Part-time caddie Ethan Farnam leads Colorado Open after sixth-lowest round in tourney history; back issue causes defending champ Jim Knous to WD mid-round; former USGA mainstay Mark Passey to receive 2026 Kirchner Award for his many contributions to Colorado golf
By Gary Baines
DENVER — If a Colorado native is to win the Inspirato Colorado Open for a third consecutive year — something that hasn’t happened in over a decade — someone from the Centennial State will have to come from well behind to do so.
While there were some outstanding rounds on day 1 at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club on Thursday — a 62, a 63 and a 64 among them — it was necessary to scroll down the scoreboard a bit for the Coloradans.
That obviously wasn’t an issue the past two years at the Colorado Open. In 2024, Davis Bryant (who grew up in Aurora) won and fellow Colorado native Jim Knous finished second. And last year, Knous prevailed for the title, with AJ Ott of Fort Collins placing third.
But Bryant isn’t playing this year — though he was out at GVR part of the day on Thursday — and Knous withdrew in the middle of his back nine during round 1 after hurting his back during his front side. So it will be left up to other Coloradans to carry the torch this year.
Defending champion Jim Knous withdrew mid-round with back issues on Thursday.
Of course, there’s plenty of time for things to shift around — three more rounds — but players from elsewhere ruled the day on Thursday. Ethan Farnam — who splits his time between the Chicago area and Phoenix, and between playing professional golf and caddying — fired a 9-under-par 62 on day 1. And just a stroke behind is Joey Garber of St. Simons Island, Ga., who won on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2018 and then played on the PGA Tour for a season. He likewise went bogey-free on Thursday.
The top Colorado residents on Thursday were pro Tristin Goodwin of Englewood and amateur Elijah Knudsen of Mead, a Colorado State University golfer, both of whom carded 4-under 67s. They share 14th place with former University of Denver golfers John Sand and Jack Dozer, among others.
Farnam, who has forecaddied for the likes of two-time U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark and Pro Football Hall of Famer John Elway at Whisper Rock in Scottsdale, is looking for a breakthrough performance as a player. And the former college golfer (St. Mary’s College in California) took a nice step in the right direction with what he said was perhaps his best competitive round in a couple of years.
Indeed, there have only been four single-round scores in the history of the Colorado Open lower than Farnam’s 62.
It was quite a mid-round stretch for Farnam on Thursday. From hole 7 through 15, he was 8 under par, making six birdies and an eagle. His eagle came on the par-5 12th, where he drained a 10-footer. On the next hole, the par-3 13th, his tee ball ended up in a bunker, but he promptly made lemonade out of lemons by holing out from 40 feet for birdie. Then he added continued the run with birdies on 14 and 15. “I’m really, really cooking there,” he said.
All told in round 1, he recorded an eagle and seven birdies.
“I just had full game today,” the 27-year-old said. “So it was nice. “There’s not one part of my game where I was scared of anything. I was just super consistent all day.”
Farnam might be an unlikely leader at the Colorado Open, given the number of full-time players the event draws. He caddies for 6 1/2 months of the year in Arizona, then plays the remainder of the year while based in Illinois.
“I caddie all winter, make my money, and then I spend it all in the summer,” he said with a smile. “I’m not your weekly guy going around the whole country (competing). I kind of pick my spots and have some fun right now. I wish I could take it a little more seriously, have some money in the bank, but as it is right now, I pick my battles.”
Right on Farnam’s tail, at 63, is Garber, who won the Korn Ferry Tour’s Rex Hospital Open in 2018 and posted a couple of top-10s on the PGA Tour in 2019. But he now serves as an ambassador of golf at Frederica Golf Club in St. Simons Island, Ga.
Garber, 34, hasn’t played full-time in almost two years and seldom competes in multi-day tournaments anymore. But that didn’t keep him from posting an eight-birdie, no-bogey 63 on Thursday.
Given his lack of a tournament-honed game and that this is his first time playing in the Colorado Open, did Garber surprise himself with that kind of round on Thursday?
“One hundred percent,” he said. “Yeah, no denying that. It was one of those things where I just was able to kind of build on hitting some good shots early in the round, and it turned into a good round. But this is a finicky game, and so I was able to put myself in a good mental state out there, but a couple of little shots here and there and you might not get that same reaction. Those are things that I’ve learned over all these years, and it enabled me to play a good round without a whole lot of prep today.
“I was happy to get off to a good start and kind of settle those nerves and get back in it.”
Though the Colorado Open isn’t elite-level tour golf, posting a strong round against a strong field at GVR did whet Garber’s appetite.
“I definitely miss it,” he said. “I feel like I got a little taste of the big time and I always wanted to get back there. So it’s fun to compete again.”
Utahn Carson Lundell fired a 64 on Thursday.
Standing in third place after round 1 is Carson Lundell of Alpine, Utah, who carded a 64 despite a three-putt par on his final hole. He eagled the par-5 ninth hole and added six birdies and a bogey.
Lundell has enjoyed some success in Colorado as he won the Rocky Mountain Amateur at Colorado National in 2020 and Monday qualified for this month’s Blue Championship on the Korn Ferry Tour, though he missed the cut at TPC Colorado.
Coloradan Mark Passey Earns Kirchner Award: Colorado Open officials confirmed Thursday that Mark Passey, a former longtime director of regional affairs in the area of the country that included Colorado, will receive the Robert M. Kirchner Award following the conclusion of play on Sunday at GVR.
The Kirchner Award — first presented in 1992 to Kirchner, a founder of the Colorado Open — is given annually to an individual who has contributed greatly to the game of golf in the Centennial State. It’s been presented over the years to the likes of Judy Bell, Jack Vickers, Kent Moore, Ed Mate, George Solich, Les Fowler, Joan Birkland, Pat Hamill and Myron Craig. It’s awarded by the Colorado Open Golf Foundation.
Passey was a former executive director of the Utah Golf Association (he’s now a member of the UGA Hall of Fame) before spending 27 1/2 years with the USGA. The Highlands Ranch resident retired from that role in 2017. In recent years, he’s served as vice president of the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame, and he played a pivotal role in the creation of a new Hall of Fame Museum that opened in 2023 at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs.
Break From Attire Tradition: For the first time in recent decades — and possibly forever — competitors at the Colorado Open this year are allowed to wear shorts during the tournament rounds. The tournament committee decided that with temperatures forecast for the mid- to high-90s on the weekend, it would give the players that option to mitigate the high temperatures.
Two-time Colorado Open champ Derek Tolan holed out from the front bunker for birdie on No. 18 on Thursday.
Notable: Past champions Kevin Stadler and Derek Tolan were paired on Thursday and proved quite a contrast with the way they finished their rounds. Tolan holed out from the front bunker to birdie the par-5 18th, while Stadler needed six shots to get down from the fairway, 80 yards away from the pin. His closing triple-bogey 8 gave him a 77, while Tolan carded a 69. … Elijah Anderson from Mead, a golfer at CSU, and Sam Renner of Bend, Ore., matched 4-under-par 67s to share the lead among amateurs after round 1. Brady Duval of Cherry Hills Village, son of former world No. 1 David Duval, is tied for third place in the amateur ranks at 68 with UNC golfer Cooper Tate. … The field will be cut from 144 to the top 60 players and ties after the completion of 36 holes. … Joining Jim Knous (back) in withdrawing on Thursday was fellow former PGA Tour player Erik Barnes, who shot 77. … Four-time PGA Tour winner Sean O’Hair opened with a 2-under-par 69.
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