Amateurs Jimmy Makloski of Pueblo and DU’s Willis Panzarello among leaders after day 1 of Colorado Open; 2-time champ/part-time player Derek Tolan and Connor Jones also very much in the mix
By Gary Baines – 7/24/2025
DENVER — Happy birthday to you …
University of Denver golfer Willis Panzarello celebrated his 22nd birthday on Thursday in a very appropriate way. Not only did he play golf, but he did so very well in his first round ever at the Inspirato Colorado Open.
And that left the player from Palm Desert Calif., who now resides in his home away from home in Denver, in a tie for the lead after round 1 at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club.
Panzarello, who has been on a nice roll with his game in 2025, finished up his round by going birdie, birdie, eagle on his final three holes en route to a 6-under-par 65. He’s one of sevengolfers who share the top spot after day 1 of the $200,000 tournament.
“I hit 5-iron from 270 yards to 4 feet on the last hole (9) and rang one up,” said Panzarello, who finished the day with an eagle, seven birdies and three bogeys.
So how was he going to celebrate his big day after such a strong performance?
“I’m going to go home, take a shower, lay on the couch, then go hit some balls tonight,” he said.
Whatever works. And who is to question him given how he’s been playing of late. He’s coming off three straight runner-up finishes — in the Summit League tournament, where he lost in a playoff; at the L.A. City Championship, and in the Colorado Open qualifier at Eagle Ranch Golf Course. He also was runner-up in the Wexford Intercollegiate in February.
“The joke on our team is ‘I’m the King of Seconds,’” said Panzarello, a senior-to-be at DU. “I’m hoping to change the script, but this is a great start to the week. I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but this is a great start. I’m not going to complain about it.
“This spring has been my breakout. I’ve been playing well and shooting under-par numbers. The last six months have been a good climb and I’m trending well — to say the least. I think I dropped my score by two shots this spring compared to the fall. I owe it all the coaching staff (Gary Bissell and Brett Meyer). They’re the best two men in my life by far. They’re both like father figures. I don’t have a dad, but they’re watching me closely to say the least.”
Defending champion Davis Bryant (left) teed it up Thursday with former PGA Tour veteran Sam Saunders of Fort Collins (center) and former European Tour player Matt Zions (right).
Another amateur with strong Colorado ties also rang up a 65 on Thursday — Jimmy Makloski of Pueblo, who earned low-amateur honors in the 2016 Colorado Open.
Makloski, a former Colorado State University golfer who will soon begin his fifth season as an assistant coach at the Air Force Academy, duplicated Panzarello’s finish by going birdie, birdie eagle on his final three holes — 7, 8 and 9. After making a 20-foot par save on 6, Makloski sank a 4-footer for birdie on 7, an 18-foot birdie on 8 and a 35-foot eagle from in front of the ninth green.
“Everything has felt good for me lately but I don’t play nearly as much,” Makloski said. “Everything feels good, but I have a hole or two where I just kind of lose focus. I had that a little bit today, but I took advantage of the good holes.”
Makloski, who won the Pueblo City Championship earlier this month, finished the day with an eagle, five birdies and a bogey.
The 30-year-old regained his amateur status in 2022 after being a pro for a time.
“I feel like now I’m more free,” he said of being an amateur again. “I’m not worried about (prize) money. It’s just kind of a bonus if I play good. And I have a lot more fun. I don’t play and practice as much, but my mindset is a lot better.”
It’s still very early, but it’s worth noting that an amateur hasn’t won the overall title at the Colorado Open since Brian Guetz did so in 1994. The only other amateur to claim the overall championship in the tournament was Gary Longfellow in 1974.
Five pros, including three Californians, are tied at 6 under par with Makloski and Panzarello — Jamie Wilson of Mount Pleasant, S.C., Daniel Robinson of Seminole, Fla., recent Long Beach State golfer Clay Seeber of Newport Beach, Calif., Skyler Finnell of Carmel, Calif., and Mason Greene of Tustin, Calif., who eagled the 348-yard, par-4 fourth hole.
Out of all the 65s, only Finnell went bogey-free on Thursday.
In all, a whopping 79 players shot under-par rounds on day 1. Among those who posted 68 or better were defending champion Davis Bryant (67), former champs Derek Tolan (67), Wil Collins (chip-in eagle at 18 for 67) and Sam Saunders of Albuquerque (67), 2024 Colorado PGA Professional Champion Tristin Goodwin of Englewood (67), Wyoming State Open champ AJ Ott of Fort Collins (68), two-time Colorado Open low amateur Parker Edens (68) and Chris Korte (68).
Connor Jones of Westminster shot a 66 and sits a stroke out of the lead.
Connor Jones Back in the Mix in Return to Open: The last time Connor Jones competed in the Colorado Open, he was very much in the hunt to not only claim low-amateur honors (which he did), but to win the overall championship. As it turned out, the Westminster resident tied for third place overall in 2022, ending up four strokes behind two-time champion Wil Collins. And Jones also established the 72-hole Colorado Open scoring record for an amateur, at 19 under par — a total matched by Parker Edens a year later.
Nowadays, a year after winning the season-long national Elite Amateur Series, Jones is a pro — and once again he’s on the leaderboard at the Colorado Open in his return after a two-year hiatus from the event.
The 2022 CGA Player of the Year played his final 16 holes in 6 under par and shot a 5-under 66 on Thursday, leaving him one stroke out of the lead.
Jones was looking forward to returning to the Colorado Open for the third time as a competitor.
“Seeing a bunch of people you know that you don’t see all year” is nice, he said. “And the course is always in great shape out here. It’s a fun one. I always mark it on the calendar.”
The former CSU golfer is coming off back-to-back weeks on the Korn Ferry Tour — in fact, the first and second KFT events of his career, though he did compete in a PGA Tour tournament last fall. Jones finished 24th at The Ascendant presented by Blue at TPC Colorado on July 13, then missed the cut last week at a KFT event in Springfield, Mo.
“I thought the course (in Missouri) set up well for me — tree-lined, pretty soft — but I just didn’t play the way I wanted to,” Jones said. But he just tried to immediately reset. “I took a couple days off after I came back from Springfield, I hung out and did some fishing.”
Two-time champion Derek Tolan opened with a 67 on Thursday.
Derek Tolan Makes Most of Limited Prep: When it comes to his golf game these days, lifelong Coloradan Derek Tolan lives by the old Dirty Harry saying: A good man’s got to know his limitations.
That’s not the way Tolan himself puts it, but essentially it’s true.
Tolan is a two-time Colorado Open champion, but he’s also a 39-year-old who doesn’t play golf full-time anymore; far from it, in fact, as he works full time as the associate head coach on Roy Edwards’ staff with the University of Colorado men’s golf team.
This week illustrates the point. Over the weekend and on Monday and Tuesday, Tolan was recruiting at the U.S. Junior Amateur in Dallas. He also caddied for Edwards’ son, Ash, who was competing in the event for the first time.
And then, after Ash didn’t advance to the match-play portion of the national championship, Tolan flew back to Colorado late Tuesday, then played in the Colorado Open pro-am on Wednesday in preparation for competing in the event for the umpteenth time.
And, despite the limited time he can devote to his own game, Tolan opened with a 4-under-par 67 that featured five birdies and one bogey.
“I felt good coming in even though I hadn’t been playing (recently),” the 2009 and ’12 Colorado Open champ said Thursday evening. “I’ve kind of developed a nice little system for myself to pay attention to what I’m capable of. I’m just getting good at what I know I can do and not worry about what I can’t do.”
Meanwhile, concerning doing double duty at the U.S. Junior Am earlier this week — recruiting and caddying — Tolan said, “In four days I did almost 46 miles (walking at the Junior Am) in 100-plus heat index.”
With Tolan’s role at CU and on Roy Edwards’ staff, he’s been helping Ash Edwards develop as a player. Edwards won the Colorado Junior PGA Championship earlier this month.
“Ash is a great kid and I’ve spent a lot of time with him the last couple of years,” Tolan said. “His love for the game makes me eager to help him out. He’s going to figure out what to do (with his golf game). I’m trying to teach him what not to do — lessons I learned the hard way that I really want him to avoid. Being around him all the time gives me the opportunity to help him out.”
Pepsi Hale (right) was caddying for 17-year-old pro Lucky Cruz (left) four days after looping for the winner of the PGA Tour’s Barracuda Championship.
How About a Pepsi?: Four days ago, Steve “Pepsi” Hale hit one of those fairly rare highs for a caddie — being on the bag when his player wins on the PGA Tour. In this case, the Colorado resident was looping for Ryan Gerard, who claimed the title in the Barracuda Championship in Truckee, Calif.
But on Thursday, Hale was caddying again at a different level — at the Colorado Open. Specifically, he was on the bag for Lucky Cruz, a 17-year-old professional from Magnolia, Texas. Hale was Keegan Bradley’s regular caddie for five years, including when he won the 2011 PGA Championship. Hale has been looping for Gerard since 2023. He said he’ll just be caddying for the first two days of the Colorado Open.
Cruz opened with a 69 on Thursday.
Also on the caddie front, former CU football head coach Rick Neuheisel caddied for son Joe, who shot a first-round 75.
Former CU football head coach Rick Neuheisel was caddying for son Joe on Thursday.
Notable: While Jimmy Maklowski and Willis Panzarello lead the low-amateur competition with 6-under-par totals, two-time defending low am Parker Edens, a former Greeley resident, posted a 3-under 68 on Thursday and shares third place among amateurs. … The field at GVR will be cut to the low 60 players and ties after two rounds. … Four-time PGA Tour winner Sean O’Hair opened with a 69 and fellow former PGA Tour veteran Sam Saunders of Fort Collins matched that total.
For all the scores from the Colorado Open, 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