Mark Hubbard’s mom and dad were on hand. So were his stepdad, grandparents, uncles, high school coach — you name it. And they didn’t leave disappointed on Tuesday.
Hubbard, a Denver resident who is starting his senior season on the San Jose State golf team, came back to his home state to notch the first victory of his college career, winning the inaugural Mark Simpson Colorado Invitational at Colorado National Golf Club in Erie.
“It’s awesome,” he said. “It’s been a long time coming.”
Hubbard has accomplished plenty in his young golf career. He won the prestigious Optimist International Junior tournament in 2006, swept the CGA Junior Match Play and Junior Stroke Play titles in 2007, and was the medalist in one of the U.S. Amateur qualifying tournaments this past summer. But Tuesday’s victory doesn’t take a back seat to any of those feats, in part because he had so much home-town support.
“My dad doesn’t really get to watch me play (out of state) because of work,” said Hubbard, runner-up in the 2010 Western Athletic Conference Championships. “In junior golf, he’d come to every single tournament and every single basketball game. It was awesome to do this in front of him especially. But to have such a big following was really nice.”
The Denver native and Colorado Academy graduate shot a 2-under-par 70 on Tuesday to finish three rounds at 7-under 209, which was good for a two-stroke victory over New Mexico’s Travis Ross, who closed with a 68.
“Having a cushion today helped,” said Hubbard, who entered the final round with a three-stroke lead. “I made a lot of pars and felt like I could kind of coast. I got to 2 under par (for the day) pretty quickly and I knew that at 7 under (overall) somebody would have to shoot 67 and play pretty well to catch me.”
As it turned out, Hubbard was never seriously threatened on Tuesday. While he earned the win — and an exemption into the 2011 HealthOne Colorado Open — six players from Colorado universities finished in the top 10.
Ryan Peterson of Colorado State, the 2010 Mountain West Conference individual champion, placed fifth as a 68 left him at 213. Luke Symons from host CU, who returned to college golf this month after two hip surgeries in the last 14 months, placed seventh (214). CSU’s Kory Harrell (215) was ninth and teammates Zahkai Brown and Kirby Pettitt were 10th, along with CU’s Kevin Kring (216).
Despite putting four players in the top 10, CSU was edged out by one stroke by New Mexico for the team title. The Rams made a run with the best third-round score of any team in the 14-team field (an 8-under-par 280), but it wasn’t quite enough as New Mexico recorded an 859 total overall.
“We have no margin for error when we graduated our three top players (Riley Arp, Bryce Hanstad and Dustin Morris),” said CSU coach Jamie Bermel, whose Rams have won 12 team championships in the last three seasons. “We played good today, but we didn’t finish well (Monday) in the second round. You get yourself a little too far behind and you have to really, really play well. We were close, but couldn’t quite make up the deficit. But this was a step in the right direction.”
As for the other Colorado-based teams in the field, CU finished seventh (874), Denver eighth (288), Northern Colorado 12th (910) and Air Force 13th (911).
In the CJGA Collegiate High School Invitational, which was held concurrently with the college event, David Oraee of Greeley won going away. He carded an even-par 72 in the final round for a 3-over 219 total. The runner-up in the eight-man field finished eight strokes behind.
The Simpson Invitational was the first of three college tournaments Colorado National Golf Club will host this season. The CU women’s Heather Farr Memorial Invitational will be at the course Oct. 8-9, and the NCAA Men’s Central Regional will be there May 19-21.
Mark Simpson Colorado Invitational
At Par-72 Colorado National GC in Erie
Final team scores — 1. New Mexico 300-276-283–859; 2. Colorado State 296-284-280–860; 3. Kansas 296-287-286–869; 4. San Jose State 296-287-287–870; 5. New Mexico State 296-290-286–872; 6. Brigham Young 295-289-289–873; 7. Colorado 294-294-286–874; 8. Denver 300-297-288–885; 9. Utah 304-300-294–898; 10. Texas El Paso 302-292-304–900; 11. Wyoming 311-291-299–901; 12. Northern Colorado 297-303-310–910; 13. Air Force 306-293-312–911; 14. Southern Utah 329-303-309–941.
Top individuals — 1. Mark Hubbard, San Jose State, 69-70-70–209; 2. Travis Ross, New Mexico, 74-69-68–211; 3. (tie) Gaston De La Torre, New Mexico State, 69-73-70–212; Matt Hovan, San Jose State, 73-71-68–212; 5. (tie) Ryan Peterson, CSU, 75-70-68–213; Sam Chavez, New Mexico, 76-66-71–213; 7. (tie) Luke Symons, Colorado, 70-72-72–214; Zachary Blair, BYU, 71-73-70–214; 9. Kory Harrell, CSU, 76-70-69–215; 10. (tie) Kevin Kring, Colorado, 75-73-68–216; Zahkai Brown, CSU, 71-75-70–216; Kirby Pettitt, CSU, 74-69-73–216; Jeff Bell, Kansas, 70-73-73–216; Jeff Evans, Southern Utah, 74-73-69–216.
2. Colorado State 296-284-280–860
5. Ryan Peterson 75-70-68–213; 9. Kory Harrell 76-70-69–215; 10. Zahkai Brown 71-75-70–216; 10. Kirby Pettitt 74-69-73–216; 73. Scott Newton 81-75-79–235; Competing only as individuals: 33. Richard Schneider 71-75-76–222; 73. Jackson Giro 81-77-77–235.
7. Colorado 294-294-286–874
7. Luke Symons 70-72-72–214; 10. Kevin Kring 75-73-68–216; 27. Derek Fribbs 73-76-72–221; 55. Pat Wilson 81-73-74–228; 55. Sebastian Heisele 76-77-75–228; Competing only as individuals: 15. Brennan Dolan 72-74-71–217; 27. Jason Burstyn 76-72-73–221; 42. Johnny Widmer 77-74-74–225; 51. Michael Imperato 77-76-74–227.
8. Denver 300-297-288–885
27. Ole Ramsnes 75-74-72–221; 27. ChunJi Kim 77-71-73–221; 38. C.J. Kim 73-78-72–223; 60. Klinton Krieger 76-82-71–229; 63. Troy Anderson 76-74-81–231; Competing only as individuals: 65. Kevin Gillick 83-73-76–232; 65. Nick Lerner 75-80-77–232.
12. Northern Colorado 297-303-310–910
18. Troy Sidabras 68-74-76–218; 55. Nick Bisogno 74-75-79–228; 63. Ryan Boshoven 79-76-76–231; 69. Steve Bidne 76-78-79–233; 78. Alberto Dell Anna 79-78-80–237; Playing only as individuals: 55. Ben Krueger 76-75-77–228.
13. Air Force 306-293-312–911
27. Kyle Westmoreland 73-74-74–221; 42. Philip Colwell 76-72-77–225; 69. Caleb Leestma 80-72-81–233; 72. Andrew Hoops 78-75-81–234; 73. Kyle Bailey 79-76-80–235; Competing only as individuals: 24. Wes Denny 75-71-74–220; 51. Robert Belz 72-76-79–227.
CJGA Collegiate High School Invitational
1. David Oraee, Greeley, 76-71-72–219; 2. Ethan Freeman, Littleton 77-74-76–227; 3. Cameron Harrell, Colorado Springs, 76-75-79–230; 4. Ben Moore, Cherry Hills Village, 77-77-77–231; 5. John Ahern, Morrison, 80-78-76–234; 6. Chris Weistein, Highlands Ranch, 80-78-78–236; 7. Steven Kupcho, Westminster, 82-77-80–239; 8. Drew Trujillo, Montrose, 80-84-77–241.
