Inspirato Colorado Open first prize winnings cut in half

Colorado Open Golf Foundation seeks to redirect funds to scholarships

By Jim Bebbington

The Colorado Open championships announced several changes Thursday, including reducing the first-place prize winnings, setting up a new scholarship program and beginning the search for a new title sponsor.

Beginning this year the winners of the Inspirato Colorado Open men’s and women’s golf championships will receive $50,000 each, down from the $100,000 first prize that has been paid out since 2016 for the men and 2022 for the women.

At $50,000 the first-place prize for the Colorado Open championships is still among the highest in the U.S. for any state golf open and for women’s tournaments, the $50,000 first-place prize is higher than any first-place prizes in the Epson Tour, the LPGA’s professional development tour.

The organizers of the Inspirato Colorado Open championships announced the reductions Thursday. The prize money at stake for the rest of the fields will remain the same, with both the men’s and women’s tournaments paying out $200,000 total to the pros who compete in each tournament. Only the top winnings are being reduced.

“Inspirato has told us they’re not going to renew and we’re looking for new sponsors after 2025,” said Kevin Laura, the CEO of the Inspirato Colorado Open championship. “We have had an arms race and we’re really competing against ourselves in terms of purse size and it’s made it hard to find new sponsors. We’d rather raise a lot of money for the kids through scholarships and not put all our eggs in the purse baskets.”

The organization is also cutting back on the payout for the Inspirato Colorado Senior Open. The tournament has previously paid out $100,000 total; beginning this summer it will pay out $80,000 total with reductions in prize money throughout the field.

The Colorado Open Golf Foundation said the change is also “part of its broader vision to make golf more accessible and invest in future generations, the foundation is restructuring the purse distribution for this year.”

As part of this change the foundation is establishing a dedicated scholarship fund benefiting participants of First Tee – Green Valley Ranch in their educational pursuits.

“By redirecting a portion of the prize pool to this initiative, the foundation reaffirms its purpose to use golf as a platform for youth development, creating new opportunities for young people to succeed both on and off the course,” the foundation said in a statement Thursday.

The 2025 Inspirato Colorado Women’s Open is May 28 to 30. The Inspirato Colorado Open is July 24 to 27 and the Inspirato Colorado Senior Open is Aug. 27 to 29. All are played at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club in Denver.