Matt Schalk of Erie a U.S. Senior Open qualifying medalist for 2nd straight year; Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Brandt Jobe, Denver resident Chris DiMarco, former CSU golfer Darrin Overson and Utahn Steve Schneiter also headed to USSO at The Broadmoor
By Gary Baines – 6/10/2025
COLORADO SPRINGS — A Colorado PGA club professional qualified for his second straight U.S. Senior Open. A Colorado Golf Hall of Famer earned a return trip to The Broadmoor seven years after posting a top-5 finish at the Senior Open there. A transplanted Coloradan who has won three times on the PGA Tour also punched his ticket to arguably the most prestigious tournament in senior golf. And a former Colorado State University golfer landed a spot as a senior rookie.
It all happened on Tuesday at a U.S. Senior Open final qualifier at the Country Club of Colorado, where the field included a former world No. 1 and the winners of 21 PGA Tour events, one major championship and three PGA Tour Champions titles.
Matt Schalk of Erie — who qualified for the 2024 U.S. Senior Open, his first USGA championship — up the road at The Broadmoor, earned medalist honors on Tuesday after being the co-medalist last year. The PGA general manager at Colorado National Golf Club made eight birdies and overcame a triple bogey to shoot a 3-under-par 68 at the CC of Colorado.
So he’ll be headed to The Broadmoor in a couple of weeks, with the championship set for June 26-29.
“It’s definitely the biggest (championship) — in my opinion — that I can play in,” the 54-year-old Schalk said. “And it will be awesome playing in Colorado. I have a lot of friends and family here. It’s more of a home game for me — not trying to adjust to sea level or different grasses. I know The Broadmoor. It’s a tough challenge. A home game and playing at altitude for me is an advantage. What I’m probably looking forward to most is being able to play in Colorado because of my familiarity with everything.”
Kent Denver grad Brandt Jobe placed fifth in the 2018 U.S. Senior Open at The Broadmoor.
Also landing U.S. Senior Open spots on Tuesday — when a field of 41 vied for five USSO berths — were former CSU golfer Darrin Overson, an amateur from Orem, Utah (69); Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Brandt Jobe (71); Chris DiMarco, a Denver-area resident for the last seven years who was playing his first full round at CCC (71); and Steve Schneiter of Sandy, Utah, who has won both a national PGA Professional Championship and a national Senior PGA Professional Championship (71).
DiMarco, Schneiter and Jobe had to successfully navigate a 4-for-3 playoff to move on to the U.S. Senior Open. DiMarco, who carried his own clubs on Tuesday, and Schneiter did so with pars on the first extra hole, with Schneiter getting up and down from a bunker. Then after Jobe sunk a 20-foot par putt on the second playoff hole to extend play with Mark Owen of Draper, Utah, the former Coloradan advanced with a 2-foot par putt after being in the bunker off the tee of the par-3 17th hole. Owen opened the door there with a triple bogey after hitting his tee shot into the water. Owen bogeyed his last two holes of regulation — with a three-putt on 18 — to fall into the playoff.
Chris DiMarco was solid in his first full round ever at the Country Club of Colorado.
Owen will be the first alternate from this qualifying site and Mario Tiziani of Shorewood, Minn., the second after firing a 72 and winning a five-man playoff.
Among those falling short on Tuesday were David Duval of Cherry Hills Village, winner of 13 PGA Tour events (74), three-time Tour winner Gary Hallberg of Longmont (78); and former University of Colorado golfer Jonathan Kaye, winner of two Tour events (72).
It will be the second U.S. Senior Open for Schalk, the sixth for Jobe (but just the second since 2019), the fourth for DiMarco (but first since 2022), the fifth for Schneiter and the first for Overson. Jobe has two top-5 finishes in the U.S. Senior Open (third in 2017 and fifth at The Broadmoor in 2018), while DiMarco was sixth in 2019.
“I’m excited,” said Jobe, who underwent four surgeries (including on both hips, plus a shoulder) from 2022-24, which led to him playing only six PGA Tour Champions events combined the past two years. “My wife gets to come and we’ll have family and friends. One last hurrah, you know what I mean?
“The whole deal is, this is like my home, right? So it’s huge,” said Jobe, a two-time winner of the Champions circuit who lived in Colorado from 1970 to ’99.
DiMarco, who has resided in the Denver area since 2018, has similar feelings.
“It’s nice, living in Denver now, with The Broadmoor right here and I’ve got a lot friends up there, so there’s a little added pressure to get some people down (to the championship),” the Cherry Creek North resident said. “I’m really excited. I played at The Broadmoor about four weeks ago and the course is phenomenal so it’s nice to earn your way in. I’m feeling good about my game. I’m going there to compete in the U.S. Open; no one can take that away from you.
“At my age, you either play and you get the U.S. Open or you get another week off. But a bunch of people are going to come down and watch, so I’m excited to be part of it.”
Schalk, who made eight birdies on Tuesday, chips to the 18th green.
On Tuesday, Schalk set the pace with a roller-coaster round that was enough to cause a queasy stomach. He ended up with eight birdies, two bogeys, a triple bogey and just seven pars.
On the par-4 seventh, he backed up a bogey with a triple.
“It wasn’t even a bad tee shot,” the 54-year-old said. “It must have caught the cart path or something, and maybe flew up 50 yards or so into the weeds. So I lost a ball. Then I had my only three-putt of the day.
“I thought, ‘I’ve got to birdie 8 or 9 or I’m thinking about the trunk” and making an unceremonious exit. “I was like, ‘Hailey (Schalk, his daughter, who was caddying for him), ‘One swing and we’re over par’ (for the day). And it wasn’t even a bad swing.”
But things turned around in a hurry as he made a hard-breaking 15-foot birdie on No. 8, a 3-foot birdie on 9 and a 35-footer on 10. And he tacked on birdies at 12 and 13, making him 5 under in six holes. All told, he drained two putts of 35 feet.
Suffice it to say a 68 was pretty solid for a guy who had played the Country Club of Colorado just once in the last 15-20 years.
“I don’t really like qualifiers honestly,” said Schalk, who won the 2022 national Senior PGA Professional Championship. “I don’t like match play and I don’t like qualifiers. I like just plain golf and shooting a score. Qualifiers, I feel like there’s so much pressure on you. You’ve got to go out and be the lowest guy (or one of the lowest). Sometimes you feel like you don’t play well if you don’t qualify. 72-hole or 54-hole tournaments, you may not win, but you still feel like you play pretty solid. So qualifiers aren’t my favorite things in the world. Hopefully I’m getting better at them as I go on.”
Amateur Darrin Overson (right), a former CSU golfer, celebrates after his round of 69.
Overson has lived most of his life in Utah, but was recruited by then-CSU coach Mark Crabtree to play golf for the Rams starting in the late 1990s. So, between his days at CSU, and Utah also being at a pretty high elevation, Overson is no stranger to the thin air of the Rocky Mountains.
A reinstated amateur since 2007, Overson carded five birdies and three bogeys on Tuesday for the second-low round of the day. After turning 50 in October, he’s feeling pretty good about competing in senior golf.
“It’s super cool,” the 1998 Utah state amateur champion said. “Exciting, fun. It’s been the last 25 years grinding with the college kids now. I’m entering into new territory playing with guys 50 and older. It’s been a good time.”
Helping the cause on Tuesday were two made putts from 40 feet and a chip-in from 20 feet on No. 16. He hopes to parlay that into something special at The Broadmoor in two weeks.
“Having a good week at the U.S. Senior Open would probably take the cake,” he said.
Steve Schneiter hits a bunker shot on the first playoff hole, setting up a par save.
The other Utahn who qualified on Tuesday, Schneiter, was also a happy camper. You see, in 2018 when the U.S. Senior Open was held at The Broadmoor the last time, he couldn’t try to qualify as that year he suffered a severely cut index finger on his right hand.
“I’m excited,” he said. “When they played here in ’18, I had cut my finger damn near off, so I couldn’t try to get in that time. So this is going to be fun. I’m excited.”
In fact, Schneiter goes back to the 1980s regarding The Broadmoor as he advanced to the semifinals of the prestigious Broadmoor Invitation once during that decade.
“That was one of our favorite premier tournaments of all summer to play in,” he said.
U.S. Senior Open Final Qualifying
At the Par-71 Country Club of Colorado in Colorado Springs
QUALIFIED FOR U.S. SENIOR OPEN
Matt Schalk, Erie 68
Former CSU golfer Darrin Overson (amateur), Orem, Utah 69
Chris DiMarco, Denver 71
Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Brandt Jobe, Oklahoma City 71
Steve Schneiter, Sandy, Utah 71
ALTERNATES (In Order)
Mark Owen, Draper, Utah 71
Mario Tiziani, Shorewood, Minn. 72
For all the scores from the U.S. Senior Open final qualifying at the Country Club of Colorado, CLICK HERE.
Coloradan David Duval, a 13-time winner on the PGA Tour, fell short of qualifying on Tuesday, shooting a 74.
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