Local Tour Roundup

It’s less than two months until the U.S. Senior Open comes to Colorado — the state where Brandt Jobe grew up — and the Colorado Golf Hall of Famer seems to be rounding into form.

Jobe, who lived in Colorado from 1970 to ’99 before moving to Texas, finished a season-best fifth on Sunday in the PGA Tour Champions’ Insperity Invitational in The Woodlands, Texas. In his last two tour stars, Jobe has placed ninth (with Scott McCarron) in the Bass Pro Shops Legends of Golf team event and fifth at the Insperity.

Jobe (pictured) made six birdies in his Sunday round of 4-under-par 68, which left him with a 9-under 207 total. He endd up two strokes behind champion Bernhard Langer, who notched the 37th PGA Tour Champions victory of his career.

Jobe finished third in last year’s U.S. Senior Open, shooting a third-round 62 in the process. This year’s Senior Open is set for The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs June 28-July 1.

Saunders Emerges from Drought with Top 10 on PGA Tour: Former Fort Collins resident Sam Saunders had missed the cut in four of his previous six PGA Tour starts and hadn’t cracked the top 40 in an event since mid-February, but that didn’t stop him from a top-10 finish on Sunday in the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte, N.C.

Despite playing his last five holes in 2 over par on Sunday, Saunders tied for ninth place in the event, ending up seven strokes behind winner Jason Day.

Saunders posted rounds of 70-69-68-72 for a 5-under-par 279 total.

It’s the second top-10 of the PGA Tour season for Saunders, who finished eighth at the CareerBuilder Challenge in January.

Ex-Buffs Coleman, Lee, Childs earn top-10s on Symetra Tour: Three former University of Colorado golfers recorded top-10 finishes Sunday in the Symetra Tour’s IOA Invitational in Milton, Ga.

Former LPGA Tour player Jenny Coleman rebounded from a first-round 78 to post back-to-back 69s and share sixth place. Esther Lee, who played her final three seasons at CU after transferring from Duke, and Emily Childs, who played as a freshman at CU before going to Cal, tied for 10th place.

Coleman’s even-par 216 total left her four strokes behind champion Elizabeth Szokol. In notching her best Symetra Tour showing since placing third in February 2016, Coleman made a total of nine birdies in the final two rounds.

Lee, who earned her first Symetra top-10, went 74-71-72 to check in at 217 along with Childs, who carded rounds of 75-70-72. Childs had four top-10s last year on the Symetra circuit.