Pat Rea captured the title in Grand Junction each year from 1961 through ’64, and Skip Tredway went back-to-back in 1982 and ’83.

But on Sunday, those two had to make room in their elite club for former Brigham Young University golfer Justin Keiley.

The 2017 winner made it two straight at Tiara Rado Golf Course, but needed a playoff to do it. After tying former Montrose resident Brandon Bingaman at 21-under-par 192 for three rounds, Keiley birdied the first extra hole (No. 18) for the victory and the $10,000 that goes with it.

The result foiled the bid of Bingaman, who shot a course-record 11-under-par 60 in Sunday’s final round and eagled the 18th hole in regulation. Bingaman, a former Colorado Mesa University standout, won the National Car Rental Colorado PGA Assistants Championship in 2017. He went on to finish 28th in the national Assistant PGA Professional Championship in November.

Keiley shot rounds of 67-61-64, while Bingaman went 65-67-60.

Former Grand Junction resident Monte Montgomery (66-63-67), a three-time RMO winner, placed third at 196.

Taking low-amateur honors on Sunday was incoming University of Denver freshman Cal McCoy of Highlands Ranch, who went 68-68-71–207 to prevail by two in that division. Low senior am by two was Owen Ellis of Boulder (76-70-74–220).
 

Tiara Rado Golf Course in Grand Junction will host the Rocky Mountain Open Friday through Sunday (Aug. 17-19).

As usual, a strong field will be on hand.

Two-time CoBank Colorado Open champion Derek Tolan will be one of the bigger names competing. The former University of Colorado golfer won the Navajo Trail Open in Durango in June.

Also entered are three-time champion Monte Montgomery, a former Grand Junction resident; Doug Rohrbaugh, who has played in two PGA Tour Champions majors this year; 2017 champion Justin Keiley, a former BYU golfer; 2017 CGA Amateur champion Glenn Workman, the low amateur at the RMO last year before turning pro; former University of Colorado golfer Derek Fribbs, the 2015 RMO runner-up; Dillon Stewart, the reigning Junior America’s Cup individual champion; three-time Wyoming State Open winner Kane Webber; and University of Denver men’s coach Erik Billinger.

The RMO has a rich history in western Colorado. Among the winners of the tournament is Orville Moody, who captured the 1975 title six years after claiming victory at the U.S. Open. Babe Didrikson Zaharias, named the top female athlete of the first half of the 20th century, finished third in the 1946 RMO as an amateur and competed in 1950 as a pro. Nate Lashley, a rookie on the PGA Tour this season, won the RMO in 2014.

For the Rocky Mountain Open field, CLICK HERE.
 

Workman, who won both the CGA Amateur and Wyoming State Amateur in 2017, added low-amateur honors in the 79th RMO to being low-am in the Wyoming State Open last month.

Workman closed with a 3-under-par 68 on Sunday at Tiara Rado Golf Course, giving him an 8-under 205 total, which was one better than any other amateur in the field. He made seven birdies on Sunday, including ones on Nos. 16 and 18.

Dillon Stewart of Fort Collins, who led the tournament overall after round 1, tied for second place among amateurs at 206. Also at that figure was Denver City Amateur champion Grant Olinger and Quintin Pope, a University of Wyoming teammate of Workman. Olinger fired a 65 on Sunday, while Pope had a 68 and Stewart a 72.

In the overal competition, Keiley earned the $10,000 first prize with his two-stroke victory. After taking a five-shot lead into the final round, the Hawaiian was 1 over par for the day through 12 holes. But he birdied 13 and 17 and didn’t make any more bogeys the rest of the way to post a 70. That left him at 15-under-par 198 overall.

Taylor Montgomery, a rookie pro after playing his college golf at Nevada-Las Vegas, tied for second at 200 after carding a final-round 64. He played his final six holes in 4 under par. Ryan Wallen, a former Wyoming teammate of Workman and Pope, also shared second place after closing with a bogey-free 63 that featured an eagle on the 300-yard par-4 seventh hole.

The top Colorado finisher was 2016 CGA Match Play champion Nathaniel Goddard of Fort Collins, who tied for fifth at 203 (66-71-66).

Owen Ellis of Boulder claimed senior amateur honors with a 5-over-par 218 total. He carded a 72 on Sunday.

For the final Rocky Mountain Open scores, CLICK HERE.
 

Keiley has yet to make a bogey through the first 36 holes, after which he owns a 14-under-par 128 total. On Saturday, he carded eight birdies, giving him 14 for two days.

Richard Gaona of Miami, Ariz., holds second place at 133 after shooting a bogey-free 65 on Saturday.

Amateur Dillon Stewart from Fort Collins, a junior golfer who led after Friday’s first-round 64, stands in third place at 8-under 134 following a 70 on Saturday. Stewart, a member of the Colorado Junior America’s Cup team this summer, leads CGA Amateur champion Glenn Workman by three in the low-amateur competition.

Play will concluded on Sunday at Tiara Rado. The winner — or low professional should an amateur prevail — will receive $10,000.

For Rocky Mountain Open scores, CLICK HERE.
 

Dillon Stewart of Fort Collins, part of the Colorado Junior America’s Cup team that recently finished fourth out of an 18-team field last month in Washington state, shot a 7-under-par 64 at Tiara Rado Golf Course to grab a one-stroke lead in the tournament.

The runner-up to Davis Bryant of Aurora in the 2017 Colorado Junior PGA Championship, Stewart (pictured) made eight birdies and one bogey in the opening round.

Former Brigham Young University golfer Justin Keiley carded the best score among the professionals on Friday, a bogey-free 65. He played his first eight holes in 6 under, then parred his final 10 holes.

Tied for third place at 66 are 2016 CGA Match Play champion Nathaniel Goddard, who finished third last year in Grand Junction; three-time RMO winner Monte Montgomery; and 2017 CGA Amateur champion Glenn Workman. Montgomery made two eagles in Friday’s round.

The tournament will continue through Sunday, with all the action at Tiara Rado for the first time this year.

For Rocky Mountain Open scores, CLICK HERE.
 

The big change this year is that, instead of the RMO being conducted at multiple courses, as has been the case in the recent past, this year it’s all based at Tiara Rado Golf Course for the first time.

From 2010 through ’15, Bookcliff co-hosted the event with Tiara Rado, and last year the Golf Club at Redlands Mesa joined Tiara Rado.

The 79th annual tournament will be conducted Friday through Sunday (Aug. 18-20), with a pro-am set for Thursday. The event will feature a $75,000 purse, with $10,000 going to the winner — or low professional.

Among the pros in the field this year are two-time CoBank Colorado Open champion Derek Tolan, 2017 Wyoming State Open winner David Oraee, 2007 RMO champ Scott Petersen, three-time RMO winner Monte Montgomery, and Nathaniel Goddard, who finished third last year.

Among the amateurs entered are 2017 CGA Amateur champion Glenn Workman, this year’s CGA Match Play winner Chris Korte, and Josh Seiple, who advanced to the round of 32 at this summer’s British Amateur.

For Friday’s tee times, CLICK HERE.

Nick Mason (pictured) of Denver ended that streak on Sunday — with an exclamation point. And it didn’t stop with Mason claiming the title. The second- and third-place professional finishers — Jim Knous of Englewood and Nathaniel Goddard of Fort Collins, respectively — were also Coloradans.

Six years after Ben Portie of Westminster won the RMO, Mason prevailed by seven strokes in the 78th edtion of the tournament.

Mason, who has played in five PGA Tour events over the years — including the 2014 U.S. Open, shot 65-64-65 at the event held at both Tiara Rado Golf Course and the Golf Club at Redlands Mesa. That left him at 20-under-par 194 overall. He posted 20 birdies and one eagle (on the 13th hole Sunday), while making just two bogeys in 54 holes. The victory was worth $10,000.

Knous, who finished third last year in the RMO, moved up a spot this time, closing with a 68 for a 201 total.

Goddard, the 2016 CGA Match Play champion who just turned pro, checked in third at 203 after a final-round 67. Also at that figure was low-amateur Isaac Petersilie of Colorado Springs, the University of Denver-bound golfer who carded a 68 on Sunday. He prevailed by five over Taylor Montgomery in the amateur competiton.

Robin Bradbury of Superior, who just qualified for the U.S. Senior Amateur, claimed the title in the senior amateur division. After he tied Scott Sullivan and Owen Ellis with a three-day total of 6-over-par 220, Bradbury prevailed in a playoff.

This year marked the first time that Redlands Mesa was part of the RMO’s championship rotation.

For scores from the RMO, CLICK HERE.

Editor’s Note: With the CGA celebrating the 100th anniversary of its founding in 1915, this is the third monthly installment of a series of stories looking back on the last century of golf in Colorado. All the articles are being published on coloradogolf.org. This chapter focuses on the period from 1935-44. For a list of all the installments to date, CLICK HERE.

The decade from 1935 to ’44 was certainly a tumultuous time in the country, with the Great Depression lasting through the ’30s and then World War II posing one of the biggest challenges the U.S. has ever faced.

Ironically, it was during this same period that Colorado golf burst onto the national scene.

Twice in a remarkably short timespan of less than three years, Cherry Hills Country Club hosted major championships — the first two of what is now a half-dozen men’s majors that have come to the state. Five of those six have been held at Cherry Hills.

The club was the site of the 1938 U.S. Open — the first Open staged west of Minneapolis — and the 1941 PGA Championship, the first PGA held in the Mountain Time Zone.

Will Nicholson Sr. (left), a future Denver mayor, was a member of the USGA Executive Committee from 1937-41. He served as general chairman of the ’38 Open after playing an integral role, with prominent local insurance man Clarence Daly, in bringing the tournament to Colorado.

With the Great Depression still plaguing the country, and with the U.S. Open never having ventured west of Minneapolis, the USGA was concerned about ticket sales and therefore required Cherry Hills to raise money for a $10,000 bond to assure profitability. Nicholson and Daly took the lead in that effort so the championship could go on.

“It was the first time that (major) championship golf had ever come to Colorado, and it wouldn’t have come to Colorado if it wasn’t for one person, and that person is Will Nicholson Sr.,” current Cherry Hills head professional John Ogden noted in a 2013 speech. “He had the vision and the determination to bring championship golf not just to Cherry Hills but to Colorado. Since then, we know what has happened. Cherry Hills has had numerous championships, the Broadmoor, Columbine (and) The International kind of sprung from that. Without the vision of Mr. Nicholson, none of this would be possible.”

At the ’38 Open, Ralph Guldahl (pictured at top) rallied with a final-round 69 and won by six strokes — the largest margin at the U.S. Open since 1921 — in successfully defending his national title. He holds the distinction of being the last U.S. Open champ to win while wearing a necktie. Ironically, shortly after prevailing at the U.S. Open, Guldahl lost by three strokes at his home course in the New Jersey State Open.

The 1938 U.S. Open also will be remembered for the tournament’s single-hole-record 19 that competitor Ray Ainsley recorded on the par-4 16th hole, where he kept whacking at his ball in the creek near the green.

Guldahl was one of the top golfers in the world in the late ’40s, supplementing his two U.S. Open victories with a Masters title and three straight wins in the Western Open, which then was considered a major championship of sorts.

Overall, the ’38 Open proved a big success, drawing about 37,000 spectators for the week to Cherry Hills.

Three years later, another of the current Grand Slam events visited Cherry Hills. Through 1957, the PGA Championship was a match-play event, and the ’41 version was the last time the 36-hole final went extra holes.

At Cherry Hills, defending champion Byron Nelson defeated Guldahl, Ben Hogan and Gene Sarazen to reach the final, but Vic Ghezzi foiled Nelson’s run to the title by outlasting him in 38 holes. Nelson missed a 30-inch putt on the second green. It would be the only major championship for Ghezzi, who rallied after being 3 down after 27 holes in the final match.

Here are some of the other Colorado golf highlights from the period 1935-44:

— In 1936, the Rocky Mountain Golf Course Superintendents Association was founded, with the goal of improving golf course management practices through education, sharing knowledge and networking.

— Starting in 1937, the Denver District Golf Association conducted a stroke-play championship. For more than two decades, what are now known as the CGA Match Play and Stroke Play championships were conducted by separate organizations. Nate Grimes won the first Stroke Play title in 1937. Babe Lind captured two of his three Stroke Plays during World War II (1941 and ’42), sparking a career that would culminate with his being inducted in the inaugural class of the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 1973. In 1943, Claude Wright won the first of his four Stroke Plays. He also claimed two Match Play titles (1944 and ’56).

— In 1939, the first Rocky Mountain Open is played in Grand Junction. The event has been held each year since, making it the oldest continuously-conducted golf championship in Colorado that is open to both professionals and amateurs.

— In 1942, a group of African-American golfers based at City Park Golf Course formed the East Denver Golf Club. East Denver GC, which wasn’t allowed membership in the CGA until the early 1960s, became a member of the Central States Golf Association, a group of golf clubs with primarily African-American members.

— Several of the nation’s top amateur championships were held in Colorado in the decade beginning in 1935. The Western Amateur was hosted by the Broadmoor in 1935 and ’41, the latter being one of three Western Ams won by Bud Ward in the 1940s. The Broadmoor was also the site of the 1939 Trans Miss — won by Chick Harbert, who would go on to earn seven titles on the PGA Tour — while Cherry Hills hosted the ’37 Trans Miss. And the Women’s Trans National came to Denver Country Club in 1936.

In addition, Sam Snead played an exhibition at Boulder Golf Club (now the site of Flatirons Golf Course) in the late 1930s. A photo with a scoreboard from that day notes that Snead went 9 under par.

Next up: 1945-54, when legends Babe Zaharias and Ben Hogan made their mark in Colorado golf.