Ogden Wins Colorado Section PGA Championship

John Ogden, the Head PGA Professional at Cherry Hills Country Club, won the Colorado PGA Professional Championship last week at Red Sky Golf Club in Wolcott. Ogden, 50, defeated 64-year-old Rick Cole of Eaton Country Club on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff on the 571-yard 18th hole of Red Sky’s Fazio Course.

No, this wasn’t the Colorado Senior PGA Professional Championship. Colorado Hall of Famer Ron Vlosich won that event last month at Valley Country Club, while Ogden finished T-11, six shots behind.

No, at Red Sky, Ogden shot a 4-under 212 to best a field of players in their 20s and 30s to claim the Rip Arnold Cup and $8,000 in prize money—half of which he promptly donated to the Colorado Section’s PGA REACH Foundation.

And Ogden accomplished this with a brace on a right elbow that may require surgery to repair. He even blasted a 400-yard drive on the 54th and final regulation hole, leading to a birdie that put him at 2-under for the day and in an overall tie with Cole, who’d finished birdie-birdie with a 5-under 67—the lowest round of the day.

Neither player acquitted himself with similar distinction in the playoff, however. Although Cole and Ogden had both birdied 18 in all three rounds of the championship, Ogden’s bogey was good enough to beat Cole’s double on the extra hole.

Ogden is not the oldest player to win the championship. That honor belongs to Doug Rohrbaugh, who won his third consecutive title in 2015 at age 53. (Rohrbaugh finished fifth this year, three shots behind Ogden and Cole.)

Although the trophy bears the name of Cherry Hills’ longtime head professional Rip Arnold, Ogden’s victory marks the first by a head PGA professional from that club. Neither Arnold nor his successors, Warren Smith and Clayton Cole, ever won it. Heikke Nielsen, then a PGA Assistant Professional at Cherry Hills, captured the title in 2005.

Incidentally, Derek Rush, one of Ogden’s current assistant PGA professionals, led this year’s event after a blistering 67 in the first round. He finished tied for 10th.

But the day belonged to Rush’s boss, Rick Cole and the five other senior players who finished in the top 12: Rohrbaugh (55) of Ironbridge Golf Club; Barry Milstead (50) of Valley; Red Sky’s Director of Instruction Larry Rinker (60); Paul Lobato (54) of Meridian Golf Club and Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Bill Loeffler (61), who’s won the championship three times.

For complete results of the Colorado PGA Section Championship, please click here.