The one major international golf tour that played into December — the Ladies European Tour — wrapped up its 2012 season over the weekend.
That makes this an ideal time to look back on how tour players with major Colorado connections fared this year. Specifically, let’s pinpoint the top 10 tour highlights of 2012 from the perspective of the participating local players:
1. Hallberg Fires 63 En Route to Second Place at the Senior British Open: Gary Hallberg (pictured) of Castle Rock had one of the most memorable rounds of the year on the Champions Tour en route to finishing second in the Senior British Open at Turnberry, Scotland in July.
Hallberg’s 7-under-par 63 in very windy conditions at Turnberry was the best score of the second round — by five strokes. He finished two shots behind champion Fred Couples in the senior major.
How good was Hallberg’s 63?
“I think Gary’s 63 is the round of the year,” Bernhard Langer said. “Shooting 7 under today is like 10 or 11 under on a decent day. That’s how good it was and I take my hat off to him.”
Added Tom Lehman: “When I saw Gary’s score going on the board I thought, ‘Wow! Did he play the par-3 course across the road?’ He’s a bit of a character, so nothing surprises me what he might shoot.”
With six top-10 finishes for the year, Hallberg ended up a career-best 20th on the Champions Tour money list.
Adding even more local flavor to the Senior British Open was Aurora’s Mark Wiebe finishing sixth after taking eighth in the U.S. Senior Open earlier in July.
2. Kofstad Wins European Challenge Tour Money Title: While it may not have made a big ripple for American golf fans, former University of Denver golfer Espen Kofstad’s finish to the European Challenge Tour season is certainly worthy of note.
The Challenge Tour is the European equivalent of the Web.com Tour, and Kofstad used it to punch his ticket to the 2013 European Tour.
Kofstad won twice on the 2012 Challenge Tour, and the second of those gave him the Tour’s season-long money title with 131,099 euros.
The now-25-year-old Norwegian golfer posted a 19-under-par 265 total in late October to win by one in the Apulia San Domenico Grand Final in Savelletri, Italy. Kofstad went bogey-free over the final two rounds.
Kofstad will be a rookie on the European Tour in 2013.
3. Laird Runner-Up in Players Championship: Former Colorado State University golfer Martin Laird nearly scored the biggest victory of his career in May.
Laird finished second in the Players Championship, arguably the most important tournament outside the majors. He ended up two two strokes behind champion Matt Kuchar, the same player who beat Laird in a playoff at the Barclays in 2010.
It was Laird’s second runner-up showing of the 2012 PGA Tour season. He also placed second in the season-opening Tournament of Champions.
4. Irwin Posts Another Top-5 in Champions Tour Major: Former University of Colorado athlete Hale Irwin turned 67 in June, but that didn’t keep the all-time Champions Tour winner from contending in one of the circuit’s top events.
With a third-place performance in the Senior PGA Championship in late May, the three-time U.S. Open champion posted his third top-five finish in a Champions Tour major since turning 65.
5. Stadlers, Father and Son, Come Up Big on Same Day: On Aug. 5, Evergreen resident Craig Stadler and son Kevin, a Kent Denver High School graduate, both recorded top-11 finishes on major tours.
Craig placed seventh in the Champions Tour 3M Championship in Blaine, Minn. — matching his best showing on the circuit since August 2009 — while Kevin was 11th in the Reno-Tahoe Open Stableford event in Nevada.
6. Kevin Stadler Makes a Run in the Tour Playoffs: Kevin Stadler began the PGA Tour playoffs with a flurry late in the summer, finishing 10th in both of the first two playoff events, The Barclays and the Deutsche Bank Championship.
For the year, Stadler posted five top-10 finishes, including a fourth in April’s RBC Heritage, which marked his best Tour performance since August 2009.
Stadler finished a career-best 54th on the 2012 Tour money list.
7. Wiebe’s Ace Helps Him to Second Straight Top-3 Finish: Mark Wiebe of Aurora had an October to remember on the Champions Tour. He recorded two straight top-three showings on the circuit, in the SAS Championship and in his title defense at the Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn.
At Rock Barn, Wiebe helped his cause with a first-round hole-in-one.
Wiebe finished 23rd on the 2012 money list, meaning he’s placed in the top 30 each of the five Champions Tour seasons in which he’s played a full schedule.
8. Sherlock, Jacques Earn 2013 LPGA Tour Cards: At the LPGA Tour’s final stage of qualifying, which concluded this month, former University of Denver golfer Stephanie Sherlock regained fully-exempt status on the LPGA Tour, while former Longmont resident Kelly Jacques earned status on the circuit for the first time.
Sherlock, an LPGA Tour player since the start of 2011, finished 10th in the final stage of Q-school, while Jacques tied for 17th then lost in a playoff that could have earned her fully-exempt status.
Jacques, a two-time Colorado state high school champion, earlier this year qualified for the U.S. Women’s Open.
9. Svoboda Gains PGA Tour Card Through Web.com Money List: One-time Golden resident Andrew Svoboda rode two runner-up finishes on the Web.com Tour in the period from February through April to earn a PGA Tour card for the first time.
With the top 25 players on the Web.com money list landing PGA Tour exemptions, Svoboda finished 21st with more than $200,000.
10. Jones Makes Inroads on Champions Tour: Former University of Colorado golfer Steve Jones didn’t make his Champions Tour debut until he was 52 — due to a severe case of tennis elbow — but he’s been making steady progress on the circuit.
Jones, who grew up in Yuma, Colo., finished 13th in the First Tee Open in July, marking his best showing ever in an official Champions Tour event. Then he gained conditional status on the 2013 Champions Tour by finishing 11th in last month’s national qualifying tournament.
