A Changing Course

 

The year was 1939. Hayden Newton peered warily down the fairway towards the flag on hole one at Lincoln Park Golf Course in Grand Junction, Colorado. Although the resident golf pro at the new course, and the local favorite, Newton had reason to feel tense. The players’ pool was stacked. There was Ed Kingsley, an amateur out of Salt Lake City who had competed in the US Open earlier that year. John Geertsen, winner of the Colorado Open and soon-to-be inventor of the popular Cobra Putter was also in the mix.

 

Returning his gaze towards the earth, Newton lined up his shoulders, took a breath, and swung. So began the first golf tournament in Colorado history, aptly named the Rocky Mountain Open.

 

The tournament came on the heels of a turbulent time in the Grand Junction golf community. Throughout the 1920’s, local golfers were relegated to playing on dirt courses due to a lack of irrigation. Greens were actually a sand surface instead of grass. A rake awaited putters instead of a flag: the rake a tool to help pave a smooth path for their putts. Of the three dirt courses in the area, the Grand Junction Country Club was the highest quality. As the US continued to flounder in the midst of the depression, doctors, lawyers, and businessmen were the only ones with the means to join the country club. All other golf enthusiasts, regardless of skill, were denied entry and forced to play on the brutal courses in the adjacent small towns of Fruita and Mack.

 

By 1924, Grand Junction residents reached the end of their patience, having been denied access to the game they loved. A coalition of young and old citizens formed, and submitted a proposal for the building of a municipal golf course to the Grand Junction City Council.

 

“There were many people in the city who would like to play golf, who were not financially able to afford a membership in the Country Club, but who could afford to pay a reasonable fee for the use of a municipal course.” -Proposition to City Council.

 

The course was approved and finished in 1926, allowing all enthusiasts to play for a very small fee, finally on grass. But the course was not without difficulty. Ken McGechie, a longtime RMO volunteer and avid golfer, said Lincoln Park would make or break a scorecard.

 

“If the wind blew there was no out of bounds fences like there is today, and the wind would blow some of the balls over into the VA Hospital grounds. There were stories of big wakes on the lake from the wind blowing so violently,” McGechie said.

 

The course was approved and finished in 1926, allowing all enthusiasts to play for a very small fee, finally on grass. But the course was not without difficulty. Ken McGechie, a longtime RMO volunteer and avid golfer, said Lincoln Park would make or break a scorecard.

 

77 years later, the tournament looks very different, and has moved from Lincoln Park to Tiara Rado and Bookcliff Country Club golf courses. The driving force behind this change was a powerful one.

 

Former professional golfer and recent Colorado Golf Hall of Fame inductee Jack Sommers knows about success. Sommers won the RMO not once, not twice, but four times and in 1977 earned a spot on the PGA Tour. But his successes in the tournament aren’t what make him smile the most.

 

“Related to the RMO, my greatest accomplishment wasn’t the victories,” Sommers said with a grin. “In 1991, we had an idea to expand the tournament. This act allowed us to increase the prize money, expand the players’ pool to 200 players, and to gain major sponsors. That’s what I’m proudest of.”

 

The decision to move and make the RMO a two-venue tournament was initially met with opposition by players who felt they were being shoved aside in order to make room for younger talent and professionals. One of those in opposition was his brother and golf competitor, Dan Sommers. Dan is currently a golf instructor at Lincoln Park Golf Course.

 

“I hated the fact that the tournament left Lincoln Park,” Dan said. “If you go back and look at the scoring averages, it was always higher at Lincoln Park than it was at Tiara Rado. I wasn’t born on this golf course, but I grew up on it, so you could say I was sad to see the tournament go.”

 

Jack agrees with his brother that the tournament has a rich history, but also hopes to see the RMO achieve premiere tournament status.

 

“There’s an amateur tournament almost every weekend of the summer. Let’s build a tournament where people can watch young professional talent right here in the Grand Valley,” Jack said. “Anyone is welcome to sign up and play.”

 

Despite a change of venues, the tradition remains the same: a tournament rooted in community and a sense that golf should be for everybody. From 1929 until today, anyone can enter the tournament. From former US Open champions like Orville Moody who won the RMO in 1975, to hometown nobodies like Hayden Newton.

 

During that first tournament in 1929, Newton went on to shoot one under par for the entire 54 holes, beating the nearest competition by four strokes.

 

The winner of this year’s tournament is unknown, as it won’t be held until August 13th. But one thing is certain: the winner won’t necessarily be the most privileged or the wealthiest, the winner will simply be the player with the best score.