The annual series brings the best to Colorado. By Jim Bebbington
TRAINING FOR GOLF// 62
Take a train across Colorado and play golf as you go. By Zaq Tull
DEPARTMENTS
8// FORETHOUGHTS
Kyle Freeland is worth rooting for – on the mound or on the course. By Jim Bebbington
12// THE CGA
People of the CGA – Susie Roh. By Kayla Kerns
16// THE GALLERY
Green Valley Ranch is sold; new pros at neighboring Cherry Hills and Glenmoor country clubs; girls state champs; the race for the Olympic team; golf apparel goes UNDRGRND
80// blindshot
Davis Bryant and the U.S. Open qualifier. By Jim Bebbington
PLAYER’S CORNER
27// ASCENDING TO THE TOP
The Korn Ferry’s best come to the front range this month and the winner will have a path to the PGA. By Jim Bebbington
ON THE COVER
SIDE BETS
31// FAREWAYS
Prost Brewing’s enormous new biergarten in Northglenn combines german-style beer with an Oktoberfest vibe year-round. By John Lehndorff
38// nice drives
Alfa Romeo, BMW and Range Rover continue to drive excellence. By Isaac Bouchard
Denver’s own Kyle Freeland is key for the Rockies. He is balancing baseball, life, and finding peace on the golf course.
By Jim Bebbington | Photo By: Christian Marcy-Vega
Our 2nd annual check-up on what Colorado is doing to grow the women’s game. by Kaylee Harter
PHOTO CREDIT: JIM BEBBINGTON
coloradoavidgolfer.com
PRESIDENT & GROUP PUBLISHER
ALLEN J. WALTERS
CONTENT DIRECTOR
JIM BEBBINGTON
SALES, MARKETING & ADVERTISING vp of sales & marketing LORI PERRY
T. COLANDER
BRENDAN O’KEEFFE brand ambassador KIM DECOSTE
ART & EDITORIAL art director
CHRIS DECONNA art director , avidlifestyle
LAURA ARMSTRONG editor -at- large TOM FERRELL
automotive editor
ISAAC BOUCHARD style editor
SUZANNE S. BROWN
PARTNER
CHRIS PHILLIPS
contributors
ANDY BIGFORD, TONY DEAR, DENNY DRESSMAN, SUE DRINKER, DICK DURRANCE, CHRIS DUTHIE, SCOTT GARDNER, KAYLEE HARTER, NICK MCQUEENEY, TED JOHNSON, JOHN LEHNDORFF, CHRISTIAN MARCYVEGA, KIM MCHUGH, JAY MCKINNEY, JON RIZZI, JAMIE SIEBRASE, ZAQ TULL, CHRIS WHEELER
INQUIRIES
advertising
ALLEN@COLORADOAVIDGOLFER.COM
editorial & letters JIM@COLORADOAVIDGOLFER.COM
customer service & subscriptions (720) 493-1729 mailing address 9350 E. ARAPAHOE ROAD, STE. 210 GREENWOOD VILLAGE, CO 80112
For years, Rockies faithful have been waiting. Waiting for wins. Waiting for a sign that the team is getting better. Waiting for something.
And through that time, one of their own has been trying to make it happen.
Denver-native Kyle Freeland has been a key starting pitcher for the Rockies since 2017. He is among a small number of Major League Baseball players who gets to play for his hometown team. He wants nothing more than to bring a World Series to the Mile High City.
In 2018 we interviewed Freeland about his thennew career, and shed light on his golf ability. He’s a stud: 340 yard drives, soft hands around the green, scratch golfer. Do not bet this man.
John Pavlakovich
NMLSR ID: 801982
Sr. Mortgage Consultant
Cell: 720-308-2507
John.Pavlakovich@phmloans.com
JohnPavlakovich.phmloans.com
215 Saint Paul St, Denver, CO 80206
Everything ahead looked to be blue skies and optimism. Now six years later we catch you up with Freeland for several reasons. Professionally, he’s had ups and downs. His ups are so tantalizing –he was 4th in Cy Young votes in 2018 – that if he were to return to that form consistently the Rockies would immediately improve. Plus he and his wife Ashley have become uniquely active in their off-the-field charity work – supporting the Special Olympics of Colorado and this spring donating $3 million to their alma mater.
This is elder statesman stuff that he is doing. He spoke very openly with us about what he’s come through and what he and his teammates are trying to accomplish. He talked about how golf remains a part of his life and how the mental approach it demands overlaps a lot with the focus and drive needed to strike out a .300-hitter.
At the time of the interview he was rehabilitating from a strained elbow and felt optimistic that he would be back soon. We hope our visit with Freeland helps readers see what happens behind the scenes when a great player goes quiet during an injury rehab. Few kids grow up and play for their
hometown team. He’s someone to root for, on and off the field, and I wouldn’t bet against him.
Also for the second year running we use the July edition to take the pulse of how Colorado is doing supporting women in golf. Turns out, not bad. But like with everything there is more than can be done. Our coverage includes articles about women finding support from each other, as well as teens getting into the game for the first time. The future is bright, so long as the game remains a welcoming experience.
And we also have the latest on the Inspirato Colorado Open. One of the hottest Epson Tour pros, Juliana Hung, took the $100,000 first prize in May and the men and seniors tee off soon. The tournaments make great theater; get out to Green Valley Ranch and watch the final day if you can.
Jim Bebbington// jim@coloradoavidgolfer.com
Indulge... and indulge.
Indulge in the luxury of an exquisitely designed contemporary home while indulging in your favorite pastime. Step into Trumark Homes’ latest collection of residences nestled within Colorado’s finest golf course communities. With sophisticated, purpose-driven designs that elevate the concept of contemporary living far above the expected. Go ahead, indulge yourself. Schedule your personal tour at TrumarkHomesColorado.com or call (970) 499-8222.
NOW AVAILABLE IN
Sponsorship opportunities are available. To learn more, please email Allen Walters at allen@coloradoavidgolfer.com
August 11, 2024
•
•
• Eddie V’s Prime Seafood Restaurant
•
• Lavish Hors d’ Oeuvres & Entertainment
THE GOLF
• Private Players Clinic hosted by GOLFTEC
THE GOLF
• Private Players Clinic hosted by GOLFTEC
• $200 credit to Pins & Aces
• PXG Experience including a Player Gift
• PXG Experience including a Player Gift
• Renowned Mimosa & Bloody Mary Bar
• Mountainside Breakfast
• Renowned Mimosa & Bloody Mary Bar
• Mountainside Breakfast
• 18 Holes of Scenic Golf at Colorado’s Premier Country Club
• 18 Holes of Scenic Golf at Colorado’s Premier Country Club
• Amazing On-Course Food Stations
• Amazing On-Course Food Stations
• Premium Cocktails, Fine Wines, Beer & Hand-Rolled Cigars
• The Gift Bag of ALL Gift Bags!
• Premium Cocktails, Fine Wines, Beer & Hand-Rolled Cigars
• The Gift Bag of ALL Gift Bags!
• Fun & Challenging Player Contests
• BIG Prizes & Giveaways
• Fun & Challenging Player Contests
• Special Awards Party & Auction
• BIG Prizes & Giveaways
• AND SO MUCH MORE!
• Special Awards Party & Auction
• ... AND SO MUCH MORE! OPEN TO ALL
• Specialty Cocktails Featuring the “Smoked Old Fashioned” Scan code or call 720.493.1729 for more details
SUSIE ROH
MEET THE TREASURER OF THE CGA
ByKaylaKerns
Susie Roh serves as president and CEO of Wind River Trust Company and Drumore LLC Family Office. She is the former Colorado Market Leader for U.S. Bank Private Wealth Management. In that role, Susie was responsible for the delivery of the firm’s wealth management service. Susie has more than 18 years of experience in the areas of estate planning, wealth management, fiduciary law, trust and estate administration, and banking. Susie received her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Oregon.
She was a two-time Academic All American and team captain of the women’s golf team. She competed professionally on the Player’s West and Futures Golf Tours before she received her juris doctor and LL.M in taxation from the University of Denver College of Law.
KK: Where did you grow up?
SR: I grew up in Idaho. My mom worked for the city of Idaho Falls, and we had three city courses where I grew up, so I started playing golf there and working in the cart barn when I was 13. I worked there all through junior high, high school, and college. Then I ended up playing golf in college at the University of Oregon which was super fun. I even played in some mini tours and taught golf a little bit after college. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to make it professionally, so I got my amateur status back and went to law school where I got my master’s in tax. My mom is originally from Colorado, so I had a lot of ties back here, so I ended up going to law school at the University of Denver.
KK: What was the collegiate golf experience like?
SR: I think playing college sports, especially for women, brings great opportunity. I also made some good lifelong friends. In fact, Kelly Green, who’s on the CGA Board now, she and I must have been paired together 100 times in college because she played at Arizona and I played at Oregon. It is great to have this different network of people that you know through golf. You see people’s true colors on the golf course. One of the best things to do in business is take a few people out to golf and you’ll know who you want to do business with. Remember to just say, “Yes.” If I would go in and ask three guys on my team if they want to play golf on Friday, all three of them would be like, “100 percent,” and none of them are good. I would go ask my women colleagues and they would be like, “No, I’m not good.” More women need to just get out there!
KK: Do you have a favorite golf memory?
SR: Oh, there’s so many. I have so many great memories of my dad caddying for me and helping me navigate my way on the mini tours. Getting to compete, that’s one thing I love about golf. I still try to do some USGA events when I can and I love having my spouse Sarah caddie for me.
KK: Since you got your amateur status back, do you play in CGA events?
SR: Yep! I played a few events when I was in law school, and I have played quite a few times in the Mashie Championship with Janet Moore. We’ve won together three times. I will say having played in a lot of amateur golf events, the CGA runs amazing tournaments. I would say you’d be hard pressed to find a better organization that really runs professional style tournaments for amateurs.
KK: What is your current role on the CGA Board?
SR: As the CGA Treasurer, I get to work a lot with the staff of the CGA and learn more about the inner workings of the organization. It’s been really rewarding, and I just can’t believe how strong the CGA is from top to bottom. It’s been fun to work with the other board members and be part of the CommonGround expansion. Owning a golf course is such an opportunity and an advantage for the CGA. Having something that’s truly a championship caliber golf course, that is public, and accessible for all golfers is really cool.
KK: What do you do for work?
SR: I was recruited about five years ago by a family to run their family office and private trust company. They were looking for someone to replace their current president and CEO, so I stepped in and have not looked back. I kind of straddle the legal and the financial world for one family and I love it. I do something different every day and there’s a lot of planning and problem solving involved.
KK: Are you a member of a club?
SR: In law school, I was a member of Englewood, now Broken Tee, women’s league. I used it as an outlet from studying. And then six years ago, Sarah and I joined Lakewood.
KK: What makes Lakewood Country Club unique?
SR: I think Lakewood is a fun club from the perspective that it is a golfers’ club. There’s lots of good men and women players. I love that you can walk and carry or take one of the club’s great caddies. I really like traditional golf courses with a long history, so that’s what really attracted me to Lakewood versus some other clubs.
KK: Is there anything that most people do not know about you?
SR: I ran some caddie barns on the East Coast at exclusive private clubs and I was the only female caddie at Castle Pines Golf Club for a summer when I was in law school.
KK: What is one piece of advice that you would give to your younger self or younger generations?
SR: I think just be open to opportunities. Like I said to you before just say yes and don’t be afraid to challenge yourself. It is okay to fail. I’m such a perfectionist and I think that hurt my golf game when I was younger. As I’ve gotten older, I have realized that being patient and forgiving of yourself and being willing to take risks is so important.
Susie Roh, right, and teammate Janet Moore won the 2023 CGA Women’s Mashie Championship at Highland Meadows Golf Course in Windsor.
We are ready to serve all your banking needs! From Wealth Management and Private Banking, to Mortgage and Business Banking and more.
Proudly serving our customers and clients for more than 120 years, we’re local and backed with the financial firepower to help you attain your financial goals.
Charlie Cartwright, Business Development Officer Private Banking, Colorado
Baxter Fain, President
Steve Harlan, Wealth Management Advisor Central Trust Company, Colorado
MORE INFO & TICKETS
AN EVENING OF LUXURY AND CHARITY
Interactive Experiences Through Out The Evening
Custom-designed lounges decorated by top interior designers Howard Lorton Furniture & Design, Kim Layne Interiors and more! Play Trackman Simulators for a chance to win more than $2,000 in prizes. Meet Colorado based artist Mike Zagorski, who specializes in painting Formula One and automotive subjects; see incredible classic and luxury cars and so much more!
Sips & Bites
Toast the night with fine wine, craft beer from Anheuser Busch, craft cocktails mixed with bourbon, gin and vodka from Breckenridge Distillery. Sample delicious culinary creations from Mountain High Appliance, BBQ from Hickory House Ribs, Personal Chef from Seasoned Cuisine, Blue Island Oyster Bar and Seafood, Ornery Olive, Enstrom Candy and many more local restaurants featured!
An Evening to Help
To date, the Wheels of Dreams Charity Experience has raised more than $238,000 for Bags of Fun! Thank you!
Entertainment By
Thank You to our Sponsors
Colorado Christian University
National Champions!
the 2024
UNDRGRND GOLF Redefines Links Style
Three golf buddies who grew up in Aurora have launched the latest Mile High-based golf apparel brand UNDRGRND GOLF which hopes of capturing enthusiasm from a new generation of players.
The brand UNDRGRND GOLF launched its online store this summer and held its first public showing at Stick and Feather golf simulator tavern in the Clayton neighborhood of Denver. The branch is launching with polo, tees, hats and socks through its site UNDRGRNDGOLF.Com.
It is the brainchild of three friends - Jordan Russell, Noe Magdaleno and Josh Williams. Magdaleno grew up playing golf but Williams and Russell came to it later. All three were playing together on Denver-area courses the past few years and felt most golf apparel they could find didn’t quite fit the rest of their wardrobe.
All three say they grew up embracing sneaker culture and streetwear and wanted to wear on the golf course the kinds of styles they are comfortable in the rest of the day.
And so UNDRGRND GOLF was born. “When I was younger and I didn’t have all the nice polos and gear and equipment I was just a kid going
out in cargo shorts and tee-shirts with sneakers on,” Magdaleno said. “As footwear started to change a few years ago, I distinctively remember hearing people ask, ‘Are those actual golf shoes?’ I didn’t think nothing of it, this is just what I wear, this is what we wear.”
But they had a small problem: none had a deep background in the apparel industry, and none of them knew at first how to get designs from napkin sketches to real-life garments. They learned quickly, and are working with manufacturers in China to launch their summer lineup this summer.
“When Covid hit I found my way to the golf course as 12 million other people in America did,” said Russell. “I found my competitive spirit again being on the course with friends and finding a sport that’s challenging as well.” Many of the early designs are coming from the three, and a fall line is already in the works.
“We started at Homestead Golf Course, we were golfing and we just came up with this idea to start this brand,” said Williams. “It was something we all wanted to collaborate on.”
New brands like Denver-based Pins and Aces and Bad Birdie launched post-COVID with bright, bold designs meant to interest the growing number of millennial golfers. Traditional brands have fought back, sending an onslaught of patterns and colors onto the store shelves. The worldwide golf apparel market is estimated to be between $2 and $4 billion a year.
The
Men’s Golf Team won
NCAA Div. 2 national championship this spring. It is the team’s - and the school’s - first NCAA title, although the program – under head coach Mark Hull – has won numerous league titles during Hull’s tenure. The Cougars beat North Georgia University in the national championship match. The team, left to right, is: Head Coach Mark Hull, Peyton Jones, Xavier Bighaus, Adam Duncan, Dylan Arthur, Bradley Mulder, Cameron Sandland, Coach Stan Sayers.
Base your next golf trip out of Black Hawk.
Take advantage of easy access to many mountain courses, and 516 luxurious hotel rooms and suites.
Enjoy instant access to five unique dining options including around-the-clock indulgence.
Add in the anticipation of limitless gaming action. Or, simply lay up at Spa Monarch.
After your round, play one more with us.
GVR Sold to Investment Firm
GREEN VALLEY RANCH FOUNDER AND OWNER PAT HAMILL SELLS COURSE TO FOCUS ON NEW PROJECT
ByJimBebbington
Green Valley Ranch Golf Club, the home of the Inspirato Colorado Open championships and the First Tee of Green Valley Ranch chapter, has been sold to a New York-based real estate investment firm.
Pat Hamill, former founder and CEO of Oakwood Homes, sold the course in May to new owners, The LCP Group. The LCP Group is expected to continue operations as a public course and maintain this summer’s scheduled events, including the Inspirato Colorado Women’s, Men’s and Senior Opens.
“Eventually everything has to be sold,” Hamill said. “The whole vision of the Green Valley Ranch Club was to give the public golfer a private golf experience and we’ve achieved that. It’s our team; our team really did a great job.”
Hamill said he is selling in order to be able to focus on a new golf course project. He said he could not discuss details of the new project because they have not yet been finalized.
The 18-hole course with an adjacent par-3 tract opened in the early 2000s anchoring a part of the residential development of the Green Valley Ranch community near Denver International Airport.
The sale price for Green Valley Ranch has not been released and sales data had not been filed at the time of publication. The land where the course sits is not part of the sale; it is owned by the Town Center Metropolitan District, according to county records, which was one of the original entities established in the 1980s to enable development of the area. According to the Denver County property assessor’s records the parcels where the course sits have assessed
land values totaling about $7.2 million. What was sold was the right to operate a golf course on the land, according to John Vander Zwaag of the LCP Group. The terms of that lease run until the year 2100.
“It was a fair price,” Hamill said. “We had multiple bidders on the (course) and we got a fair price. Green Valley Ranch Golf Club has become a staple and well-known nationally as the host of the Colorado Opens.”
Hamill said the course’s staff have worked hard to make the game accessible. “(I sold to) owners who would be good stewards of the game and the asset of providing public golf opportunities,” he said. “With the First Tee and world class training facility and the par 3 we’ve done a great job of introducing the game of golf to the souls less fortunate, to continue to create that opportunity.”
In June Hamill also left his role as Chairman and CEO of Oakwood Homes, one of the developers of the Green Valley Ranch community. Hamill sold Oakwood Homes in 2017 to a subsidiary of the Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate. He is scheduled to be inducted this fall into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame.
The purchase is the first golf course for the LCP Group, Vander Zwaag said. The investment group owns hotels and buildings that house daycare centers, grocery stores and other commercial uses throughout the country. It is moving into the golf space, he said, because of the quality of the opportunity with Green Valley Ranch. They hope to add more golf course operations to their portfolio going forward, he said.
“It represents what we’re looking for in golf courses,” Vander Zwaag said. “It’s a very high
quality course, it’s been well maintained, and it has tremendous facilities for practicing and the First Tee.”
Vander Zwaag said they intend to keep the current staff and have agreed to keep the course’s general manager, Matt Bryant, on to lead the operation. “We expect to keep (employees) long-term,” he said. “We’re very excited Matt has agreed to stay with us; we think very highly of him.”
The course also hosts many tournaments throughout the summer; all planned events are expected to proceed without interruption, Vander Zwaag said.
PHOTO BY CHIP BROMFIELD/PRO-MOTION, LTD
PHOTO BY BRADEN HANSEN//PREMIER AERIALS
Girls State Championship Round-Up
Valor Christian High School Girl’s golf team won its third straight 5A state championship in May, taking the 2024 team state championship by 25 strokes over runner-up Fossil Ridge High School.
Valor junior Brenna Higgins also won the individual title for the second straight year. The girls state championships were decided over two days with teams or individuals playing two 18-hole rounds. The 5A competition was held at the Broadlands Golf Course in Broomfield. Higgins won with rounds of 72 and 66.
In the 4A competition Erie High School also won its third-straight girls championship, taking the title over runner-up Holy Family High School. Erie senior Logan Hale won her second-straight individual title. The 4A championship was played at Country Club of Colorado in Colorado Springs.
In the 3A competition, Prospect Ridge Academy in Broomfield, took the team title over runner-up Colorado Academy. Prospect Ridge junior Hope Torre won medalist honors – defeating two-time defending state champ Madeline Bante in a playoff. The 3A championship was played at The Olde
Golf season is in full swing here at Garden of the Gods Resort and Club, so it’s time to book that staycation while the breeze is still warm, and the sun is shining. Named as a staff pick from Avid Golfer and only one hour south of Denver, our 27hole Kissing Camels Golf Course offers epic views of the Front Range at every hole. After hitting the links, unwind in our renovated lodge rooms, each with their own view of Garden of the Gods. That’s what we call Golf Getaway Perfection.
Course – Loveland. Bante, who is graduating and moving on to play at Notre Dame University, was vying to join Lynn Ann Moretto of Cherry Creek High School, Ashley Tait of Mullen High School and Hailey Schalk of Holy Family High School as the only three-time state champs in Colorado.
TWO WORLD-CLASS GOLF COURSES. ONE ADDRESS.
This lifestyle community also features tennis, trails, pools, and year-round neighborhood events. On-site, staffed security gate and emergency services. It is surrounded by vast open spaces, wildlife, and spectacular mountain views.
The Village at Castle Pines is home to The Country Club at Castle Pines. It is also home to the Castle Pines Golf Club, the host of the 2024 BMW Championship. If Colorado had an address, it would be
Clark Ready for Olympic Glory
THE DENVER NATIVE IS ONE OF FOUR U.S. MEN’S GOLFERS TO REPRESENT TEAM USA THIS SUMMER
BY GARRETT JOHNSTON
Wyndham Clark’s breakout 12 months ended in May – his first three wins; one major at the U.S. Open – and that strong performance came at just the right time to put him in contention for an opportunity that comes just once every four years.
Clark is one of four American golfers who will represent the U.S. in the Paris Olympics this summer. The Colorado-native finished high enough on Olympic Golf Rankings list due to his wins that he automatically earned the berth on the U.S. team.
Golf returned to the Olympics at the 2016 games in Rio. Justin Rose of Great Britain won gold for the men and Inbee Park of South Korea won the women’s gold. In 2021, the covid-delayed Olympics, Nelly Korda took gold for the women and Xander Schauffele won for the men.
The tournament is played out over four days of stroke play, with the low scores taking gold. The qualification cutoff date for making the top 4 from the U.S. team was June 17, the day after the U.S. Open.
Clark finished in fourth place in the Olympic world golf rankings, third-best among Americans. Scottie Scheffler and Schauffele took the first two U.S. team slots, and Collin Morikawa was fourth.
Speaking before the Memorial Tournament, Clark was excited about the possibility of making
the team, but still cautious as it was not official. “If I make the team, it would be a dream come true to represent my country,” Clark said. “For me, I’ve always dreamt of being on a podium and winning a medal. Whether it was in the other sports I played growing up and what not, but to do it in golf would be pretty amazing.”
How much did Clark watch the Olympics growing up?
“I watched a lot of them growing up. Anything Usain Bolt was in back in the day was always really exciting,” Clark said. “I’m also a huge hockey fan, so watching Miracle on Ice old clips from those days. Canada’s won so many hockey events.
“The gymnastics are always really fun to watch. And then swimming is great to watch. I’ve gotten to know Michael Phelps pretty well, watching him, that was right as I was rising through the ranks, so seeing someone dominate that much in a single sport is just really amazing.”
The U.S. women’s team consists of Nelly Korda, Lilia Vu and Rose Zhang.
Both the men’s and women’s competitions will be held at Golf National, a 36-hole complex 25 miles southwest of Paris. The men compete Aug. 1 to 4 and the women compete Aug. 7 to 11.
PHOTO FROM USGA CONTENT HUB//ROBERT BECK
SHUTTERSTOCK // F11PHOTO
Neighboring Clubs Get New Head Professionals
The two new head professionals at exclusive private clubs in the Denver area say they found a strong golf community in Colorado that they are each glad to be a part of.
This spring Cherry Hills Country Club hired Bryan Nicholson, 42, to become the club’s eighth head professional in the club’s 102-year history. Just down University Boulevard and around the corner, Glenmoor Country Club’s head professional Alan Palmer is finishing his first year leading the golf operations for the club that was founded in 1984.
Palmer, 40, is a 20-plus year golf professional who has worked at clubs in his native Canada, the U.S. and the Casa de Campo Resort in the Dominican Republic. Before coming to Denver, he worked for four years as head professional at St. George’s Golf and Country Club in Toronto, a frequent host of the Canadian Open. He also worked at Augusta National Golf Club for a year early in his career.
Why leave the beautiful shores of Lake Ontario?
“The one perspective in talking about Glenmoor - with Royal Montreal, St. George’s, Augusta, Brookline, all are 100-plus year old clubs, very traditional, which has its pros and cons. Seeing the pool and the tennis and the flip flops (at Glen -
moor’s pool complex) – that was kind of nice.” Glenmoor has been voted best club for families in past polls and just completed a $9 million course renovation. It is about to embark on a clubhouse renovation, he said.
Palmer is father to 6-year-old Stella and 8-yearold Nola - and came to Denver with his long-time partner Carolina.
Palmer said he found the PGA professionals in the Denver-area have a good tradition of sharing information and helping each other all succeed. He said he was given immediate help acclimating from Keith Soriano of the Colorado PGA; Cathy Matthews, the GM of Country Club of Colorado in Colorado Springs; Graham Cliff of the Colorado Golf Club, and Bill Hughes of Country Club of the Rockies.
At Cherry Hills, Nicholson arrived this spring as the club was still basking in the aftermath of a blow-out 100th anniversary which included a multimillion-dollar clubhouse renovation and the club’s hosting of the 2023 U.S. Amateur.
Nicholson said the club’s strength, its history of championships, and its commitment to continuing to support a robust scholarship program for its caddies and employees showed it was the
right community for him to join. “I was not part of that (100th anniversary) but am the benefactor of being able to operate out of this incredible clubhouse that we have,” he said. “It’s an exquisite piece of architecture. As you walk through it the club has done such an incredible job of preserving its historical records.”
He and his wife came here to be closer to her family in Texas and to the active lifestyle in Colorado, he said. Nicholson, 42, said he hopes he is able to stay at Cherry Hills for the remainder of his career.
“You’re not going to find too many places in the U.S. that has as rich a history not just for championships but for all the things they’ve done over the years to better the game and the Arnold Palmer scholarship program,” he said.
BRYAN NICHOLSON
ALAN PALMER
TPC Colorado prePares the pga’s next generation
BERTHOUD COURSE CONTINUES TO PROVIDE KORN FERRY PLAYERS WITH ELITE EXPERIENCE
BY JIM BEBBINGTON
The TPC Colorado course is about as long as human decency allows – more than 8,000 yards. But with pros at this altitude able to blast 400-yard drives, the competitiveness of the layout has to be defined by more than length.
The course each year is set up for the Ascendant Presented by Blue to be a fair challenge, but give the players a stage on which to show they are ready for bigger things.
Last year Nicholas Lindheim of California took top honors with a 20-under par tournament, 6-under for the final day. (He was one of only two players to shoot four-rounds in the 60s; the other, Parker Coody, finished third). What did it take for him to be the best on the challenging TPC Colorado course? Lindheim was tied for
first in greens in regulation at 80.6 percent, and had only four bogeys over the four days. The winds in 2023 were pretty tame, Lindheim said, and that made a huge difference between last year and previous tournaments.
The win gave Lindheim a $180,000 paycheck and his overall 2023 Korn Ferry performance earned him a PGA Tour card this year and access to more tournaments. In the first six months of this season, however, he played in nine PGA events and failed to make the cut in any of them.
He has been wrestling with back issues last season and this.
“I’ve taken a lot of time away from golf with my injury to be with my family and I think that’s put
me in a good place mentally,” he said. “Just when I’ve played I’m excited to be out here rather than just going week in and week out. That’s really paid dividends.”
One of the nice aspects of the tournament is that fans typically show up in greater numbers than at some other stops. As some of these players are still learning how to handle pressure in front of crowds, the Ascendant gives them a crash course.
“The crowds this week are as a big as at a Tour event,” Lindheim said after last year’s win. “That’s probably one of my biggest things is the crowds and dealing with the pressure and knowing I can get it done.”
“The crowds this week are as a big as at a Tour event,” Lindheim said after last year’s win. “That’s probably one of my biggest things is the crowds and dealing with the pressure and knowing I can get it done.”
2024 ASCENDANT PRESENTED BY BLUE WHEN: JULY 11 TO 14
Tournament Director Drew Blass said the tournament has a reputation for offering a good experience and they work hard to keep that momentum going.
“Some (of the players) are just waiting their one year so they can be on the PGA Tour,” he said. “The nice thing is these players really appreciate this community and the opportunity we’re giving them to reach their dreams.”
The volunteer support for the tournament remains strong, Blass said. They love the stories they have been told of local homes that were opened up for some of the players to stay in; one volunteer gave a player an extra bedroom and was later invited to his wedding, Blass said.
The tournament this year is trying a new approach to its final qualifying process. The tournament is holding three qualifiers setting aside one of the four qualifying slots for a junior player. The qualifiers will be played July 6 at the TPC Colorado course.
Two qualifier slots will go to the top two finishers who have PGA Tour or Korn Ferry Tour memberships. One will be for the top finisher under the age of 18. The fourth will be for a non-tour aligned top finisher.
Then, it will be up to the best players to perform under pressure. Lindheim said the secret is simple.
“It’s a matter of making putts and I really haven’t been a great putter the last few years but I’ve also figured out how to hit my golf ball better,” he said. “You’ve got to make putts to win.”
THE ‘24 EVENT SEASON IS FILLING UP FAST. CONTACT US TODAY!
By John Lehndorff
Bier Here!
Nobody can blame Coloradans for being blasé about beer. We’ve seen a boatload of craft ales with tasting rooms, brewpubs and brewery gardens popping up everywhere in the state. The Front Range is nationally regarded as “the Silicon Valley of brewing.”
Ho. Hum.
But even the most jaded IPA sipper is bound to be wowed the first time they visit the Northglenn Biergarten freshly opened by Prost Brewing Company.
Prost’s fourth Colorado location is truly monumental with room for sipping, nibbling and socializing sprawling over 10,000 square feet
PROST BREWING’S SPECTACULAR NORTHGLENN BIERGARTEN IS COLORADO’S NEW TEMPLE OF GERMAN BEER AND FOOD FUN
indoors and outdoors. Another 60,000 square feet are strictly devoted to brewing beer. It is not uncommon to find a line snaking out the front door when you arrive at the Northglenn Biergarten. It is not a queue for seating with a host. It’s the beer ordering line and it can look long on a weekend evening.
Service here is highly efficient once you get to the bar backed by windows revealing the stainless steel lagering tanks in the production area.
You tote your glass of pilsener or lager to a table inside or outside to the expansive patio. Grab a seat at any table that has room for you. The vibe is all about casual community. “We really wanted to create a gathering place where peo -
ple could sit down, meet somebody new and hang out with different people. You can stay as long as you like,” says Christopher O’Connor, Prost’s Vice President of Brewery Operations.
Besides seating spaces, the interior of the modern industrial-style complex features a second-floor space for private gatherings that overlooks the brewery. On warm days the crowd is spread out in the multi-level outdoor area that offers some shaded and some sunny seats. An elevated stage features live music on weekends and scheduled tapping of limited edition brews from wooden barrels. Food is ordered at an inside counter. A locator puck routes servers to the table, even if you move. Need more beer? Get back in line.
PHOTO COURTESY OF PROST BREWING CO.
SOLD OUT!
WHERE THE PILSENERS ROAM
Since opening its first brewery in Denver in 2012, Prost has been singularly focused on crafting lager, kolsch, helles, dunkel, weizen, altbier and other German beer styles. Prost Pils brought home a silver medal at the 2023 Great American Beer Festival in Denver.
“We pride ourselves on creating very approachable beer styles for people that otherwise might not gravitate towards beer. Our beers are very light on the palate. The flavors don’t come over the top,” O’Connor says.
These German beers are also generally lower in alcohol content.
“You want people to be able to enjoy more than one beer and not feel like they’re in trouble.” Prost’s Northglenn destination was intentionally designed to open the curtain to the brewing process for hop-loving nerds as well as everyday beer drinkers.
“We wanted a very interactive experience, to bring the consumer into our brewing process. Most breweries like keeping things hidden and tucked behind doors. They think there’s a secret sauce to it,” O’Connor says.
“I think the thing that creates really high quality beer is the people. That’s why the beer is as good as it is, not the equipment.” The facility now supplies all the beer served at four locations as well as for retail packages.
A second-floor walkway offers a self-guided tour that walks visitors through Prost’s brewing process from grain and water to canning.
O’Connor points with pride to unique, state-ofthe-art open fermentation vessels, and talks about volatilization of sulfur compounds. The advantage is simple, he says.
“All of it is designed to create a smoother, easier drinking finished product.” The brewery’s focus on sustainability covers the whole process with new equipment that uses less energy or recycles CO2 and water. Spent brewing grain feeds pigs on a local farm. Beyond using recyclable aluminum cans and cardboard cartons, Prost buys its ingredients from German farms that use regenerative practices, O’Connor says.
“It’s the right thing to do and the only way we can survive as an industry.”
Prost’s environmental efforts do not include using American ingredients in most of its brews. “The owners want to make beer as authentic as humanly possible and that means using the same German hops and malts,” O’Connor says.
traditional, but not stuck in the past
You won’t see a lot of lederhosen or dirndl dresses at Prost; it is not a brewing amusement park.
“We’re trying to be New World German, not recreating history. We have other offerings from seltzer to wine and cider because not everybody likes beer,” O’Connor admits.
Don’t visit the other three Prost Brewing Company biergartens expecting a carbon copy of the new Northglenn location. “The Highlands Ranch location fits that community perfectly. It’s very family friendly with lot of room for kids to run around. The LoHi brewery is a little bit more industrial with a slightly younger crowd. In Fort Collins, it’s a little bit more cozy. Northglenn is a nice kind of combination of all those things,” O’Connor says.
Oktoberfest will likely be a major event this fall in Northglenn. The huge parking lot Prost shares with the Italian mega buffet, Cinzzetti’s, will have plenty of room for a beer tent.
“For Oktoberfest some of our German partners are coming over for a pretty large gathering,” he says. Expect more autumn festivities for brew nerds during the Great American Beer Festival. Next up for Prost Brewing Company may be a German-style zero alcohol brew. “We are actively pursuing non-alcoholic beer production, but it is a long-term project. It needs to taste like our beer. If you’re going to do it, do it right,” O’Connor says.
Doner, bratwurst and schnitzel: A Biergarten feast
Prost’s Northglenn Biergarten does a stellar job with the greatest hits of German cuisine and some modern Colorado pub favorites.
Don’t miss the chewy, salt-speckled pretzel dipped in fontina fondue and German mustard. Naturally, sausages are the stars, including beer-cooked bratwurst, puffy knackwurst and classic currywurst. The German sausage board with sauces and sides makes deciding easier.
In fact, we’d be happy to just order a round of Prost’s spot-on sides: beer bread, mushroom gravy, potato salad, red cabbage and sauerkraut.
Scoring 10 on the comfort food scale are the crispy pork jaegerschnitzel and spaetzle “Mac N Cheese,” pan-fried dumpling strips with cheese and ham.
Other beer-friendly menu choices include pork and beef sliders, and chicken doner flatbread sandwiches.
PHOTO COURTESY OF PROST BREWING CO.
PHOTO COURTESY OF PROST BREWING CO.
PHOTO COURTESY OF PROST BREWING CO.
Next Level Networking
WOMEN ON THE COURSE EMBRACES NETWORKING, WINE TASTING, TRAVEL & FRIENDSHIP, WITH OR WITHOUT TEEING IT UP
BY JAMIE LYNN MILLER
PHOTOS COURTESY OF: WOMEN ON COURSE
Travel junkie, lifestyle enthusiast and founder of Women on Course, a celebration of all things golf, Donna Hoffman wasn’t always a fan of the sport. In fact, she used to reject everything about the sport.
“My first husband was an avid golfer, and I considered myself a golf widow,” Hoffman says of the couple’s disparate lifestyles. “I swore I wouldn’t date another man who was into golf.”
But then someone introduced her to the sport differently. “He gave me the right club,” she says, “and had a glass of chardonnay waiting for me. He said, ‘This relationship won’t work if you don’t like golf.’”
During their golf trip to Arizona, Hoffman was struck by the perks that accompany the sport, from outdoor beauty to the indoor luxuries of resort settings. They brainstormed how to break down the barriers to the sport so that more women would enter—and enjoy—the game.
And so, Women on Course (WOC) was born, an endeavor for lifestyle enthusiasts who embrace the entirety of golf culture—the travel, the apparel, playing or watching in a social setting. While not all members play golf, explains Hoffman, everyone embraces the lifestyle.
With markets nationwide, WOC’s Denver market launched in 2008, a by-product of a happy hour held at Fleming’s Steakhouse. “People were asking about golf events and membership,” Hoffman recalls, “and I said they didn’t need to be a member to come on out.”
At some point, however, she realized they wanted a club they could join. “So, I started a company!” she says.
The Denver market has experienced the biggest jump in participation, with nearly 2000 people in its database. “Our area leader, Sandra Ivey, is a strong bridge between members and guests,” says Hoffman. “There’s a real enthusiasm for Women on Course.”
There are varying levels of membership for how one interprets the lifestyle. There’s the 19th Hole Golfer, dedicated to the social aspects and networking; there’s a learning level with one-hour clinics with a pro and a few holes of golf. And for those who are course-ready, there’s a level for 9 or 18 holes of golf.
With golf comes travel, something Women on Course does well. Hoffman recently organized an all-inclusive adventure to the Dominican Republic, and an upcoming project involves a new show called “Golf Partners,” in which eight people will tell their stories, and then people vote for their favorite partner. In March, WOC headed to Palm Springs, and “Golf Partners” candidates were in tow. “I thought I’d have a few volunteers,” she says, “but more than 50 people wanted to participate in the show!”
While non-members can sign up for an event for a $10 booking fee, members enjoy discounts to different apparel partners and opportunities in any market, from wine tastings and fashion events to finding a golfing partner through the club’s directory.
One of the most valuable things members enjoy, says Hoffman, is access to an exceptional group of women. “Women are very intent on wanting me to know how WOC changed their lives. ‘If it wasn’t for WOC,’ they say, ‘I wouldn’t have met this lifelong friend.’”
With more than 100 organized events a year, the WOC scorecard is ramping up. Check out these upcoming Colorado events and find more at womenoncourse.com.
With more than 100 organized events a year, the WOC scorecard is ramping up. Check out these upcoming Colorado events and find more at womenoncourse.com.
• July 7: 18 holes at City Park Golf Course
• August 4: 18 holes in Evergreen
• Monthly events at Superfly Golf Lounge until the start of the golf season.
• Year-round opportunities at indoor golf simulators at bars, restaurants & TopGolf locations.
By Isaac Bouchard
THREE FOR THE ROAD
ALFA, RANGE ROVER AND BMW ARE READY FOR YOU
Alfa Romeo has staged a comeback in the US over the past six years, mainly driven by the success of the Stelvio SUV. The new Competizione bridges the divide the more mainstream 4-cylinder models and the outrageous Quadrifoglio, whose 504hp V6 elevates it to the pantheon of true hotrod SUVs. The test Comp looked almost identical to a Quad, with gorgeous “telephone dial” wheels and lots of gloss black addenda that contrasted beautifully with its moonlight grey matte paint.
Inside there’s incredibly huggy sports seats that properly situate front occupants, a decent-sized rear bench and a well-shaped, if smaller than class-average, cargo area. The 8.8-inch touch screen is also smaller than the norm, and its soft ware is nothing close to as intuitive as the UCon nect system in the newer Alfa Tonale.
But the 12.3-in digital gauges are attractive and the leather dashtop and door cappings beg to be touched.
The Stelvio Competizione’s chassis is the only thing that can match—or exceed—a Porsche Macan for driver feedback and interaction, with superb body control, good ride quality and incredibly tactile handling. The Alfa’s steering is very quick; this makes it possible to tackle 180-degree switchbacks without moving hands from the 10- and 2-o’clock positions on the lovely steering wheel. Its 2-liter turbo has little lag, sounds good and pulls hard, though one might wish for a higher redline. Its stats are 280-hp and 306-lb-ft and it can hit 60 in 5.3 seconds; it generates decent fuel economy, too. If one’s focus is on fun, it is impossible to beat the Alfa Romeo for any-
EPA MPG Ratings: 22/28/24mpg 0-60mph: 5.3sec
ALFA
Long the center of gravity of the BMW brand, the 5-series has undergone its most comprehensive makeover in generations with this latest. Its chassis can accommodate gas, electric or hybrid powertrains. The i5 EV debuts first, and it represents the latest BMW motor, software and battery tech.
The i5’s styling is angularly modern in the current Bavarian idiom yet more conventional in proportion than some other recent BMW offerings. Inside it’s au currant, with lots of big, bright screens and many chamfered surfaces. A bold lighting strip surrounding the occupants; it incorporates capacitive touch buttons for things like door locks and seat memory. The i5 is sized very generously. There are few hard buttons; much functionality being handled by the iDrive 8.5 OS, whose complexity can initially be hard to get a handle on.
i5 40 models come in rear- and AWD; the former are rated at up to 295 miles of range while the lat ter go fewer miles between charges but offer more power than the test machine, which was a 335-hp rear-driver. AWD 40s have 389-hp and are snap pier, hitting 60 in 5.2-seconds. Figure their range to be mid-to-high 200s depending on wheel size.
The i5 drives much better than archrival Benz’s EQE and EQS, and have a more comfortable back seat. However, the similarly priced Lucid Air Pure is much quicker and has up to 419 miles of range—as well as faster recharge times. The i5 battery pack’s size is 84.3-kWh and recharging it from 10 to 80 percent is estimated to take 30 minutes on a DC fast charger.
The i5 shows excellence in many areas; its ride quality is superb (despite 21-in runflat tires) and it handles like smaller BMWs of ages past. Its steering feel is accurate, if anesthetized. Its driver aids are easy to figure out and work quite well, including a hands-free driving mode. Its looks are nowhere near as polarizing as many EVs either and it can be seen as a nice bridge to those looking for an electrically-powered luxury, sports sedan from a legacy maker.
BMW $77,645
EPA MPG Ratings: 270mi range (RWD) 0-60mph: 5.2sec
The Velar could be said to have kicked off Range Rover’s current aesthetic, inside and out, when it debuted in 2018. Sleek and well-proportioned, it’s “reductionist” styling has translated well to larger and pricier models. Minor trim tweaks to its grill, bumper, and accent colors mean that, even six years in, it still has massive curb appeal. Inside, material quality is high and there is generous room for occupants and luggage. New is the 11.4-inch, curved touchscreen display, and the removal of many hard buttons. Thankfully, Pivi Pro, the current OS, is fast and intuitive. The Meridian hifi is excellent, seat comfort is superb and the cargo area capacious for this class. The Velar shares a platform with Jaguar’s F-Pace, but has been tuned to be softer and less dynamic. As a result it rides potholed roads much better; overall refinement is first class.
It also has better body control than the fullsize Rangie, which can list like a schooner in choppy seas. In these respects the Velar is closest to the RR Sport model.
Its steering is direct and linear, with more weighting to it than a Audi Q5 or BMW X3. Unlike those two, it is overburdened when powered by the basic 4-cylinder engine. But it thrives with the 395-hp inline-six. Despite its thirst, consider that P400 model mandatory for the kind of civilized progress one would expect from the doyen of SUVs. The Ve lar is priced at the top of its class, but its presence is undeniable. It really stands out from the hordes of premium SUVs that spring from German, Asian and American companies.
RANGE ROVER $81,033
EPA MPG Ratings: 19/25/21mpg 0-60mph: 5.7sec
RANGE ROVER
Th e Si n c l a i r
ROCKY MOUNTAIN OPEN
August 21st - 24th
We’re pleased to announce the 86th Sinclair Rock y Mount ain Open Golf Tour nament The oldes t Profes sional golf tour nament in Color ado
It begins with the Sponsor ’ s Invit ational Pro - A m Wednesday Augus t 21st, followed by the three - day open tour nament for profes sionals and amateur s. This year the Pros will be competing for $25,00 0 firs t place prize with a tot al pur se of over $10 0,00 0. Both the pro and amateur divisions will be cut to the top 40 player s and ties for the final day of play Saturday Augus t 24th.
Please come out and enjoy some exceptional golf and the incredible scener y at our beautiful Tiar a Rado Golf Cour se.
For more infor mation, please visit ww w rmogolf org
If you ’ re interes ted in playing in the tour nament or becoming a sponsor, please cont ac t us at info@rmogolf.org
WHERE LEGENDS BEGIN ®
JULY 25-28, 2024 | GREEN VALLEY RANCH GOLF CLUB, DENVER
TURK PETIT | CHAMPION 2023 INSPIRATO COLORADO OPEN
JULIANA HUNG | CHAMPION 2024 INSPIRATO COLORADO WOMEN’S OPEN
JASON SCHULTZ | CHAMPION 2023 INSPIRATO COLORADO SENIOR OPEN
This summer the already-challenging No. 16 is going to return to its former glory as a bridge that was damaged in 2023 flooding has been repaired and the black tees will return to an island tee box deep in the tall grass.
Inspirato Colorado Open bringing the best to Colorado 2017
The 2024 Inspirato Colorado Open features a world-class field of former champs, local PGA elite, and a host of young talent.
If the event organizers get their wish, they will also get three-days of tournament play without a world-class hailstorm.
The men’s Open is July 25 to 28 at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club in Denver.
The tournament is the second of the summer for the Colorado Open series. The Inspirato Colorado Women’s Open took place in late May and was stopped after the second round because of a course-crippling hail storm. Epson Tour rookie Juliana Hung took first prize and the $100,000 check.
Turk Pettit, the 2023 Men’s Open champion, is scheduled to return to defend his title from a field that includes at least one PGA Tour major champion and a host of other former Colorado Open champs.
Pettit said in 2023 that the victory gave him renewed energy for his own professional career.
“It fits perfect,” he said. “I probably haven’t won for like two years…. I’ve been working really hard to try to get one and I haven’t played great (up until now).”
Pettit was part of the initial LIV Tour 2022 season but his contract was not renewed. He had played in some Asian Tour and Korn Ferry tournaments prior to last season’s Colorado Open, and won the 2021 NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championship.
“Colorado golf has the best state open in the country, so I wanted to come play in it,” he said. “If it’s the best I want to show up.”
The million-dollar checks received by PGA Tour players grab the attention of the golfing world. But the $100,000 first-place check for winning the men’s or women’s In spirato Colorado Open can keep a career alive.
The tournament plays out over three days. The course, near Denver International Air port, is tuned up to be as challenging as possible – tee boxes are extended all the way back, greens are rolled and pins are tucked in corners.
The hole is designed with a tall stand of cotton woods directly in the middle of the fairway, and par is usually obtained only by laying well back and popping a strong second shot over, or else lacing a stinger underneath.
WHOM TO WATCH
Denver resident David Duval, who is having a resurgence this season on the Champion’s Tour, is slated to make his return to this year’s Inspirato Colorado Open. Through mid-June Duval had played in 10 Champions Tour events and finished top 25 twice including a T-3 at the Principal Charity Classic.
Duval was one of the most-dominant PGA Tour players of the late 1990s and won 13 times, including the 2001 Open Championship and the 1999 Players Championship.
Duval is being joined by former Inspirato Colorado Open winners including 2023 winner Turk Pettit, the 2022 winner Wil Collins, 2019’s Sam Saunders, 2015’s Jimmy Gunn of Scotland and 2013’s Zahkai Brown of Arvada. Also signed up are former PGA Tour pro J immy Knous and Colorado National Golf Club general manager Matt Schalk, who qualified for this year’s U.S. Senior Open.
The last time a men’s champion came from Colorado. It’s been six straight seasons of a winner outside of the state.
259
2020 Men’s Champion, Mark Angulano, recorded a championship record score of 259 (-29) over the four day period.
22
There have been 22 Hole in Ones in the 60 year history of the men’s championship.
$162K
Wil Collins ranks first on the all-time money list for the men’s championship, with $162,734 in earnings. Collins also won the men’s championship in 2005.
Wil Collins
David Duval
PHOTOS COURTESY OF COLORADO OPEN GOLF FOUNDATION
The way you travel sets you apart. Our Club brings you together.
Our members-only vacation Club is dedicated to helping you focus on the moments that matter with the people you love most. Join the Inspirato community and discover exclusive access to the Inspirato Collection of luxury homes, hotels, and experiences, as well as members-only travel benefits you won’t find elsewhere.
Women’s Open –What Might Have Been
A hail-storm robbed Inspirato Colorado Women’s Open fans of what has become a frequent final-day experience.
Two players over the first two days of the tournament tend to separate themselves from the field. On the final day those two are usually paired side-by-side, or maybe one group apart, and it is on.
Lead changes fly back and forth. Short putts on the back nine become a test of will and concentration. And in the end the winner putts out on Green valley Ranch’s 18th hole with genuine pride and relief that they have won against another true champion.
That was how the 2024 women’s open was shaping up in May before a hailstorm forced the cancellation of the third and final round. On Thursday night Epson Tour rookie Juliana Hung had a two-round score of 12-under par and nine-year pro Dana Fall of Arizona was right behind her at 11-under. The next nearest competitor , Kaitlin Milligan of Oklahoma, was 5-under.
So, when an overnight hailstorm turned the courses greens into swiss cheese, tournament operators had no choice but to cancel the final round.
Both Hung and Fall said they were disappointed they didn’t get to have their shootout. “I think this is actually pretty tough,” Hung said. “Like the I did a lot of thinking, a lot of preparation into my ball placements on
the fairways and how I’m going to approach every green. I kind of altered a bit depending on the wind, the weather, but I’m pretty glad that all the thoughts just kind of panned out.”
Hung shot the lowest round in Epson Tour history earlier this year in winning her first Epson tournament, but the Colorado Women’s Open $100,000 first prize was more than twice what she won for that Epson win.
Fall said she had been ready to fight for the lead.
“It wasn’t meant to be,” she said. “It wasn’t my week. It wasn’t my time to win. I’m really excited to see where my games at. It would have been cool to have us both compete because she’s playing really well this year too. It definitely would have been a shoot-out. It might have come down to the last hole to kind of figure out who was going to win. But I still have a long season ahead of me and a lot of tournaments coming up. And hopefully I kind of feel a win coming, I just don’t know when it’s going to happen, but hopefully soon.”
Top five:
1. Juliana
How to Learn from the Pros at the Inspirato Colorado Open
As an unaffiliated golf fan, watching any professional golf tournament can yield a lot of information that can help your game. Here’s some tips for visitors to the Inspirato Colorado Open:
PREPARE TO WIN: The driving ranges and practice greens of most pro tournaments are where the action begins. Even if you are an experienced player – or especially if you are a novice – spend 30 minutes watching how pros warm up. Watch how most very gradually increase their tempo. What are the clubs they focus on? On the greens – knowing you’re watching just warm-up drills and not full-on practices – notice how the best players get ready? What drills do they use?
FOLLOW THE LEADER: Most of the people following players at the Inspirato Colorado Open’s are family and friends of the players. But the small crowds give any visitor tremendous insight into how the best players go about their games. There are no ropes, so visitors are asked to generally stay along the cart paths. But that still gives amazing access to watch as the tournament leaders go about their business with $100,000 on the line. The concentration, the little reactions, their responses to bad shots – all make for an amazing study.
STUDY A HOLE: Like with LPGA or PGA events, there is a ton to be gained for patient visitors. At Green Valley Ranch a great place to post up is behind the green on No. 12. The 531yard par 5 will be subject to an air assault in the men’s tournament, with big hitters clearing almost all of the lake and leaving themselves around 200 yards into a narrow, curvaceous green. There will be plenty of eagle putts, but also a good share of recovery shots from the heaving mounds of sand and tall grass that guard the green on the left. It’s then a short walk up a slope to the No. 13 tee, and you can watch players aim for tight pin placements on the par 3 over a pond.
Top Coloradan:
- Kelli McKandless of Parker, +1 // $2,575
Hung, -12 // $100,000
Dana Fall, -11 // $23,000
Kaitlin Milligan, -5 // $12,000
Jessica Porvasnik, -3 // $9,000
JULIANA HUNG
PHOTO BY JIM BEBBINGTON
DENVER LPGA PRO BECCA HUFFERPHOTO BY JIM BEBBINGTON
Open Championships Pay Forward
Each year the Inspirato Colorado Open Championships help underwrite the First Tee program at Green Valley Ranch which has served about 2,600 students.
The national First Tee programming uses golf lessons as a way to impart life skills and help students, and three students who grew up in the GVR First Tee program say the experience was worthwhile.
Adelyn Westfall, 17, a rising senior at Lakewood High School, said she has been participating in First Tee activities at Green Valley Ranch for eight years.
“It is much more of a sense of community and I like how they focused on every student and take what you learn on the course and apply it to the rest of my life,” she said. The program’s lessons are built around nine core values: honesty, integrity, sportsmanship, respect, confidence, responsibility, perseverance, courtesy and judgment. Looked at through a golf perspective, any player can relate to who those traits apply to the game. But broadened, the First Tee encourages students to extrapolate them and apply them to their lives.
She plays on the varsity girls’ golf team and teaches golf at Applewood Golf Course. She tries to bring to her own students connections that she was taught between the skills required to succeed in golf and those that help in life. “I still try and have it so the kids can enjoy the sport in more ways than one,” she said. She is the daughter of Penny and Lance Westfall.
Jack Clark, 17, who plays on the Northfield High School golf team, stayed with First Tee for 12 years.
“I really enjoy the game of golf and also that the First Tee teaches more than golf which is an appealing part of it,” he said. “(The lessons) stuck with me and applied to my life and waaaay beyond golf. It uses its platform as a golf program to connect aspects of golf with aspects of real life.” He is the son of Michelle and Greg Clark.
Emma Stavely, 17, has worked with GVR’s First Tee program for 11 years and said while her game is not as good as she wishes it could be her enjoyment of the game is.
“I learned more about myself and pressure,” she said. “Golf is fun to be playing regardless of what level I’m at.”
She’s preparing to go to college after high school and study civil engineering and architectural design. She is the daughter of Lynae and Craig Stavely.
All three were selected to take part in national First Tee leadership training this summer. Stavely and Westfall are going to the First Tee Game Changers Academy in Minneapolis for a five-day learning and empowerment academy.
Stavely and Clark are also going to the First Tee Leadership Summit at Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank’s West Creek Ranch in Montana.
Senior Open Coming in August
The Inspirato Colorado Senior Open, Aug. 28 to Aug. 30, is slated to bring back a former champions as well as new players who have just reached the 50-and-over mark.
PGA Tour Champsions tour pro and Denver native Shane Bertsch is in the field, as well as 2022 winner Guy Boros.
Bob May is also making his return. May operates a golf training academy in Las Vegas and is best known from his playing days as one of the only players who went toe-totoe with Tiger Woods during Woods’ record-setting 2000 season.
May took Tiger to extra holes at the 2000 PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville. Tiger won in a three-hole aggregate playoff.
Among the newly 50-year-old crowd registered is a member of Colorado golf royal family, Steve Irwin, son of CU Buffs great and three-time U.S. Open champion Hale Irwin.
EMMA STAVELY
ADELYN WESTFALL AND C.U. MEN’S GOLF COACH PAT GRADY
JACK CLARK
JASON SCHULTZ
Scenes From The 2024 Inspirato Colorado Women’s Open
PAULA RETO
LAUREN LEHIGH OF LOVELAND
KELLI MCKANDLESS, TOP-FINISHING COLORADAN
Title Sponsor
Inspirato
Presenting Sponsors
Oakwood Homes/Pat Hamill
Pepsi Beverages Company
Supporting Sponsors
AIR Communities
Alliant Specialty
Sherman T. Brown IV
CBS Colorado
CLEAR Golf
Colorado AvidGolfer
Colorado Golf Association
CO Section PGA/PGA REACH
Cypress Ascendant
Barry & Dana Dorfman
Eberl Family Foundation
Bob & Lynda Engel
First Western Trust GOLFTEC
GVR Golf Club/LCP Group
Heartland Group
Jim & Anne Hillary
Huntington Industrial Partners
PGA Tour Superstore
PNC Bank
Powers Energy
PBS-Heibar
Proprietary Capital
Rocky Mtn. GC Superintendents
David Shirazi/JLL
The Smokehouse @ GVR
Friends of the First Tee
Michael Ackerman
Jason Addlesperger
Alpine Bank
Alpine Wine & Spirits - Vail
Brookes Foundation
Jennifer Cassell
Fred Emich Chevrolet
First Fidelity Bank
Gilmore Construction
Brad Goodman
Molly & Phill Greenblatt
Erin Houtsma
Mark & Meghan Hubbard
Hyatt Place/Hyatt House DIA
InBank
Sandy & Chris King
Audrey Lam
Mountain Legacy
Russ McGrane
Chris Nordling
thankyou!
Friends of the First Tee
Otten Johnson/Kim Martin
Patrick Lynch Financial
Reidy Metal Services
RE/MAX Professionals
SRS Capital Advisors
Rod & Nancy Yoder
Morning Star Elevator
SPECIAL THANKS
Adidas Golf
AECivil, Inc.
Anschutz Foundation
Arthur Blank Family Foundation
BuildStrong Education
Collindale Golf Course
CommonGround Golf Course
Coors Distributing Company
DU GC at Highlands Ranch
Eagle Ranch Golf Club
Endowment Fund Donors
GVR Foundation
Robin Henn
Hoffenberg Family
Ed Hunt
Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers
John Juric
LPGA*USGA Girls Golf
Ludlow-Griffith Foundation
Allan & Cindi Martin
OUTFRONT Media
Peter Millar
Pukka Headwear
Bob Riland
Roy A. Hunt Foundation
Sauce Golf
Charles Schwab
S.I.O.R. Colorado
George & Mary Sissel
Laura Stuto
Todd Creek Golf Club
US Am/Cherry Hills CC members
Walmart Foundation
Webster Investment Advisors
Turk Pettit, 2023 MEN’S CHAMPION
Jason Schultz, 2023 SENIOR CHAMPION
Juliana Hung, 2024 WOMEN’S CHAMPION
Fly Fishing in Vail Valley
SUMMIT CO.
The Ranch and the River. The two courses at Keystone Resort near Dillon offer two very different tests, but combine for a great summer mountain golf experience. The Keystone Resort anchors a great place to stay for a summer mountain break. The cooler temps at elevation, great restaurant and resort options, and great golf make the valley an excellent place to beat the heat.
Keystone’s River Course begins mostly level winding up and down the Snake River Valley for its first nine holes. Then the back nine brings in the foothills and provides jaw-dropping vistas behind many of the greens and calls for plenty of high-to-low and low-to-high shot-making. The tee shot from 18 is one to swing from your heels.
Then next-door is the Keystone Ranch Course, designed by Robert Trent Jones II and opened in 1980. It is a classic valley course, mostly level but with holes woven around a nine-acre lake. The course’s first nine begins with tight fairways bordered by pine forests, and the back nine opens up a little. Keystone is home to award-winning restaurants with incredible cuisine and patios with views to match. The historic Keystone Ranch Restaurant and the Ski Tip Lodge are two long-popular staples.
The Resort also offers a family wild west dinner, with a horse-drawn wagon taking visitors out to the Soda Creek Homestead for a hearty meal, outdoor games and live cowboy tunes.
The resort’s festivals feature everything from bacon to bluegrass: Kestonefestivals.com/festivals. The Vail Resorts facility also offers a 20 percent discount on lodging for anyone with an Epic Pass, the Vail ski passport.
THINGS TO DO:
Visitors to the Keystone region in the summer get the full experience when they spend some time on the Dillon Reservoir. Fishing, boating, kayaking, canoe and paddleboard options line the shores of the 3,000 acre lake. An 18-mile bike path winds around the entire lake. TownOfFrisco.Com
WHERE TO EAT:
A summer vacation filled with activities means you’ve earned a good dinner. Good restaurants are found within the resort and nearby towns and villages, including LaBonte’s Smokehouse, Bighorn Bistro & Bar, The resort’s own Keystone Ranch Restaurant, Mexican-fare at Montezuma Roadhouse, Vue Rooftop in Keystone, Sauce on the Blue, and Pho Bay 2 in nearby Silverthorne.
KEYSTONE’S TWO 18-HOLE COURSES TESTS DELIGHT
VAIL VALLEY
Red Sky Golf Club’s two courses are wellknown golf destinations for the Colorado golf omnivore. Whether visiting to escape the heat of Dallas or Tucson, or simply driving up I-70 from Denver, visitors to a number of Vail Resort lodges get access to the club’s two excellent courses. Tucked into the hillsides between the towns of Eagle and Edwards, the residential community of Red Sky Ranch boasts two 18-hole tracts that can be the centerpiece to a week in the mountains.
The Tom Fazio-designed course is already a good challenge, and likely to get better as the Fazio team has offered bunker and other updates for the future. The Greg Norman-designed course can stretch all the way to more than 7,500 yards for folks with artillery in their bags, but offers numerous options for the more mortal golfers to enjoy the craggy outcroppings and elevation changes.
The stay-and-play packages offered by Vail Resorts Red Sky Golf Club make the private club, high in the foothills above the Eagle River, a great option for a Vail Valley summer visit. The club’s two courses are typically open to members only. But Vail Resorts opens up tee times for visitors to people staying at any of 37 hotels and inns in Vail and Beavercreek. Resorts of-
fering access to the courses include the Four Seasons, Grand Hyatt and Ritz Carlton offerings in Vail. RedSkyGolfClub.com
THINGS TO DO
The Vail Grind: Mountain bikers have long flocked to the Vail Valley in order to test their fitness on some of the best paths in the world. For those who may take most of the summer to get into race shape, the Aug. 28 Vail Grind is a great option. The Grind is the concluding race of a bike series run by the Vail Rec Department that feature loops for kids, beginnings, adults and experts. VailRec.com
SPA LIFE
For all the active lifestyle options in the region, the area is not without its creature comforts. Spas, massage, day-spas and pampering options abound. The Sonnenalp Spa, part of the four-star Sonnenalp Resort in Vail Village, is among many options. Sonnenalp.com.
HAIL TO THE CHIEF
The Gerald R. Ford amphitheater hosts performances all summer. Their pops concert series includes performances in July and August by Nora Jones, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, and comedian Jim Gaffigan. GRFAVail.com.
RED
EAGLE CO.
Since it opened in 2001, Eagle Ranch Golf Club has offered a great balance between mountain golf’s challenges and the welcoming experience of a friendly resort course. The Arnold Palmer designed course avoids some of the elevation chicanery of other mountain courses; their world is flat.
And like a lot of the region’s courses, Eagle Ranch offers opportunities at either end of a day of adventure in the mountains. Teeing off early, of course, brings the cool of the morning. But tee fees go down many days after 3 p.m. and during July the sun sets so late that leaves more than enough time to get in 18 holes.
And new this year is an updated clubhouse and patio, designed specifically to help visitors enjoy the early evening as the sun sets in the west. “We have the best view in town,” said Jeff Boyer, Eagle Ranch’s general manager. The course is among many seeking to de-mystify the game for some of its newer players. A new set of forward tee boxes – not just tee markers plunked down in the middle of the fairway – are creating a course that plays at around 5,000 yards. This is in sync with a major USGA initiative that is encouraging more players to play forward, giving them a chance at a much more pleasant experience.
“I’ve been wanting to do it forever,” Boyer said. The course is the centerpiece for the master planned community that surrounds it, just south of the town of Eagle. The entire valley that Eagle and the community nestle in also provide a short commute to Vail, Beaver Creek and any of the Vail Valley sources of summer activities, from mountain biking and hiking to luxe spa treatments and cool evening concerts. EagleRanchGolf.Com.
THINGS TO DO
Every Thursday night from late June to the middle of August The Town of Eagle ShowDown concert series, presented by Alpine Bank, offers free concerts. Bring a picnic basket, blanket or chairs, and beer or wine. Concerts begin at 6:30 p.m. There are awesome activities along the Eagle River. The Yoga at the River series goes all summer, and Tube-a-Palooza on Aug. 4.
GO FISH
Fly fishing along the Eagle River is brings anglers from around the world. Eagle Rivers Outfitters offers packages from half-day to full-day floats that supply all the technical gear and help anglers reach corners of the river inaccessible any other way. EagleRiverOutfitters.com
AS THE EAGLE FLIES: GREAT GOLF AND COOL SUMMER DAYS
The Vail Valley has 1,000 summer delights, but anchored dead-center is the Vail Golf Club.
The public course runs along, beside and over Gore Creek at the base of the Gore Mountains.
The clubhouse is just east of Vail Village and the beautiful log clubhouse doubles as the local parks and recreation Nordic center in the winter.
But in summer as visitors ply the local waterways for rafting or fishing, or hike deep into the hills, the course offers a perfect alpine valley respite.
“We’re excited for this summer; we opened May 17 and the course weathered the winter very well. It’s in great shape,” said Alice Plain, the Vail Golf Club’s director of golf.
Days can be spent in all manner of mountain pursuits, with a 9-hole round at twilight a nearly ideal way to wrap the day. Big-money resorts throughout the country are spending a lot to add the sort of twilight-round, laid-back golf vibe that is Vail Golf Club’s primary experience.
“The Gore range is one of the best assets of our golf course, and walking nine in the evening on our golf course is really spectacular,” Plain said.
VAIL
The course is open to mid-fall – very much weather depending – and through the summer they offer clinics and lessons. The course is generally flat with ample fairways and is a good course for couples and families to play while visiting the mountains.
The course can be difficult to get a tee time for an impromptu round but for a $20 per person fee will book tee times any time in the future; otherwise visitors need to book two weeks in advance. Vailrec.com
THINGS TO DO
Nearby Vail Village is an arts and music paradise throughout the summer, with the centerpiece for live music the classical music series Bravo!Vail.
The series features full-week visits by the Dallas Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic and other performers, running June 20 to August 1. In addition to the main-stage performances each night the music festival features free small-venue performances most afternoons and some evenings throughout the community. BravoVail.Org.
VAIL GOLF CLUB: AT THE CENTER OF THE ACTION
WHERE THE EXPERIENCE EXCEEDS THE ELEVATION
Exceptionally well-maintained, 18-hole course with a stunning mountainous backdrop. Beautiful clubhouse with a restaurant, bar and patio. Award-winning PGA professionals, 4:07 pace of play and golf bike rentals. Public welcome.
THE BEST GOLF. THE BEST DEALS.
The 2024 Colorado AvidGolfer Golf Passport is your ticket to some of Colorado’s best golf courses, where you can play, dine and shop at incredible discounts!
We offer four packages, each tailored to fit your golfing needs. Golf Passports can be purchased at ColoradoAvidgolfer.com. or Denver Area PGA Tour Superstores, or you can simply scan the QR Code on the next page.
+THE RIDGE (SAVE BIG!) - EXCLUSIVE
+COMMONGROUND (FROM $75) - EXCLUSIVE
+GREEN VALLEY RANCH (FROM $42) - EXCLUSIVE
+RACCOON CREEK (FROM $55)
+LONE TREE (FROM $81)
+SOUTH SUBURBAN (FROM $64)
+KEYSTONE RIVER & RANCH (FROM $100)
+POLE CREEK (FROM $84)
+GRANBY RANCH (FROM $60)
+HYLAND HILLS (FROM $32)
+VAIL GOLF CLUB (FROM $72)
+GRANBY RANCH (FROM $60)
Enjoy exclusive deals from Pins & Aces and PGA Tour Superstore
‣
buy the ticket take the ride.
RIDING AMTRAK ACROSS COLORADO GIVES ACCESS TO GREAT GOLF BY ZAQ TULL
SHUTTERSTOCK//ARINA P HABICH
TRAINING FOR GOLF
using Amtrak’s Passenger Lines, golfers can map out trips for the whole United States; one in Colorado that would be worth your time - Denver to Winter Park to Grand Junction.
What is one to do when you have three months of parental leave, an adorable 3-month-old to care for, and time on your hands? What else: plan a train/golf trip across the United States.
That was my lot this past winter. So using Amtrak’s Passenger Lines, I mapped out golf trips for the U.S. and found one in Colorado that would be worth knocking out this summerDenver to Winter Park to Grand Junction.
Denver’s City Park Golf Course is three miles south of the 40th and Colorado Station on RTD’s A Line. Fresh off a redesign from Todd Schoeder and Hale Irwin, the new City Park functions both as a golf course and a water retention area. No one should panic when they see City Park underwater during heavy rain.
In his renovation, Schoeder had the unenviable task of going gut-to-studs on a beloved vault of nostalgia. Think Azkaban, but instead of wizard treasure, the previous iteration of City Park was a tightly guarded repository of fond memories for everyone who grew up playing golf in the metro area. Fortunately, you could use a spaghetti wall to route holes on City Park’s 136-acre parcel and you’d still come away with gold medal views of the Denver skyline.
From the tips, the course plays just under 6500 yards. Unfortunately, this means almost everyone plays from the back tees. This is a mistake. At 5900 yards, the Gold Tees (one forward) don’t give you the impression that the par 70 course was stretched to the absolute maximum by any means necessary (crossovers, strangely positioned tee boxes) to facilitate tournament play. From the Gold Tees, great looks at birdie and eagle merge seamlessly with great looks at the Cash Register Building to create a euphoria unique to the Mile High City.
This is all before you pop into the newly constructed clubhouse for post-round drinks. The modern building runs away with the award for Denver’s coolest municipally-owned structure.
Denver is home, and I love living here, but one of the city’s great shortcomings is that only one Amtrak Passenger Line rolls through town. The line is the California Zephyr, which connects an outer suburb of San Francisco to Chicago. If you start at Union Station and hop on the westbound Zephyr, your first stop will be the Fraser/Winter Park Station.
From the whistle-stop (no physical structure), it is a mere seven miles to Pole Creek Golf Club in Tabernash. If scenery does it for you, and you’re agnostic as to your surroundings being urban or rural (shoutout to my sightseers!), you’re not going to do much better than a City Park to Pole Creek 36-hole day. At City Park, you get the absolute tops in terms of peeping the Denver skyline. At Pole Creek, you’re deadcentered against the Continental Divide.
Nice views are not the only thing Pole Creek has going for it. Designed by Denis Griffiths, the club’s original 18 holes (nine-holers dubbed Meadow and Ranch) opened in 1985, two years before I was born, back when actual dinosaurs roamed the Fraser Valley. Prehistoric mountain layouts are great, because they predate the cart-mandatory-due-to-severe-elevation-changes slippery slope that high-altitude golf courses continue to tumble down. Meadow + Ranch is a real golf course. What I mean by that is the layout is walkable.
Want to put a little action on your game at Pole Creek? There is a cash-in-cash-out gross format skins game that is played from the tips on Wednesday mornings. If you have a hundred bucks in your pocket, the course record holder can be rousted from his barstool for a match. All of this is etched into a literal meadow teeming with sage and wildflowers on the floor of a valley set between unimaginably picturesque mountain ranges. This place is very near and dear to my heart.
SHUTTERSTOCK//ARINA P HABICH
TRAINING FOR GOLF
City Park to Pole Creek to Redlands Mesa is just about the best thing going
Or, if you want to utilize thin mountain air and comically elevated tee boxes to blast a drive 400 yards, then take coin-flip odds on rolling your golf cart on the switchbacks that were placed to mitigate speed on the downhill drive to the fairway, Pole Creek also has The Ridge Nine. To each their own; there is truly something for everyone here.
Hopping back on the westbound Zephyr, the ride from Amtrak’s Fraser/Winter Park Station to the Grand Junction Station is six hours. That might sound like a lot, and sure, there are quicker ways to get from Winter Park to Grand Junction, but quicker is not always better. To welcome us to Denver, the conductor said that people travel from all over the world to ride this stretch of rails. I spent all six hours with my face pressed against the window in the observation car.
Redlands Mesa is four miles from the Grand Junction Amtrak Station, and let’s cut right to the chase - it’s one of the 10 best courses in the state. (I won’t say above or below, but I will tell you in my own rankings that it’s sandwiched between Sanctuary and Catamount).
I appreciate Jim Engh’s course design work. I also understand the overarching critique of Engh’s portfolio, that he’s wont to manufacture dramatic golf courses that stand in contrast to significantly less dramatic natural landscapes. That is NOT a problem at Redlands Mesa. Here, Engh didn’t pull any of his (ball funneling to the center of the green after a loose swing on a completely blind shot) punches.
PHOTO COURTESY OF POLE CREEK
AUTHOR ZAQ TULL, RIGHT, WITH FRIENDS ALEXANDER PRICE AND MYCOLAI SMITH AT REDLANDS MESA
TRAINING FOR GOLF
If we yanked the surrounding landscape and put Redlands under a microscope, it would certainly not be categorized as a classic layout. However, in comparison to its natural surroundings - the starting flats of Grand Mesa and the vivid peaks of Colorado National Monument - the course, in all its Jim Engh glory, feels like an exercise in minimalism and restraint. This is true even from the 6800 yard back tees, if you have 200 yards of carry you have to, HAVE TO take it all the way back here.
After taking this trip, I more feel lucky that the one train that does roll through town links up three courses that make for one hell of a golf trip. For those who read this and didn’t balk at eight hours of train time, City Park to Pole Creek to Redlands Mesa is just about the best thing going.
Buy the ticket, take the ride.
Zaq Tull, a Denver-based writer, is unwaveringly devoted to the architecture of Tom Weiskopf. Follow him on X @straightgross
DENVER’S CITY PARK GOLF COURSE
REDLANDS MESA GOLF COURSE IN ALL ITS BEAUTY.
PHOTO COURTESY OF ZAQ TULL
June kind coloradANS is to
By Jim Bebbington
June qualifiers for three USGA tournaments proved the perfect way to start the summer for Colorado golfers.
Colin Prater, a science teacher and boys and girls golf coach at Cheyenne Mountain High School, earned his place in the 2024 U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2 by finishing in second place in the qualifier played June 3 at the Pronghorn Resort Nicklaus Course in Bend, Ore. Prater shot a 36-hole score of 141, 3-under par, to take one of the two qualifying slots up for grabs.
His morning round of 68 tied him for the lead. But he opened his second round with four bogeys over the first 10 holes and was falling out of contention when he rallied by birdying three of the final holes.
“It’s very much surreal,” Prater said. “Obviously you want to have the confidence before you tee off that if the stars align you can make the U.S. Open. But then the stars align! It’s going to be such a neat and cool experience. I’m super excited to get down there and see how my game stacks up against the best players in the world.”
Prater missed the cut in the Open, but had some great experiences. The Wednesday before he teed off in the U.S. Open, Prater bumped into Rory McIlroy after his Wednesday practice round. Relax, McIlroy told him, just play your game.
He was paired for one practice round with fellow Coloradans Wyndham Clark and Mark Hubbard. Clark was dominating off the tee during that round; Hubbard was relaxed and funny, Prater said. Then on Wednesday night his family flooded into Pinehurst, N.C., to be alongside him. For Prater, the trip was about soaking in everything. The greens were not scaring him. “They are bowls turned upside down. They’re kind of flat in the middle, so if you can come in there your ball stays there. If not it can roll a ways away.”
Matt Schalk, the general manager and teaching pro at Colorado National Golf Club, finished second
among 76 players in the June 5 qualifier for the U.S. Senior Open, the first time he has qualified for a national USGA title fight. The qualifier was held at the home of the 2025 U.S. Senior Open – The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs.
Schalk has been on a bit of a heater. He won the 2022 Senior PGA Professional Championship, and he finished second in the 2023 Inspirato Colorado Senior Open.
“It’s just kind of I’m at a good spot with golf and years of learning and kind of more relaxing and kind of playing golf and not putting as much pressure on myself and practicing as hard,” he said. The U.S. Senior Open was June 27-30 at the Newport Country Club in Rhode Island.
And Sherry Andonian, a teaching professional at Valley Country Club and 2023 player of the year for the Colorado PGA, in June qualified for her sixth straight U.S. Senior Women’s Open. The U.S. Senior Women’s Open will be played Aug. 1 to 4 at Fox Chapel Golf Club in Pittsburgh.
The 2022 Open was won by Colorado-native Jill McGill and Andonian has qualified for all six of the tournaments that have been held. Andonian qualified by shooting an 83 on June 4 at CommonGround Golf Course in Aurora.
Kristine Franklin of Westminster finished second and qualified as well.
colorado: state of women’s golf
a big time for growth.
THE PERCENTAGE OF NEW GOLFERS WHO ARE WOMEN IS NEAR RECORD HIGH; COLORADO GOLF INDUSTRY IS TRYING TO KEEP A GOOD THING GOING BY KAYLEE
HARTER
KAHMARI SHAW, LEFT, AND SISTER KAHLIA. PHOTO BY JIM BEBBINGTON
ERIN GANGLOFF, CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER FOR THE COLORADO GOLF ASSOCIATION. PHOTO BY JIM BEBBINGTON
TWO-TIME COLORADO 4A HIGH SCHOOL
CHAMPION LOGAN HALE DURING 2024
INSPIRATO COLORADO WOMEN’S OPEN.
PHOTO BY JIM BEBBINGTON
LAURIE STEENROD, GIRLS GOLF COACH AND COLORADO GOLF ASSOCIATION BOARD MEMBER
Kahlia Shaw was a volleyball player. But when the Smoky Hill High School sophomore injured her knee, she decided to give the golf team a try at her mom’s suggestion.
“I was like, you know what, why not? It’s something for me to do, I’m still being active, I’m getting fresh air,” she says. “I started golf, and I couldn’t get enough of it ever since.”
Kahlia is not alone. The number of women and girls in golf has seen steady gains in recent years, both on the national scale and here in Colorado.
Nationally, there were approximately 7 million female on-course golfers in 2023 — a 25 percent increase since 2019, according to the National Golf Foundation (NGF). That’s compared with a 2 percent increase for men in a similar time frame.
In 2019, the Colorado Golf Association had more than 16,800 female members. By the end of the 2023 season, that number had grown to more than 19,100 female members, a 13 percent increase.
“We’re at a big time with growth,” says Erin Gangloff, chief marketing officer for the Colorado Golf Association. She said they have seen growth in women’s leagues and the association’s highest women’s membership in recent years. “During the pandemic, one of our worries was that we were going to see a decline with women mainly because they had to become caregivers, kids were home,” Gangloff said. “We saw that women needed to attend to the family, so golf leagues and that kind of extracurricular went by the wayside. And since that time, we’ve just started to see this increase.”
About 1 in 4 on-course golfers are women, according to NGF data. However, women make up an even larger share of golfers among beginners, juniors and off-course participants.
colorado: state of women’s golf
Sparking interest
Though 41 percent of beginners are women and girls, the initial interest in the sport can be one of the biggest barriers to getting started.
Kahlia and her sister Kahmari, a freshman who also started golfing this year, say that before they played, they thought of golf as a “boring” sport — something they now see as a misconception.
“I thought, like, all you have to do is hit a ball, it can’t be that hard,” Kahlia said. “Then you’re really like, ‘Oh, this is a lot more work than I thought.’ “ She said she began to see the game as an extremely tactical, mental sport — something she finds very rewarding. Her best friend is on the team too, and getting to spend time together and cheer each other on is a big part of what makes the sport fun. Gangloff says marketing the sport to girls is often different than for boys, who may have grown up playing the sport with their dads. It also has to compete with other popular team sports like
tennis, soccer or lacrosse, though she notes golf makes for excellent cross training. “It’s just about making it fun,” she said. “It’s not just golf — it’s social; it’s, ‘what are you going to wear?’ If you can look good while doing a sport then why not? And giving it that feeling of making it a true team, because golf is so individual, that then girls connect. You get the best of both worlds if you want to play an individual sport, but then you really do want to feel like you’re on a team, like other high school sports.”
Learning the game
Juniors are the largest growing segment of oncourse golfers in the country, according to NGF, and more than a third of those juniors are girls. In 2000, just 15 percent of junior golfers were girls.
Having a good coach with a passion for the game can make a big difference in attracting and retaining youth golfers, Gangloff says. “You may not need experience, because if you have a passionate
TWO-TIME COLORADO 3A STATE CHAMP MADDY BANTE. PHOTO BY JIM BEBBINGTON
coach who knows what they’re doing and loves it, they’re going to help you,” she says. “And then you may make lifelong friends.”
Laurie Steenrod is one those coaches.
She serves on the CGA board and has been a coach for more than two decades. She coaches the Shaw girls at Smoky Hill High School. In the 2024 season, Steenrod says she had eight brand new players and one returning player.
“I have a passion for girls and women in sport in general,” Steenrod says. “This is one of my better activities.”
In coaching beginners, Steenrod says she keeps it fun with lots of games and challenges and models shots she’s asking her players to make.
She also relates it back to sports the girls might be more familiar with: “Pretend like you’re about to shoot a free throw; get in an athletic posture,” and “Ladies, you’re not playing volleyball; relax your arms a little bit.”
Kahlia said Steenrod is funny and encouraging.
“[My coaches’] support and pushing me to want to do better and giving me really helpful tips has honestly helped me grow as a player and it makes me want to go forth with the sport,” Kahlia says. “I feel like coaches are a really big part of sports.”
colorado: state of women’s golf
OFF-COURSE BOOM
But as much as green-grass golf is enjoying a spike in interest from women, it is the off-course game that is really exploding. Women and girls represent more than 40 percent of off-course golfers. Off-course golf is a broad term used to describe players who are active on driving ranges, simulators and facilities like Topgolf.
In recent years, off-course golf participation has surpassed on-course golf, according to NGF data. The people playing off-course golf are also significantly younger and more diverse than on-course.
“Golf courses can be intimidating, especially if you’re brand new,” Gangloff says. “[Off-course] is a great place for someone to go and feel comfortable. So like a Topgolf, you can go with friends. You’re not having to play nine or 18 holes of golf. It’s in a fun environment. It’s a great jumping off point.” Kahmari says she’d played Topgolf before joining the golf team and her success off-course is part of what made her want to get on course. Just how many off-course golfers make that same conversion remains to be seen.
“Really, it’s now making that transition from a Topgolf player who’s comfortable there, how do we convert them to ‘hey, let’s try a par three’. Let’s try an executive nine and get them there,” Gangloff says. “That’s really kind of our next step as an association, like, what’s the next thing to convert them to a green-grass facility?”
PHOTO BY JIM BEBBINGTON
ADOBE STOCK//JOE HENDRICKSON
colorado: state of women’s golf
ROOM to grow
Gangloff says that female golf participation is growing across the board, but the CGA is trying specifically to grow it among post-college, 25-45 age range participating in Colorado. Not coincidentally, this is also the core of the millennial generation – the largest population group in the United States.
“We also understand those are working women, those are moms,” she says. “They’ve got a lot going on. So we would love to see more of that.”
Maggie Webster, a 31-year-old from Boulder, had “dabbled” in golfing with her brother in the past, but started playing regularly two years ago.
“The intimidation factor is definitely the hardest part of getting into it,” she says. “You go out there and you don’t want to look silly, and you don’t want to be embarrassed. But I think once you get out there, you realize like, ‘Hey, I’ve not the only one that’s out here that’s learning.’”
Gangloff says CGA’s introductory clinics have been successful in attracting younger women. The association has also discussed adding more social aspects such as a Friday night after work event and becoming more active on social media. For younger women and girls, Gangloff’s advice is this: “You don’t have to be the best,” she says.
“You can just go out, you can have a good time, you can make friends. And you know, it’s a lifelong sport. So if you start playing it now and learning the game now, it could help you in your career someday. It’s something that you can do with family and with friends.”
Kaylee Harter is a Boulder-based freelance writer. Contact her at k.harter97@gmail.com
2024 INSPIRATO COLORADO WOMEN’S OPEN PARTICIPANT EMMA BRYANT AND HER FATHER AND CADDY MATT BRYANT. PHOTO BY JIM BEBBINGTON
a resilient MAN
KYLE FREELAND LEARNS ABOUT THE VALUE OF GIVING BACK, AND HOW GOLF CAN FIT INTO A GOOD LIFE
PHOTO BY CHRISTIAN MARCY-VEGA
Colorado Rockies starting pitcher Kyle Freeland was in the midst of an injury rehab to his throwing elbow in early June.
His team had just won three series against three of the best teams in Major League Baseball – Philadelphia, Texas and Cleveland. All without him. This would be enough to drive any player up the wall. But Freeland is not any player. At age 31 he is playing for his hometown team. He has already been through a lot of injury, played eight season, and gotten pretty deeply involved in some causes that help him keep baseball struggles in context of a broader life.
Growing up in east Denver, Freeland became a Thomas Jefferson High School phenom in both golf and baseball. Then he went to the University of Evansville in southern Indiana for college ball, and he thrived.
He has married his college sweetheart, Ashley. They have two beautiful dogs. And he has matured over eight seasons into someone who appreciates what he has and knows that nothing is promised to any of us.
LUCKY MAN
Freeland is sitting in the Rockies dugout while crews ready for a Monday night game against the Cincinnati Reds. He is handed an April 2018 copy of Colorado AvidGolfer magazine. He is on the cover, on the cusp of what is so far his best season. What would he tell this man if he could?
“I’d tell him to continue to enjoy what he’s doing because having an opportunity like I have is absolutely incredible and it’s not to be taken for granted ever,” Freeland said. “Obviously, I wish that circumstances over the past few years have been better for us, but that’s the game. Everything that I’ve been through, I’m grateful for and extremely happy for this kind of opportunity to play for my hometown team.”
The 2018 article focused on the fact that this player, on his way to a 2018 season that would see him finish fourth in Cy Young votes, was also an astonishingly good stick.
The grandson of a Scot who played golf, and a father who played even more, Freeland had little choice but to pick up the game young. He and his brother Colin grew up playing, and Freeland competed in the Colorado high school championships three of his four years. He remains a 300+ driver, carries a scratch handicap, and played in January in the pre-qualifier for the WM Phoenix Open. “I didn’t get to move on to the next round, but I learned a ton and can’t wait to give it another shot,” he wrote on his Instagram post.
KYLE FREELAND
But as good as he is at golf, there’s that small matter of his day job. “Obviously (baseball) is No. 1,” he said. “This is my true love. But golf is one of those things that I’m able to disconnect from baseball. You know, we’re playing 162 games. We’re here practicing and working every single day and it really never ends. We’re training all offseason. For pitchers we start picking up baseballs in mid-November. So, baseball kind of starts right there. So, we’re only getting a month off. So, golf is one of those things where I I can kind of disconnect from baseball, get my mind off something else.”
He’s also learned that there are some key similarities. The discipline it takes to be fully present – calm and focused – on every golf swing? Yup. That’s every pitch.
“When you’re thinking through shot routines, how you want to play a certain shot, what you’re doing in between shots, stuff like that, you can easily mesh those together with what I do out in the mound with breathing exercises, thought process, stuff like that. So, I work a lot with Darryl Scott, our pitching coach. He golfs a lot and we’re able to connect on that level of golf mentality and baseball mentality and putting them together, using that creativity of your mind.”
UNLUCKY SEASON
His last few seasons have been an uphill struggle to return to his 2018 greatness. The past two years have been tough physically. He injured his shoulder and oblique, missing a month total.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE COLORADO ROCKIES
FREELAND PLAYING IN PRE-QUALIFIER FOR 2024 WM PHOENIX OPEN. PHOTO BY KATIE LEVINE
Nearly every player who goes through injury rehab tells you the same thing – there’s frustration, a little fear, and a gnawing sense that you’re not contributing. For Freeland, add to it that he is playing for his hometown, and knows he is among the highest paid players on the team.
Coming out of spring training this March, he felt ready. He was the Rockies Opening Day starter. The season was young. Then disaster struck.
He pitched two and one-third innings against the Arizona Diamondbacks and gave up 10 hits, 10 earned runs, and left with an ERA of 38.57. Then a week later he made his second start; it lasted three and one-third innings and he gave up nine hits and seven runs.
Something clearly was wrong.
After his second start Freeland sat in front of his locker distraught. Teammate Tyler Kinley came by to hug, and they embraced for a long while.
“Kyle worked his butt off this offseason,” Kinsley told MLB.com reporter Tim Stebbins. “He had such a great spring training, such a dominant spring training. These first two starts probably couldn’t go any worse for him in terms of results.” After his third start, against Toronto, he felt pain in his left elbow. Imaging showed no obvious ligament damage, so he was placed on 15-day injured list with what was considered to be a strained elbow. Manager Bud Black said he thought Freeland would need six weeks to recover.
By the early June series against Cincinnati, he was ready to get back at it. “The elbow’s good,” he said. “I got a live BP (batting practice) tomorrow here and if all goes well, I can hopefully start going out on assignment and pitch to more competitive environment.”
Nearly every player who goes through injury rehab tells you the same thing – there’s frustration, a little fear, and a gnawing sense that you’re not contributing. For Freeland, add to it that he is playing for his hometown, and knows he is among the highest paid players on the team. He is in the middle of a five-year contract that will pay him $15 million this year and $64 million total.
“UCLs (ulnar collateral ligaments) can be kind of tricky, you know, whenever you feel something in there, it’s almost an immediate ‘Alright, we gotta go get an image of it,’” he said. “We gotta figure out what we’re dealing with, because if you kind of let it linger around, it can turn into some really bad where you’re missing a year, year and a half of baseball, which nobody wants.”
PHOTO BY CHRISTIAN MARCY-VEGA
KYLE FREELAND
LEARNING THE GIFT OF GIVING BACK
So his value to the Rockies is veteran leadership and the expectation of a return to pitching greatness. But while they wait, the team is getting even more.
Freeland and his wife Ashley are growing into serious goodwill ambassadors. This spring they donated $3 million to the University of Evansville to help build a new baseball clubhouse - the Freeland clubhouse. And he was the Rockies Roberto Clemente Award nominee last year because the Freeland’s have fully embraced their role of raising money for the Special Olympics of Colorado. There they are, on Instagram, jumping into the Aurora Reservoir during a charity polar plunge. And there is a steady stream of baseballs for auction, signed by the greats from across Major League Baseball.
“Those kids, those athletes, all they care about is having fun and playing the sport that they love and I think that’s so pure and so wholesome to see,” he said. “And their generosity, whether to their teammates or their opponent, is unmatched. And the first time that I saw it was in Seattle at the USA Games for Special Olympics. I was able to go up there, meet with some of the teams from Colorado and some of the people competing from Colorado and speak to them while they play and it was very humbling to see them care only about the things that truly matter in the sport.
“You know, we as professional athletes, we can kind of lose sight of that sometimes with our emotions just because we want to win so bad. And sometimes those emotions get the best of us. But being able to see those kids and the pure joy in their faces of being able to play a sport that they love, I think that that fills my heart with joy and is able to take me even further in understanding the greater things in life.”
And then it was game time. But instead of getting ready or warming up, Freeland was scheduled to go back to rehab.
But after eight seasons playing in front of friends, growing his family, and seeing the value of giving back to the community – Freeland said he is ready for whatever comes.
Years from now, when Colorado AvidGolfer again asks for another interview – what does Freeland want to be able to talk about?
“Maybe still playing baseball?” he said. “We’ll see. That’s a long time away. That’d be a very long career. But you know, hopefully by that time, I’ve got a World Series under my belt with my hometown team and can be very, very happy with the career that I’ve had to that point. Then hopefully just be able to be living a happy full life and playing golf every day.”
We should all be so lucky.
PHOTO BY CHRISTIAN MARCY-VEGA
Trusted Technology Par tners to:
• Business Copiers & Printers
• Production Printers
• Wide Format Printers
• Toner & Supplies
• Managed Print Services
• Mailing Systems
• Coffee & Water Services
• Document Management
• Interactive Displays
• Managed IT Services
• Microsoft Azure Cloud
• Cybersecurity
• Asset Management
• Business Phone Systems
• Unified Communications
• Structured Cabling
• Video Surveillance & Cameras
• Access Control Systems
• Enviroment Sensors
• EV Car Chargers
• Commercial Robot Cleaners
ByJimBebbington
Golf is a Cruel Game
On June 3, Golf’s Longest Day, rookie professional golfer Davis Bryant of Aurora putted out on the 18th hole of Oregon’s Pronghorn Resort tied for the lead of a U.S. Open qualifier.
The top two finishers that day would earn coveted entries into the 2024 U.S. Open, held in June at the fabled Pinehurst No. 2 course. He was six months into his pro golf career and was one more round, 18 holes, away from possibly qualifying for one of the greatest tournaments in the game. His first-round 68 was in the bag and he was one of the few golfers on the course to go under par.
Golf Channel’s Bailey Chamblee pulled Bryant aside as he walked off the green. He had 20 minutes before his second round started. Is that too much time, too little, or just right, she asked.
“I was stoked,” he said later. “Personally I’d rather just keep playing and not have to think good or bad. I told her I’m playing good; I’m executing shots pretty well. A couple of long putts fell.”
Then it was time to begin the second round. The first hole of Pronghorn’s Nicklaus course is no cream puff, but there are harder holes. It is less than 400 yards, a par 4 that big hitters like Davis can use to set themselves up for success. Bryant pulled out his 3-wood and drove it to the right. It hit, and bounced further right. He had to punch out from the pine scrub.
“I made a mess of the hole after that,” he said.
He double-bogeyed with a 6, bogeyed the second hole for good measure, and two hours later finished two shots away from second place. However discouraging your job was that week, Bryant’s may have been worse. “I just hit a couple bad shots on the first couple holes and I don’t think I hit a green until the 5th hole,” he said. “For some odd reason the game didn’t feel exactly the same as it did just an hour prior. Sometimes it’s like ‘What is this club, this object, I’m holding in my hands?’”
Fellow Coloradan Colin Prater, a 29-year-old science teacher and golf coach at Cheyenne Mountain High School, took the second spot. Such is the life of a young first-year pro. Bryant is playing in his first season of professional touring golf. An excellent player in high school and at Colorado State University, he is learning the lessons of tour life the hard way.
“You’re trying to be one of those 156 guys next week in Pinehurst, that’s why we play,” he said. “I did my best to try and embrace what I was feeling and what I was going through. It was hard to execute to make the same putts to make the same swings. I’ll be more prepared when it comes again.”
And it likely will come again. That’s because overall, Bryant is having a successful first sea -
son. After the Pronghorn Massacre, he flew home to Denver and talked with his parents, got some rest, and two days later was ready to keep going. After playing this winter in several mini-tour events in California, Louisiana and Arizona, Bryant is heading into a summer of qualifiers as well as Canadian events.
He played well at a qualifying tournament at the Wigwam Golf Club in Arizona, finishing tied for 16th. That earned him partial access to an upcoming series of nine Canadian tournaments. Many things remained unclear – which ones, who else would be playing, would his status improve or decline based on how he plays – but if nothing else it made him an official member of the PGA Tour Americas.
That may be a small step – the tour is the third-level of PGA Tour events, behind the Korn Ferry Tour and the PGA Tour itself. But there are perks: the cost to enter Monday qualifiers for PGA Tour events the rest of the year drops from $500 to $300 each. He gets to play and practice at the Tour’s TPC courses around the country. And, since he’s not yet 25, he’s been paying an upcharge every time he’s rented a car; that upcharge going forward would now be waived.
Baby steps.
LUXURY OUTDOOR SPACES
Dream Makers Landscape would like to help you enhance the look and feel of your home. With our expertise in design and construction, our projects will improve the look and value of your home so you can enjoy it for years to come.
