It’s funny how the golf gods work.
Just ask Neil Johnson. He can certainly attest.
On Monday at Legacy Ridge Golf Course, the Phoenix-based golf professional qualified for the CoBank Colorado Open for the first time — and by the narrowest of margins. After surviving a playoff, he earned the 15th and final position at stake at the fourth and final Colorado Open qualifying tournament.
“Maybe literally I was the last guy in (the field),” said Johnson, who also noted he made a hole-in-one on the eve of the qualifying tournament
Then less than a week later, the 34-year-old parlayed his good fortune into the richest payday and the biggest victory of his life, winning the 52nd Colorado Open at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club.
“The elephant in the room is the big $100,000 check, which is awesome,” he said. “But for me I always just loved playing golf. On the first day (of the tournament) when you asked me, ‘What’s your signature win?’, it was like, ‘Geez, I’ve been doing this for eight years and I don’t have a signature win. But this obviously changes that.
“To beat a field like this … You’ve got every type of player — you’ve got PGA Tour winners, PGA Tour members, Web.com members, Canadian and Latinamerican Tour players and mini-tour all-stars. To come out on top is definitely the defining win so far of my career.”
Besides earning a tournament-record six-figure check, Johnson posted the best score, relative to par, in the 52 years of the Open. Johnson went 64-69-68-64 for a 23-under-par 265 total at GVR. Derek Tolan shot a 22-under 262 in 2009 when the course was playing to a par-71.
Johnson fended off back-nine challenges Sunday from two-time PGA Tour winner Jonathan Kaye of Boulder and 2005 Colorado Open champion Wil Collins of Albuquerque. But Johnson’s bogey-free 8-under-par 64 proved too much, and he posted a three-stroke victory. He capped things off with a fist-pump after sinking an 8-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole (pictured at top).
Awaiting him afterward was by far the biggest check of his career.
“Prior to this it was $21,000,” he noted. “I’m like a mini-tour veteran in a way. I’ve played everything. I can count on two fingers how many checks I’ve had of over $10,000. I get $5,000 here, $2,000 there and whatever, then all of a sudden, BOOM, this.
“The craziest thing is last week I played a tournament and made a little over $4,000, and I’m like, ‘Hey that puts me in the black for the year. I can now afford the rest of my tournaments. I can now afford Q-school — I couldn’t afford it last year; I was broke. So everything is going into my pocket now.’ And the first check is six figures? Come on!”
Kaye (left), competing in his first tournament in two years, held and shared the lead on the back nine Sunday after starting the day birdie-eagle and being 7 under par through 12 holes. But he badly mishit his second shot on the par-5 18th hole — a 5-wood from 277 yards — which went into the hazard, leading to his only bogey and essentially ending his chances of winning his second Colorado Open. Ironically, he then dropped about 5 yards back and hit the same 5 wood perfectly to about 15 feet from the flag, though he missed the putt.
“I kind of had to go for it because I knew I had to make at least birdie and maybe eagle” on 18, he said. “I was in the rough. It wasn’t the greatest lie but I hit a terrible shot. I could probably hit that 10 times and never do that again. It would have been ideal had my tee shot not gone (just into the rough).
“I’d love to have that (second) shot again. It still might not be good enough, but I’d like to give it a better effort.
“For a guy who hasn’t played in as long as I have, I was pretty happy with the way I got it around. (But) I was trying to win. That was my goal. It’s nice to play well, but I don’t care about seconds and thirds at this point.”
The 45-year-old former University of Colorado golfer shared second place at 268 with Collins (left), with each winning $15,250 — a far cry from Johnson’s $100K. Kaye closed with a 66 and Collins with a 69 after bogeying the 17th hole.
Jim Knous of Englewood matched the course record with a 10-under-par 62 — the fourth such score this week — to share fourth place at 269 with Zahkai Brown of Arvada and Martin Trainer of Palo Alto, Calif. Brown, who birdied five of his first six holes on Sunday, now has recorded four top-five finishes in the last five Colorado Opens, winning in 2013, placing second in 2012 and ’15, and ending up fourth on Sunday.
Knous played his last three holes in 4 under par, went 7 under in his last eight, and shot a record 7-under 29 on the back nine.
“It felt amazing,” said the former Colorado School of Mines golfer. “It’s the best nine holes I’ve ever played, coming in with birdie, birdie, eagle. That’s pretty special.”
With Nick Hodge of Littleton tying for nine place at 271, Coloradans earned four spots in the top 10 (Kaye, Knous, Brown, left, and Hodge).
But Johnson reserved the top position for himself. He played three rounds of the tournament (Thursday, Saturday and Sunday) without a bogey. And on Sunday, in addition to carding six birdies (including three straight from holes 12-14), he holed his second shot for an eagle on the 463-yard sixth hole.
“Starting the day, I looked at it like I started the week with a 64 and maybe I can bookend it with another 64 and get to 23 (under),” he said. “And I got there on the last putt.”
CSU’s Makloski Best Among Amateurs: Jimmy Makloski of Pueblo made a run at low-amateur honors at last year’s Colorado Open, but a triple bogey on the 15th hole of the final round derailed his chances.
On Sunday, though, there were no such hiccups, and the Colorado State University golfer finished as the top amateur. He played his final 16 holes in 2 under par, shot a 1-under 71 for the day and ended up at 8-under 280 for the week.
“Last year I was real close and blew it out the end,” said Makloski (left), the 2012 CGA Junior Stroke Play champion. “It went down kind of the opposite way as this year. So it was kind of nice.”
Makloski, who tied for 34th place overall, finished two strokes better than a trio of players in the amateur competition — his Colorado State teammates from last season Jake Staiano and Dominic Kieffer, plus Connor Klein of Lone Tree. Staiano, the top amateur going into Sunday, closed with a 77, while Kieffer, who wrapped up his CSU career in the spring, had a 75. Klein carded the best Sunday round, with a 69.
“It’s always nice to see your teammates do well,” Makloski said of the Rams being atop the amateur standings. “Hopefully it will carry over into the (college) season.”
Knous Goes Low Again: In a tournament that already featured numerous Colorado Open scoring records, Sunday certainly had its moments. Notably, two players in one day matched the Green Valley Ranch course record of 62, which had previously been shot this week by Wil Collins (round 1) and Alex Kim (round 3).
Both Jim Knous of Englewood and D.J. Brigman of Albuquerque eagled the 18th hole to finish 10 under for the day. That helped Knous tie for fourth place overall and Brigman share seventh place.
It was the third time in less than a decade that Knous has matched or tied a course record in the Denver metro area. He previously did it with a final-round 10-under-par 60 at Boulder Country Club that forced a playoff in the 2010 CGA Stroke Play, and with a 9-under 63 at a USGA qualifier at Heritage Eagle Bend.
Ironically, Knous began his round with a bogey on No. 1 Sunday after hitting his approach over the green and into a hazard.
With his record 29 on the back nine, Knous now not only shares the overall course record at GVR, but has tied the front-nine mark and owns the back-nine standard outright. He recorded a 29 on the front nine in the 2012 tournament.
“I just try not to slow down,” he said. “The putter just got hot, especially on that back nine. It was just birdies galore. Once they start going in, you get a good visual and they all start going in.”
Brigman also made an eagle, nine birdies and a bogey on Sunday. It was his seventh 62 in competition.
“The scoring conditions were ideal this week,” Brigman said. “There were obviously some low numbers this week, but I was happy to end on a great note.”
Stadler Still Hurting; Status in Limbo: Part-time Denver resident Kevin Stadler completed his first tournament in a year, tying for 41st place Sunday in the Colorado Open. But the condition of his left hand, which has sidelined him for the better part of the last 20 months, certainly wasn’t promising, he said.
“I can scrape it around here and post a somewhat respectable score, but I can’t do it when it’s going to be at the level I’m going to need it at,” Stadler said, referring to the PGA Tour, where he won once in 2014. “It’s nowhere near the place it needs to be.”
Stadler shot rounds of 73-67-68-74 for a 6-under-par 282 total at Green Valley Ranch. On Sunday, he put together a “bizarre round” in which he shot a 7-over-par 43 on his front nine (the back at GVR) and a 5-under 31 on his back. He made an eagle, four birdies, a quadruple bogey, a double bogey and two bogeys.
“The first three days were pretty good. Today was terrible,” he said. “I had no chance today. I couldn’t really swing all day. After five or six holes I figured out how to move it forward in play. Every shot, (the pain) was kind of zinging me right at address. It felt like (my shots) could go absolutely anywhere.”
Stadler said he’s going to try different treatments and see how the hand responds.
“The way it is right now though, I wouldn’t try to play again if it’s like this until maybe this thing (the Colorado Open) next year,” he said. “Hopefully that’s not the case, but it didn’t respond very well. It was OK for the first days, but doing it four days in a row — then eventually down the road wanting to play three or four weeks in a row, is just not going to be a reality (barring a major improvement).”
Honoring Kensler: At the beginning of Sunday’s awards ceremony, Colorado Open Golf Foundation CEO Kevin Laura asked for a moment of silence for longtime Denver Post golf writer Tom Kensler, who passed away at age 64 on Friday. He was “a guy we all knew and loved,” Laura said. “He loved playing golf as much as he did writing about it. He’s going to be sorely missed.”
A service for Kensler will be held Aug. 6 at 11 a.m., at the Archdiocese of Denver Mortuary Chapel at 12801 W. 44th Ave., in Wheat Ridge.
Notable: Gunner Wiebe had an unusual first seven holes on Sunday, making two eagles and two double bogeys in that stretch. He finished tied for 14th place at 15-under-par 273. … Among the spectators at GVR Sunday was Steve Ziegler, who in 2009 swept both the CGA Stroke Play and Match Play titles in the same year, the only time that’s happened since 1985.
For scores from the Colorado Open CLICK HERE.
