Fitzgerald Claims Low Professional Title as Grall and Ams Win Team Contest
Thornton, Colo. – The Colorado PGA Section (COPGA) held its fourth Corona Premier® Pro-Am event this past Monday at Todd Creek Golf Club in Thornton, Colorado. A venue that played as great as Todd Creek wouldn’t be possible without the help of host and Head Golf Professional Grant Payton and his entire golf staff. The course played tough with thick rough penalizing wayward shots, but mild conditions helped scores as the morning round was nearly perfect up until an hour rain delay with a few holes left to play. After play resumed and the morning shotgun wave was completed, it was decided the weather would take a turn for the worse resulting in a cancellation of the afternoon shotgun.
Todd Creek Golf Club is no easy course playing at a par-72, but with the recent rain, the course was gettable for many of our Professionals, and gettable it was for one Professional in Caine Fitzgerald, PGA, Meadow Hills Golf Course. With six birdies on the day and only two bogeys, Fitzgerald finished his round with a 4-under-par 68. Caine controlled his ball well as the day continued, going three under on his back nine and placing first in the field amongst par-3 scoring average. Coming in second is also a familiar name in Geoff Keffer, PGA, of Lakewood Country Club. Keffer had another strong performance Monday as he also had six birdies on the day, including three in a row coming at the 12th, 13th, and 14th as he carded a 2-under-par 70 for his round.
The team competition on Monday was a 1-2-3 Net contest, with each team needing to take 1 score on the Par 3 holes, 2 scores on the Par 4 holes, and 3 scores on the Par 5 holes. It was a tight leaderboard but it was the team of Rob Grall, Aiden Mann, Mike Schalk, and Jeff Walker who scored the lowest, beating out the runner-up team of Rohrbaugh by two strokes to finish with a 13-under-par 131. Finishing in a tie for second were the teams of Doug Rohrbaugh, PGA, River Valley Ranch Golf Course, and Barry Milstead, PGA, Valley Country Club as their groups both finished their days at 11-under-par.
The Corona Premier® Hole of the Week was on the Par 5 8th hole at Todd Creek. The 580-yard hole is straightaway downhill but has plenty of thick trouble right of the fairway. A good tee shot lands short of the wide dirt path cutting across the fairway and leaves about a 230-yard shot into an undulating green protected by small bunkers along the right side.
Monday’s Pro-Am at Todd Creek was host to over 100 players across 25 groups and is the first Pro-Am back since the cancellation of the Fort Collins Pro-Am back on June 5th due to rain. It also marks the fourth of the 15 Corona Premier® Pro-Am events during the 2023 Colorado PGA tournament season. The Corona Premier® Pro-Am Series will be back in one week with a Ladies Pro-Am on June 19th at the Ranch Country Club in Westminster, Colorado, as the section runs Stroke Play #5 and the West Chapter Pro-Pro Championship June 14th and 15th.
