers.

Among the players with local connections who are entered in Stage I this week are:

— 2015 CWGA Match Play champion Paige Spiranac (pictured), a former Colorado resident who boasts a huge social-media presence (763,000 followers on Instagram and 95,000 on Twitter).

— Former University of Denver golfer Kimberly Kim, the 2006 U.S. Women’s Amateur champion who played on the LPGA Tour in 2011.

— Lindsay McGetrick of Highlands Ranch, who has played part-time on the Symetra Tour in 2016.

— Samantha Stancato of Colorado Springs.

— Former University of Colorado golfers Alexis Keating and Jamie Oleksiew.

— Former Colorado State University golfer Betsy Kelly.

— Former DU golfer Isabel Southard.

Spiranac, Kim, McGetrick and Kelly are expected to be in the field for the CoBank Colorado Women’s Open, which will be played Aug. 31-Sept. 2 at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club in northeast Denver.

The field in Rancho Mirage will be cut to the low 130 and ties after three rounds.

Among the local players who are exempt into Stage II — set for Oct. 20-23 in Venice, Fla. — are Becca Huffer of Denver, former DU golfers Tonje Daffinrud, Katie Kempter and Eleanor Givens, former CU golfers Jenny and Kristin Coleman and Emily Childs, and former University of Northern Colorado player Carleigh Silvers.

For LPGA Stage I qualifying scores, CLICK HERE.

As for the Web.com and PGA Tour Champions Q-school rundowns:

— Web.com Tour:

The Pre-Qualifying Stage will be Aug. 31-Sept. 2 and Sept. 7-9, at a total of six sites.

The First Qualifying Stage is set for Sept. 27-30, Oct. 4-7 and Oct. 11-14 at a total of 12 sites.

The Second Qualifying Stage is scheduled for Nov. 1-4 and Nov. 8-11 at a total of five sites.

The Final Qualifying Stage will be held Dec. 8-11 in Winter Garden, Fla.

The top 45 finishers and ties from the final stage will have some level of regular status on 2017 Web.com Tour (depending on how high they finish). Others who complete all 72 holes will have conditional status.

— PGA Tour Champions:

Regional Qualifying is set for Nov. 15-18 at three sites: San Jacinto, Calif.; Lake Buena Vista, Calif.; and Montgomery, Texas.

The Final Stage will Nov. 29-Dec. 2 in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Brandt Jobe earned medalist honors in the final stage of PGA Tour Champions qualifying last fall.
 

In some ways Shirley Englehorn has led a charmed life in which she seldom seems to take a misstep. But in other ways, she has to laugh at how accident-prone she appears.

The Colorado Springs resident won 11 times on the LPGA Tour, including the 1970 LPGA Championship where she beat all-time LPGA victory leader Kathy Whitworth in an 18-hole playoff.

On the other hand, Englehorn was sidelined for significant periods by two separate career-threatening accidents: being thrown off a horse and being involved in a major auto wreck. And though her LPGA Tour career ended in 1978, that doesn’t mean she’s put major mishaps behind her.

That became evident in August, while Englehorn was preparing for a golf school at Kissing Camels at Garden of the Gods Club, where she’s been a golf instructor since 1995. While sorting equipment, she tripped on a golf club and ended up cracking her right femur.

“I obviously am very accident-prone,”, Englehorn said with a laugh during a recent phone interview. “I never dreamed I would crack a femur tripping on a golf club. I’m lucky an iron didn’t fall and hit me in the head.”

At least Englehorn has a sense of humor about it all, despite the resulting two months of therapy she had to do in a rehabilitation facility.

But the good thing is, how Englehorn is respected in the game is certainly no joke, as recent developments have shown. Most notably, during Thanksgiving week, the LPGA announced that Englehorn and Donna White of West Palm Beach, Fla., will be inducted into the LPGA Teaching and Club Professionals Hall of Fame. The enshrinement ceremonies will take place in October in San Antonio at the LPGA T&CP’s national conference and Hall of Fame reception.

Englehorn, a member of the LPGA since 1959, and White will be just the 24th and 25th Hall of Fame inductees for the Teaching and Club Professional division. Previous inductees from Colorado include Pat Lange and Penny Zavichas.

“I was overwhelmed to be selected as one of the few through the years,” Englehorn said the day before turning 74 last week. “It’s a great honor for me.”

Englehorn certainly has a stellar resume, both as a player and an instructor. From 1962 through 1971, the “Lady in Red” — so dubbed because of the preferred color choice for her outfits — won all of her 11 LPGA titles. That includes the 1967 Shirley Englehorn Invitational in her home state of Idaho. Her 1970 victory in the LPGA Championship not only marked her only LPGA major title, but it capped a remarkable stretch in which Englehorn won four times in four starts. She also served as the president of the LPGA Tour during the mid-1960s. (Englehorn is pictured at left in 1963.)

Englehorn crossed paths with some of the biggest names in golf history during her playing days. When she was recovering in Augusta, Ga., in the spring of 1960 from a broken back and a concussion after being thrown off a horse, among her visitors in the hospital were two players who were in town for the Masters, Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson, even though neither had met her before. But they remained acquaintances through the remaining years of Hogan and Nelson’s lives. And Englehorn drew inspiration from how Hogan had come back from a head-on collision with a bus in 1949.

“He was a wonderful man,” said Englehorn, who would go on to be awarded the Ben Hogan Award in 1969 for her comeback after her accidents.

About the same time Hogan and Nelson visited, she met a young, promising amateur by the name of Jack Nicklaus. And in 1964, Englehorn won the Haig & Haig Scotch Foursome event while teaming with Sam Snead. And two of her playoff victories came over Whitworth, winner of 88 LPGA events.

But after undergoing an ankle fusion in the 1970s in the wake of her 1965 auto wreck, Englehorn quit the LPGA Tour in 1978.

In part due to her horse accident, Englehorn had acquired her LPGA teaching certificate in the early 1960s, which would pave the path for the second portion of her career. Though she taught on and off during her Tour career, it’s been since 1978 that she’s been a full-time instructor.

“Winning four tournaments in a row was very exciting. I thought I was in a big dream,” she said. “But it was a very narrow window. And I don’t get the enjoyment out of winning that I do from teaching. I loved the Tour, but there’s more satisfaction from teaching.”

In 1978, Englehorn earned the LPGA National Teacher of the Year Award. Thirteen years later, she received the Ellen Griffin Rolex Award, one of the highest honors given to golf instructors. And at different times, Englehorn has been named one of the country’s top teachers by Golf Digest and Golf for Women magazines.

A longtime LPGA Master Professional, Englehorn has taught at a variety of sites over the years. But she ended up in Colorado Springs at Kissing Camels due to her circumstances at the time. The course she was working at in California went under, and Englehorn needed a new teaching gig. Her friend Judy Bell of Colorado Springs (who would become USGA president in 1996) and the Kissing Camels owner at the time needed a teaching professional, and Englehorn happily came to Colorado and set down roots.

Englehorn teaches all types of golfers — women and men, kids, those with physical problems; you name it. And she savors every minute of it.

“I love my club and I love teaching,” she said. “I love to see people who are really interested in learning. And I love to teach children. I’m an old-time basics (type of instructor): grip, stance, ball position and balance. If I can give people one good tip that helps them, that’s great.”

Of course, given Englehorn’s broken femur, she hasn’t been doing much teaching lately. But she anticipates she’ll be back at it soon.

“I miss my teaching,” she said.
 

So much that he once had them ingrained on his chest.

Well, sort of.

When Lis and Dustin Jensen first worked for the CGA, they shared an apartment. Even now, Jensen can’t help but chuckle when recalling one episode regarding Lis.

“He was a diehard about the Rules of Golf,” said Jensen, now the golf coach and associate director of alumni relations at Jamestown College in North Dakota. “He sat out on the patio at our apartment and was reading the original Rules of Golf or a book like that and happened to fall asleep. He was catching a suntan and had his shirt off. He fell asleep with the book laying on his stomach, and he ended up having the outline of the book burned into his stomach. We thought that was pretty funny. He loved the Rules of Golf to the point that he would burn them into his chest.”

Considering Lis’ deep involvement with the Rules, who could be surprised that after being highly respected in his seven years as the CGA’s director of rules and competitions, he’s earned his way onto a bigger stage?

After wrapping up an almost-decade-long stint with the CGA on Friday (April 19), Lis will go to work — starting Monday — as an LPGA Tour rules official. In fact, he’s scheduled to make his debut at next week’s North Texas LPGA Shootout in Irving.

So how well does Lis (pictured) know the Rules of Golf?

He has gotten ever so close to perfection — without quite reaching it — the last couple of times he’s taken the PGA/USGA Rules of Golf exam.

He said he’s scored 99 on the test twice, tantalizingly close to perfect scores. Considering a 92 or better is good enough to qualify for officiating at a U.S. Open, a U.S. Women’s Open or a U.S. Senior Open, a 99 is pretty rarefied territory.

“He’s as good as I’ve ever seen in a Rules situation — and I mean that,” said CGA executive director Ed Mate. “He’s like a five-tool athlete; he can do it all. He understands the Rules and the principles behind them. He’s a people person and he works well in a group. And he’s level-headed.

“It’s tough to lose him, but it’s gratifying to see people like Pete and Thomas Pagel (a CGA staffer from 2003-08 who is now senior director, Rules of Golf & Amateur Status, for the USGA) achieve their goals. It says a lot about them, and about the CGA.”

With Lis not being officially hired by the LPGA Tour until April 1, Mate said that the current CGA staff will handle his tournament and related duties during the 2013 season. CGA director of operations Briena Goldsmith will take the lead in that regard, but Mate and other staffers will be juggling tasks also this year. Then Mate will look to fill Lis’ position in the 2013-14 off-season.

As for Lis, he’ll be one of eight regular LPGA Tour rules officials. In that regard, he’ll be fulfilling a longtime professional aspiration.

“My career goal has been to work on a tour,” the 32-year-old said. “It’s bittersweet (leaving the CGA) but it’s the perfect time in my career to have this opportunity, especially as a single guy. But the Colorado golf community has been great to me. (The CGA staff) is like my family. I’ve gotten to know them not only professionally but personally. I owe this opportunity to the CGA and USGA for taking a chance on me as a Boatwright intern in 2003. They taught me so much.”

As with the majority of the CGA staff, Lis came on board as a USGA P.J. Boatwright intern. The internship “is designed to give experience to individuals who are interested in pursuing a career in golf administration, while assisting state and regional golf associations, as well as other non-profit organizations dedicated to the promotion of amateur golf, on a short-term, entry-level basis.”

Before he received the internship at the CGA, Lis had been an assistant golf professional in Massachusetts, and he had never before been to Colorado. But of the five or six state and regional golf associations he was interested in for a Boatwright internship, the CGA was the one that responded to his queries.

So Lis started his year-long internship in February 2003, and late in 2004 he joined the CGA’s full-time staff as assistant director of course rating and handicapping, a post held held until 2006. Then he took took over the rules and competitions job he held for seven years.

“Every event I was doing what I love to do,” he said. “On the golf course is my favorite place to be, talking to players and hearing stories.”

But it certainly wasn’t all easy. After all, Lis often had to make the final call regarding enforcement of the Rules and handing out penalties. Lis wasn’t afraid of making those tough calls, even if it involved penalizing a defending champion at the HealthOne Colorado Open, or some players in contention at a CGA championship.

Although Lis sometimes received “blowback” in such situations, he knows it comes with the territory.

Overall, he’ll look back on his experience with the CGA very fondly. And based on the feedback Lis has gotten since telling people he was leaving to take the LPGA job, the feeling is mutual.

“I’ve heard from staff, rules officials, players, and they’ve all been very supportive,” Lis said. “It’s been overwhelming. They’ve thanked me for my time here, and I’ve thanked them for helping me learn. I’m going to miss everyone in Colorado, though I’m going to be around for a while.”

Indeed, Lis said he plans to live in Colorado until probably the late summer or early fall. And, yes, he said he is scheduled to work the Solheim Cup Aug. 16-18 at Colorado Golf Club, where the best female golfers from the U.S. and Europe will square off in their biennial matches. Sometime after that, Lis plans to move to the Orlando area, where he has some family, and which isn’t far from LPGA headquarters in Daytona Beach.

In the meantime, given that he has off weeks here and there, Lis said he may even volunteer for a CGA championship or a USGA qualifier sometime this year.

Speaking of tournaments Lis has worked over the years, some have left an indelible memory. Eric Wilkinson, now the CGA director of junior competitions, remembers Lis getting his Rules cart stuck in the mud at Heritage Todd Creek Golf Club during the 2010 CGA Senior Match Play.

“I think in his efforts to get the cart out, he completely caked himself in mud,” Wilkinson recalled.

Wilkinson also remembers working the 5A boys state high school tournament with Lis at Eisenhower Golf Club in 2008. When the two arrived at the gate to the Air Force Academy, the sentry wouldn’t let them pass since the tags on the CGA van had expired. The guard didn’t believe Lis when he said they were there to run the tournament, so one of the club professionals came to the gate and drove Lis and Wilkinson in so Lis could conduct the rules meeting a day before the tournament started.

Wilkinson recalls Pete saying, “How the (heck) are you supposed to convince a guard with an M-16 that you are there to run a golf tournament?”

To avoid another problem when they returned for the first day of the tournament, Lis drove all the way back to Greenwood Village that night to switch out the vans.

It’s all in a day’s work for a person who lives by the Rules.
 

When Jacques (pictured at left) landed a spot on “Big Break Ireland” last year, it led to an opening of the floodgates for her golf career.

Besides receiving some national and international exposure on the golf skills show, Jacques has seen her golf fortunes improve immeasurably over the last year and a half, and particularly the last six months.

She finished third in the 2012 HealthOne Colorado Women’s Open, qualified for the U.S. Women’s Open and posted three top-20 showings on the Symetra Tour.

And then there’s the biggest development. On Sunday, the former Longmont resident earned conditional status on the 2013 LPGA Tour thanks to finishing 17th in the final stage of qualifying in Daytona Beach, Fla.

Though Jacques birdied the final hole of regulation from 15 feet to move into the top 20, she lost in a seven-person playoff for the final four full exemptions available. The playoff lasted five holes — a three-hole aggregate, then sudden death — and Jacques’ even-par total wasn’t good enough to join the top 20, who receive “Category 12” exempt status.

Instead, she’ll get the Category 17 status given to the players who finish between 21st and 45th (and ties).

“I’m excited to have some status, but it stings” to fall just short of a full exemption, Jacques said in a phone interview Sunday night.

Meanwhile, former University of Denver golfer Stephanie Sherlock landed a Category 12 spot.

Sherlock, who’s played the LPGA Tour each of the last two years, finished 10th in the qualifying finals, as a final-round 74 left her at 5-under-par 355 in the five-round tournament. She earned $2,250.

Jacques, who opened with a double bogey on Sunday when she hit a ball into the water after a disagreement with her caddie about which club to hit, carded a 75 to check in at 357. That was good for $1,242.

Former DU golfer Sue Kim also landed conditional LPGA status — Category 17 — by placing 32nd on Sunday. Her final-round 69 left her at 360.

Former University of Colorado golfer Emily Talley, after making a run at an LPGA spot on Sunday, fell back to finish 59th, which leaves her with Symetra Tour status for 2013. She shot a 71 Sunday for a 364 total.

For the 26-year-old Jacques, finally earning a spot on the LPGA Tour is a dream come true.

“My game has come really far the last one or two years,” she said. “It’s neat to see my hard work pay off.”

Still, coming up just short of full status was hard to swallow.

“I was in the top 10 all week, and for my worst day to be the last day was frustrating,” Jacques said.

The issue is that by ending up with Category 17 status instead of Category 12, it will mean getting into fewer LPGA tournaments next year, and possibly a significant amount fewer. But the number will depend on how Jacques performs in her early season events.

As it stands, she anticipates that she’ll split her tournament starts between the LPGA Tour and the Symetra Tour, which is a level lower than the LPGA circuit.

“I have no other choice,” she said. “The problem is, sometimes if you play seven events on each tour, you can’t do well on either. But I plan to play in the LPGA events I can get in, get experience and see how it goes.”

Perhaps it was a good omen for Q-school when, on the very first hole of the finals on Wednesday, Jacques eagled a par-4, holing a 3-wood into the wind from 191 yards. The Skyline High School graduate shot under par every round except Sunday’s.

As it turns out, Jacques indicated that being a contestant on Golf Channel’s Big Break Ireland last year helped her deal with the pressure of big-time golf.

“At first, when you find out you’re going to be on the show, you’re overwhelmed with excitement and joy and then you get so deathly scared,” Jacques said this past week. “You’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m going to be on TV’ and if you hit a bad shot, it’s going to be shown to everybody. So it was really neat to be a part of that and to see how your game holds up under pressure.”

Sherlock, winner of seven individual tournament titles at DU, earned the right to play the LPGA Tour for a third consecutive season. She lost her fully-exempt status in 2011 after finishing 101st on the money list, and in 2012 by placing 139th on the money rankings.

But, by virtue of finishing 10th in Q-school on Sunday, Sherlock has better status for 2013 than she had in 2012. This marks her third straight year of placing 20th or better in the Q-school finals.

The former Canadian women’s amateur champion has made seven cuts in 22 LPGA Tour events over the last two years. She finished the 2012 season strong with a win in the SunCoast Ladies Series Tournament in Daytona Beach.

Kim, who played at DU only one semester before deciding to turn pro, earned conditional LPGA status for 2013 by shooting 70-69 the final two rounds to move up to 32nd. Kim, who made the cut in this year’s U.S. Women’s Open, will be an LPGA Tour rookie next season after placing 23rd on the 2012 Symetra Tour money list.

Talley was inside of the top 45 after shooting a 3-under-par 33 on her front nine Sunday. But the winner of the 2012 California Women’s (Amateur) Championship carded a 2-over 38 on her back side to finish 59th. That leaves her with a spot on the Symetra Tour in 2013.

Here are the round-by-round scores for the players with Colorado ties who competed in the Q-school finals:

10. former University of Denver golfer Stephanie Sherlock 71-70-71-69-74–355; 17. Kelly Jacques of Longmont 70-71-71-70-75–357; 32. former DU golfer Sue Kim 76-71-74-70-69–360; 59. former University of Colorado golfer Emily Talley 74-74-73-72-71–364.