This week’s CoBank Colorado Senior Open will feature a record winner’s share; overall purse hiked to $65,000; increases are tournament’s first in 14 years; field features 7 PGA Tour winners, including ‘rookie’ Kaye
By Gary Baines – 8/24/2020
In 2016, the CoBank Colorado Open made headlines when it raised its purse to $250,000, with $100,000 going to the champion.
The next year, the CoBank Colorado Women’s Open purse jumped to $150,000, with the winner receiving $50,000.
And now, it’s the CoBank Colorado Senior Open’s turn, albeit on a considerably smaller scale.
Officials from the CSO, which will be held this week for the 21st time, announced on Monday that the overall purse will jump to $65,000 (from $50,000), and the winner will earn $12,500 (up from $8,500).
It will mark the first increase in purse or winner’s share for the Colorado Senior Open since 2006, when the numbers were hiked from $40,000 and 6,500, respectively, in 2005.
The record purse for the Colorado Senior Open came in 2000, when it reached $70,000. A total of $12,200 was won by the champion that year.
This year’s 54-hole CSO is set for Wednesday through Friday at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club in northeast Denver.
The 156-person field features senior rookie Jonathan Kaye of Boulder, winner of two PGA Tour events and two Colorado Opens, who turned 50 earlier this month; along with fellow PGA Tour winners Gary Hallberg (3 victories), Don Pooley (2), Keith Clearwater (2), Paul Stankowski (2), Jim Carter (1) and Grant Waite (1). Also in the field is another longtime PGA Tour player, Skip Kendall.
Joining Kaye as a 50-year-old in the field who has won the Colorado Open is Scott Petersen of Parker.
Among the Colorado-based past champions of the CSO who are entered this week are Doug Rohrbaugh of Carbondale (2013), Dave Arbuckle of Colorado Springs (2007) and Mike Zaremba of Pueblo West (2005).
Another significant entrant is Utahn Steve Schneiter, who won the 2016 national Senior PGA Professional Championship.
Like the Colorado Open and the Colorado Women’s Open earlier this year, spectators won’t be allowed at this week’s CSO for Covid-19 safety concerns.
For Wednesday’s tee times for the CSO, CLICK HERE.