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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It certainly didn’t have the final-day drama of Arnold Palmer’s U.S. Open win in 1960 — then again, very few tournaments do — or Jack Nicklaus’ U.S. Senior Open triumph in 1993. But with the BMW Championship being a FedExCup Playoff event, with all the big names and side ramifications, its last round managed to entertain despite the lead never changing hands.

Floridian Billy Horschel never trailed on Sunday at Cherry Hills Country Club in posting his second PGA Tour victory, but it was who he left in his wake that was impressive. Seven of the top 15 players in the world rankings finished in the top 10 in the BMW: Bubba Watson (second Sunday); Sergio Garcia, Rickie Fowler and Jim Furyk (tied for fourth); and Rory McIlroy, Adam Scott and Jordan Spieth (tied for eighth).

It was a welcome performance for Horschel after having a chance to win on Monday at the Deutsche Bank Championship near Boston, then hitting his approach shot on the final hole into a hazard and making bogey.

“It means a lot to win, especially an event in the FedExCup Playoffs, because it’s amplified 10 times really,” he said. “… Hopefully this win will give me some more confidence and shoot me up there into an upper-echelon player where I want to be. I want to be where the Rory McIlroys are, the Tigers are, the Phil Mickelsons, the Bubba Watsons, the guys winning majors. I want to compete with them on a Sunday at a major championship, go head to head with them and have a chance to win majors.”

After taking a three-stroke advantage into Sunday, the 27-year-old Horschel led or shared the lead throughout the final round. Ryan Palmer tied him at No. 6 and No. 11. But a bogey at No. 12 and a double bogey following a shanked shot into the water from the left rough on 13 ended his challenge.

Horschel shot a 1-under-par 69 in the final round to post a winning total of 14-under 266. The victory was worth $1.44 million and it vaulted him to second in the FedExCup point standings (behind Chris Kirk) going into next week’s season finale at the Tour Championship, where the FedExCup champ will earn a $10 million annuity. (Sept. 14 update: Horschel went on to also win the Tour Championship and the overall FedExCup title.)

Watson (left) placed second on Sunday — his best Tour showing since winning the Masters in April — at 268 by carding three consecutive rounds of 66. A day after setting the competitive course record at Cherry Hills with a 62, Morgan Hoffmann almost matched it on Sunday, settling for a 63. He shot a 6-under 30 on the back nine for the second straight day, making a 16-foot eagle on No. 17 and then missing a 9-foot birdie attempt on No. 18. He finished at 269.

Though he didn’t win, Hoffmann did something almost as impressive. After starting the week No. 68 in the FedExCup standings, his 15-under-par weekend vaulted him into the top 30 and into an improbable berth in the Tour Championship in Atlanta. He started the playoffs in the No. 124 position and now is 21st.

“It means the world to me,” said Hoffmann, a former Oklahoma State teammate of Rickie Fowler’s. “Since the beginning of the season I’ve had a goal to get to Atlanta. Coming into the weekend, I knew I had to go pretty low. My caddie and I had a really good mindset and everything was positive this week.”

As far back as Hoffmann started, he didn’t challenge Horschel’s lead on Sunday. But Palmer did, catching him for the second time with a birdie at No. 11. But going bogey-double bogey the next two holes led to him dropping five strokes in the final seven holes and finishing fourth.

Palmer called his swing on the par-3 12th “probably the worst of the day or maybe for the week.” As for his shank into the water from the rough at No. 13, “When you’re going down in rough like that on a downhill lie, it’s going to come out squirrely. And it came out straight right, obviously, with a hook from the hosel. … You know, it’s a fickle game.”

Garcia still had a chance at two behind going into the par-5 17th. But he took a snowman (an 8) on that hole after taking 6 to get down from 83 yards away in the fairway. He put his third shot over the green, then pitched into the water.

“If I was mentally sharp, the way I was at the beginning and the middle of the year, I would have talked myself into going for the green (with his second shot),” Garcia said. “But for some reason, I was trying to, but I couldn’t. Then just mistake after mistake.”

Watson crept within two with a two-putt birdie on No. 17, but he ran out of holes with Horschel parring his final 11 holes Sunday.

“I started out slow in the tournament (70), but finished strong,” Watson said. “I had a chance on the last hole to scare him a little bit, but obviously I didn’t make that (24-foot birdie) putt and he played solid.”

As for Horschel (left), the victory gave him a solid answer to people who criticized him after he fell short Monday at the Deutsche Bank Championship.

“The people on Twitter and social media … say that I choked and ‘you’re no good,'” he noted. “That doesn’t affect me, but I just like to stick it to them and it was nice to get that victory and stick it to some of those people that had some negative comments for me. That just adds fuel to my fire, and I’m going to stick it to you every time.”

For BMW Championship scores, CLICK HERE.

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

For the second time in the same week, Billy Horschel has put himself in position to win a PGA Tour FedExCup Playoff event.

He came up short on Monday at the Deutsche Bank Championship near Boston, where he bogeyed the relatively easy 18th hole and squandered an opportunity to win or force a playoff with Chris Kirk.

But if the second-place finish on Labor Day was a big blow, Horschel isn’t showing it this week at the BMW Championship at Cherry Hills Country Club.

“It was just a bad swing at the wrong time” on Monday, Horschel said after shooting a 7-under-par 63 on Saturday and grabbing a three-stroke lead at Cherry Hills. “I’ve got some really thick skin, so nothing really bothers me too much. I’m a better player than I showed with that golf shot. But you can’t dwell on things like that. It wasn’t a big deal.”

Apparently not.

Horschel, who competed in the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship in Aurora in 2008 when he was one of the top-ranked amateurs in the world, has gone 68-66-63 at Cherry Hills for a 13-under-par 197 total for three days. After his bogey-free 7-under-par round Saturday, he’ll have a bit of a cushion heading into the final day.

“I thought I played good (66) and he beat me by a few,” noted Saturday playing partner Bubba Watson. “He’s a great ball-striker and when he gets his putter going, he can really score. And that’s what he did today.”

Ryan Palmer has carded scores of 64-67 the last two days, but he’s three behind going into the final 18 of the penultimate FedExCup Playoff event.

Two 2014 major champions, Watson (Masters) and Martin Kaymer (left, U.S. Open), are five back of Horschel after three rounds, with Kaymer losing ground despite his 64 Saturday. Rickie Fowler and Sergio Garcia, two other members of golf’s elite echelon, are next best, with Fowler at 203 and Garcia at 204.

Even though the greens were relatively soft in the wake of Thursday evening’s rainstorm, a 63 to take the lead wasn’t too shabby.

“Obviously, today was a great round,” said Horschel, a 27-year-old Floridian who has won once on the PGA Tour. “This is a real challenging golf course. Even though it’s playing a little softer than Thursday’s round, you’ve got to be smart out there. You can easily make bogeys if you get out of position. So that was probably one of the top three, top five rounds all year (for me).”

Horschel birdied four of the last five holes, capping things off with a 32-foot birdie on the tough 18th.

Palmer likewise drained a long birdie on 18 — from 30 feet in his case — to stay a little more within striking distance of Horschel.

“Take your hats off to Billy for shooting 7 under today; that was awesome,” said Palmer, who’s won three times on Tour, though not since 2010. “I’m just proud of the way I fought and hung in there today. I’m not used to playing with Rory (McIlroy) and Sergio in the final group with that kind of crowd.”

Asked if he was flying under the radar Saturday, Palmer said, “Obviously you heard a lot of ‘Rorys’ and ‘Sergios’, but I had my few ‘Ryans’ and ‘Palmers’. I had my 10, 15 people yelling for me.”

But NBC golf analyst Johnny Miller went so far as to call Palmer “the most improved player on Tour.”

As for Horschel, coming off the Deutsche Bank runner-up, he figured he’d be in the mix at the BMW Championship.

“I’m a momentum player,” he said. “I knew coming into this week I was going to play well.”

Morgan Hoffmann’s competitive course-record 62 and Horschel’s 63 were the best scores of the bunch on Saturday, but the majority of the field (35 players) broke par. But not among them were two crowd favorites who were paired in the final group with Palmer on Saturday. World No. 1 McIlroy and Garcia (left, with Palmer) matched 72s, leaving Garcia seven behind and McIlroy nine.

McIlroy, winner of the British Open and PGA Championship this summer, fell back with a triple-bogey on the par-3 12th hole. For just the sixth time in his PGA Tour career, McIlroy four-putted a hole. But this might have been the worst of the bunch, as the first of the four putts was from 4 feet. Not surprisingly, he subsequently swatted the ball to a watery grave.

“The 12th hole really derailed me,” he said, noting that it wasn’t until his third putt that he lost concentration. “Obviously, to go from being right there in the tournament (then) dropping three shots in one hole wasn’t what I wanted.”

For BMW Championship scores, CLICK HERE.
 

For Sunday’s final-round pairings, CLICK HERE.

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BMW Championship: The Essentials

What — BMW Championship PGA Tour FedExCup Playoff Event.

Where — Cherry Hills Country Club in Cherry Hills Village.

Schedule
Sept. 7: Sunday tee times from 9:35-11:15 a.m. off the first and 10th tees.

Gates Open — 8 a.m. 

TV Coverage — Sept. 7: 10 a.m.-noon, Golf Channel and noon-4 p.m., KUSA (9).

Free Admission for Juniors — Kids 16 and under will be admitted free to the BMW Championship when accompanied by an adult ticket or credential holder.

Military Admission Policy — All active-duty, retired, reserve and veterans will receive free admission for one day of the tournament. Each military member must verify his or her military status on the website (CLICK HERE) and print off a free ticket voucher in advance of the tournament.

Field — The top 70 players in the FedExCup Playoff standings after the Deutsche Bank Championship concluded on Sept. 1. There was no cut during the BMW Championship.

Purse — $8 million, with $1.44 million going to the winner.

Course Set-up — 7,352 yards. Par-70 (34-36). 3-inch-deep bluegrass rough. Greens 11-11.5 on Stimpmeter.

Tournament Beneficiary — All the net proceeds from the BMW Championship go to the Evans Scholars Foundation, which awards full tuition and housing college scholarships to worthy and qualified caddies with limited financial means. The average value of an Evans Scholarship nationwide is estimated to be $80,000. One of the 14 Evans Scholarship houses is located at the University of Colorado in Boulder. About 870 caddies are currently on scholarship nationwide, and the program has produced almost 10,000 alums since 1930, with about 430 from CU. Among the CU Evans Scholar alums is George Solich, the general chairman of the 2014 BMW Championship.

Autographs and Cameras — Not permitted during championship rounds Thursday through Sunday.

Tournament History — The BMW Championship’s predecessor, the Western Open, began in 1899, making it the third-oldest PGA Tour event, behind the British Open and U.S. Open. The tournament was renamed the BMW Championship in 2007 when it became part of the FedExCup Playoffs.

Course History — Cherry Hills Country Club, a William Flynn-designed course, opened in 1922. It has hosted a myriad of significant tournaments over the years: U.S. Opens in 1938, ’60 and ’78; PGA Championships in 1941 and ’85; a U.S. Women’s Open in 2005; U.S. Amateurs in 1990 and 2012; a U.S. Senior Open in 1993; a U.S. Senior Amateur in 1976; and a U.S. Mid-Amateur in 1983. Winners of those events include Arnold Palmer (’60 U.S. Open), Jack Nicklaus (’93 U.S. Senior Open) and Phil Mickelson (’90 U.S. Amateur).

For More Information — Visit the BMW Championship website (CLICK HERE.)