Second round leader John Ross of Raleigh, NC fought off all challengers by shooting a final round 70 (2-under par) to win by two strokes over Chris Starkjohann in the 17th annual CoBank Colorado Senior Open at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club. Ross, who finished second in last year’s championship, set his sights on winning this year’s addition and took home the $8,500 first place prize against the strongest field in the history of the championship. With this win Ross is exempt into the $250,000 CoBank Colorado Open in July where the champion will win an unprecedented $100,000.
Starkjohann, a Colorado native from Loveland who resides in Oceanside, CA, posted the low round of the day with his 5 birdie, 1 bogey performance of 4-under par 68. Starkjohann made the cut in last week’s Senior PGA Championship won by Rocco Mediate. And similar to Ross, he finished third last year and second this year. Maybe the 2017 champ?
In the amateur category NFL Hall of Famer and Denver Broncos EVP/GM John Elway shot a 2-over par 74 to finish in a tie for second at 5-over par 221 with last year’s low amateur Kent Moore of Cherry Hills Village, CO. The low amateur champion finishing in a tie for 25th overall was Tom Krystyn of Denver who shot 5-over 77 finishing at 4-over 220. It was Krystyn’s rookie debut and his caddie was none other than three-time Colorado Open champion and 2009 Colorado Senior Open champion Bill Loeffler.
