An 18 to Remember

Colorado AvidGolfer’s Greatest Hits—So Far

By Jon Rizzi

SPORTS FANS have had it rough since COVID-19. No March Madness brackets. No “Play Ball!” No NHL or NBA playoffs. Worst of all: No Masters.

But hearing Verne’s “Yes, Sir!” as a yellow-shirted, plaid-Sansabelted Jack walks in that 18-footer in 1986 never gets old. Nor does re-watching all five of Tiger’s green-jacket triumphs—’97’s 18-under statement, ’01’s “Tiger Slam,” ’02’s back-to-back, ’05’s chip-in birdie and playoff win or last year’s stirring comeback at age 43—to determine the most impressive.

And who doesn’t relish another look at Colorado’s own Jennifer Kupcho crushing that migraine before doing the same to the back nine to win last April’s inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur?

Can I get an “Amen Corner!” for the internet and the Golf Channel?

The past certainly provides pleasure, especially when uncertainty darkens the present and hangs over future. That’s why sports media outlets repurpose “classic” material from their archives. But at some point—probably after watching (with heavy eyelids) replays of the Masters won by Trevor Immelman, Mike Weir or Angel Cabrera—we crave a change. Or, in Cabrera’s case, a cigarette.

Sure, you can always binge one of the myriad series that multiply almost as fast as the streaming services that provide them. Or you can read Colorado AvidGolfer.

With a past that extend a golf-appropriate 18 years, we have an extensive trove of material from which to draw—and I’ve been the editor for all of it.

This subjective chronicle of Colorado golf makes no claim to being comprehensive. It’s more entertaining than exhaustive. Which, after all, is all you really want from any golfer’s description of their 18.

 

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Personalities

PEOPLE WERE DOMINATING the covers of Colorado AvidGolfer even before the magazine debuted in April 2002. To generate interest in their fledgling publication after 9/11, principals Dick, Ray and Don Baker used a prototype cover featuring a photograph of Cherry Creek Country Club owner Stacey Hart with course architects Jack and Jackie Nicklaus. If you’re going to start a golf magazine, you might as well have the greatest golfer in the history of the game help you sell it!

Stacey Hart, Jack Nicklaus Jackie Nicklaus & Karen Hart

The image for the prototype eventually appeared as our September cover. Cherry Creek Country Club, built on the site of the Los Verdes Country Club, would open the next spring. Stacey Hart and his wife Karen would divorce shortly thereafter, and Karen has owned and operated the award-winning private club ever since.

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Amy Van Dyken and Greg Roskopf

Nine years removed from her final Olympics appearance in 2000, six-time gold medalist swimmer Amy Van Dyken had re-channeled some of her competitive juices to golf. In 2014, however, an ATV accident left Van Dyken paralyzed from the waist down. Working with Greg Roskopf, the founder of Muscle Activation Techniques (and cover subject of our May 2016 issue), the Colorado native regained some mobility, although she remains in a wheelchair. Her eponymous foundation, also known as Amy’s Army, is devoted to improving the lives of people with spinal cord injuries.

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Todd Helton

Our premiere issue in April 2002 featured Rockies first baseman (and 11 handicap) Todd Helton, who had just signed a contract that would keep him in Colorado until he retired in 2013. In honor of our 15th anniversary in 2017, Helton appeared with that issue at the University of Tennessee, where the former Volunteer now volunteers as a coach.

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Jennifer Kupcho

After her historic victory at Augusta National in April of 2019, Wake Forest University senior Jennifer Kupcho of Westminster could have turned professional but she had already committed to graduating and helping her team win the NCAA finals. Photographer E.J. Carr and I traveled to North Carolina to profile her at this pivotal time. After the Demon Deacons lost to Duke in the final NCAA championship match, Kupcho joined the LPGA Tour, earning more than $500,000 as a rookie and finishing a solid 47th in the Race to CME Globe despite missing 10 events while in school.

 

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Media Madness

Between 2003 and 2005, as many as two dozen members of the media annually went head-to-head in single-elimination match play to determine who would win the Media Madness trophy. Tom Green, then of WB2, won the inaugural event, defeating Chuck Clark, then of Mix 100, at The Club at Bear Dance. Year Two saw the Rocky Mountain News’ Lynn De Bruin (top right) take down 850-KOA’s Jerry Walters in a final at Cherry Hills Country Club. The following year, Walters’ on-air partner at the time, Jon Lawrence, bested ESPN’s Kerry Fowler at The Club at Pradera in Parker.

Green, who also appeared with his son Connor on our June ’17 cover, now anchors 9News broadcasts; Lawrence occasionally contributes to Colorado AvidGolfer; and in 2013, DeBruin—who wrote many pieces for Colorado AvidGolfer, including cover stories on Amy Van Dyken, Don Baylor and Brian Dawkins—sadly succumbed to cancer at the age of 51.

 

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Mike McGetrick

In one of the most well-received articles we’ve ever published, noted instructor and Colorado Golf Club founder Mike McGetrick told the story of resilience and faith after a series of catastrophic events: finding and reviving his daughter Laura after a suicide attempt, the disintegration of his managing partnership at Colorado Golf Club and the dissolution of his marriage. Now remarried, McGetrick recently moved from Houston to Virginia to become the director of instruction at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, site of the first four Presidents Cup matches in the U.S. He reports that Laura now works as a graphic designer at Cuvée Ventures in Denver.

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Paige Spiranac

Believe it or not, I neither assigned myself this story, nor went to the photo shoot. Sam Adams and Justin Tafoya were more than equal to the task of bringing the feature about the stunning Paige Spiranac to our readers. A Colorado native who had won the 100th CWGA Match Play Championship and keyed San Diego State’s first-ever conference championship, Spiranac had become better known for her enticing online presence than her on-course performances. A social media phenomenon with millions of followers on Instagram and Twitter, she revealed herself to be cerebral and sensitive about the criticism generated by her “fun” posts. In the years since the story ran, Spiranac has stopped competing but not posting. Building her brand, she has penned columns for Golf magazine and become a crusader against cyber-bullying.

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Michael Kang

In fittingly cosmic terms, multi-instrumentalist Michael Kang of String Cheese Incident, a 3-handicap, gave editor-at-large Tom Ferrell a memorable analogy between golf and another one of his favorite activities: “Think about it: When you’re out there surfing, you actually spend very little time on the wave. Most of the time you’re just there in the water. And when the wave comes, it’s this final expression—the wind, created thousands of miles away. The ocean currents and patterns. You surf at the very last moment of all that buildup, and then it just dissipates. All that kinetic energy that traveled so far to manifest itself under your board just disappears. Now when you’re playing golf, it’s the same way. Especially if you’re walking. You only spend a couple of minutes actually hitting the ball during a round. And the swing itself is the ultimate manifestation of all the preparation. The figuring of the wind and the ground conditions and the probabilities. And just like surfing, in the end you just have to ride your swing and let it go. It’s all about letting go.”

 

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George Solich

Becoming the president of Castle Pines Golf Club after the passing of club founder Jack Vickers, George Solich vowed to bring “the big boys” of the PGA TOUR back to the former home of the International. With a renovated and lengthened course and clubhouse transformation costing tens of millions, observers are hoping that the club will announce plans to host a BMW Championship or Presidents Cup in the near future.

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Steve Farber

Steve Farber, the power-broker attorney who brought the 2008 Democratic National Convention to Denver, also brought his charisma to Cherry Creek Country Club. He gladly held a custom pin flag with the DNC logo for the opening spread of a story that went beyond the politics and golf we discussed on the course—and into the spiritual growth he experienced before receiving a life-saving kidney from his son. Farber died March 4 at age 76.

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Wesley Schultz

With the imminent release of the Lumineers’ III album, frontman Wesley Schultz was in heavy publicity demand last summer, but you’d never know it from the friendly, gracious and thoughtful way he answered questions and posed for photographs—including this one of him busking for golf balls. The 10-handicap has a “stubborn love” for the game he once considered as a profession, and he plays it more on tour—usually with members of the band—than when he’s at home with his wife and toddler son. With the pandemic precluding much of their 2020 world tour, the Lumineers still hope to play Coors Field August 29.

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The Big Four

The “Big Three” of Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player have all graced the cover of Colorado AvidGolfer. So has Billy Casper, the man they always worried would beat them.

Palmer appeared on the June 2010 cover to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the 1960 U.S. Open at Cherry Hills. Bookended by his drive of the first green and his victorious visor toss on the 18th, the final round of that Open saw the 30-year-old Palmer rally from seven shots down to beat Ben Hogan, 47, and Nicklaus, 20. CAG Contributor Kaye W. Kessler relived the excitement of that day, and we arranged to photograph Arnold tossing an exact replica of the visor for our cover.

I profiled Nicklaus in 2015 to coincide with his guest appearance at The Broadmoor for the Colorado Golf Association’s 100th Anniversary Gala. He had won the 1959 U.S. Amateur at The Broadmoor with an eight-footer on the 18th green—a putt, he says, that first gave him the confidence he would take to win 18 majors. In 2006, he’d returned to The Broadmoor to design the Mountain Course. Eight years later, however, landslides caused by flooding had rendered the course unplayable.

An invitation to meet Gary Player at what is now known as the El Cortes Gary Player Signature Golf Club brought Associate Editor Jake Kubié to La Paz, Mexico, in 2010. Not only did Jake’s piece appear in the Winter issue; he also wound up getting a job with the PR company representing the South African legend. Thanks to Jake, the uber-fit Player, then 77, bared it all on the cover of ESPN: The Magazine’s 2013 “Body Issue.” A favorite memory of the Black Knight? Splitting a Reuben and fries with him on his “cheat day.”

I interviewed Casper in 2013, when his company, Billy Casper Golf, had taken over the management of The Club at Ravenna. Never a crowd favorite like the “Big Three”—“the fans thought I was a grump and a grouch… and I was! ”—Casper surprised me with his warmth and disarming candor. Less than two years after telling me it was the “most beautiful time” in his life, Casper passed away at age 83.

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News & Events

GIVEN THE TIME it takes to print, bind and distribute a magazine—let alone write, edit, photograph and design it—it’s challenging to remain timely in an age of instantaneous information delivery. With coloradoavidgolfer.com and our social media feeds pushing out the news, our printed magazine can do what it does best: providing colorful and enduring stories about the many events that shape Colorado golf.

Colorado Open

Our relationship with the Colorado Open is as old as the magazine itself. In 2002, we sponsored the event, at Sonnenalp Golf Club, for $30,000—a one-time deal and a significant amount for a fledgling publication. After the cancellation of the 2003 event on the eve of the championship, Oakwood Homes founder and CEO Patrick Hamill purchased the Colorado Open, Colorado Women’s Open and Colorado Senior Open and resurrected their integrity. He established the Colorado Open Golf Foundation and made The First Tee of Green Valley Ranch the beneficiary of the Colorado Open, administered through the foundation. Thanks to substantial title sponsorship deals with HealthONE (2004-2015) and CoBank (2016-2020), the Colorado Open and Colorado Women’s Open now boast the highest purses (and winner’s shares) of any state open—and The First Tee of Green Valley Ranch has enrolled more than 38,000 kids since 2005. Colorado AvidGolfer has chronicled every step of the Colorado Open’s growth, publishing a special section every year.

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CAGGY Awards

What’s the best course on the Front Range? In the mountains? Who’s the best instructor? Since 2003, Colorado AvidGolfer has put these and dozens of other questions to its readership. Originally known as “The Best in Colorado Golf,” in 2013, CAG rebranded those awards as the CAGGYs, and included staff picks along with those culled from more than 6,000 responses. The results annually appear in our Spring issue—timed to coincide with the Denver Golf Expo—and never fail to generate conversation and debate.

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Hidden Gems

Call them “lost jewels” or “diamonds in the rough.” Shining a light on some of Colorado’s lesser-known layouts has always brought a smile to my face. Hart Van Denburg’s 2004 story of Eldred and David on the oil-and-sand-greens Prairie Golf Course in dryland Cope remains an all-time favorite (and I was sad to hear Eldred died last year at age 93). The annual “xerigolf” tournament put on by Bill and Brad at their self-proclaimed “Links  at Willow Lake” in Franktown was a blast to play. Mike Petrelli, a former colleague, turned me on to the nine holes of Mossland Memorial Course in Flagler, and a tip from a bartender led us to the South Forty Golf Course, a labor of love for Bruce and Nancy Maness of Cortez.

 

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State of Play

In its first decade of existence, Colorado AvidGolfer saw 35 courses open across the state—from Ballyneal on the Eastern Plains to The Bridges on the Western Slope. We played many of them before they opened—Fossil Trace, CommonGround, Lakota Canyon, Colorado Golf Club, Ravenna and both Red Sky layouts, just to name a few—and wrote about it when they did.

 

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National Tournaments

Over the past 18 years, Colorado has hosted 11 national championships: the 2005 U.S. Women’s Open, 2012 U.S. Amateur and 2014 BMW Championship at Cherry Hills; the 2011 U.S. Women’s Open and 2008 and 2018 U.S. Senior Opens at The Broadmoor; the 2006 U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links at Pueblo’s Walking Stick Golf Course; the 2008 U.S. Public Links at Aurora’s Murphy Creek; and the 2010 Senior PGA Championship, 2013 Solheim Cup and 2019 Mid-Amateur at Colorado Golf Club. We’ve previewed and recapped all of them and will do the same with the 2020 U.S. Girls’ Junior at Eisenhower Golf Club, 2023 U.S. Amateur at Cherry Hills, the 2025 U.S. Amateur at The Broadmoor and any other major event that recognizes the value of Colorado as a great host location.

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TPC Heron Lakes

In 2018, we hailed the opening of TPC Colorado in Berthoud, the first new course to open in the state in almost a decade. Even more exciting was the news of a Korn Ferry Tour event in July 2019. For the first time since the end of the International in 2006, Colorado had a regular tour stop—albeit for the PGA TOUR’s developmental league. Nelson Ledesma won the inaugural event at the 7,991-yard course, while cover subject Mark Hubbard of Denver also competed and has qualified for the PGA TOUR.

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The International

For 21 seasons, from 1986 to 2006, The International entertained Colorado golf fans, as the best players in the world competed at Castle Pines Golf Club, 6,600 feet above sea level. They played a Modified Stableford scoring system that wildly departed from the stroke-play routine on the PGA TOUR, and were rewarded handsomely by course founder Jack Vickers’ lavish treatment and the event’s generous purses—both of which set high-water marks on the PGA TOUR. The Internationals were nothing short of amazing, even with the afternoon thunderstorms. Then, at press conference in February 2007, the event suddenly ended, “ironically hung out to dry and fade away by its own standard of excellence, by raising the bar above elegance,” as Kaye W. Kessler wrote in CAG. That story, which ran with a cover image of a tombstone on the 18th fairway, details a confluence of events involving Tiger Woods, Tim Finchem, the FedEx Cup and scheduling changes that Vickers could simply not abide. Upon publication, the club requested a magazine for every member and cottage on the property.

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Behind the Scenes

IN THE COLORADO AVIDGOLFER offices hang scores of framed magazines bearing the signatures of the women and men who have appeared on our covers. We even display the May 2017 fitness issue, autographed by the naked man who affronted some sensibilities. After 18 years, we have published more magazines than we have free wall space. Still, I’d find room for those that remain conspicuously unsigned and unframed (I’m looking at you, Phil Mickelson, Greg Norman and Cristie Kerr). You see, behind every cover lies a story, and behind every story is another story that may go untold—until now.

Charles Barkley

Sam Adams, who holds the record for most cover stories by a freelance writer with 26, thinks the number should have been higher. “No. 27 would’ve been about that hot day in July 2009 when I caddied for Charles Barkley at the American Century celebrity tournament at Edgewater Tahoe Golf Course. All day I listened to Barkley’s crazy quips—from ‘Run ball … run like a freed slave’ to ‘Aw, I hit it chunky—like Oprah.’ I watched him exchange texts with Tiger Woods and Lance Armstrong. And, I got to watch Michael Jordan playfully berate Chuck for almost 10 minutes at the 16th tee. I could never tell when Barkley was feigning anger, like when I handed him a sand wedge but he was expecting me to pull the sandwich stored inside a pocket in his bag. Heck of a story, but it got beat out for the cover (of the Fall 2009) issue by now-Pro Football Hall of Famer Brian Dawkins.”

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Mark Udall

“A typical politician—full of crap” was Editor-at-Large Tom Ferrell’s first impression of then-U.S. Representative Mark Udall when he spotted the Hogan Apex 1-iron in his bag at the Omni Interlocken in Broomfield. “He didn’t take it out until the last hole on the Eldorado nine—the hardest hole on the course—and proceeded to lace his second shot about 275 yards to 10 feet from the pin for a look at eagle. Unbelievable.”

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Kevin Costner

In Tahoe ostensibly to interview actor and Denver East grad Don Cheadle, Sam Adams wound up joining another Colorado-based actor finishing a round with some tournament sponsors. “We had a really cool interview/ conversation about his golf game and his band, Modern West.” And that’s how Aspen resident Kevin Costner made it to the cover of Colorado AvidGolfer’s fifth anniversary issue. (Cheadle would appear on the July 2010 cover in a story by Ted Johnson, who hooked up with him at Pebble Beach.)

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Mike Shanahan

“After I hit a worm-burner off the 10th tee at Castle Pines, Broncos Head Coach Mike Shanahan suggested—out loud for the others in our foursome to hear—that I sit out the hole and finish eating my lunch,” Sam Adams remembers. “That burned me so bad that a few holes later, still mad, I shanked a threewood off a home owned by—according to Shanahan—Ed McCaffrey. After the round we finished the interview over drinks, and Shanahan playfully deemed my choice of Skyy Vodka as ‘ghetto.’”

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Rick Reilly

Few people live up to their title like Tom Ferrell, who I joke puts the “at large” in “editor-at-large.” Tom tended to go missing when his stories were due, but he invariably reappeared and made the wait worthwhile. To this day, he playfully accuses acclaimed sportswriter Rick Reilly (May 2003) of “plagiarizing my perfect shot on a par 3” during their round and “making me write a check to settle up after our match—and he actually cashed it!”

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Jonathan Kaye

In 2004, Tom Ferrell profiled Denver native Jonathan Kaye, the two-time PGA TOUR winner whose occasional insolence overshadows his enormous talent. The two played Tom Weiskopf ’s then-new course at Silverleaf in Scottsdale. On the 254-yard par-3 fifth, with the architect looking on, Kaye hit a high fade 3-wood that rolled off the back of the green. “What kind of dumbass Tour player would design par 3 that a Tour player would have to hit a wood on?” Kaye barked at Weiskopf, who was once known as “the Towering Inferno” for his temper. Without missing a beat, Weiskopf volleyed back: “What kind of dumbass would think he could play the Tour if he had to hit a wood on a par 3?”

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Justin Leonard

Spring 2018 cover subject Justin Leonard has carved out a second career in the TV booth—as well as a creative space in his Aspen kitchen for Blizzy and Maggie.

 

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“How a quarterback with no foot speed whatsoever managed to elude me for a cover story, I’ll never understand. Peyton Manning missed out. I was a fun guy to be around for CAG interviews. Just ask Jay Cutler.” —Sam Adams

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Craig Stadler

Craig Stadler’s extensive wine collection made the cover of our 2017 Good Life issue. In addition to amassing both golf and hunting trophies, the 1982 Masters champion known as “The Walrus” owns a number of themed items from that enormous, tusked, arctic mammal. Among the more unusual: a skull he received as a gift from Jack and Barbara Nicklaus and a two-foot-long fossilized baculum, called an oosik by native Alaskans, who sell them as souvenirs.

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Toby Dawson

In our July 2006 issue, when asked about his favorite golf expression, U.S. Olympic Bronze medalist skier Toby Dawson told contributor Andy Bigford: “The ‘torn pajamas’ putt—two balls out.”

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This article was also featured in the May 2020 issue of Colorado AvidGolfer.

Colorado AvidGolfer 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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