3-time winner Rohrbaugh grabs lead as senior players continue to excel at Colorado PGA Professional Championship
By Gary Baines – 9/14/2020
Former champions hold down the top three positions on the leaderboard after Monday’s opening round of the 54-hole Colorado PGA Professional Championship at Valley Country Club in Centennial.
Three-time winner Doug Rohrbaugh of Snowmass Club fired a 6-under-par 66 to grab a one-stroke lead, while 2016 champ Geoff Keffer of Lakewood Country Club sits in second place (67) and 2003 winner Dale Smigelsky of Fort Collins (68) in third.
Continuing a recent trend, two of the top three players are over 50 years old as Rohrbaugh is 58 and Smigelsky 60. Six of the past seven winners of the Colorado PGA Professional Championship have been at least 50 years old.
Rohrbaugh, winner of this tournament in 2013, ’14 and ’15, made six birdies in his bogey-free round on Monday, capping things off with ones on 17 and 18.
Keffer, a five-time Colorado PGA Player of the Year, shot a 5-under 31 on the back nine and finished with seven birdies and two bogeys.
Smigelsky chalked up six birdies and two bogeys in round 1.
In all, 17 players broke par on Monday, a list which includes the host PGA professional at Valley, Barry Milstead (70), and other former Colorado PGA Professional champs Caine Fitzgerald of Meadow Hills (71), Mike Zaremba of Desert Hawk (71) and Micah Rudosky of Conquistador (71).
Defending champion Ron Vlosich opened with a 75.
The 63rd CPGA Professional Championship will continue through Wednesday. After Tuesday’s second round, the field will be cut in half, plus ties and anyone within 10 strokes of the final qualifying spot for the 2021 national PGA Professional Championship, which will be played in Port St. Lucie, Fla.
For all the scores from Valley CC, CLICK HERE.