The former Colorado State University golfer won the HealthOne Colorado Open at GVR in 2013 and finished second in 2012. And after missing the cut last year, he grabbed the lead Thursday after the first round of the 2015 event, shooting a 7-under-par 65.

That brings Brown’s average score in his last 11 Colorado Open rounds — since the beginning of the 2012 tournament — to 68.3.

On Thursday, Brown made eight birdies to go along with a three-putt bogey on No. 16 en route to his 65.

In an ideal day for scoring, 28 players shot in the 60s on Thursday.

And Brown wasn’t the only former CSU golfer among the leaders. Parker Edens of Greeley, twice a CGA Match Play runner-up, carded a 66 and shares second place with Kurt Kitayama of Chico, Calif. Zahkai’s older brother, former Ram Zen Brown, posted a 68. And Riley Arp carded a 69.

Other Coloradans who joined the Browns and Edens in shooting 68 or better were former University of Colorado golfers David Oraee of Greeley and Derek Fribbs of Castle Rock (68), current Buff Ethan Freeman of Denver (68), incoming Buff Ross Macdonald of Castle Rock (68), Tom Whitney of Fort Collins (68), and amateurs Connor Klein of Lone Tree and Tanner Jenson of Parker (68).

“The golf course was there for the taking in terms of rewarding quality shots,” said Notah Begay, the biggest name in the field, having won four times on the PGA Tour. “You had to be in the fairway to get close to the hole, and that’s the way it should be. You want to identify a champion who’s hitting good shots and making putts and scrambling when they need to.”

Begay, competing in his first multi-day tournament in “over a year,” opened with a 73.

“I played rusty,” said the NBC/Golf Channel analyst. “I made a couple of careless mistakes. You make mistakes every day, but it was just stuff if I had a few tournaments under my belt I definitely wouldn’t have made.”

So why did Begay pick the Colorado Open as a tournament in which to knock off the rust?

“This fit really well in the calendar,” he said. “I know they run a great event. And I’m kind of partial to supporting organizations such as HealthOne. I’ve had a heart attack (last year) and I know the importance of some of the cardiac treatment protocols that these hospitals are developing. (HealthOne has) been identified as one of the top facilities in America. There were a lot of positives to be here.”

And Tiger Woods, Begay’s friend and former Stanford teammate, recommended it after the two were playing golf together on a semi-regular basis in the spring.

“Tiger is part of the reason why I’m here,” Begay said. “He encouraged me to play a little this summer because I was playing OK. You can thank Tiger Woods for me being here.”

Notable: Barry Milstead of Castle Rock made a hole-in-one with a 9-iron at the 172-yard 13th hole on Sunday. It was the fourth ace for the Valley Country Club head professional, who shot a 76. … Champions Tour player Doug Rohrbaugh, winner of the 2013 HealthOne Colorado Senior Open, caddied for son Tristan on Thursday, having landed just 90 minutes before Tristan’s tee time after returning from Great Britain after trying to qualifying for this week’s Senior British Open. Tristan Rohrbaugh, winner of the CGA Western Chapter Championship on Sunday, shot a 74 on Thursday. … Coloradan Steve “Pepsi” Hale, regular PGA Tour caddie for Keegan Bradley, is caddying at the Colorado Open for Scotland’s Jimmy Gunn, who finished 27th in this year’s U.S. Open. Gunn fired a 69 on Thursday.

For scores from the Colorado Open, CLICK HERE.
 

Last week, Zahkai Brown told his dad he was planning to play a round at Lake Arbor Golf Club in Arvada, a course on which the family lives.

“My dad said, ‘The course record is 59. See what you can do,'” Brown recalls of the conversation.

Well, as it turns out, Zahkai Brown did plenty.

Last Tuesday, the 2013 HealthOne Colorado Open champion shot a cool 13-under-par 57, no doubt one of the lowest — if not the lowest — scores ever shot on a par-70 or higher course in Colorado.

“I thought, ‘How is anyone going to believe this?'” Brown said in a recent phone conversation. “It was effortless. I just hit fairways and greens and made putts.”

According to the R&A, though the term “course record” isn’t defined in the Rules of Golf, it’s generally accepted that a score should be recognized as the official course record only if “made in an individual stroke play competition with the holes and tee-markers in their proper medal or championships positions.”

Though Brown’s score doesn’t qualify for an official course record under those standards, it’s the next-best thing. It did come in a casual round, but it was shot from “the tips”, Brown said he putted everything out, and he was playing with three fellow playing professionals who served as witnesses: brother Zen, Keenan Holt and Bryan Kruse.

So however it should be termed, Brown’s 57 certainly appears to be on the up and up, albeit on a course that tops out at about 5,841 yards.

“And anyone who knows Zen knows he doesn’t like losing to me,” Zahkai noted with a chuckle.

Besides winning the 2013 Colorado Open, Zahkai Brown has captured titles in the 2011 CGA Stroke Play and the 2009 CGA Public Links, and he was named the CGA’s amateur Player of the Year in 2011. Zen Brown, meanwhile, won the 2007 CGA Match Play and the 2005 CGA Publinks.

Asked about his brother’s round of 57, Zen said, “It’s one of the best rounds of golf I’ve ever seen. He was never in trouble. On 360-yard holes, he’d drive the green or be within 20 yards. You don’t realize (immediately that he’s made) so many birdies. You think, ‘Oh I guess he’s 13 under.’ It was, ho hum, hit it close. All of a sudden it adds up pretty fast.”

Zahkai, who like Zen grew up in Arvada and played college golf at Colorado State University, finished the day with 11 birdies an an eagle at the par-5 fifth hole. On the front nine, he racked up an eagle and six birdies for an 8-under-par 27. On the inward half, he chalked up another five birdies for a 5-under 30. (The scorecard is below.)

“It was pretty crazy,” Zen Brown said. “When somebody is playing really well, you try not to point it out (as it’s going on). So we didn’t say anything until he hit the green on 18.”

So when did Zahkai Brown first entertain thoughts of a round in the 50s?

“The first time I thought I had a chance was when the superintendent said, ‘You guys trying to break 60?’,” he said. “I was 12 under through 13, but I parred 14, 15 and 16” before finishing birdie-par.

Given that he’s a playing professional — and a long-hitting one at that — Brown very rarely plays a course as short as Lake Arbor. Even though his family lives on hole 12 at the course, Brown said he hadn’t played a round there in about four or five years. But on a whim, he put together the foursome of pros — and friends and family — for last Tuesday at Lake Arbor.

“Three people asked us that (why we were playing there), including the superintendent,” Brown noted.

For the record, all four players broke par that day, with Zen, having arrived in Arvada at 1 a.m. after driving up from Arizona, shooting a 69, while Holt had a 67 and Kruse a 65.

As for Zahkai, he drove it on or right next to the green on five par-4s ranging in distance from 341 to 375 yards, making birdie on each occasion. He also went a combined 5 under on the four par-5s, making an eagle on the 488-yard fifth.

Asked what he told the people in the golf shop after completing his round of 57, Brown said, “I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t want to brag. But I told the people at the cash register and they called to check what the course record was, and they said it was 59.”

According to PGA head professional Lee Kauffman, two people have shot 59 at Lake Arbor — Dick Dorn in the 1970s, and Neil Huffaker four years ago, with Huffaker’s round coming in a men’s club tournament.

Kauffman said he wasn’t stunned when he heard someone had shot 57 at Lake Arbor, especially when he heard that someone was Brown.

“That’s a pretty crazy score,” Kauffman said. “I was pretty surprised, but not really surprised. If anyone would do it, it would be Zahkai or Zenon because they grew up out here.”

For his part, Zahkai Brown is certainly no stranger to low rounds. When he finished second in the Colorado Open in 2012, he carded a 63 at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club. And the next year, when he won the tournament, he closed with rounds of 64-64. He said he’s also had 62 on a few occasions, including at Indian Tree, to go along with a 63 at Fort Collins Country Club and Walking Stick in Pueblo, and a 65 at Colorado National during an NCAA regional tournament.

Brown was also a witness to one of the lowest tournament rounds in state history as he was paired with Jim Knous when Knous fired a course-record 60 at Boulder Country Club in the 2010 CGA Stroke Play to force a playoff with eventual champion Wyndham Clark.

There are two brothers from Arvada, two former CGA Players of the Year, the winners of three recent HealthOne Colorado Opens, and a golfer who once shot 60 in the final round of the CGA Stroke Play Championship.

Such is the local contingent that’s embarking on the ever-important second stage of qualifying for the Web.com Tour. At stake for all the competitors is a spot on a tour that boasts more than $17 million in purses over the course of a season. And with Q-school for the PGA Tour having been eliminated a couple of years ago, the Web.com qualifying process has become the key steppingstone to the big time for many elite-level golfers.

Just ask Denver native Mark Hubbard or Fort Collins resident Sam Saunders, both of whom parlayed strong Web.com Tour performances in 2014 into PGA Tour cards for the 2014-15 wraparound season.

The Web.com qualifying includes four steps — pre-qualifying, and the first, second and third stages — just as the PGA Tour’s Q-school did several years ago. The second and third stages are particularly important as those who advance to the final stage are guaranteed at least conditional status on the Web.com Tour. And the final stage determines who will get to play a full schedule, as opposed to the conditional qualifiers (the finishers after the top 45 and ties) who will be relegated to a far smaller number of events.

With that as a backdrop, 11 players with strong Colorado connections will compete in stage 2 of Web.com qualifying either this week or next. The top finishers at each of six 72-hole tournaments — the exact numbers will be announced after the events start — will advance to the final stage. That’s scheduled for Dec. 11-16 in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

Among those competing are brothers Zahkai and Zen Brown of Arvada, both former Colorado State University golfers. The two are playing at different sites and on separate dates.

Also among the locals in the stage 2 fields is former University of Colorado golfer Derek Tolan (pictured at top) of Highlands Ranch. Tolan, like Zahkai Brown (left), is a Colorado Open champion (in Tolan’s case, twice a champ) and a former CGA Les Fowler Player of the Year.

Another Coloradan in stage 2 is Jim Knous of Basalt, a former Colorado School of Mines golfer who fired a course-record 10-under-par 60 at Boulder Country Club in the final round of the 2010 CGA Stroke Play.

Here are all the local competitors, and the sites and dates in which they’ll compete in stage 2 of Web.com Tour qualifying:

Kingwood, Texas Nov. 11-14 — Nick Hodge of Littleton; former Fort Collins resident Drew Stoltz; Derek Tolan of Highlands Ranch.

McKinney, Texas Nov. 11-14 — Zahkai Brown of Arvada; Parker Edens of Greeley; Jim Knous of Basalt.

Panama Beach, Fla. Nov. 18-21 — Former CU golfer Jason Burstyn.

Murrieta, Calif. Nov. 18-21 — Former CU golfer Justin Bardgett; Zen Brown of Arvada; Bryan Kruse of Westminster; Luke Symons of Aurora.
 

After all, he’ll go down as the final champion of the tournament.

Four months after the USGA announced it will discontinue its men’s and women’s Amateur Public Links Championships after 2014, CGA leadership has decided to make a similar move.

This week’s CGA Public Links Championship — set for Friday through Sunday (June 21-23) at Twin Peaks Golf Course in Longmont — will be the last played, concluding a run of 31 tournaments since the event’s inception in 1983. (Eric Parish, pictured hitting above, will defend his title this weekend.)

As was the case with the USGA, CGA officials believe the Publinks no longer serves its original purpose.

“We’ve been thinking about this for a long time,” CGA executive director Ed Mate said. “At the time the tournament was created, there was a need to have distinction between public and private. Now the line between public and private is blurry — which is good — and there’s no need” for that distinction.

“There was a feeling as long as the USGA conducted a national Publinks, we should do a state Publinks. Now that rationale is gone.”

Mate said the CGA plans to add a new championship in 2014, though what form that tournament might take hasn’t been decided. But he added that whatever replaces the Publinks will be an open-field event, meaning any CGA member will be able to compete, aside from the possible restriction of age.

“In no other tournament that we run do we say, ‘You can play and you can’t’, except for age purposes,” Mate continued. “It got to be really silly, with people having a range membership at a private club not being able to play (in the Publinks), while a college player who has access to a private club could play.”

Currently, the CGA Public Links Championship is limited to “active CGA members who, since January 1st of the current year, are bona-fide public course players who have not held privileges of any course which does not extend playing privileges to the general public or privileges of any private club maintaining its own course.”

Gary Potter, now a CGA governor emeritus, was one of the driving forces in creating the Public Links Championship in the early 1980s. But he supports the decision to discontinue the event.

“I was urging for it to be done away with,” he said. “At the time we started it, we were looking to create more events for more people. It was just one more thing to be meaningful at a time when we didn’t have a lot of activity on the tournament front.

“It served its purpose. The true Publinks player doesn’t really exist anymore. Anyone can enter the U.S. Amateur. We probably started (the Publinks) in Colorado too late; we were already well into the mode of everyone being able to play in every tournament.”

Ninety years ago, the Amateur Public Links gave public golfers a national championship as they couldn’t compete in the U.S. Amateur, which was limited to players from USGA member clubs. But that restriction ended for both the U.S. Amateur and the U.S. Women’s Amateur in 1979. Nowadays the Publinks events are dominated by college players — or younger.

Every champion of the CGA Publinks since 2000 has won the title the same year he competed as a college golfer. The last non-college player to win was Rick DeWitt in 1999.

Terry Byrnes won the inaugural CGA Publinks in 1983 at Gleneagle Golf Club in Colorado Springs.

“I’m not surprised the state Publinks is scheduled to join the persimmon driver as part of golf’s past,” Byrnes noted this week. “Much has changed in 30 years regarding how and where people choose to play their golf and the CGA offers a handsome slate of competitive opportunities each year anyway.

“I do remember feeling a great sense of pride in winning the inaugural event just outside of Colorado Springs back in 1983. If I had known sooner, I would have tried to arrange to compete in the last event as the Colorado Public Links does hold a special place for me.”

Among the other champions of the tournament are two-time PGA Tour winner Jonathan Kaye (1992), two-time HealthOne Colorado Open champion Derek Tolan (2008) and current Colorado Golf Hall of Famers Mark Crabtree (1990) and DeWitt (1999). Also champions are brothers Zen and Zahkai Brown (2005 and 2009, respectively).

Three players have won the CGA Public Links twice each: Tom McGraw (1987 and ’93), Ben Portie (2000 and ’01) and Nolan Martin (2002 and ’04).

“The tournament (helped) Rick DeWitt and others rise to the top,” Potter said. “That’s kind of neat, being a true Publinks player.”

While the CGA Public Links Championship is going by the wayside, the association holds public players closer to its heart than ever, especially given that the CGA has so much invested in an inner-city public course. The CGA and CWGA have owned and operated CommonGround Golf Course since 2009.

“The whole idea with that is to be affordable and be accessible,” Mate said. “With all the rounds that are played there, that more than makes up for the (84) people who play annually in this (Public Links) tournament. And we are replacing that with another tournament.”

The CGA and CWGA will continue to conduct qualifying for the U.S. Amateur Public Links and U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links through 2014. The men’s APL is the USGA’s fourth-oldest championship, having debuted in 1922. The WAPL was first played in 1977.
 

The festivities will be held Tuesday, July 17 at CommonGround Golf Course, which will serve as the second stroke-play course for the U.S. Amateur. The CGA and CWGA own and operate CommonGround, which is located at Havana and 1st Ave., in Aurora.

Cherry Hills Country Club will be the host for the U.S. Amateur, with competitors playing one stroke-play round each at Cherry Hills and CommonGround Aug. 13-14 before all of the match-play portion of the event is held at Cherry Hills Aug. 15-19.

The July 17 U.S. Amateur Alumni Day at CommonGround, which runs from noon to 2 p.m., is open to the public, free of charge. Youngsters age 17 and under are especially encouraged to attend. In fact, any adult who brings kids will receive a ticket to the U.S. Amateur.

Free lunches, courtesy of King Soopers, will be given to the kids at noon, and Imperial Headwear will provide them a U.S. Amateur hat and pen for autographs. In addition, the youngsters will be eligible for prize drawings.

The Skills Challenge will begin at 1 p.m., with 10 Coloradans who have competed in the U.S. Amateur demonstrating their golf abilities to those in attendance. Among the players expected to participate are Steve Ziegler, who made it to the quarterfinals of the 2009 U.S. Amateur, and past HealthOne Colorado Open champions Ben Portie and Scott Petersen.

Also planning to be on hand are Tom Glissmeyer, who qualified for the 2003 U.S. Open as a 16-year-old; two-time U.S. Open qualifier Jason Allen; Gunner Wiebe; brothers Zen and Zahkai Brown; former Air Force Academy golf standout Tom Whitney; and one other player to be determined.

Combined, the confirmed participants have won two Colorado Opens, a Web.com Tour event, eight CGA Stroke or Match Play Championships and five state high school titles, and they’ve competed in four U.S. Opens.

All of the attending U.S. Amateur “alumni” from Colorado will be presented Alumni Day commemorative medals, and they’ll be available to sign autographs after the Skills Challenge.
 

In short, they’ve got some serious golf skills.

And the skills of those participating golfers will be on display July 17 when the CGA holds its U.S. Amateur Alumni Day Skills Challenge and related activities at CommonGround Golf Course in Aurora. CommonGround, which the CGA and CWGA own and operate, will be the second course for the stroke-play portion of this year’s U.S. Amateur. Cherry Hills Country Club is the host club for arguably the world’s top amateur championship, which is set for Aug. 13-19.

The public is invited to attend the July 17 festivities — free of charge — from noon to 2 p.m., and youngsters are especially encouraged to come. In fact, any adult who brings kids will receive a ticket to the U.S. Amateur.

Free lunches, courtesy of King Soopers, will be given to kids (17 and under) at noon, and Imperial Headwear will provide them a U.S. Amateur hat and pen for autographs. In addition, the youngsters will be eligible for prize drawings.

One of the highlights of the day will be a Skills Challenge exhibition put on by Coloradans who have qualified for the U.S. Amateur in years past. Eight golfers who fall into that category have indicated they plan to participate in the Skills Challenge, which begins at 1 p.m. on July 17.

That’s where all of the earlier-mentioned golf credentials come in.

Among those expected to demonstrate their skills is Steve Ziegler (pictured above), who not only qualified for the 2009 U.S. Amateur, but made it to the quarterfinals before losing in 21 holes to the eventual champion. Barring changes to the July 17 lineup, joining him will be players ranging in age from teenager to 40-something: Wyndham Clark, Gunner Wiebe, Scott Petersen, Tom Glissmeyer, Ben Portie, and brothers Zen and Zahkai Brown.

Here’s a brief rundown of some of the top golf accomplishments for each expected participant:

— Wyndham Clark: Won the 2010 CGA Stroke Play Championship at age 16, becoming the youngest winner of that event since 1971. The Oklahoma State-bound golfer also claimed two 4A state high school titles and was recently named the Denver Athletic Club’s male high school student-athlete of the year. He’s qualified for the U.S. Amateur each of the last two years.

— Gunner Wiebe: Won the CGA Match Play title in 2010, the same year he placed second in the HealthOne Colorado Open, the best finish by an amateur in that event since 1997. He was named the CGA’s Player of the Year that season. The son of Champions Tour regular Mark Wiebe, Gunner competed in the 2009 and 2010 U.S. Amateur, making it to match play in 2010.

— Scott Petersen: In 2000, he won both the Colorado Open and the Nationwide Tour’s Inland Empire Open. The year before, he claimed the title in the Canadian PGA Championship. In the early 1990s, Petersen won two CGA Stroke Play Championships and two Division I college tournaments while playing for the University of Colorado. He was medalist in U.S. Amateur qualifying in both 1990 and ’92.

— Tom Glissmeyer: Qualified for the 2003 U.S. Open as a 16-year-old, a year after fellow Coloradan Derek Tolan managed a similar feat. Glissmeyer won two 4A state high school titles and finished third individually at the 2009 NCAA Championships while competing for the University of Southern California.

— Ben Portie: Was the CGA Player of the Year in 2001, a year before qualifying for the U.S. Open. The former University of Colorado golfer won the Colorado Open last summer and the Enstrom’s Rocky Mountain Open in 2010.

— Zen Brown: Won the CGA Match Play title in 2007. The following year, he qualified for the U.S. Amateur along with his brother Zahkai.

— Zahkai Brown: Won the 2011 CGA Stroke Play en route to being named the association’s Player of the Year. The former 5A state high school champion qualified for the 2008 U.S. Amateur at the same site as older brother Zen. He also earned a spot in the 2011 U.S. Am, where he advanced to match play. Brown won two individual college titles while at Colorado State University.

— Steve Ziegler: Had one of the best performances ever by a Coloradan at the U.S. Amateur, making it to the final eight in 2009 before losing on the third extra hole of his quarterfinal match to Byeong-Hun An, who went on to win the national title. Earlier that year, Ziegler won the CGA Match and Stroke Play Championships, becoming the first person to sweep the titles in the same calendar year since 1985. (As you might imagine, he was named CGA Player of the Year in 2009.) The two-time 5A state high school champ also qualified for the 2008 U.S. Amateur.

All of the attending U.S. Amateur “alumni” from Colorado will be presented Alumni Day commemorative medals, and they’ll be available to sign autographs after the Skills Challenge.

To access a PDF of a CGA promotional flier on the U.S. Amateur Alumni Day, CLICK HERE.