Local college golf season will gear up in a hurry for 2023-24 campaign
By Gary Baines – 9/2/2023
The college golf season will crank into gear earlier than usual in 2023 when it comes to Colorado-based NCAA Division I tournaments.
In fact, don’t blink or you’ll miss 40 percent of the DI events that will be contested in the Centennial State in the 2023-24 season.
The main reason for the shift is that the Ram Masters Invitational, the tournament the Colorado State University men’s golf team has hosted at Fort Collins Country Club since 2012. This year the RMI is scheduled for Sept. 6-7 — a week and a half or two weeks earlier than usual — and the Rams will be looking for their ninth straight title in the event.
But, in an anomaly, the only Colorado-based team scheduled to compete in the RMI is CSU itself.
Less than a week later, the Air Force Academy men’s team will host the 54th Gene Miranda Falcon Invitational Sept. 10-12 at Eisenhower Golf Club’s Blue Course, which hosted the U.S. Girls’ Junior in July. Joining the Falcons at the tournament will be CSU and the University of Northern Colorado. (It should be noted that Air Force starts the season even earlier than CSU as it debuts Sept. 4-6 at the GCAA Folds of Honor Collegiate in Grand Haven, Mich.)
Three other Colorado-based NCAA Division I tournaments are also on the schedule this season:
— Sept. 25-26: The CSU women will host the Colonel Wollenberg Ptarmigan Ram Classic at Ptarmigan Country Club in Fort Collins. Also in the field will be the University of Colorado.
— Oct. 2-3: The CU men will hold the Mark Simpson Colorado Invitational at Colorado National Golf Club in Erie, with CSU, the University of Denver, Air Force and UNC also be on hand. In other words, all five DI men’s programs from Colorado will tee it up there. CU and CSU are coming off a season in which they advanced teams to the NCAA national tournament — for the first time since 2002 for the Buffs and since 2011 for the Rams.
— Oct. 6-8: The DU women will be the “home team” at the Ron Moore Intercollegiate at the DU Golf Club at Highlands Ranch, with CU also among those teeing it up.
Here are the season openers and the Colorado tournaments for each of the nine Colorado-based Div. I golf programs:
AIR FORCE ACADEMY MEN
Season Opener
Sept. 4-6: Folds of Honor Collegiate, Grand Haven, Mich.
Tournaments in Colorado
Sept. 10-12: Gene Miranda Falcon Invitational, Eisenhower GC at Air Force Academy
Oct. 2-3: Mark Simpson Colorado Invitational, Colorado National GC in Erie
CSU MEN
Season Opener
Sept 6-7: Ram Masters Invitational, Fort Collins CC
Tournaments in Colorado
Sept 6-7: Ram Masters Invitational, Fort Collins CC
Sept. 10-12: Gene Miranda Falcon Invitational, Eisenhower GC at Air Force Academy
Oct. 2-3: Mark Simpson Colorado Invitational, Colorado National GC in Erie
CU MEN
Season Opener
Sept. 8-10: Maui Jim Intercollegiate, Scottsdale, Ariz.
Tournament in Colorado
Oct. 2-3: Mark Simpson Colorado Invitational, Colorado National GC in Erie
DU MEN, with new head coach Gary Bissell
Season Opener
Sept. 18: Howard/USF Intercollegiate, San Francisco
Tournament in Colorado
Oct. 2-3: Mark Simpson Colorado Invitational, Colorado National GC in Erie
UNC MEN
Season Opener
Sept. 10-12: Gene Miranda Falcon Invitational, Eisenhower GC at Air Force Academy
Tournaments in Colorado
Sept. 10-12: Gene Miranda Falcon Invitational, Eisenhower GC at Air Force Academy
Oct. 2-3: Mark Simpson Colorado Invitational, Colorado National GC in Erie
CSU WOMEN
Season Opener
Sept. 17-19: Badger Invitational, Madison, Wis.
Tournament in Colorado
Sept. 25-26: Colonel Wollenberg Ptarmigan Ram Classic, Ptarmigan CC in Fort Collins
CU WOMEN
Season Opener
Sept. 18-19: Leadership and Golf Invitational, Chambers Bay in University Place, Wash.
Tournaments in Colorado
Sept. 25-26: Colonel Wollenberg Ram Classic, Ptarmigan CC in Fort Collins
Oct. 6-8: Ron Moore Intercollegiate, University of Denver Golf Club at Highlands Ranch
DU WOMEN
Season Opener
Sept. 11-12: Dick McGuire Invitational, Albuquerque
Tournament in Colorado
Oct. 6-8: Ron Moore Intercollegiate, University of Denver Golf Club at Highlands Ranch
UNC WOMEN
Season Opener
Sept. 25-26: Big Sky 54 for Title XI, Saratoga Springs, Utah
Tournaments in Colorado
None
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. He was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2022. He owns and operates ColoradoGolfJournal.com