The Sinclair ROCKY MOUNTAIN OPEN

As the longest running continuous open golf tournament in Colorado, the Rocky Mountain Open promises an exciting experience for participants. The event is held at the picturesque Tiara Rado Golf Course, nestled at the base of the majestic Colorado National Monument.

To secure your spot, register now at www.rmogolf.org.

For those looking to support the tournament as sponsors, please reach out to us at info@rmogolf.org.

Major milestone’s for women’s golf in Colorado

March 14, 1916: The Colorado Women’s Golf Association is founded by Mary Hemming and Ella McLaughlin. The influential body survives 101 years until it merges into the Colorado Golf Association.

June 20, 1933: Denverite Phyllis Buchanan wins the Women’s Trans-Mississippi championship at Wakonda Country Club in Des Moines, becoming the first Colorado woman amateur to achieve national prominence. Her return to Denver occasions a visit to City Hall and a hero’s welcome.

1961: Sally Hardwick becomes the first female club professional in Colorado, going to work for Marion Pfluger at Pinehurst Country Club.

1974: With no girls’ golf team, Lauren Howe becomes the number 1 player on the boys’ golf team for three years at St. Mary’s High School in Colorado Springs. In 1983 she will become the first Colorado woman since Babe Zaharias to win an LPGA event, the Mayflower Open at the Country Club of Indianapolis.

August 17, 1974: Cindy Hill, working in a shop at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, wins the U.S. Women’s Amateur at a Broadmoor Golf Club in Seattle, defeating future World Golf Hall of Famer Carol Semple. She becomes the first Sportswoman of the Year honored by the Sportswomen of Colorado.

1990: Nearly 20 years after Title IX, CHSAA institutes Girls Golf as one of its activities.

1993: Jill McGill wins the U.S. Women’s Amateur. A year later she takes the U.S. Amateur Public Links title.

1995: After three years of a two-round amateur flight (known as the Heather Farr flight) in the Colorado Open, women get their own state championship when the Colorado Women’s Open debuts at Fox Hollow Golf Club. Shelly Rule shoots a 4-under 140 and wins the inaugural two-round event on the first extra hole of a playoff with Annette Deluca.

July 13–16, 1995: The U.S. Women’s Open comes to Colorado for the first

By Jon Rizzi

time, with Annika Sorenstam winning the first of her 10 major championships on The Broadmoor Golf Club East Course. “I’m stunned. I have no words. I really don’t know what I got myself into,” the 24-year-old Swede said immediately afterwards.

1996: Judy Bell of Colorado Springs becomes the first female president of the USGA.

2015: Paige Spirinac triumphs in the 100th CWGA Match Play in an epic 35hole duel with CU’s Brittany Fan in which the two players combined to make 22 birdies and finish 15 under par. Spiranac won 2 and 1 after both players halved Raccoon Creek’s par-3 17th with birdies.

April 6, 2019: Jennifer Kupcho wins the first Augusta National Women’s Amateur. The Westminster resident had dominated Colorado girls’ and women’s golf, winning by double digits and dramatically shooting a 7-under-par 65 in round 2 of the 2017 Colorado Women’s Golf Association Stroke Play titles to shatter Babe Zaharias’ 71-year-old Denver Country Club course record of 68. As a junior at Wake Forest, Kupcho won the 2018 NCAA championship and ranked as the number one woman amateur in the world for 34 weeks. Still, it is her performance at the home of the Masters—soldiering through a migraine to go five under par on the final six holes to win by four strokes—that marks her breakout performance. Appearances on the Today Show and Tonight with Jimmy Fallon follow, as does a “Welcome to Denver” voiceover on the terminal train at DIA.

March 22, 2022: Thanks to Inspirato, its new title sponsor, the Colorado Women’s Open purse ($250,000) and first prize ($100k) match the totals of men’s Open. It is the highest payout of any women’s open in the country, and the first state open to offer equal pay for men and women.

August 28, 2022: Jill McGill wins the 2022 U.S. Senior Women’s Open at NCR Country Club in Kettering, Ohio. Her first victory since 1994 —“It’s been a really, really long time,” she said with a laugh to the media—marks her third different USGA championship. The only others to have accomplished that are all in the World Golf Hall of Fame: Carol Semple Thompson, JoAnne Carner Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.