With CoBank Colorado Women’s Open moving to spring, Colorado Golf Hall of Famer McGill, former champ Huffer headline field
By Gary Baines – 05/27/2019
This week’s CoBank Colorado Women’s Open will not only feature a substantial date change, but some notable Colorado-based contestants who have attained an LPGA Tour card, past or present.
The CWO — which includes a $150,000 purse, with a whopping $50,000 going to the winner (or the low pro if the champion is an amateur) — will run Wednesday through Friday at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club in northeast Denver.
Once again, a pro-am format will be part of the event during the championship rounds, similar to the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on the PGA Tour.
It was previously announced that the Colorado Women’s Open and the CoBank Colorado Senior Open are switching dates starting this year — going back to the slots they were in 2012 and earlier. The CWO will be move from around Labor Day to around Memorial Day, and vice-versa for the CSO.
Highlighting this year’s women’s field is Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Jill McGill of Denver, who grew up in Colorado and won two USGA championships and $2.34 million in a long LPGA Tour career.
In the wake of capturing titles in the 1993 U.S. Women’s Amateur and the 1994 U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links, McGill (left in a Golf Channel photo) competed in the first Colorado Women’s Open, in 1995 at Fox Hollow Golf Club, during her rookie year as a pro. The Cherry Creek High School graduate placed third that year, three strokes behind champion Shelly Rule.
Also in the field at GVR is Monument resident Becca Huffer, who landed an LPGA Tour card in the fall after placing 10th in the Q-Series qualifying event. Huffer has struggled on the tour this year, missing the cut in her first eights events on that circuit. But she’s no stranger to success in the Colorado Women’s Open, having captured the title in 2013.
It will be Huffer’s first Colorado Women’s Open appearance since 2015.
Among the others in the field are former Colorado State University golfer Katrina Prendergast, who finished runner-up in the CWO last year as an amateur; Sherry Andonian-Smith, the Colorado PGA’s Women’s Player of the Year in 2018; and two recent girls state high school champions, Lauren Lehigh and Caroline Jordaan.
Also scheduled to compete are 2017 U.S. Women’s Amateur champion Sophia Schubert and 2012 NCAA individual winner Chirapat Jao-Javanil.
Spectators are welcome for the Colorado Women’s Open, free of charge.
For Wednesday’s tee times from GVR, CLICK HERE.