Editor’s Note: With the CGA celebrating the 100th anniversary of its founding in 1915, this is the 10th 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 2005-present. For the previous installments, CLICK HERE
When it comes to big-time golf tournaments being held in Colorado, the last decade has certainly had its ups and downs.
And many of the “ups” may have largely been the result of the biggest “down”.
The dominoes began to fall early in 2007. That was when Jack Vickers, founder of The International and of Castle Pines Golf Club, and PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem announced at a Denver-based press conference that The International’s run in Colorado was ending after 21 consecutive years on the PGA Tour.
Though there were many contributing reasons, the lack of a title sponsor in the final years of the event played a major role. The tournament hadn’t had a title or presenting sponsor after 2002. Tiger Woods seldom playing in the event — he competed in 1998 and ’99 only — was another factor, as were problems with the tournament’s dates.
But whatever the case, there was a sense of mourning on the Colorado sports scene. The International had produced champions such as Phil Mickelson (twice), Davis Love III (twice), Greg Norman, Ernie Els and Vijay Singh. Among the many other giants of the game to have played at Castle Pines were Jack Nicklaus (designer of Castle Pines GC), Woods and Arnold Palmer.
And the event produced some incredible golf, including in 2002, when one of the most amazing finishes in Colorado golf history occurred. Ten points out of the lead with five holes left, Steve Lowery went birdie-eagle-bogey-double eagle in a four-hole stretch, twice holing out from the fairway during that run. Only an eagle at the 17th hole by Rich Beem and Lowery’s missed birdie putt on 18 kept Lowery from carting off the trophy.
With the International’s exit, for the first calendar year since 1971, Colorado was left without a PGA, LPGA or Champions Tour event in 2007.
But as it turned out, the void was largely filled, and the last decade has been full of top-level spectator events.
— Before 2005, the U.S. Women’s Open had been held in Colorado just once — at 1995 at The Broadmoor, with Annika Sorenstam winning. But twice in the seven-year period from 2005 through 2001, the Centennial State would host the top tournament in women’s golf.
Birdie Kim won the 2005 championship in spectatcular fashion at Cherry Hills Country Club, holing out for — what else, given her name — birdie from a deep greenside bunker on the 72nd hole.
Six years later, at The Broadmoor’s East Course, another South Korean, So Yeon Ryu (left, in orange), prevailed, winning in the first three-hole aggregate playoff in the tournament’s history. Like Sorenstam at The Broadmoor and Kim at Cherry Hills, Ryu made the U.S. Women’s Open her first LPGA Tour victory.
Both the 2005 and ’11 Women’s Opens in Colorado drew more than 130,000 spectators for the week.
–The Broadmoor attracted a similar number for the 2008 U.S. Senior Open, won by Eduardo Romero of Argentina. That tournament is remembered for the black bear that ran across a fairway in which Bernhard Langer was playing. And then there was the presence of then-celebrity couple Greg Norman and Chris Evert …
— Colorado would go on to host two Champions Tour majors in three years as the 2010 Senior PGA Championship came to Colorado Golf Club, with Tom Lehman claiming the title.
— In 2012, the U.S. Amateur came to Cherry Hills for the second time — Phil Mickelson’s win in 1990 being the first — with CommonGround Golf Course serving as the second stroke-play venue. Steven Fox won the championship this time in one of Jordan Spieth’s final amateur events.
— In 2013, the Solheim Cup — the female version of the Ryder Cup — came to the western U.S. for the first time, with Colorado Golf Club being the host. The Europeans (left) won the Cup on U.S. soil for the first time. The 18-10 score marked the largest final margin in the history of the event.
— And then in 2014, the PGA Tour returned to Colorado for the first time since 2006, with Cherry Hills hosting the BMW Championship, the penultimate event of the FedEx Cup Playoffs. Billy Horschel won the tournament en route to claiming the 2014 FedEx Cup title.
The 2014 BMW Championship (pictured at top, with Rory McIlroy competing at Cherry Hills) was later named the PGA Tour’s Tournament of the Year for the third straight season. With University of Colorado Evans Scholar alum George Solich serving as general chairman, the event raised a record $3.5 million for the Evans Scholars.
— And, looking ahead, another major spectator event is on tap for the state as the 2018 U.S. Senior Open will be contested at The Broadmoor the same year as the resort turns 100 years old.
Here are some of the other Colorado golf highlights of the period from 2005 to present:
— Two distinguished Colorado PGA golf professionals, Warren Smith and Charles “Vic” Kline, were both inducted into the PGA Golf Professional Hall of Fame in 2005.
— In 2005, the CGA and CWGA officially purchased the former Lowry golf course, the site of the present-day CommonGround Golf Course.
— Rick DeWitt became the oldest (at age 50) winner of the CGA Les Fowler Player of the Year Award, in 2006.
— In 2006, the Walking Stick course in Pueblo hosted the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship, with Tiffany Joh defeating Kimberly Kim in the final.
— In 2007, former University of Colorado athlete Hale Irwin won his record 45th Champions Tour event — 16 more than the No. 2 player on the list, Lee Trevino.
— In 2008, Murphy Creek Golf Course in Aurora was the site of the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship, with Jack Newman earning the title. Among the other competitors were Rickie Fowler and Billy Horschel.
— The Tom Doak-designed CommonGround Golf Course, originally owned and operated by both the CGA and CWGA, opened in 2009, marking the last new 18-hole course to come on the scene in Colorado. A nine-hole Kids Course also opened, thanks in significant part to a $175,000 grant from the USGA. The Kids Course is largely used for junior golf development and community outreach.
— In 2009 Steve Ziegler became the first player since Brandt Jobe in 1985 to sweep the CGA Match Play and Stroke Play titles in the same year.
— Coloradans John Elway and Tom Hart won the 2009 Trans-Miss Four-Ball title at Cherry Hills Country Club.
— Denver Country Club hosted the 2010 Trans-Miss Championship, won by Scott Pinckney, and the senior Trans Miss, won by Chip Lutz.
— After decades as a U.S. Open Sectional Qualifying site, Columbine Country Club lost that status after 2010.
— Wyndham Clark won the 2010 CGA Stroke Play at age 16, becoming the youngest winner of the event since Bob Byman in 1971. In the final round of the championship, Jim Knous shot a course-record 10-under-par 60 at Boulder Country Club to force a playoff, but Clark prevailed for the title.
— From 2010-13, Keith Humerickhouse claimed four consecutive CGA Mid-Amateur titles, becoming just the third person to win four straight CGA championships.
— In 2011, the Allied Golf Associations of Colorado became partners in the Colorado PGA Golf in Schools initiative, designed to introduce kids to golf through P.E. classes at school. The program has now reached more than 40,000 students.
— Green Gables Country Club, a storied course that dated back to the 1920s, closed in 2011. The course hosted six LPGA Tour events and one from the Senior PGA Tour.
— The CGA hosted the Junior America’s Cup at Hiwan Golf Club in 2011, when the Colorado team finished third, its best showing ever at the event (since matched in 2015).
— The CGA launched the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy at CommonGround Golf Course in 2012. The Academy, named for University of Colorado Evans Scholar alums George and Geoff Solich, provides incentives to take caddies as it pays the base fee for the caddies, with the players having the option to tip. The caddies attend weekly leadership classes and do volunteer community-service work each summer. In Colorado, the Academy concept has spread to Fort Collins Country Club and Meridian Golf Club.
— Part-time Lakewood resident Hollis Stacy, winner of three U.S. Women’s Opens and six USGA championships in all, was inducted into World Golf Hall of Fame in 2012.
— The philanthropic Colorado Golf Foundation was launched in 2012, with CU Evans Scholar alum George Solich providing a $2 million lead gift. The foundation provides funding for Colorado-based organizations and programs that use golf to build important life skills and character, with an emphasis on instilling hard work and self-reliance in young people.
— In 2012, Coloradan Christie Austin, while serving on the USGA Executive Committee, became the first woman to chair the USGA Rules of Golf Committee.
— Coloradan Derek Tolan, who competed in the U.S. Open as a 16-year-old in 2002, won the HealthOne Colorado Open twice in a four-year period starting in 2009.
— In September 2013, about 14 inches of rain in less than a week caused devastating flooding (left), leading to major damage at many Colorado golf courses, including CommonGround GC and Coal Creek GC.
— Colorado resident Mark Wiebe won the Senior British Open in 2013, marking the first major championship of his career.
— Melissa Martin of Grand Junction became the seventh player to win the CWGA Stroke Play at least three times, doing so in the course of five years (2009-13).
— In 2014, the Colorado Open was played for the 50th time.
— Also in 2014, Kent Moore completed a sweep of major CGA championships — and has won at least one in five different decades. His resume includes victories in the Junior Match Play (1973), Stroke Play (1986), Match Play (1989), Mid-Amateur (1995), Senior Match (2006) and Senior Stroke (2014).
— In December 2014, the Evans Scholarship for caddies surpassed the 10,000 mark in graduates, including 434 from CU.
— Paige Spiranac won the 100th CWGA Match Play Championship in 2015 in a stellar final in which she was 9 under par for 35 holes against University of Colorado golfer Brittany Fan. And Jennifer Kupcho put on an exhibition at the CWGA Stroke Play, winning by an amazing 21 shots in posting a 16-under-par total.
— For the eighth time in a nine-year period (2007-15), members of the Colorado PGA, or the Section itself, won a national PGA of America Award. The honorees during that stretch were Danny Harvanek and Ann Finke (Junior Golf Leaders); George Kahrhoff, Dale Smigelsky and Jim Hajek (Merchandisers of the Year); Clayton Cole (Bill Strausbaugh Award), Kyle Heyen (President’s Plaque Award), and the Colorado PGA Section as a whole (Herb Graffis Award).
— Doug Rohrbaugh won three straight Colorado PGA Professional Championships from 2013-15, tying a record previously established, then matched, by Ron Vlosich and Ken Krieger, respectively. Rohrbaugh also captured the 2013 HealthOne Colorado Senior Open title.
— The CGA and Colorado PGA announced they’re joining forces to bolster junior golf in the state. A Junior Tour, which will include four junior major championships, is scheduled to debut in 2016.
— The CGA is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2015, culminating with a Century of Golf Gala in mid-November at The Broadmoor. Jack Nicklaus, who won his first and last USGA championships in Colorado (the 1959 U.S. Amateur and the 1993 U.S. Senior Open), is a guest of honor. Also among those who will be recognized are six People of the Century: Judy Bell (Woman of the Century), Hale Irwin (Male Player of the Century), Charles “Vic” Kline (Golf Professional of the Century), Dennis Lyon (Superintendent of the Century, Barbara McIntire (Female Player of the Century) and Will Nicholson Jr. (Man of the Century).
