As a collective group, Champions Tour players with Colorado ties did not fare all that well during the last major championship held in this state, the 2008 U.S. Senior Open at The Broadmoor.
The notable exception was a tie for 14th place by Gary Hallberg, a longtime Castle Pines resident who was one loose round (76 in the second round) from busting into the top five. Hallberg, who turns 52 on Memorial Day, has not won in his three years on the Champions Tour. But he likes his chances of performing well this week during the 71st Senior PGA Championship at Colorado Golf Club in Parker.
He plays the course often.
“I hope that will help me,” Hallberg said. “It will obviously play differently for the championship than it does when I’m out there with my buddies. But I’m pretty comfortable out there.”
Golfers like to say that some courses just seem to make sense. Some courses appear pleasing to a player’s eyes. That’s the way Hallberg feels about Colorado Golf Club’s rolling, prairie-links-style layout that will play 7,490 yards to a par 72.
Plenty of trouble awaits errant shots, to be sure. But Hallberg said when he stands on a tee box at Colorado Golf Club, there are no mysteries. What you see is what you get.
“I feel like it fits my game,” Hallberg said. “The shots are kind of drawn for you. You can say to yourself, ‘OK, this requires a draw, a right-to-left shot’ or ‘this is a fade.’ A lot of courses we play are flat, and you look out there and nothing is jumping out at you. But this course, you look out there and you know what you have to go with.
“Those kinds of courses tend to help me. I don’t have to stand there and come up with some idea. The course kind of does it for you.”
Hallberg said Colorado Golf Club already has become his favorite course in the state. Fairways appear to meander naturally through wooded hillsides and open meadows, along streams and natural ravines.
There’s a flow and rhythm to the layout, he said. Native grasses and ragged bunkering contribute to the unpretentious feel that has become a signature characteristic of courses co-designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw.
But that’s not to say this course can’t come up and bite you.
“It’s such a great golf course; it’s done so nicely,” Hallberg said. “The greens can be challenging, but good putting requires good chipping. You’d better not short-side yourself with chips. If the pin is on the left, you’d better not miss it left. If you do that, the chip will run away from you. You’d better give yourself some room.
“The way the greens are, if you hit a good shot, they will hold. That’s the kind of course you want to play. It rewards the good player.”
If anybody is overdue to break through, it’s Hallberg. At Wake Forest, the Chicago-area native became one of only four players in history (along with Phil Mickelson, David Duval and Bryce Molder) to earn first-team All-America honors for four straight years. He won three times during his first 13 years on the PGA Tour. Then the wheels came off.
Hallberg lost his exempt playing privileges in the late 1990s and finished no higher than No. 227 on the money list during his last nine years on the regular tour.
Like with so many players, the Champions Tour has given Hallberg a second chance.
“Gary has always had the game, a wonderful swing,” said Dennis Murray, director of instruction at The Ridge at Castle Pines North, who works with Hallberg. “He just needs to believe in it.”
Hallberg acknowledges that fighting the golf course “demon” of paralysis by analysis has been a lifelong struggle. He tends to get in his own way.
“It’s all about confidence, isn’t it?” Hallberg said. “Hopefully, at Colorado Golf Club I’ll feel confident and relaxed because we’re home.”
Tom Kensler: 303-954-1280 or tkensler@denverpost.com
