When amateurs play like the pros: the Inspirato Colorado Open title

Former CSU golfer Parker Edens makes run at the title

By Jim Bebbington

The difference between being a professional golfer and an amateur is sometimes very slim.

Parker Edens, raised in Greeley and educated at Colorado State University, really wanted to win the 2023 Inspirato Colorado Men’s Open. Edens plays as an amateur, but he is more than experienced with professional golf. He turned pro in 2014 after graduating from CSU, and played for several years on a host of tours before regaining his amateur status in 2019.

He moved into the world of coaching. He went back to Colorado State as an assistant coach for three years, and in 2022 took his first head-coaching job at South Dakota State University, a school he attended for two years before transferring to CSU.

Tied for the lead going into the final round Sunday, July 23, at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club, Edens quickly birdied three holes on the front nine and made the turn in the lead at 20-under. But as tournament winner Turk Pettit made three more birdies on the back nine, Edens made one bogey and otherwise watched birdie putts slip by the holes. Pettit won at 21-under and Edens finished tied for second with Andre Metzger of Scottsdale, Ariz., at 19-under.

“(I) was a little bit disappointed, to be honest,” Edens said after the round. “I had a chance to be in the hunt to win the whole championship and I kind of had to regroup after scoring just a little bit of disappointment. But obviously it was one of my goals coming in this year to be low-am here and achieve that so I’m very, very pleased.”

He’s been playing well. He won the South Dakota state match play competition last week. After the Inspirato he stayed in Colorado a few extra days and played in the U.S. Amateur qualifier Tuesday, July 25th, at Collindale Golf Club in Fort Collins. Edens finished the 36-hole qualifier 3-under par, in fourth place; the top two finishers advance to the U.S. Am next month at Cherry Hills Country Club, and Edens is the second alternate.

But in his thank-you remarks to the 100-plus guests and gallery at the Inspirato he noted that he’s a lucky man. He gets to play a lot of golf because of a supportive family and because his job enables him to be around the game. But he has a job, and it’s not playing golf. So as a former professional, he is building a coaching career while still seeking to beat the best at what they do.

“Definitely it’s very surreal and I’m very humbled to be the low-am here and a lot of really good players in the past have been a low amateur,” he said. 

That list includes former pro and Golf Channel commentator Peter Jacobsen, who was low-am in the 1975 Colorado Open as a student at the University of Oregon. Other low-am winners include then-college-age Bob Tway, Corey Pavin, Steve Elkington and Phil Mickelson. Only one amateur, Brian Guetz of Littleon in 1994, has won the Colorado Open.

Winning, Edens said, would have been very special. “I grew up here. I grew up in Greeley, a local guy. So it’s any anytime I can go come home and play or be on the road playing and represent Colorado. I’m very proud to be from Colorado.”

After Tuesday’s U.S. Amateur qualifier, he said, it would be time for he and his wife to pack up their kids and drive back to campus, where the fall golf season will soon begin.

He said he was going back with a lesson for his team.

“I definitely don’t get to practice as much as those guys do, but just believing in yourself and just sticking to your plan,” he said. “I’m just another amateur and I’m playing in a big pro event and just kind of believe to myself all week and knew I could play well and just stuck to my plan.”

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Colorado AvidGolfer Magazine is the state’s leading resource for golf and the lifestyle that surrounds it, publishing eight issues annually and proudly delivering daily content via coloradoavidgolfer.com.

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