It was a day of firsts at the CGA Four-Ball Championship on Sunday at Legacy Ridge Golf Course in Westminster.

Let’s count the ways:

— Jon Lindstrom and Richard Bradsby, both of Lakewood Country Club, became the first team to win consecutive CGA Four-Balls since Rick DeWitt and Mike Glaesel did the trick in 1998 and ’99.

— With a 23-under-par 193 total for three rounds, they set the tournament scoring record, relative to par, since the Four-Ball went to a 54-hole format in 2011.

— With the victory, Lindstrom became the first person to win the CGA Four-Ball at least four times. He had been tied for the most titles in the event, with Steve Irwin, another Lakewood CC member. Prior to the last two years, Lindstrom won in 2002 with Rick Larson and in 2012 with Dean Clapp.

Despite playing their last six holes in even-par on Sunday, Lindstrom and Bradsby prevailed by two strokes. They followed up their back-to-back rounds of 64 with a 7-under-par 65 on Sunday.

Through 54 holes, the partners never recorded a better-ball bogey. (They’re pictured above and below, with Lindstrom in the striped shirt.)

“I’m going to create a conflict for Lindstrom next year” for this event, runner-up Alex Buecking said with a smile on Sunday.

The victory at Legacy Ridge marked the 10th CGA championship for the 50-year-old Lindstrom, who has claimed four Four-Balls, three Mid-Amateurs, two Two-Mans (with Clapp) and one Mid-Amateur Match Play.

“I like winning CGA events, so that’s awesome,” Lindstrom said. “I like team events. There used to be the two-man event, and I won that a couple of times too. It’s a lot of fun playing with somebody (as a teammate).”

Meanwhile, the 49-year-old Bradsby owns two CGA titles, both in the Four-Ball. Lindstrom and Bradsby also finished second in the event, in 2014.

“It’s special absolutely” to win CGA state titles, Bradsby said. “It’s amazing.”

Bradsby provided the spark in Sunday’s final round by shooting a 4-under 32 on his own ball on the front nine, making six 3s on that side.

“Richard played great today,” Lindstrom said.

“And John was killing it the other two (days),” Bradsby added.

With Lindstrom throwing in a birdie, he and Bradsby posted a 5-under 31 on the front nine. Then Lindstrom drained an 8-foot birdie putt on No. 11 and Bradsby an 18-foot birdie on 12. Even with no more birdies after being 7 under through 12, it was good enough.

“Obviously the week was great,” Lindstrom said. “We did a good job of ham and egging it. There were three or four times one of us was out of the hole and the other guy ended up making birdie on that hole. It couldn’t have worked out better.”

As for their recent success in the Four-Ball, Lindstrom points to the two meshing as partners.

“We’re both members at Lakewood and we play a lot of golf together — both as opponents and partners,” he said. “We know each other’s games. We both go out and try to win it on our own, and if the other guy helps out, great. As opposed to putting pressure on, expecting the other guy to play well. We both do that really well, I think. Neither one of us gets pissed off if the other guy hits a bad shot.”

Claiming second place for the second time in the last three years on Sunday were Buecking, of Columbine Country Club, and Trent Isgrig of Cherry Hills Country Club. Buecking, who won the 2009 title with Irwin, also placed fourth last year, with Sean Crowley.

Buecking and Isgrig, who shot a tournament-low 62 in the first round, had sterling opportunities at birdies at holes 6, 7, 9 and 10 on Sunday, but didn’t convert any of them, costing themselves a chance at the title.

They closed with a 66 for a 195 total.

“We had a good time, but we’re a little disappointed,” Isgrig said. “The turning point was 6, 7, 9 and 10. We should have made at least two or three (birdies), and we didn’t make any of them. That was the difference, no doubt.”

Jake Staiano, the 2017 CGA Player of the Year, and Pierce Aichinger of Glenmoor Country Club fired an 8-under 64 on Sunday to tie for third place at 197. Staiano also placed third last year, with then-Colorado State University teammate Blake Cannon.

Also at 197 were Nick Nosewicz of Meadow Hills Golf Course and Chris Thayer of Walnut Creek Golf Preserve — winners of a CGA Match Play and two CGA Mid-Amateurs, respectively — and Alan Boyko of CommonGround Golf Course and Dean Siskowski of Collindale Golf Course. Nosewicz and Thayer carded a 66 on Sunday, and Boyko and Siskowski a 68.

(Pictured above, from left, are Nosewicz, Buecking and Thayer.)

In all, six teams out of 60 broke 200 for the 54-hole event. 

For all the scores from the CGA Four-Ball, CLICK HERE.

The defending champions, who still haven’t made a better-ball bogey through two rounds, fired their second straight 8-under-par 64 on Saturday, leaving them at 16-under 128 at Legacy Ridge Golf Course in Westminster.

Should Lindstrom, a three-time CGA Mid-Amateur champion, win on Sunday, he’ll become the first four-time CGA Four-Ball champ, breaking a tie with Steve Irwin. Lindstrom previously won in 2002, ’12 and last year. (The 2017 winners are pictured, with Lindstrom at left.)

The last players to win two straight CGA Four-Ball titles are Rick DeWitt and Mike Glaesel, who prevailed in both 1998 and ’99.

But two teams are just a stroke back of the leaders after Saturday’s second round, and another is three behind.

First-round leaders Alex Buecking of Columbine Country Club and Trent Isgrig of Cherry Hills Country Club backed up their Friday 62 with a 5-under-par 67 on Saturday, putting them at 15-under 129. They made six better-ball birdies and both bogeysed the 14th hole on Saturday.

Also at 129 are Alan Boyko of CommonGround Golf Course and Dean Siskowski of Collindale Golf Course, who shot the low round of day 2, a 9-under 63. With Siskowski posting a 66 on his own ball, the pair recorded nine better-ball birdies in round 2.

Chris Thayer of Walnut Creek Golf Preserve, winner of two CGA Mid-Ams, and Nick Nosewicz of Meadow Hills Golf Course, who claimed the 2015 CGA Match Play title, stand in fourth place at 131. They carded a second-round 64 despite a better-ball bogey on the par-3 eighth hole.

The 54-hole championship will conclude on Sunday.

For all the scores from the CGA Four-Ball, CLICK HERE.
 

Two years ago, the Columbine Country Club member teamed up with Jason Enloe to advance to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball. In 2009, he paired with Steve Irwin to win the CGA Four-Ball. And in 2016, he and Trent Isgrig, who now plays out of Cherry Hills Country Club, finished runner-up in that same CGA event.

And this week, it appears Buecking and Isgrig will make another run at the CGA Four-Ball title.

The pair (pictured, with Isgrig at left) bolted from the gate on Friday, shooting a 10-under-par 62 at Legacy Ridge Golf Course in Westminster in the opening round of the scratch better-ball event.

Buecking and Isgrig made an eagle (by Isgrig on the par-5 11th) and eight birdies on Friday to grab a two-stroke lead in the 54-hole event.

Defending champions Jon Lindstrom and Richard Bradsby of Lakewood Country Club went bogey-free with eight better-ball birdies to shoot a 64 and hold down second place. Lindstrom, a three-time winner of this event, shot a 7-under-par 65 on his own ball in round 1, while Bradsby posted a 69.

Another team of former champions sits in third place, at 7-under 65. Sam Marley and James Richardson of South Suburban Golf Course won this title on 2015. On Friday, Marley, a University of Northern Colorado golfer, carded a 66 on his own.

Tied at 66 are 2017 CGA Player of the Year Jake Staiano and Pierce Aichinger from Glenmoor Country Club, and Alan Boyko of CommonGround Golf Course and Dean Siskowski of Collindale Golf Course.

The championship will continue through Sunday.

For all the scores from the CGA Four-Ball, CLICK HERE.
 

So far this week, we’ve seen Colorado State University teammates Ellen Secor and Katrina Prendergast win a national title at the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball, and Bill Fowler hole a 60-foot birdie putt in a playoff to give he and partner Robert Polk the victory at the CGA Senior Four-Ball.

And now it’s time for the open-division CGA Four-Ball Championship, which will be contested Friday through Sunday (May 4-6) at Legacy Ridge Golf Course in Westminster.

A full field of 60 teams is scheduled to compete in the scatch Four-Ball over 54 holes, including defending champions Jon Lindstrom and Richard Bradsby of Lakewood Country Club. Lindstrom is one of two three-time winners of the CGA Four-Ball, along with fellow Lakewood CC member Steve Irwin. Lindstrom, a three-time CGA Mid-Amateur champion, has earned Four-Ball titles in 2002, 2012 and 2017.

Other former CGA Four-Ball champions in the field this weekend are Sam Marley and James Richardson of South Suburban Golf Course (2015), and Keith Humerickhouse of Glenwood Springs Golf Club and Jared Bickling of Gypsum Creek Golf Course (2014). Alex Buecking of Columbine Country Club won in 2009 and will team this year with Trent Isgrig of Cherry Hills Country Club.

Polk, of Colorado Golf Club, will try to win two CGA titles in a week as he’ll team with Jeff Chapman of Inverness Golf Club, who last year was paired with Andrew Tapia and lost in a playoff to Lindstrom and Bradsby.

Among the other teams in the field are Chris Thayer (a two-time CGA Mid-Amateur champion) and Nick Nosewicz (winner of the 2015 CGA Match Play); Jake Staiano (2017 CGA Player of the Year) and Pierce Aichinger (2015 Colorado Junior Match Play champion); Kyle Danford (two-time U.S. Amateur qualifier) and David Johnson, who qualified together for the 2016 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball.

For Friday’s tee times, CLICK HERE.
 

A summer after LCC members Steve Irwin and Richard Bradsby captured the championship at The Broadmoor Golf Club in Colorado Springs, Jon Lindstrom and Tom Lawrence from Lakewood CC earned the victory this week.

Lindstrom, winner of three CGA Mid-Amateur titles, and Lawrence, a former CGA president and current president and CEO of the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame, defeated Brooks Ferring and Oliver Lewis from Lakewood CC in the final match, 2 and 1.

In the semifinals, Lindstrom and Lawrence beat the defending champs, Irwin and Bradsby, 4 and 3. (The champions are pictured, with Lawrence at left, in a photo by Mic Garofolo of Mic Clik Photography).

For 75 years in the 20th century, The Broadmoor Invitation was considered one of the nation’s top amateur events. Among its winners are World Golf Hall of Famers Hale Irwin and Lawson Little, along with two-time U.S. Amateur champion Charlie Coe. But its run ended in 1995. It was resurrected in 2014 as a scratch four-ball championship for amateurs.
 

(NOTE: The original version of this story said that Jon Lindstrom was the only three-time winner of the CGA Four-Ball, but Steve Irwin has also won the event three times — in 2004, ’09 and ’16.)

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Jon Lindstrom went where just one man has gone before in the CGA Four-Ball Championship, and he and Richard Bradsby established a new team standard for the event.

Lindstrom became the second person to win the CGA Four-Ball at least three times — joining Steve Irwin with a trio of victories — and Lindstrom and fellow Lakewood Country Club member Bradsby posted the lowest total score by the winners of the championship since it went to 54 holes in 2011.

A day after scorching CommonGround Golf Course in Aurora with a tournament-best 11-under-par 60 in the scratch better-ball stroke-play format, Lindstrom and Bradsby prevailed in a playoff on Sunday, with Lindstrom pitching to 2 1/2 feet and draining the winning birdie putt on the first extra hole. (The champions are pictured, with Bradsby in light blue.)

“I’ve spent the last two weeks working with my instructor on shots just like that (pitch),” Lindstrom said. “I couldn’t wait to hit it, to be honest with you.”

Lindstrom, winner of the last two CGA Mid-Amateur titles and three Mid-Ams overall, and Bradsby finished at 22-under-par 191 after a closing 65. Also at that figure were 2015 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball qualifiers Jeff Chapman from Inverness Golf Club and Andrew Tapia from The Ridge at Castle Pines North. 

Chapman made a hole-in-one on his first hole of the day, the 148-yard second, with a 9-iron. It was his second career ace. Then five holes later, on the par-5 seventh, Tapia added an eagle of his own as the team shot a 10-under-par 61 in regulation on Sunday. But in the playoff, neither Chapman nor Tapia could birdie the par-5 18th. Tapia was in deep rough off the tee and settled for par. And, after a very long drive, Chapman was just off the green in two, but his chip stopped 20 feet short of the hole and he missed his birdie attempt. (The runners-up are pictured at left, with Chapman in yellow shirt.)

“I didn’t hit a very good chip there; it just didn’t release,” Chapman said.

Colorado State University teammates Jake Staiano, of Glenmoor Country Club, and Blake Cannon finished in third place, one out of the playoff. They birdied the last four holes — and nine of their last 12 — to shoot 64. 

Sunday’s CGA title was the eighth for the 49-year-old Lindstrom, who has three Mid-Ams, three Four-Balls and two Two-Mans with Dean Clapp to his credit. Lindstrom’s previous Four-Ball championships came with Clapp (2012) and Rick Larson (2002). Lindstrom and Clapp also finished second in a playoff in 2009.

“I just like doing (team events),” Lindstrom said. “If we make a bogey, I take ownership. It’s just a lot of fun. You’re strategizing around the shots and what to hit.”

Meanwhile, the 48-year-old Bradsby claimed his first CGA title on Sunday, though he has won two other four-ball championships in the last year — The Broadmoor Invitation in 2016 with Irwin and the The Gallery Invitational in Marana, Ariz., two weeks ago with Brian Dorfman, the 2012 CGA Match Play champion.

“It feels great (to break through in a CGA championship),” Bradsby said. “I was close on this one a few years ago (in 2014, when he and Lindstrom finished second), so it was nice to get across the line.

“Four-ball events have been good to me. I tend to be pretty steady. I can be in play quite a bit and am comfortable with the pressure when you really need to get something done and your partner is in trouble.”

On Sunday, Bradsby helped get himself and Lindstrom into a playoff with a 4-foot eagle on the 11th hole — after a 7-iron approach from 190 yards — and a 15-foot birdie on No. 15 after the team had suffered a bogey on the previous hole.

Lindstrom, who had shot 64 on his own ball in Saturday’s round, carded five birdies between holes 5 and 13 on Sunday, in addition to the winner in the playoff.

The champions were paired in the final round with Staiano and Cannon, who are their juniors by more than a quarter-century. 

“I’ve played with those guys (college golfers) enough times that I don’t try to hit it up there with them,” Lindstrom noted. “I have a game plan. Once in a while you notice they’re 60 yards by you. That’s cool. In the end (it may or may not make a difference).

“There’s a challenge to it knowing you’ve got 7-iron in (for an approach shot) and they’ve got wedge and you try to beat them. It kind of motivates you.”

For the scores from the CGA Four-Ball, CLICK HERE.

Lindstrom, a two-time Four-Ball champion, and Bradsby, the 2016 Broadmoor Invitation winner with then-partner Steve Irwin, made 11 birdies and no bogeys in round 2 to go up by two strokes heading into Sunday’s final round. Their 60 was the best score — by three strokes — in this year’s tournament. After tallying birdies on each of their last four holes on Saturday, they stand at 16-under-par 126 after 36 holes.

Lindstrom has won the CGA Mid-Amateur title three times, including each of the past two years.

Sitting in second place going into Sunday are Colorado State University teammates Jake Staiano, from Glenmoor Country Club, and Blake Cannon, who are at 128 after a second-round 65. They racked up eight birdies on Saturday, with all of them coming on the first 10 holes at CommonGround.

Two other teams in the scratch better-ball stroke-play event are also sub-130 through two days. Nick Nosewicz, the 2015 CGA Match Play champion from Meadow Hills Golf Course, and Tom Krystyn of CommonGround checked in at 129 after a bogey-free 63 in round 2. Also at that figure are Taylor Kennedy of Columbine Country Club and Alex Leonida of The Ridge at Castle Pines North, who made an eagle and five birdies in Saturday’s 64.

Sam Marley and James Richardson of South Suburban Golf Course, and Alex Buecking and Sean Crowley of Columbine Country Club, who shared the lead with Staiano and Cannon after round 1, dropped back with a 69 and a 68, respectively, on Saturday.

Lindstrom and Bradsby, and Staiano and Cannon will be paired together for Sunday’s final round.

For the scores from the CGA Four-Ball, CLICK HERE.

Irwin and Bradsby were the medalists in the stroke-play portion of the event with a four-ball score of 66 at The Broadmoor Golf Club’s East Course. Then they won three matches — two at the West Course and the final at the East — to earn the championship last Thursday.

In the final, Irwin and Bradsby defeated Jordan Wilson and Andy Emerson from Loch Lloyd, Mo., 2 and 1. In the semifinals, the Lakewood team ousted the 2015 champions.

For 75 years in the 20th century, The Broadmoor Invitation was considered one of the nation’s top amateur events. But its run ended in 1995. It was resurrected in 2014 as a scratch four-ball championship, though this was the first time competing in the event for Irwin and Bradsby. This year’s field featured 42 two-man teams, representing 13 states.

Irwin, a former CGA Player of the Year, has competed in one U.S. Open and two U.S. Amateurs. Bradsby is likewise a regular participant in CGA championships. (Irwin, left, and Bradsby, right, are pictured with Dow Finsterwald, the former director of golf at The Broadmoor.)