Final DAy
It was a race to the finish on the final day at Black Bear Golf Club. The Four Ball teams had their eyes on the prize! Prize money was awarded to the Top 10 teams in the Open Division and the Top 3 teams in the Super Senior Division. Our 2024 Senior Four Ball Champions with a 2 stroke lead are Owen Ellis & Jeff Crosier (Flatirons GC Associate Club) finishing with a 10-under-par, 206 total gross score after three days of play. They went home with CGA hardware and $1,000 pro shop credit.
At the start of today, Ellis & Crosier were in 4th place. Going into today, they knew they needed to make birdies and not bogeys. Ellis says, “Jeff played the first 6 holes 1-under, while I could barely find the golf course. Then I hit a birdie shot on 7 that hit the hole and lipped out. I birdied 8. Jeff birdied 9. I birdied 10. We got par on 11. I birdied 12 and 13. Then we had a three shot lead with four to play. That’s when it got easy.” Coming down the final stretch, Ellis & Crosier were comfortable and just playing golf. Crosier said that his partner’s putter was hot today. The two have played golf together for so long. They said that they are compatible playing partners. There is never any berating. They both hit the ball well enough, that they can trust one another to have a nice shot. They don’t have to think, just swing. Jeff says, “The best part of my golf game the last three days was my ball striking. I drove the ball solid and pretty straight. I didn’t miss a lot of fairways. And Owen’s short game was phenomenal.”
Winning the Super Senior Division and coming in 2nd for the Open Division are Gary Albrecht (Frost Creek) & David Nelson (Columbine Country Club). They shot a total 8-under-par, 208 total gross score after three days of play.
The partners have played in this championship 3 years in a row together. Gary says that David is a very easy partner to play with because he is really steady, and he is very communicative. He doesn’t get mad if he or myself hit a bad shot. And we pair together very well, especially in this tournament we were very solid.” David also said that Gary is very steady and that they generally hit the ball the same distance or in the same places so they can club off of each other, which definitely helps out a lot.” They played very well yesterday in very tough conditions, so they were in a good spot going into the final round. They had confidence going into today.
Tied for 3rd place shooting a 6-under-par, 210 total gross after three days of play are Chris Carlson (The Links GC Pro Shop) & David Delich (Broadmoor Golf Club) and James Sisneros (Eisenhower Golf Club) & Mark Gardiner (Cheyenne Shadows GC Associate Club).
Carlson and Delich moved up the leaderboard 8 total spots on the final day. Carlson said that the mindset was to just keep pushing forward and take one shot at a time. Delich expressed, “We have probably played as poorly as the two of us could have played in the first two days and we didn’t do any ham and egging. We didn’t do anything right.” Chris came in clutch today by making 5 birdies on the first 11 holes. They were 6-under through 12, then made a mental mistake on 13, resulting in a bogey. “That took us out of it and prevented us from getting to 9 or 10-under. When you know you can win and notice that you keep leaving shots short, it’s frustrating, but we had fun and enjoyed playing together. Chris is the stud at this point,” Delich says. Carlson responds, “He is the brains of the operation. He’s way too kind.” The context behind the story is that Dave had a total of 1.5 hours of sleep in 52 hours traveling from overseas back to Denver. He did not arrive in Denver until 1:30 am and had an 8:00 am tee time. Then after day two, Dave did not sleep again because he passed a kidney stone at 4:30am this morning. It is an inspiring story to see even with all odds against them, they battled to finish T3. “We are very capable of winning this championship,” says Delich. Carlson said, “We finished 2nd here two years ago.” Looking forward to seeing what they can accomplish next year!
Black Bear Golf Course was in great condition playing challenging, but fair. The course even threw a “Divot Party” the day before the tournament. The party consisted of members coming out to the course to repair divots.
Day 2
After the second day at Black Bear, we had some big jumps up the leaderboard. Notably, moving up 5 places to end T1 was Gary Albrecht (Frost Creek) & David Nelson (Columbine Country Club), with a two day total of 5-under-par. Alongside Albrecht and Nelson, also sitting with a total gross score 139 are Mark Brown (Pinery Country Club) & Victor Minovich (Foothills GC Men’s Golf Club), and Mark Gardiner (Eisenhower Golf Club) & James Sisneros (Cheyenne Shadows GC Associate Club) for the Open Division.
There were many other big jumps on moving day. David Ramsey & Jake Jacobson (Lakewood Country Club) moved up 13 spots to be T9 with a total gross score of 142. Michael Glaesel (Indian Tree Golf Course) & Bob Schuler (City Park Players Club) moved up 21 spots to be T11 with a total gross score of 143. Lastly, John McLain & Kevin Ott (The Club at Rolling Hills) moved up 19 spots on the leaderboard to be T20 with a total gross score of 145!
Good Luck to everyone in the field. Anything can happen in tomorrow’s final round!
Day 1
Rain or shine, watch the men climb!
With weather coming into play today, the men had to battle through low 50s temperatures, cold breeze, and showers at Black Bear Golf Club. As the temperatures attempted to rise, so did our two-man teams on the leaderboard.
After day one, three teams are tied for first in the Open Division, each shooting a 5-under-par 67. These leading teams are Gary Driber & Robert Beiersdorf (The Ridge at Castle Pines Associate Club), Mark Brown (Pinery Country Club) & Victor Minovich (Foothills GC Men’s Golf Club), and Mark Gardiner (Eisenhower Golf Club) & James Sisneros (Cheyenne Shadows GC Associate Club).
In the Super-Senior Division, Scott Radcliffe (Bear Creek Golf Club) & Sean Forey (The Club at Rolling Hills) shooting a 4-under-par, 68. Close behind, CGA President, Gary Albrecht (Frost Creek), and his partner, David Nelson (Columbine CC) shot a 69, as did 2023 Super-Senior Player of the Year, John Hornbeck (Central Rockies e-Club) and his partner, Robin Bradbury (TPC Colorado).
One of the best aspects of this tournament is seeing brothers competing together on the course!
To view the full leaderboard, CLICK HERE.
To view photos from the event, CLICK HERE.