Learning from One of the Best

The final week in June is going to be a big one for golf in Colorado.

Obviously, the main event is going to be the U.S. Senior Open that The Broadmoor Resort will host June 28-July 1.

But while the best golfers in the 50-and-older set will be in Colorado Springs, a high-profile PGA Tour player, Matt Kuchar, will be putting on an exhibition for kids on June 30 from 11 a.m. to noon at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club in northeast Denver. The event — sponsored by CoBank, the title sponsor for the Colorado Open Championships — will be open to all kids, free of charge. And junior attendees can play the GVR par-3 course after the exhibition and autograph session. The First Tee of GVR is hosting the festivities.

Kuchar (pictured), who will also participate in other functions on June 29 as part of the event, owns seven PGA Tour victories in his career, including the 2012 Players Championship, the 2013 WGC Match Play Championship and the 2013 Memorial. Last week, he made a hole-in-one at this year’s Match Play, were he advanced to the round of 16. All told, the affable 39-year-old has won more than $42 million on golf’s top circuit. Kuchar, the 1997 U.S. Amateur champion, is currently No. 20 in the World Golf Rankings.

Kuchar’s appearance will be one of two hosted in Colorado in 2018 by The First Tee of GVR and sponsored by CoBank.

Annika Sorenstam — who won the first of her 72 LPGA Tour titles (third most all-time) at the 50th U.S. Women’s Open, held at The Broadmoor in 1995 — will return to the Colorado Springs resort to participate in the “CoBank PEAK Performers” event on Aug. 23. On that day, she’ll play a round of golf at the East Course with nine selected First Tee members (six holes each with three threesomes). Sorenstam, a national spokesperson for The First Tee, also will have a breakfast meeting with the kids. Eight of those nine First Tee members will be selected from the eight First Tee regions in the continental U.S., with the final participant coming from The First Tee of GVR.

In previous years, tour players who have conducted CoBank-sponsored junior exhibitions in Colorado have included Hale Irwin, Ryan Palmer and Paula Creamer in 2016, and David Duval, Lexi Thompson and Mark O’Meara in 2017.

To register for the Kuchar exhibition, CLICK HERE.