Golf by Numbers: The July Issue

Everything you need to know about the Colorado golf scene this month

Jon Rizzi | Colorado AvidGolfer

2 Parker clubs—The Pinery and The Club at Pradera—now belong to Seattle-based Columbia Hospitality, whose modest golf portfolio features such gems as Tartan Fields Golf Club near Muirfield Village in Ohio and TPC Snoqualmie Ridge, a Champions Tour venue east of Seattle. Through the end of this month, Columbia is waiving the initiation on its Summit Membership, which gives reciprocal access to both clubs, lift tickets and “Friends & Family” rates at the dozen hotels in Columbia’s collection. columbiahospitality.com

20 years have passed since the Colorado Open had its last amateur champion. Littleton’s Brian Guetz won the event while attending Oklahoma State in 1994—exactly 20 years after Gary Longfellow became the only other amateur to win the Open. If the pattern continues in 2014, Guetz could have a connection to it. He now serves as an assistant coach at his alma mater, where another Colorado product, Wyndham Clark, won Big 12 Player of the Year and led OSU to the finals of the men’s Division I NCAA Championship versus the University of Alabama. Clark, who won 11 events— including the 2010 Colorado Stroke Play and two State 4A championships—while at Valor Christian, intends to play in this month’s HealthONE Colorado Open. Guetz, who won the 2008 event as a professional, won’t compete, but he also count among his charges defending champion Zahkai Brown, with whom Guetz worked during his time as an assistant coach at Colorado State University. coloradoopen.com

12 days after being named the Summit League’s Men’s Golf Coach of the Year, Eric Hoos resigned from the University of Denver. Erik Billinger, associate coach of the women’s team, replaces him. In 15 seasons, Hoos led the Pioneers to three conference titles (including 2014), nine NCAA regional appearances, nine tournament wins and 17 individual titles.

65,000 square feet of golf entertainment on three levels— including 3,000 of private event space, 102 climate-controlled hitting bays, a 240-yard targetfilled “outfield” range, 230 high-definition flatscreen TVs, a rooftop terrace and topflight restaurant— are coming next spring to Centennial. It will be Topgolf International’s 21st location worldwide. Billed as the place “where the competition of sport meets the favorite neighborhood hangout,” Topgolf offers golf games for all ages and skill levels and advanced technology to track players’ shots. The complex anticipates attracting some 450,000 guests—half of whom are self-described “non-golfers”— in the first year. topgolf.com

RELATED LINKS

Golf by Numbers: The June Issue

Golf by Numbers: The May Issue

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