The 64th annual Navajo Trail Open kicks off Thursday at Hillcrest Golf Club in Durango. This year’s tournament has one of the strongest pro fields in recent memory, but can anyone stop Wil Collins from winning again?
Collins dominated the 54-hole, three-day tournament last year and won with a tournament-record score of -18 under par. He cruised to victory after beating second place by 13 shots.
There will be plenty of great golf on TV screens (including the ones at Hillcrest) with the U.S. Open happening this weekend. Local golf fans can walk Hillcrest and be treated to some great golf by professionals and amateurs this weekend at the Navajo Trail Open.
“We’re feeling really good,” Hillcrest General Manager/Director of Golf Michael McCloskey said. “The golf course is spectacular. It was a tough spring and tough winter with the lack of snow and that certainly posed some challenges with turf conditions … So not the most ideal conditions to start the year to grow grass. But with this rain and certainly with the superintendent, Will Herz, and his team really doing everything they can, they've got this golf course primed for a really good championship.”
Everything starts on Thursday at 10 a.m. with a shotgun start for the pro-am event. The pro-am is completely separate from the 54-hole tournament, but all the pros in the field play and local professionals like McCloskey and Hillcrest’s PGA Professional Brett Wolf play. McCloskey said it’s a fun way to kick off the Navajo Trail Open while allowing pros and everybody else to see the golf course in its tournament form.
An American-style barbecue buffet will be open from 3-6 p.m. for all Navajo Trail Open participants on Thursday. The barbecue costs $10 for additional guests who are not playing. There will also be live music from 2:30-6 p.m. by local artist Matt Rupnow.
The tournament will begin on Friday with the first amateurs teeing off at 7:15 a.m. Hillcrest’s greens have always been one of the course’s main highlights and will be during the tournament.
McCloskey said the biggest challenge for the grounds crew has been preparing what he calls the fill-in grass. Whether it’s in the fairways, approaches or the fringes, these areas have different types of grass and the grounds crew have been trying to create more turf growth. The lack of moisture in the winter burned out a lot of the areas and it takes time to reestablish them, according to McCloskey.
The grounds crew has been speeding up the greens to get them ready for tournament golf. McCloskey, the grounds crew and the rest of the Hillcrest staff know the course can be getable with its lack of length. Therefore, the plan is to have speedy greens and thicker rough than usual to challenge the field and keep players from going very low.
“It's cool the Navajo always coincides with the U.S. Open on the same weekend,” McCloskey said. “I think our staff sort of takes a setup credo to how the U.S. Open structure is built out; sped up green, length and rough seems to typically be our strategy every year for course setup … it has worked for us to do that with all of this moisture recently. So the grass grows every day and so the rough on round one will only get harder as they go through round three.”
Forty-three professionals highlight the Navajo Trail Open, especially Collins. The two-time defending champion played on the PGA Tour in 2009 and played in two U.S. Opens. He had a 14-year professional playing career. Now 46 years old, Collins resides in Albuquerque and is a mortgage loan originator and part-time golf teacher.
McCloskey thinks it’s one of the biggest and most talented professional fields he’s seen in the seven years he’s been at Hillcrest. The field is full of former Division I golfers, current and past professional golfers and PGA Professionals.
Locally, Micah Rudosky, PGA Professional at Conquistador Golf Course in Cortez, is back as a former winner of the Navajo Trail Open. Hillcrest’s Devin Schreiner will compete in the pro division as well as Glacier Club Director of Golf Ryan Hodge.
Below the professional field, the championship flight has a lot of talented amateur golfers. Golfers had to have a handicap index of 1.8 or better to qualify for that flight.
Fort Lewis College is well represented in the championship flight with men’s golf head coach Sean Griswold, men’s golf student-athletes Ronald Kildall III, Jordan Jennings, Traejan Andrews, Max Fisher, Ian Henderson and Ben Harding. FLC women’s golfer Peyton Gibby is also in the championship flight along with Durango High School assistant golf coach Kermitt Barrett.
The prize for first place is $8,000. An amateur player can win the Navajo Trail Open and it was most recently done by former FLC men’s golfer Darren Edwards in 2021.
Professionals are scheduled to start teeing off on Friday at 12:57 p.m. The pros will start at 7:15 a.m. on Saturday. All groups for the first two rounds can be found on Hillcrest’s website. Tee times and groups on Sunday will be determined by the standings.
“We also invite the community to come out,” McCloskey said. “This is a community event. The Navajo Trail Open is a fundraiser for the Hillcrest Junior Golf Foundation … We invite all to come and spectate, because it's a cool community event. It's definitely the most competitive golf tournament in the city throughout the year. So those that have a desire to come, we'd love to have them come, walk around and be involved in the championship with us.”
bkelly@durangoherald.com
