The The Gallery Gallery
Bearing Down CONGRATULATIONS to the University of Northern Colorado men’s golf team for winning the Big Sky Conference Championship and earning a spot in the NCAA Regionals. Led by senior Andrew Romano, who won the individual championship in a playoff, the Bears finished three strokes ahead of Southern Utah at Boulder Creek Golf Club in Boulder City, Nev. to punch their ticket to College Station May 14-16. The berth represents another achievement for the 2017-2018 team. Junior Joshua Matz was named Big Sky Player of the Year, while Romano and teammate Coby Welch (who this year shot a school-record 63) earned second-team All-BigSky honors. For his efforts, head coach Roger Prenzlow received the Big Sky Coach of the Year. In his fifth season with the Bears, the Boulder native has now taken the Bears to two conference championships. The first came in 2014, when UNC dominated the America Sky Conference and made the school’s first-ever NCAA Regional appearance, also earning him Coach of the Year honors. uncbears.com
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to have a dinner with her and then we’ll have a press conference.” That prompted a string of questions. When does she land? What is her tail number? Who’s picking her up? In what vehicle? Who’s going to be at the front door? What room is she in? “I ran from that meeting, got all that information and brought it back,” Habgood recalls. “It was just a lesson in how they operate. You don’t just casually say, ‘Hey, I’ll let you know when they touch down.’ They want you on the ground with the trunk up.” Seven years later, “we’ve become a part of their culture. With the events we have here, we’ve even incorporated their human resources into our volunteer training.” Each of these events takes years of groundwork. “A lot of people think you can just fly the flag and this thing will build itself,” he explains. “But if you spend a couple days with our staff, you’ll know there’s a lot of heavy lifting and strategy and trial and error.” Getting roads closed; coordinating parking; arranging accommodations and transportation for players and their entourages; setting up for television crews; catering to VIPs; generating ticket sales— literally thousands of tasks all fall under his purview. It’s three or four years of planning for one week. But the quality of that week is what everyone remembers. “What I try to remind our people,” he says, “is that we’re really creating memories for families, for kids and caddies, and players, and the guy that qualifies from Toledo who has never been to The Broadmoor or the guy whose son has never been to a golf event and gets to take a picture with Tom Watson. We can’t script any of that but we’re a part of it, and that’s kind of the cool thing about live sports and why we try to promote that it’s different when you’re on the grounds than when you’re sitting on the couch.” Unless you’re working at a regular stop on the tour, the life of a championship director is inherently nomadic. Not only have his peers wondered how he’s managed to stay in Colorado for 15 years, they’ve envied where he’s officed. “I’ve been at Cherry Hills, in their clubhouse, for several years at a time. And I’ve had a view of The Broadmoor every morning,” he says. “I haven’t exactly been out in the sticks, and I don’t take it any of it for granted.” During his years in Colorado, Habgood rose to become Bruno’s executive VP of Golf for its events in the Western half of the country. With no future Bruno-run tournaments officially scheduled in Colorado after this year’s Senior Open, he’ll become the tournament director of the Principal Charity Classic, an annual PGA Tour Champions event at Wakonda Club in Des Moines, Iowa. Fifteen years after first coming to Colorado, he and Kirsten, who now have three daughters, will put the mountains in the rearview. But, he hints, a return trip for another big event could very well be on the horizon.
Owned by the Colorado Golf Association, and designed by world-renowned architect Tom Doak, CommonGround Golf Course lies at the intersection of Mission and Masterpiece. Photo: EJ Carr, ejcphoto.com
commongroundgc.com | 303-340-1520 COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | June 2018
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