2-time CGA Senior Player of the Year David Delich captures his first CGA title in over 10 years; another Dave (Runberg) wins by 10 in the Masters Division
By Gary Baines – 8/12/2025
AURORA — David Delich packed a lot of golf success into the nine years after he turned 50 years old.
From the beginning of 2007 to the end of 2015, the amateur from Colorado Springs won five CGA championships and two Southern California Golf Association senior amateur titles, besides finishing the overall runner-up at the 2012 Colorado Senior Open. Twice during that stretch (2012 and ’15), he was named the CGA Senior Player of the Year.
Then the spigot closed — for a decade. There were some near misses where he came up just short of more titles. And there was a family-related personal issue to which he devoted much of his attention for several years.
Then, after returning to high-level competitive golf, there was another close-but-no-cigar finish or two.
But on Tuesday, a month after his CGA championship victory drought reached 10 years, Delich finally battled back into the win column. The Colorado College career scoring leader in hockey — still to this day — birdied three of his final four holes at Meadow Hills Golf Course to claim the title in the CGA Super-Senior Amateur.
“This is very satisfying,” the 68-year-old longtime Broadmoor member said. “I’m excited about it again — getting back out and playing.
“Some family issues and loss have prevented me from being out on the golf course with my friends. The nicest treat today was I got to be out there with friends again. But those things kind of sidetracked us.”
Runner-up and two-time defending champion John Hornbeck (left) congratulates Delich on the victory.
One of the friends/opponents to which Delich refers was John Hornbeck of Saratoga in southern Wyoming, who happened to be the two-time defending champion at the CGA Super-Senior Amateur. And, at the end of the day on Tuesday, it came down to Delich and Hornbeck at the top of the leaderboard. Specifically, they were tied for the top spot going into the 36th and final hole of regulation.
Though Hornbeck, the 2023 CGA Super-Senior Player of the Year, outdrove Delich by about 40 yards on the 18th hole at Meadow Hills, their approaches ended up a similar distance from the hole, with Hornbeck’s shot being right on line with the flag but rolling back away from the cup, down a tier in the green.
Delich, who had missed three putts inside of 3 feet on the back nine to lose the lead he built, faced about a 20-foot birdie try with about 10 inches of right-to-left break. And down it went.
“I had a good read on the putt on 18,” he said. “Your uphill putts (here), you’ve got to make sure you hit ‘em. Eighty percent of them, you’re leaving 6 inches or a foot short. And when you’re used to playing at The Broadmoor … That was the thing on the last hole. I knew I had the line; make sure you give it a chance and get it to the hole.
“Every shot you’re going to try to win because you don’t sit there with a guy like Hornbeck waiting for him to make mistakes.”
Delich (above) and Hornbeck went into the 18th hole tied for the lead.
Delich’s final-hole birdie put the pressure on the defending champ, who left his 18-foot uphill birdie attempt about 2 feet short of the cup.
“There’s no other better way to lose,” Hornbeck said of Delich winning with a birdie. “His putter went south there for a while (on the back nine), but then he got it back down the stretch. I was glad to see it for Dave. He’s been practicing a lot with his putting and having some troubles, but I almost knew he was going to make that (birdie putt on 18). I really did. The way he was coming on at the end. When he made that birdie on 16 it was like, ‘OK, here he comes.’”
Indeed, after Hornbeck had drained back-to-back 2-foot birdies on 12 and 13 to seize the lead, Delich knocked a couple of shots similarly stiff on 15 (6 feet) and 16 (20 inches) to bounce back.
“I had a conversation (with my putter in the middle of the back nine),” Delich said. “It wouldn’t be the first one to get broken in half. He responded and said, ‘I don’t want to be treated badly.’ After that, I rolled it beautifully. You don’t know why that happens. You know what you’re doing physically, which is created by the mental thought — not getting stable over the putt and executing the stroke. When that mental thing slips in there, it affects the physical. Fortunately I had a few holes to play, so you get it, you correct it and you move on.”
Hornbeck pitches up for a par save on No. 17 Tuesday.
The strong stretch run gave Delich a 1-under-par 70 on Tuesday and a 3-under total. That was one better than Hornbeck and two in front of Robin Bradbury of Berthoud (70-71). Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Kent Moore of Greenwood Village (72-71) tied for fourth place with Colorado Mesa University men’s golf coach Scott Sullivan of Grand Junction (72-71) and Kary Kaltenbacher of Englewood (70-73).
The victory was Delich’s seventh in a CGA championship, with three coming in the Senior Match Play (2007, ’11 and ’15), one in the Senior Amateur (2012), one in the Mid-Amateur (1997) and one in the Senior Four-Ball with Bruce Hogg (2014).
“This feels different” than the others, Delich said. “I really didn’t play any golf (for a long period). Last year was the first time (for CGA events) since all that happened (regarding the family issues and loss). So I lost that window of time. Occasionally I’d play the Four-Ball, but my heart wasn’t in it and there were other things going on.”
Robin Bradbury finished third on Tuesday, two back of Delich.
But when Delich started to dip his toe back in the water, there were some positive signs. He finished runner-up to David Nelson in the CGA Super-Senior Match Play last year and was a quarterfinalist in both that event and the CGA Senior Match Play in 2025.
And when Delich put himself in contention on Tuesday, he didn’t spit the bit.
“It’s hard to win at golf,” he said. “We remember all the demons, all the mistakes. When you’ve played well — and that was today — I just said to myself, ‘You’ve done this. You’ve been here before. Make some good swings. A putt will go in, then it’s a different game.’ That’s all I did. Today it worked out. And I’m thrilled to be back. I’ll give it a few more years where we’ll see if we can scare the boys a little bit.”
The CGA Super-Senior Amateur is limited to players 65 and older.
Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Kent Moore was among those who tied for fourth place.
— In the Masters Division for competitors 70 and older, while a Dave also won at that level, that’s where the similarities between the two tournaments ended.
As Delich birdied the last hole to claim the Super-Senior title by one, Dave Runberg of Centennial lapped the competition in the Masters Division, winning by 10 strokes.
Dave Runberg receives congratulations for his runaway victory in the Masters Division.
Runberg, the Trans-Miss Seniors Legends Division champion earlier this year, posted rounds of 68-74 for an even-par total at Meadow Hills.
“I feel great about it,” the 72-year-old Runberg said of the victory. “I’ve never won a CGA championship. I’ve been runner-up a couple of times, but never actually got the deal done. So it feels really good.”
Indeed, Runberg was runner-up to Moore in the 2021 CGA Super-Senior Match Play and to Greg Mokler in the Masters Division of the 2024 CGA Super-Senior Amateur.
This time around, Runberg finished 10 ahead of second-place Randy Miller of Boulder (79-73) and 11 in front of Mark Bless of Aurora (78-75).
Runberg claimed a CGA victory for the first time.
After a first-round 68 that featured five birdies on Monday, Runberg took a 10-stroke lead into the final day.
“I wanted to try to play like I was behind” on Tuesday, Runberg said. “But it’s easy to say that; it’s hard to do it. I found myself not anywhere near as sharp as yesterday. Yesterday was kind of a one-off; I hit the ball really well and putted really well.”
Still, while Runberg struggled some on the first 11 holes on Tuesday (4 over par), he played his final seven holes in 1 under.
Given the margin of victory, Runberg was asked if he entertained thoughts of playing instead in the Super-Senior Division for players 65 and older where the course is set up a little longer and the competition is a bit tougher.
“No,” he said. “I look at those names (in the Super-Senior Division). I’ll be 73 in September, and I still think I hit it pretty good for a 73-year-old. But the guys who are competing (for the Super-Senior title) … Yesterday’s score was pretty darn good for me (68), but some of those guys just do that all the time — round after round. And I don’t shoot a lot of 68s. For me to play that good yesterday and build up that big lead, that made today a lot easier. But you’ve still go to go out and play and hit the shots.”
For all the scores from the CGA Super-Senior Amateur, CLICK HERE.
About the Writer: Gary Baines has covered golf in Colorado continuously since 1983. He was a sports writer at the Daily Camera newspaper in Boulder, then the sports editor there, and has written regularly for ColoradoGolf.org since 2009. The University of Colorado Evans Scholar alum was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2022. He owns and operates ColoradoGolfJournal.com