Eight years ago, the golfer from The Club at Rolling Hills earned the CGA Senior Player of the Year Award. And this fall, the 65-year-old from Morrison has added the CGA Super-Senior POY honor for players 62 and older.
Forey (left) joins the previously announced CGA men’s players of the year: AJ Ott of Ptarmigan Country Club (Les Fowler Player of the Year), Chris Thayer of Walnut Creek Golf Preserve (Mid-Amateur Player of the Year) and Steve Ivan of Patty Jewett Golf Course (Senior Player of the Year). For more on those honorees, CLICK HERE.
The CGA women’s players of the year were Mary Weinstein of CommonGround Golf Course (Player of the Year) and Kristine Franklin of Colorado National Golf Club (Senior Player of the Year). For more on their accomplishments, CLICK HERE.
Forey recorded two victories in CGA super-senior events in 2018 — at the Super-Senior Stroke Play and the super-senior division of the CGA Senior Four-Ball — with Scott Radcliffe.
At the Super-Senior Stroke Play in August at Perry Park Country Club, Forey notched a four-shot victory. After finishing second, third, fourth and fifth in previous appearances at the event, landing the title was a welcome outcome for him.
Besides his showings at the Super-Senior Stroke Play and the Senior Four-Ball, Forey was a semifinalist in the CGA Super-Senior Match Play and finished ninth in the CGA Senior Amateur that was won by 63-year-old Robert Polk.
Forey, the low amateur in the CoBank Colorado Senior Open in both 2008 and 2010, led the CGA super-senior points list this year.
(Updated Dec. 7) The last three years, players who have started their college golf careers at Colorado State University have treated the CGA Les Fowler Player of the Year Award like a tag-team affair.
The honor has gone from one Ram signee to another to another.
Kyler Dunkle, who transferred from CSU to Utah in 2016, started the run that same year. In 2017, it was CSU’s Jake Staiano who earned the award as the top amateur golfer in the state. And this year, the Rams’ AJ Ott (left) has landed the CGA Les Fowler POY honor.
“It really means a lot,” Ott said recently by text regarding earning the award. “We have so many good players around the state and I’m very blessed just to be able to compete with those guys. We’re all very close friends and have played against each other in Colorado since we were kids, which makes competing against one another that much better.”
Ott, a Fort Collins resident who plays out of Ptarmigan Country Club, is one of three CGA men’s players of the year that have been decided for 2018. On Monday, we’ll publish a story on the CGA women’s players of the year.
Other CGA men’s honorees that have been settled on are Chris Thayer (below) of Walnut Creek Golf Preserve (Mid-Amateur POY), Steve Ivan of Patty Jewett Golf Course in Colorado Springs (Senior POY) and Sean Forey of The Club at Rolling Hills (Super-Senior POY). See below for the highlights of their 2018 seasons.
As for Ott, the 21-year-old left-hander won the 118th CGA Match Play title and qualified for his second straight U.S. Amateur to highlight a stellar season.
At the CGA Match Play at The Golf Club at Ravenna, Ott shot a 6-under-par 65 to finish second in the stroke-play qualifying round, then won six matches. He was particularly impressive in the last two. He made a double eagle in beating former champion Brian Dorfman 3 and 1 in the semifinals. Then in one of the most lopsided scheduled 36-hole finals in the event’s history, Ott defeated friend Ross Macdonald 9 and 8 for the title.
“I think the Match Play this year was great just because of the week-long test and it felt good to finally come through and get a win,” Ott said. “Playing against one of my best friends, Ross, was something I’ll never forget. He’s helped me a lot with my game in the past and we both have had our struggles at times so it was great to see us both get to that final match at the end of the week.”
In U.S. Amateur qualifying at Fort Collins Country Club, Ott fired rounds of 68-65 to finish second and earn a berth in the national championship for the second consecutive year.
Elsewhere this year, Ott placed 19th in the CoBank Colorado Open — third among amateurs — and 10th in the CGA Amateur. In college events in 2018, He finished fifth in the Mountain West Conference Championship and ninth in both the Ram Masters Invitational and the Paintbrush Invitational.
The CGA Les Fowler Player of the Year honor is the second statewide POY award for Ott, who was the 2016 Junior Golf Alliance of Colorado’s Boys Player of the Year.
As for highlights for the other CGA players of the year that have been decided …
— Chris Thayer of Walnut Creek Golf Preserve (CGA Mid-Amateur Player of the Year) — Thayer has now won this award the last four years, which establishes a record for the 25-and-older category.
Thayer has a remarkable record in the CGA Mid-Amateur in recent years. In the last five times the championship has been contested, he’s finished first, second, second, first and second. He was runner-up in the event in late September, a stroke behind champion Jared Reid.
Earlier in September, Thayer tied for 53rd place in the stroke-play portion of the U.S. Mid-Amateur, but failed in a playoff to advance to match play. The month before, he earned medalist honors in Colorado-based qualifying for the event.
Thayer also finished 13th in the CGA Amateur — following a final-round 66 at Pinehurst Country Club — and was among three players who represented Colorado at the Pacific Coast Amateur in San Francisco. Early in the season, he teamed with Nick Nosewicz to place third in the CGA Four-Ball Championship.
— Steve Ivan of Patty Jewett Golf Course (CGA Senior Player of the Year) — Ivan (left) has accomplished plenty in golf over the decades, but in the last 14 months or so, he’s certainly stepped it up a notch on the state level.
The former University of Colorado golfer — he was a teammate of 1996 U.S. Open champion Steve Jones — Ivan won the 2017 CGA Senior Amateur. He finished runner-up in the 2018 CGA Senior Match Play, falling to Wyoming resident John Hornbeck in the final. And he also placed second in his title defense at the 2018 CGA Senior Amateur, behind only three-time CGA Senior POY Robert Polk.
Ivan, winner of the 1979 CGA Junior Match, finished second among amateurs at the CoBank Colorado Senior Open, and was fourth in the qualifying tournament for the U.S. Senior Open, falling a little short of advancing to the national championship held at The Broadmoor Golf Club in Colorado Springs.
— Sean Forey of The Club at Rolling Hills (CGA Super-Senior Player of the Year) — Now Forey will have bookends for his trophy case.
Eight years ago, the golfer from The Club at Rolling Hills earned the CGA Senior Player of the Year Award. And this fall, the 65-year-old from Morrison has added the CGA Super-Senior POY honor for players 62 and older.
Forey (left) recorded two victories in CGA super-senior events in 2018 — at the Super-Senior Stroke Play and the super-senior division of the CGA Senior Four-Ball — with Scott Radcliffe.
At the Super-Senior Stroke Play in August at Perry Park Country Club, Forey notched a four-shot victory. After finishing second, third, fourth and fifth in previous appearances at the event, landing the title was a welcome outcome for him.
Besides his showings at the Super-Senior Stroke Play and the Senior Four-Ball, Forey was a semifinalist in the CGA Super-Senior Match Play and finished ninth in the CGA Senior Amateur that was won by 63-year-old Robert Polk.
Forey, the low amateur in the CoBank Colorado Senior Open in both 2008 and 2010, led the CGA super-senior points list this year.
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Since Sean Forey started competing in the CGA Super-Senior Stroke Play in 2013, he’d pretty much run the gamut of top-five finishes, with one notable exception.
The golfer from The Club at Rolling Hills was second in 2016, third in 2014 (one shot out of a playoff), fourth in 2013 and fifth last year.
And as for that one exception, he cleared that from the books on Thursday at Perry Park Country Club in Larkspur.
The 65-year-old led wire-to-wire in this week’s 36-hole championship, eventually winning by four shots.
“I’ve been so close so many times, so it’s nice to win this,” he said. “As you get a little older, you think your chances go down a little bit. But I’ve been there in the hunt in just about every one of these. So it does make it sweeter to get it done.”
Forey (pictured above and below) shot the low score each day — a 1-over-par 73 on Wednesday and a 74 in windy conditions on Thursday — to post a 3-over 147 total in the tournament for players 62 and older.
Forey, the CGA Senior Player of the Year in 2010 and a two-low amateur in the Colorado Senior Open, made two birdies and four bogeys on Thursday and was never seriously threatened down the stretch.
Rick George of Castle Pines Golf Club, a one-time runner-up in the CGA Mid-Amateur, lost some ground with a double-bogey 7 on the fourth hole, but made two birdies, shot 77 and finished second at 151.
“(Sean) got ahead by three or four shots. It was never really close,” the 66-year-old George said. “Sean played good. Hats off to him.”
As for his runnerup showing, George noted, “I’ve been working on my game and been seeing some progress. I’m pleased. You always look back on what you didn’t do, but I’m pleased. It’s something to build on.”
Three former champions were next on the leaderboard. Kary Kaltenbacher of Glenmoor Country Club, the Super-Senior Stroke Play winner in 2014, recorded consecutive 76s and checked in third at 152. Gary Albrecht of CommonGround Golf Course, the defending champ, and 2015 winner Robert Polk of Colorado Golf Club shared fourth place at 154, likewise after 76s on Thursday.
In the end, Forey’s putting might have made the difference. A member at Rolling Hills, which features some of the toughest greens in the state, Forey three-putted just twice in 36 holes at Perry Park.
“These greens are difficult to put the ball in the hole,” the Morrison resident said. “It’s really hard to make birdies. I don’t think there’s any doubt that the reason I did well is that I only had two three-putts in two days. Some of the guys had four a day. That comes from (playing at) Rolling Hills. We putt on severe greens there.”
Donnellan Claims 72-and-Over Title in First CGA Event: In the 72-and-older division, Shaun Donnellan of Maroon Creek Club in Aspen, who was competing in his first CGA championship, earned the title.
The native of South Africa (left), who now splits time between Aspen and Vero Beach, Fla., rallied from a two-stroke deficit after Wednesday to win by two on Thursday.
“This was my first CGA championship. You get emails from the Colorado Golf Association, but I could never fit it in with my schedule” until this year.
“It’s just fun still playing competitive golf. I don’t play as much (tournament golf) as I’d like — probably four or five events a year.”
Donnellan, a 73-year-old who competed in the British Amateur 50 years ago this summer, posted rounds of 76-77 for a 9-over-par 153 total. Belying his age, he drove the 303-yard seventh hole (his 16th on Thursday) and two-putted for birdie before closing with consecutive bogeys.
First-round leader Roger Gunderson of CommonGround Golf Course took a triple-bogey 7 on the 15th hole — his sixth — after going out of bounds and struggled to an 81. He shared second place in the division with two-time defending champion Don Alley of Antler Creek Golf Course (77 Thursday, also including a triple bogey) and Bob Sims of Clubcorp Colorado (78).
For scores from the CGA Super-Senior Stroke Play, click on 62-AND-OVER, 72-AND-OVER.
]]>Sean Forey (left) of The Club at Rolling Hills, who twice has been low amateur at the Colorado Senior Open, grabbed the lead in the 62-and-older division, shooting a 1-over-par 73.
And Roger Gunderson of CommonGround Golf Course, who won both the CGA Senior Amateur and CGA Senior Match Play during the 1990s, opened with a 74 to take a two-shot advantage in the 72-plus “masters” division.
The final round of the 36-hole championship will be held on Thursday.
Forey made two birdies and three bogey on Wednesday to earn a one-shot lead.
Rick George of Castle Pines Golf Club sits in second place at 74, while Fred Brown of The Club at Carlton Woods near Houston carded a 75. Kary Kaltenbacher of Glenmoor Country Club, the 2014 champion, shares fourth place at 76 with Frank Hernandez of Highland Meadows Golf Course.
Defending champion Gary Albrecht of CommonGround started with a 78.
In the older age division, Gunderson recorded two birdies and four bogeys for his 74.
Shaun Donnellan of Maroon Creek Club was next best at 76, while Bob Sims of Clubcorp Colorado posted a 77.
Don Alley of Antler Creek Golf Course, winner of the older division the last two years, shot a 78 on Wednesday.
For scores from the CGA Super-Senior Stroke Play, click on 62-AND-OVER, 72-AND-OVER.
For Thursday’s tee times, CLICK HERE.
]]>Fifty-five players will be in the field, with the top three finishers earning spots in the Senior Am, which will be contested Aug. 25-30 at Eugene Country Club in Oregon.
Of those 55, almost one-fifth have competed in the U.S. Senior Am just in the last five years.
The list includes Wyoming resident John Hornbeck, the 2018 CGA Senior Match Play champion who has played in three U.S. Senior Amateurs, going to the quarterfinals in 2016. Also, there’s three-time CGA Senior Player of the Year Robert Polk (round of 64 in 2017), Guy Mertz (2017), Robin Bradbury (round of 64 in 2016), Gary Albrecht (2016), Jim Reynolds (2016), Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Kent Moore (2015), Thomas Roos (2015), and David Delich and Harry Johnson (both 2013 and ’14).
Also competing on Tuesday are Steve Ivan, winner of the 2017 CGA Senior Amateur and runner-up in the 2018 CGA Senior Match Play; Charlie Post, who played in the 2017 U.S. Senior Open; 2015 CGA Senior Amateur winner Bill Fowler; 2014 CGA Senior Match Play champ Tom Musselman and Sean Forey.
For Tuesday’s tee times, CLICK HERE.
Olive (pictured), who’s earned a record seven CGA Senior Player of the Year awards himself, won the Super-Senior Match Play in 2015.
On a day that saw five of the eight round-of-16 matches go to the 18th hole, defending champion and top seed Kent Moore of Cherry Hills Country Club scored a 2-up victory over Gary Kephart of Patty Jewett Golf Course. And two-time Senior Player of the Year Harry Johnson of Eagle Ranch Golf Course, the fourth seed, slipped by Rick George of Castle Pines Golf Club, 1 up.
Also among those advancing to the quarterfinals were third-seeded Sean Forey of The Club at Rolling Hills (2 and 1) and fifth-seeded Jim Reynolds of Bear Creek Golf Club, the 2017 runner-up in this event (2 up).
Wednesday will feature both the quarterfinals and the semifinals, while the finals are set for Thursday morning.
The Super-Senior Match Play is limited to competitors at least 62 years old.
For results from the Super-Senior Match Play, CLICK HERE.
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Moore (pictured), a Colorado Golf Hall of Famer and the No. 1 seed this week, scored a 7-and-5 victory over Carl Peters of Twin Peaks Golf Course in the round of 32 in this event for competitors 62 and older.
Second-seeded Robert Polk of Colorado Golf Club, a three-time CGA Senior Player of the Year, was even more dominant on Monday, posting an 8-and-6 win over Richard Pober of the Club at Pradera.
Other top seeds who won on Monday were No. 3 Sean Forey of the Club at Rolling Hills (5 and 4), No. 4 Harry Johnson of Eagle Ranch Golf Course (6 and 5) and 2017 runner-up Jim Reynolds of Bear Creek Golf Club, the fifth seed (2 and 1).
The only top-10 seeds to lose on Monday were No. 6 Steve Bell of CommonGround Golf Course (falling 1 up to Patrick Mooney of Colorado Golf Club) and No. 10 Frank Wilkinson of Lincoln Park Golf Course (5 and 3 to Dave Brown of Highlands Ranch Golf Club).
Colorado Golf Hall of Famer John Olive, the 2015 champion, defeated Mark Barkley of Clubcorp Colorado, 4 and 3, and will face Polk in Tuesday’s round of 16.
Play at the Super-Senior Match Play will continue through Thursday, with Wednesday featuring quarterfinal and semifinal matches.
For results from the Super-Senior Match Play, CLICK HERE.
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If the way the first CGA championship of 2018 ended is any indication, it could be one memorable season.
The 37th CGA Senior Four-Ball culminated in spectacular fashion on Wednesday at West Woods Golf Club in Arvada.
With his partner out of the hole and his two opponents less than half the distance from the cup, former CGA president Bill Fowler drained a 60-foot-plus birdie putt on the second hole of sudden death to give he and Robert Polk of Colorado Golf Club their second Senior Four-Ball title in the last three years.
“It was probably one of the most exciting finishes of golf I’ve had in a long time,” Fowler said at the trophy presentation. “I’ll be celebrating that for a while.”
Fowler, from The Club at Rolling Hills, and Polk handed Guy Mertz and Tony Workman of The Fox Hill Club their second similar playoff loss in the CGA Senior Four-Ball. In 2012, Jerry Kidney and Daniel Dymerski defeated Mertz and Workman on the fifth hole of a playoff when Dymerski sank a 15-foot birdie putt.
“Did you see it bounce up when it hit the hole?” Mertz said of Fowler’s putt. “If he misses that (and it goes by quite a bit), we probably win with a 4. At worst we go on. That was twice as long as any putt I saw go in the whole tournament. It’s one of those turnarounds that you just … But that’s golf. It happens. But it’s happened to us twice now.”
Said Workman: “It was a hell of a putt.”
On a cold and sometimes rainy final day, Polk and Fowler shot the best score on Wednesday — a 4-under-par 68 — to rally from three strokes down going into the final round. With Polk getting up and down for birdie on the final hole of regulation, they finished with a winning total of 12-under-par 204. (The winners are pictured, with Fowler at right above and at left below.)
It was the fourth CGA Senior Four-Ball title for Polk, who won with different partners in 2005 and ’07 before earning the trophy with Fowler in 2016. Only Bert Welz, with five, has won this tournament more, while Kidney has also captured four titles. Polk and Fowler also qualified for the first U.S. Amateur Four-Ball, played in 2015, and were one of the older twosomes in the field.
In the CGA Senior Four-Ball, Polk and Fowler have finished in the top three five of the last six years.
“I hope he has me back next year,” Fowler said with a smile. “I didn’t have my A game for the whole three days. He’s always looking on the free-agent market for somebody better.”
Said Polk, a three-time CGA Senior Player of the Year: “We are a good team. Bill is real steady. I tend to make some birdies, but I tend to knock it off the golf course every now and then. Bill covers me when I take leave.”
That includes the second hole of the playoff, the par-4 11th. There, teeing off before Fowler as usual, Polk put two tee shots out of bounds right leaving his partner on his own for the hole. Fowler, who turns 55 on Thursday, responded with a nice drive, but pulled his 8-iron approach a little, leaving his ball on the far left side of the green while the pin was on the right side. Mertz and Workman both had makeable birdie putts in the 25-foot range.
“I was tending the flag because I couldn’t do anything else,” said Polk, 62. “I had a real peaceful feeling. The greens were slow and they were hard to putt. We had so many that we thought we made that didn’t go in. But I’m sitting there holding the flag and going, ‘I think he’s going to make this.’ Halfway, I go, ‘Oh my!’ That sucker was right in the middle for a long time. It was a great putt.
“They had two (good looks) with putts, but after something like that the hole looks like a thimble.”
Both Workman and Mertz ended up two-putting for par.
As for Fowler’s thinking on his birdie putt:
“I was back there and I thought, ‘I’ve got nothing to lose. I really don’t,'” he said. “They’re up there for a two-putt par. I’ve got to just not three-putt. I wanted to get up there in the 3- or 4-foot range for a two-putt par. I just kept my head still, hit a really solid putt and hit my line. About halfway there, I said, ‘That’s on line, it’s not going to be very far away, it looks like it’s the right speed.’ As it got closer and closer and closer, I thought, ‘Man, that has a chance.’ Then all of a sudden, it was not on the green anymore. I just had this overwhelming feeling. I could not believe that I just did what I did.
“If you look at the scorecard, Robert played really well for three days and I played OK. It was really, really fun for me to contribute in that big way at the very end.”
In falling for the second time in a playoff in this event, Mertz and Workman (left, with Mertz in gray) carded scores of 66-68-70 and didn’t make a better-ball bogey in the tournament.
Tying for third place, one out of the playoff, were second-round leaders Mark Hirsch of Lone Tree Golf Club and Michael Davis of Meadow Hills Golf Course, and Sean Forey and Scott Radcliffe of The Club at Rolling Hills. Forey and Radcliffe closed with a 70 and Davis and Hirsch with a 72.
Forey and Radcliffe, who won the CGA Senior Four-Ball together in 2003 — Forey also won with a different partner in 2008 — on Wednesday earned the super-senior division title, which is limited to partners who are both 62 or older. The two 65-year-olds lapped the field in that division, winning by six strokes.
“I’ve been out of action (on the state scene competitively) for quite a while, so it feels really good to me,” said Radcliffe, the president of the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame. “Winning never gets old — anything — so I’m happy as heck. It’s renewed my interest in playing more golf.”
Said Forey: “We’ve won or tied for the super-seniors a few times. It’s always fun to win. But it’s always hard to come up one short (of the playoff for the overall title). Today was tough conditions and we just didn’t get it done.”
Finishing second among the super seniors were Dave Merritt and Bill Stevens of Meridian Golf Club, who shot a final-round 73.
For scores, click on the following: SENIORS, SUPER-SENIORS.
]]>Hirsch and Davis posted a better-ball score of 5-under-par 67 on Tuesday at West Woods Golf Club in Arvada, which gives them a one-stroke lead.
But eight opposing teams are within five strokes of the lead going into the final day, including three former champions in this event.
Hirsch and Davis made six better-ball birdies and one bogey in the second round, giving them an 11-under 133 total in the scratch four-ball event.
One back of the leaders are Guy Mertz and Tony Workman of The Fox Hill Club, who carded a 68 on Tuesday.
In third place, at 135, are 2003 champions Sean Forey and Scott Radcliffe of The Club at Rolling Hills, who shot a second-round 70. For the second straight day, Forey contributed an eagle to the cause.
Robert Polk of Colorado Golf Club and Bill Fowler of Rolling Hills, the 2016 winners, are in fourth place, three out of the lead, after a 71 on Tuesday.
In the super-senior division, for players 62 and older, Forey and Radcliffe retained their three-stroke lead.
Bill Stevens and Dave Merritt of Meridian Golf Club hold down second place with a 138 total following their second-round 70. John Applegate and Keith Masters, the 2011 CGA Senior Four-Ball champs, are in third place at 139.
Wednesday’s round will conclude the 54-hole event, the first championship of the CGA season.
For scores, click on the following: SENIORS, SUPER-SENIORS.
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Thirteen teams broke 70 in round 1 of the scratch better-ball competition at West Woods Golf Club in Arvada, with 2016 champs Robert Polk of Colorado Golf Club and Bill Fowler of The Club at Rolling Hills, and 2003 winners Sean Forey and Scott Radcliffe, both also from Rolling Hills, sitting atop the leaderboard.
Polk also won the Senior Four-Ball title in 2005 and ’07, while Forey also won in 2008.
Polk and Fowler, a former CGA president, made a better-ball eagle, six birdies and a bogey on Monday. Polk carded a 67 on his own ball. (Polk and Fowler are pictured, with Polk at left.)
Radcliffe, the president of the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame, and Forey also recorded a better-ball eagle, six birdies and a bogey in round 1.
Sharing third place at 66 with two rounds remaining in the Senior Four-Ball are Guy Mertz and Tony Workman from The Fox Hill Club, and Mark Hirsch of Lone Tree Golf Club and Michael Davis of Meadow Hills Golf Course. Hirsch posted a 68 on his own ball and Mertz a 70.
Defending champions Doug Moore and Raymond Kelley of Lone Tree Golf Club opened with a better-ball 73.
In the super-senior division, for players 62 and older, Forey and Radcliffe’s 65 is good for a three-stroke advantage over Bill Stevens and Dave Merritt of Meridian Golf Club.
The CGA Senior Four-Ball will continue through Wednesday.
For scores, click on the following: SENIORS, SUPER-SENIORS.
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