It certainly wasn’t by design, but in the same summer the CGA officially turns 100 years old, its flagship championships may be experiencing a historic “first”.
The records aren’t complete — the sites of the CGA Stroke Play are only noted back through 1978 — but what records are accessible indicate that never before have both the CGA Match Play and Stroke Play been conducted at the same course in a single year.
Until this summer, that is.
CommonGround Golf Course in Aurora, which is owned and operated by the CGA and CWGA, will host the 79th CGA Stroke Play Thursday through next Sunday (Aug. 13-16). Four weeks ago, the 115th CGA Match Play concluded at CommonGround, with Nick Nosewicz of Meadow Hills Golf Course claiming the title.
Though CommonGround is the home course of the CGA, the association didn’t plan to have both of its “state amateurs” at the course in 2015. Originally, CommonGround was going to host the Stroke Play, while the Mountain Course at The Broadmoor was to be the site of the Match Play. But heavy rains in the spring caused enough damage to the Mountain Course that officials at The Broadmoor said it wouldn’t be ready in time for the Match Play. So, two weeks before the championship was scheduled to start, the CGA moved it to CommonGround, the Tom Doak-designed course that opened in 2009 and that served as the second stroke-play course for the 2012 U.S. Amateur that Cherry Hills Country Club hosted.
“That’s where owning a golf course is helpful,” said Ed Mate, executive director of the CGA, which otherwise would have had to do considerable last-minute scrambling to find a suitable venue.
So we’ll have a little history made this summer with the two state amateurs taking place at the same site five weeks apart.
There were two years in the last four decades that the CGA Match Play and Stroke Play were held in very close proximity — both geographically and date-wise.
In 1982, the two events were linked and played in one seven-day period in July. After four days of the Stroke Play — which competitor Kent Moore remembers being contested at the Country Club of Colorado in Colorado Springs — the top 16 finishers advanced to the Match Play, which was held at the nearby West Course at The Broadmoor. In the 36-hole Match Play final, former University of Colorado All-American Rick Cramer defeated Moore, 3 and 2, completing a sweep of the Stroke Play and Match Play in 1982. Will Nicholson Jr., of Denver, just a half a year after completing his term as president of the USGA, officiated the Cramer-Moore final.
The next year, a similar format was used, though the top 32 in the Stroke Play at The Broadmoor’s South Course advanced to the Match Play at the Country Club of Colorado.
This year, with both the Match Play and Stroke Play at the same course, the situation would seem to favor Nosewicz. After all, he won the Match Play at CommonGround last month with a 4 and 3 final victory over Connor Klein. At 31, Nosewicz became the oldest winner of the Match Play since 1994. (Nosewicz is pictured above during the Match Play final.)
And besides winning the Match Play at CommonGround, Nosewicz tied for second last year in the CGA Stroke Play after leading through three rounds at Lakewood Country Club. And it should be noted that the player who won last year’s Stroke Play, David Oraee of Greeley, won’t defend his title as he’ll be playing practice rounds next weekend in preparation for the U.S. Amateur at Olympia Fields in suburban Chicago.
The other runner-up from last year, Jimmy Makloski of Pueblo Country Club, will be in the field at CommonGround, as will Klein.
The only former CGA Stroke Play champion entered — as of Friday — was 2012 winner Steven Kupcho of Heritage at Westmoor.
Other notable players in the Stroke Play field are 2014 CGA Match Play winner Cody Kent of The Club at Ravenna and four-time CGA Mid-Amateur champion Keith Humerickhouse of Glenwood Springs Country Club.
Whoever is crowned champion come Aug. 16 will join an illustrious list of winners of the Stroke Play. That list includes Babe Lind (1941, ’42 and ’48), who was part of the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame’s inaugural class of inductees; Hale Irwin (1963, ’64 and ’65); Bob Byman (1971, ’72 and ’73); Steve Jones (1981); and Brandt Jobe (1985). Irwin, Jones and Byman all went on to win on the PGA Tour, and Jobe has also had a long run on the world’s top golf circuit. And between them, Irwin and Jones have won four U.S. Opens.
Next week will mark the second CGA Stroke Play CommonGround has hosted. Zahkai Brown won there in 2011 before claiming the HealthOne Colorado Open title in 2013 and placing second in that event in 2012 and ’15.
In all, 84 players will compete next week at CommonGround, with a cut to the low 40 and ties coming after two rounds.
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