Outlaw Tour Unable to Make Clean Getaway

Sam Saunders played in the 2019 Outlaw Tour
Sam Saunders—PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF COLORADO OPEN GOLF FOUNDATION

COVID-19 is challenging the Outlaw Tour, a mini-circuit based in Arizona that gives golfers a chance to compete in the winter and early spring.

COLORADO’S GOLF landscape has been understandably littered with canceled tournaments and other events due to the novel coronavirus—but where some saw double bogeys, Mike O’Leary saw an opportunity to soar with eagles.

O’Leary is the executive director of the Outlaw Tour, a mini-circuit based in Arizona that gives golfers a chance to compete in the winter and early spring before heading out to larger venues like the Korn Ferry or Canadian Tours. Those options were more important than ever this year because of the pandemic, and so, rather than end the season as scheduled in April, he extended it by about a month.

Then he had an even bigger idea—bring the Outlaw Tour to Colorado for a series of events.

“There were so many events being canceled and postponed all around the country, it seemed like there was a great need for places for players to compete, and Colorado seemed like such a great fit,” O’Leary said.

The idea was to sandwich about three tournaments into the window between Korn Ferry’s TPC Colorado Championship at Heron Lakes on July 1-4, and the CoBank Colorado Open, July 23-26.

“There was definitely a strong desire; we have quite a few players from Colorado who come down to Arizona and play with us over the winter,” O’Leary said. “We knew we had a strong base to start from and we were really excited to put something out there.”

Alas, the plan eventually fizzled, the circumstances why underscoring just how tough it is for tournament directors trying to line up events—especially on short notice. O’Leary started by reaching out to Colorado players, gathering suggestions on where the Outlaw stops might take place—“obviously, we wanted to play on championship-style golf courses; I looked at the venues where the Colorado Open was holding its qualifying, because they had to be good.”

But when O’Leary started reaching out to the facilities, things didn’t go as smoothly as he’d hoped.

“They don’t know me, and I don’t have relationships with them, so I have to explain to them what we’re looking for and give them a rundown of the history of who we are and what we do,” he said. “And then of course, that particular person has to go and talk to either their head pro or general manager, or whoever it might be—and then they try and figure out if the dates will work because we don’t just want one day, we want multiple days.

“So what would happen was, a Monday might be open, but Tuesday was unavailable; obviously we don’t want to impact the weekend, which are busier times for them—it just seemed like we kept hitting roadblocks.”

Indeed, a number of players with Colorado ties, including Nick Mason of Parker, Steven Kupcho of Westminster and defending CoBank Colorado Open champion Sam Saunders have found success during the Outlaw Tour’s 2019-20 season. Apart from a couple of smaller events, O’Leary says the schedule is likely completed… although, he adds, there may be a chance to go to Utah later this summer…. outlawtour.golf

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