Chapman, who placed 23rd in the event last year, shot rounds of 64-72 over the weekend to post a 6-under-par 136 total, good for a one-stroke victory. Over the two days, he carded a dozen birdies and six bogeys. A birdie on the par-4 16th hole on Sunday gave him his final one-stroke advantage.

Trevor Glen of Thornton, a graduate of Legacy High School and now a West Texas A&M golfer, parred his final 11 holes on Sunday to finish second at 137. He recorded a 70 in the final round after a three-birdie, two-bogey day.

The only other player to finish under 140 was Ethan Fine, who took third place at 139 after closing with a 69.

For scores from the Denver City Amateur, CLICK HERE.
 

Editor’s Note: With the CGA celebrating the 100th anniversary of its founding in 1915, this is the fourth 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 1945-54. For the previous installments, CLICK HERE.

When it comes to the first decade after World War II, golf in Colorado received a nice boost from a pair of Babes, along with Bantam Ben. Even Bing and Bob played a role.

Alliteration aside, in some ways the period from 1945-54 was a golden era of sorts for the game in the Centennial State.

Though two major championships had come to Colorado in the previous decade — Cherry Hills Country Club hosted the 1938 U.S. Open and the 1941 PGA Championship — Denver landed a regular PGA Tour event in the post-war era. The Denver Open was held on and off from 1947 to ’63, with Cherry Hills, Wellshire, Meadow Hills and Denver Country Club playing host at one time or another.

Ben Hogan — the aforementioned Bantam Ben — was by far the biggest name to win the event, prevailing in 1948 at Wellshire, marking his sixth consecutive victory on the PGA Tour. The Denver Open was one of 10 PGA Tour wins Hogan posted that year, including both the U.S. Open and the PGA Championship. But Hogan didn’t make any points with event organizers as he failed to show up for the trophy presentation. Apparently, he didn’t feel his 18-under-par 270 total was going to be good enough for victory, so he departed immediately after completing his final round, saying, “I can’t win.”

Though Hogan would come back to compete in Colorado on several other occasions — including the 1952 “Hillsdilly” at Cherry Hills — an even bigger name made her mark in Colorado during this time, one Mildred “Babe” Didrikson Zaharias. (The two are pictured together at left in the early 1950s. Zaharias is also pictured above.)

Zaharias was six times AP’s Female Athlete of the Year, and several of those awards were won while Babe and her Pueblo-born husband, George, lived in the Denver area. They moved to Colorado in 1943. Zaharias went on to win the 1946 U.S. Women’s Amateur and the U.S. Women’s Open three times from 1948 through ’54. And in 1947, she traveled to Scotland and became the first American to win the British Ladies Amateur.

When Babe and George Zaharias subsequently returned to Denver, they were given a 250-pound, 15-foot-high key to the city. Some dubbed her “Denver’s Queen of the Fairways”.

It’s said that during the 1946 and ’47 seasons, Zaharias won 17 consecutive tournaments while representing Park Hill Country Club.

Zaharias, who was also a regular at Lakewood Country Club during her years in Colorado, captured one of her major championships in her adopted home state. She defeated Peggy Kirk in the finals of the Women’s Western Open at Cherry Hills in 1950 to claim her fourth and final title in the event, the first three having come as an amateur.

Also in 1950, the Associated Press named Zaharias its women’s athlete of the first half of the 20th century.

In addition to the Women’s Western Open, tournaments Zaharias won in Colorado include the 1946 Women’s Trans National at Denver Country Club and three consecutive Broadmoor Ladies Invitations starting in 1945.

Zaharias, one of the founders of the LPGA and a World Golf Hall of Fame inductee, finished with 41 LPGA Tour victories, including 10 majors, before dying of cancer in 1956 in her native state of Texas. She’s part of the inaugural class of the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame, being inducted in 1973.

Another inductee that year was Charles “Babe” Lind (left), who likewise made a significant mark in Colorado golf after World War II. Lind has the distinction of being the first Colorado native to compete in the Masters. That berth came thanks to outstanding performances in 1946, most notably at the Trans-Mississippi Championship held at Denver Country Club.

In the first Trans-Miss conducted since 1942 due to World War II, Lind advanced to the final in grand fashion by holing out a sand shot for birdie on the 36th hole of his semifinal match. And though Skee Riegel beat him in the final, it was quite a showing for Lind in one of the nation’s top amateur tournaments of those days.

Lind, a standout player and coach for the University of Denver golf team in the 1940s and early ’50s — he was named the AAU’s Outstanding Athlete of the Year in 1946 — also won the 1946 CGA Match Play and his third CGA Stroke Play, in 1948. He would go on to become director of golf for the city of Denver in 1955, holding that position for three decades.

As for the other folks we mentioned in the first paragraph of this story, two of the biggest celebrities of this period also happened to love golf, and they came to Colorado to play on several occasions. Bing Crosby and Bob Hope participated in the Park Hill Invitational over the years, as did Zaharias, boxer Joe Louis and Dwight Eisenhower, who also became a fixture at Cherry Hills.

Other highlights of the decade from 1945-54:

— One of the top lifelong amateurs of all time, Charlie Coe, had quite a run at the Broadmoor Golf Club. Not only did he win back-to-back Broadmoor Invitation titles in 1947 and ’48, he captured the ’49 Trans Miss at the history-laden Colorado Springs club. Coe also prevailed in the 1952 Trans-Miss, hosted by Lakewood Country Club.

— Wellshire Golf Course was the site of just the second USGA championship held in Colorado — after the 1938 U.S. Open at Cherry Hills — as the 1946 U.S. Amateur Public Links came to Denver. Smiley Quick won his lone USGA title at the course.

— Denver Country Club hosted its first USGA championship in 1950 as the third U.S. Junior Amateur ever held came to town. Mason Rudoph, runner-up the year before, captured the title. He would go on to win five times on the PGA Tour.

— Two people now in the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame, Jim English Sr., and Jack Vickers, squared off in the finals of the 1950 Trans-Miss in Omaha, with English winning 11 and 10 in the 36-hole title match.

— Two other significant national amateur events were held in Colorado in 1954, with Bruce Cudd winning the Western Amateur at the Broadmoor and James Jackson claiming the Trans-Miss at Cherry Hills.

— In major statewide amateur championships during the decade, Lou North won three times (CGA Match Plays in 1952 and ’53, and a Stroke Play in ’52) and Jim Vickers captured back-to-back victories in the Match Play in ’49 and ’50. Claude Wright claimed the middle two of his four CGA Stroke Play titles in 1947 and ’53, and Bob Clark Sr., won two of his own, in 1950 and ’51.

— Future longtime state legislator Les Fowler, then the golf coach at the University of Colorado, earned the first of his four major CGA championships at the 1954 Match Play.

— In women’s amateur golf, the CWGA started its Stroke Play Championship in 1948. Mrs. James Roessler was among the top players of the era, winning two CWGA Match Plays (1951 and ’52) and two Stroke Plays (1952 and ’54).
 

Editor’s Note: With the CGA celebrating the 100th anniversary of its founding in 1915, this is the second monthly installment of a series of stories looking back on the last century of golf in Colorado. All the articles will be published on ColoradoGolf.org. This chapter focuses on the period from 1925-34. For a list of all installments to date, CLICK HERE. 

The decade beginning in 1925 featured some of the highest highs and lowest lows in Colorado golf history — just as it did for the nation as a whole.

The most obvious reason was the dawning of the Great Depression. The country went from the Roaring Twenties to one of the worst economic collapses the U.S. has ever seen, starting with the stock market crash in October 1929.

Colorado golf, of course, reflected what was happening nationwide. In the last half of the 1920s, such local gems as Wellshire Golf Course (1926) and Green Gables Country Club (1928) — both of which would go on to host men’s or women’s tour events — opened for business. But in the quarter-century from 1930 through ’54, a grand total of just eight new courses that still exist came online.

There’s no other 25-year period in Colorado golf in which so few courses opened.

But those certainly aren’t the only highs and lows of this time. The decade from 1925-34 witnessed the beginning and end of two of the most successful runs in Colorado amateur golf history.

In 1928, dentist Larry Bromfield (left) defeated Nate Grimes 1-up in the CGA Match Play final, marking his eighth and final victory in the event, a feat unmatched to this day. How good was Bromfield? In 1922, he played the famous Gene Sarazen in a 36-hole exhibition, taking him to the final hole before losing 2-down.

And on the women’s side, in 1930 Phyllis Buchanan won the first of her record six CWGA Match Play titles. The Denver resident also captured the prestigious Women’s Trans National championship in 1933 in Iowa.

Then there was an out-of-stater who did great things in Colorado in 1933 en route to a World Golf Hall of Fame career. Read on for more about him.

Here are some of the other Colorado golf highlights from the period 1925-34:

— From 1927 through ’33, the Broadmoor Golf Club in Colorado Springs hosted the prestigious Trans-Miss championship a remarkable three times in seven years. The winners of the titles those years were John Goodman (1927), Robert McCrary (1930) and Gus Moreland (1933). Goodman went on to claim the championship three times and Moreland and McCrary twice each.

— In 1933 rapidly emerging Stanford golfer Lawson Little (pictured at top) had a big year in Colorado. He won the title in the Broadmoor Invitation in Colorado Springs, one of the top amateur tournaments of the time, and captured the CGA Match Play championship with a 9 and 7 victory over Frank English in the final. Little also finished runner-up to Moreland at the Broadmoor in the Trans-Miss. He would go on to be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame after sweeping the U.S. and British Amateur titles in both 1934 and ’35. During his run in the two national amateur events, Little won a remarkable 32 consecutive matches. He went on to capture the U.S. Open in 1940. Lawson and Hale Irwin (1967) have the distinction of being the only Broadmoor Invitation winners who were inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Joining Little in capturing the Broadmoor Invitation title during the decade we’re detailing was N.C. “Tub” Morris (1928), for whom the CGA Stroke Play Championship Trophy is named.

— Will Nicholson Sr. (left, at the Broadmoor Invitation), who would become the mayor of Denver in 1955, played a key role at the Western Golf Association in the mid-1930s, serving as a director from 1933 to ’36 before becoming a member of the USGA Executive Committee. Nicholson’s son, Will Jr., became president of the USGA in 1980.

— In 1929, Denver Country Club hosted the Women’s Trans National Championship, and Mrs. O.S. Hill of Kansas City, Mo., won the second of her four Trans National titles.

Next up: 1935-44, when Colorado hosts its first major championships.
 

The 16-year-old from Denver Country Club is certainly finishing the summer tournament schedule on a high note. On Thursday, she won the CWGA Junior Match Play Championship, becoming just the third golfer since 2000 to sweep the association’s Junior Stroke Play and Junior Match Play titles in the same year.

In addition, Ringsby has been chosen by the USGA to represent the U.S. in the USA-China Youth Golf Match that will be played Aug. 23 and 24 in San Martin, Calif. Only four girls and four boys — all 16 or under — are selected for each side, so it’s no small honor. All the players are members of Leadership Links, which promotes service and volunteerism among junior golfers, and they are all leading candidates for the USGA-AJGA Presidents’ Leadership Award.

The competition will include four foursomes matches, four four-ball matches and eight singles matches. The U.S. team prevailed in the inaugural matches, held in 2008 in China.

“It’ll be a great experience,” said Ringsby, who will miss the first week of her junior year at Cherry Creek High School because of the event. “Anytime you’re part of an American team, it’s a big honor to represent your country.”

But on Thursday, the first order of business was the final of the CWGA Junior Match Play at Wellshire Golf Course in Denver. With the title on the line, Ringsby (pictured above) defeated Sydney Merchant of Red Rocks Country Club 3 and 2.

Coming on the heels of her CWGA Junior Stroke Play victory in late June, Ringsby joins Somin Lee (2009) and Kelly Jacques (2002) as the only golfers in the new millennium to sweep the CWGA’s Junior Stroke and Junior Match in the same year.

“I’m pretty excited, with this being my second CWGA junior (title of the year),” Ringsby said. “After I won Stroke it was on my mind, but in match play you don’t have as much control as you do in stroke play.”

Now, Ringsby said, it’s a goal to join Lee and Wendy Werley as the only players to have won both junior titles plus the CWGA Stroke Play and Match Play in their careers.

In Thursday’s match, Ringsby never trailed. She and Merchant were tied after seven holes, but Ringsby won five of the next six and held on for a relatively easy victory.

The championship flight consolation final went much longer as University of Wyoming-bound Kathleen Kershisnik of Columbine Country Club overcame Jennifer Kupcho of CommonGround Golf Course in 21 holes. Kershisnik drained a 25-foot birdie putt to end the match.

CWGA Junior Match Play Championship
Wellshire GC in Denver
 
Championship Flight
Calli Ringsby, Denver CC def. Sydney Merchant, Red Rocks CC 3 and 2
 
Championship Flight Consolation
Kathleen Kershisnik, Columbine CC def. Jennifer Kupcho, CommonGround GC 21 holes
 
First Flight
Dani Urman, Meridian GC def. Sydney Gillespie, Highlands Ranch GC 2 up
 
First Flight Consolation
Jordan Sunset, Boulder CC def. Michelle Romano, Colorado GC 1 up
 
Second Flight
Jaylee Tait, Raccoon Creek GC def. Emma Johnson, CommonGround GC 3 and 2
 
Second Flight Consolation
Nayoun Kim, South Suburban Family Sports def. Katherine Kemp, The Broadmoor GC 3 and 1
 
Third Flight
Kelsey Petersen, Mariana Butte GC def Mary Weinstein, Green Valley Ranch GC 4 and 2
 
Third Flight Consolation
Jennifer Hankins, Thorncreek GC def. Jennifer Kempton, Lone Tree GC Forfeit
 
Fourth Flight
Zarena Brown, Lake Arbor GC def. Michelle Nakayama, Patty Jewett GC 4 and 3
 
Fourth Flight Consolation
Chase Piper, Cherry Hills CC def. Madison Tenney, CommonGround GC Forfeit