With the LPGA Tour playing its season opener this week, every major tour in the world will be underway for 2017. And if recent developments are any indication, it will be an eventful year for players with strong Colorado connections.
For example:
— Former Colorado State University golfer Martin Laird (pictured) posted his second top-10 finish in four starts on the 2016-17 PGA Tour wraparound season by placing ninth Sunday in the CareerBuilder Challenge in La Quinta, Calif.
The three-time Tour winner shot rounds of 68-66-71-69 for a 14-under-par 274 total, leaving him six strokes behind winner Hudson Swafford.
Laird placed eighth in the Safeway Open in October.
— World Golf Hall of Famer Hale Irwin, a graduate of Boulder High School and the University of Colorado, doesn’t play a lot anymore on PGA Tour Champions, where he’s far and away the record-holder for career victories with 45. But even at 71 years old, he still has his moments.
At last week’s Mitsubishi Electric Championship in Hawaii, Irwin shot better than his age not once but twice in the tournament, which was shortened to 36 holes due to heavy winds on Saturday. Named the Colorado Male Player of the Century in 2015, Irwin fired a 3-under-par 69 Thursday and a 70 on Friday, making it a remarkable 18 times in which he’s bettered his age on the PGA Tour Champions circuit.
Irwin’s 28th-place finish was his best in a non-team event on the Champions tour since August 2014.
— Shane Bertsch of Parker, who hasn’t competed in a PGA Tour-sanctioned event in more than 11 months following a shoulder injury, is back in action at the Web.com Tour’s Bahamas Great Abaco Classic, which started on Sunday.
When he returns to the PGA Tour, the former Colorado Open champion will have 11 events left on a medical extension, needing to earn at least $612,397 in those events to keep his exempt status.
Also on a medical extension on the PGA Tour is part-time Denver resident Kevin Stadler, who when he returns will have 26 tournaments in which to earn $717,890 in order to keep his Tour status. Stadler, hampered by a left hand injury for more than two years, hasn’t competed on the PGA Tour in 18 months, though he finished 41st in the CoBank Colorado Open in July.
Among those joining Bertsch in the Bahamas Great Abaco Classic are two Coloradans who earned Web.com Tour status through Q-school in December, Jim Knous of Englewood and Tom Whitney of Fort Collins. Whitney received a sponsor’s exemption for the event. Former Golden resident Andrew Svoboda, a winner last year on the Web circuit, is also competing in the Bahamas.
Here are some of the other notable things from a Colorado perspective on the world’s major tours in 2017:
— Though former CU golfer Jenny Coleman (left) in all likelihood won’t make it into the field for this week’s Pure Silk Bahamas LPGA Classic, she will be the first player with major Colorado connections to compete regularly on the LPGA Tour since 2013. (Sue Kim, who spent one semester at the University of Denver, played on the LPGA Tour regularly as recently as 2015.)
Coleman, who competed for the Buffs from 2010-14, finished 29th in the final stage of LPGA Tour qualifying in December to earn conditional status.
Two former DU golfers, Tonje Daffinrud and Ellie Givens, continue to be regulars on the Ladies European Tour.
— As many as a half-dozen players with strong Colorado ties figure to compete at least a handful of times on the PGA Tour in the current wraparound season.
As noted earlier, that could include two players long sidelined by injuries, Stadler and Bertsch.
Laird, who already has two top-10 showings, will be a regular.
Former Denver resident Mark Hubbard has struggled in the early going this season, but has shown he has some staying power by keeping his PGA Tour card for three straight years. His best PGA Tour finish is 15th in the 2016 Puerto Rico Open.
Meanwhile, likely getting periodic starts in 2017 will be former Fort Collins resident Sam Saunders and current Aspenite Justin Leonard.
— As many as eight players with Colorado connections may compete on PGA Tour Champions in 2017. The one likely to make the most noise, based on last year, is Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Brandt Jobe, who posted seven top-10 finishes in 2016. Others likely to play at least periodically in 2017 are Esteban Toledo, Gary Hallberg, Irwin, Mark Wiebe, Steve Jones, Craig Stadler and Mike Reid.
— For the first time in several years, at least two players with strong Colorado connections will compete in the same season on the European Tour. That happened when former CU golfer Sebastian Heisele finished 19th in the final stage of Q-school in November and former DU player Espen Kofstad was 25th. That made both players exempt for the 2016-17 wraparound season.
— Joining Knous, Whitney and Svoboda on the Web.com Tour in 2017 are Coloradans Parker Edens and Michael Schoolcraft, along with current CU senior Jeremy Paul, all of whom have conditional status, like Whitney.
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