Forethoughts

Stan Fenn & Doug Perry

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EVERY SATURDAY 7-9 a.m. Getting Back Our TOUR Card

IN CASE anyone’s counting, 15 years have passed since Colorado had a regular stop on the PGA TOUR. During that postInternational indiction, we’ve hosted two U.S. Senior Opens, a U.S. Women’s Open, a Senior PGA Championship, a Solheim Cup, a U.S. Amateur and a U.S. Mid-Am. But only once in that span—the 2014 BMW Championship at Cherry Hills—did the electricity of a PGA TOUR event galvanize Colorado. What those tournaments all have in common is that during and after them we’ve heard a version of what then-PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem—ironically, the composer of The International’s death knell in 2007—told The Denver Post during the 2014 BMW: “We would love to play here on a regular basis. There are great sports fans here.” The PGA TOUR also named the BMW its 2014 Event of the Year. These days, rumors fly about another BMW coming to Cherry Hills or Castle Pines. Or could it be a President’s Cup? Is something in the offing at The Broadmoor or Colorado Golf Club? Whatever arrives will likely be another stand-alone event, not an annual affair. This is somewhat regrettable but completely understandable, given the inconveniences and sacrifices that a club’s members must endure to host a tournament on a yearly basis. Yet Colorado does have two outstanding professional golf tournaments every July: The CoBank Colorado Open Championship (page 51) and the Korn Ferry Tour’s TPC Colorado Championship at Heron Lakes (page 76). The 57th CoBank Colorado Open takes place July 29–Aug. 1 at Denver’s Green Valley Ranch Golf Club. Attracted by the largest purse ($250,000) and winner’s share ($100,000) of any state open, the field promises to be exceptionally strong this year, given the absence of any PGA TOUR or Korn Ferry Tour events opposite it. How good are these guys? Last year’s winner, Mark Anguiano, fired a 29-under 259 and was one of four players to break or tie the tournament scoring record. Why not attend and see how low can they go? Three weeks prior to the Colorado Open, the TPC Colorado Championship at Heron Lakes, a third-year event on the PGA TOUR’s developmental Korn Ferry Tour, rolls into Berthoud July 5–11. Last year’s tournament springboarded the champion Will Zalatoris’ professional career. Since his win, the wiry former Walker Cup player has finished T6 in the 2020 U.S. Open, runner-up in the Masters and T8 in the PGA Championship. Zalatoris, who will automatically earn a PGA TOUR card at the end of this unusual 2020-2021 season, won’t defend his title at TPC Colorado. Instead, he’ll tee off at a different TPC in the PGA TOUR’s John Deere Classic as a Special Temporary PGA TOUR Member. That status means he has to win a PGA TOUR event in order to qualify for the lucrative FedExCup Playoffs. Even without him, the Colorado field will teem with future PGA TOUR stars competing in an event that won the Korn Ferry Tour’s 2019 Tournament of the Year. Like Deere Run and every TPC, this dazzling facility on Lonetree and McNeil reservoirs exists in part to host big-time golf tournaments. Its 450 members know this. They volunteer in droves and embrace the weeks when their tee times vanish like ProV1s in the deep, thick, juicy rough. “I’ve had players come up and tell me, ‘This place is so good, when is it going to become a PGA TOUR event site?’” PGA TOUR official Bo DeHuff said during last month’s media event at TPC Colorado’s 65,000-square-foot clubhouse. Once you’ve attended the championship in Berthoud, you’ll be asking the same question. Let’s hope it doesn’t take another 15 years to get an answer. —JON RIZZI