CU’s Grady Shares Colo. Open Lead with Kortan

By Gary Baines

Colorado Golf Journal, Thursday, July 24, 2008

HEALTHONE COLORADO OPEN

• WHAT: 44th Colorado Open.
• WHEN: Thursday through Sunday.  Tee times on Friday run from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.
• WHERE: Green Valley Ranch Golf Club in northeast Denver (4900 Himalaya Road).
• PURSE: $125,000, including amateur payout of approximately $5,000. Professional winner will receive $23,000.
• COURSE SPECIFICS: 7,211 yards, par-71, designed by Perry Dye.
• FIELD: 156 players.
• FORMAT: 72 holes of stroke play, with a cut to the low 60 and ties after 36 holes.
• FORMER CHAMPIONS IN FIELD: John Douma, Bill Loeffler, Scott Petersen, Brian Guetz, Chris Endres, Wil Collins, Brett Wayment.
• OTHER NOTABLE ENTRANTS: Former Broncos QB John Elway (tee time 1 p.m. Friday), former PGA Tour player Brian Kortan, Wyoming Open champion Travis Williams, former national club pro champion Mike Small.
• ADMISSION: Free.

Defending champion two back at Green Valley Ranch

     DENVER -- Fifty-two threesomes teed off Thursday in the first round of the HealthOne Colorado Open, but you needed to look no further than the group that started at 8 a.m. on the 10th hole to find the two players that finished the day atop the leader board.

      Pat Grady, who has won just about every significant amateur title in the state, and Brian Kortan, who has done about everything at the Colorado Open but win it, each shot 4-under-par 67 to share the top spot after day 1 at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club.

      Playing side by side, the two matched six-birdie, two-bogey efforts to hold a one-stroke advantage over Kyle Spahr of Barrington, Ill., and Brett Melton of Washington, Ind. The player who rounded out the threesome for Grady and Kortan, 2000 Colorado Open champion Scott Petersen, also finished Thursday under par, at 70.

     “It was a good group,“  summarized Kortan, a left-hander from Albuquerque.

    Joining Grady, Kortan, Spahr and Melton in the 60s were defending champion John Douma, Broomfield amateur Steve Ziegler, former University of Denver golfer Charlie Soule and Derek Eley of Deltona, Fla., all of whom shot 69s.

      “I go away pretty happy,“  said Douma, a former University of Colorado golfer.  “It was windy and the greens were firm (in the afternoon).

     Another ex-Buff, two-time PGA Tour winner Jonathan Kaye, rallied to shoot 73 after being 5 over par through eight holes.

      “We’re not out of it,“  said Kaye, winner of the 1996 Colorado Open.  “We’ll get ‘em tomorrow.“

      Also needing a  comeback is the biggest name in the field. Former Denver Broncos quarterback John Elway shot a 5-over-par 76 in the morning.

     Elway birdied the second hole, but finished with five bogeys before he made the turn. He settled down to shoot a 1-over 36 on the back nine.

    “It kind of went haywire after that (birdie),”  said Elway, who finished 37th in his last Colorado Open, in 2001.  “It was a lot better on the back. I still have a chance (to make the 36-hole cut).”

     Grady, for one, has bigger things in mind, particularly given the good roll he’s on. Last week, he made it to the final 16 at the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship in Aurora.

     While the CU senior from Broomfield doesn’t want to focus on expectations this week, there is this fact that may come into play on the weekend: Only two amateurs in the 44-year history of the Colorado Open have won the tournament:  Gary Longfellow (1974) and Brian Guetz (1994).

      “If you shoot four 67s, you’ll  win,”  Grady said.  “But that’s easier said than done. I’m not thinking about that this week.”

     Lightning delayed play for 70 minutes late Thursday afternoon, but the last players completed their rounds just before sunset.

     Grady has accomplished many big things in Colorado golf -- among them winning the State Stroke Play, State Match Play and State Publinks, and being named 2007 amateur player of the year -- but being in serious contention to win the Colorado Open isn’t among them.

     But he’d like to rectify that this week.

    “This is more important than a state amateur,“ Grady said. “Everyone is here. It’s the most important state event.“

     Grady on Thursday switched to a new putter for the first time in about seven years, and the change worked fine. But he was stellar from tee to green, which is why he holds a share of the lead.

      “I hit it real good,”  he said.  “The course was playing so easy. The greens were soft and receptive (in the morning).“

     For his part, Kortan could be a force to be reckoned with this week. He’s finished second twice in the Colorado Open, and third both of the last two years. And last month, in Littleton, he qualified for the U.S. Open for the first time.

     “I always play well in Colorado,”  he said.  “I don’t have an explanation. I have a lot of friends here. I see snowcapped mountains, and it puts me at ease. There’s something about it. Maybe I should move here.“

     The former PGA Tour player received much notoriety at both the U.S. Open qualifying and the U.S. Open itself for earning a berth to Torrey Pines two years after suffering a heart attack that nearly killed him. The 37-year-old now wears a defibrillator to keep his heart rate regulated.