Could TPC Colorado, host of a Korn Ferry Tour event since 2019, become site of a future PGA Tour event? There have been discussions
By Gary Baines – 6/16/2026
BERTHOUD — Including major championships, 35 PGA Tour events have been contested in Colorado over the years.
One question worth considering is, will PGA Tour event No. 36 in the state be held at TPC Colorado in Berthoud, which on July 9-12 will host what is now known as The Blue Championship on the Korn Ferry Tour for the eighth time.
With the PGA Tour in the midst of revamping its schedule, two weeks ago Golfweek reported a source told the outlet “that in addition to Chicago, Denver and Nashville will be off the Korn Ferry Tour schedule moving forward and are markets that the (PGA) Tour wants to play in as early as 2028, potentially with existing sponsors assuming control of those new events.”
Boston, Philadelphia and San Francisco reportedly are also being considered as areas the PGA Tour is considering, according to Sports Business Journal.
With The Blue Championship holding a media day on Tuesday, Colorado Golf Journal asked Jon Turner — a co-owner and developer at TPC Colorado who has been involved at a very high level with the Colorado Korn Ferry Tour stop since the beginning — if there has been discussions about the KFT event possibly evolving into a PGA Tour event.
Turner’s response:
“They won’t tell me because I talk too much,” he said. “So I’m not even in the conversations. They don’t even want to tell me. I would like to know. I asked if there’s been discussions and there have been discussions. But they won’t give me the input. I heard a good Benjamin Franklin quote the other day on a TV show on Apple, and it was, ‘the best way for three people to keep a secret is if two of them are dead.’”
The new trophy for the Korn Ferry Tour’s Blue Championship at TPC Colorado.
Of course, just because there are discussions doesn’t mean that anything necessarily will come to fruition regarding a PGA Tour event coming to Colorado in general — or to TPC Colorado specifically. But apparently it’s a possibility.
PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp has indicated that he plans to update the media regarding future schedules next week during the Travelers Championship in Cromwell, Conn.
TPC Colorado certainly would figure to be attractive to the PGA Tour in several respects. The course has proven to be a good test for players from the Korn Ferry Tour — the feeder circuit for the PGA Tour — with winning scores over four rounds ranging from 15 under par to 22 under. The Tour tees at the course usually check in at just under 8,000 yards, and it has drivable par-4s like No. 3, 6 and 10. But at the other end of the spectrum is a 773-yard par-5 (No. 13). KFT champions at TPC Colorado have included such notable players as Will Zalatoris and Neal Shipley.
“The course works,” said Turner, who noted that the tour had some say about how various aspects of TPC Colorado were laid out and built. “The course was designed for a major event.”
TPC Colorado definitely is picturesque.
In addition, twice in the past seven years The Blue Championship has been held, it’s been named the Korn Ferry Tour Tournament of the Year. And though it has never received full-blown live TV coverage, TPC Colorado is very picturesque, with large reservoirs bordering the course to the west, with full-on views of some of the area’s top peaks serving as a stellar backdrop.
On the other hand, a title sponsor willing to pony up some big bucks each year would have to be secured before a PGA Tour event came to TPC Colorado — or any other site in the state. And it would have to be determined if the infrastructure — including plenty of available lodging within fairly close proximity to a host course — would be deemed adequate for a PGA Tour tournament.
Those are hurdles that would have to be overcome for the PGA Tour to hold an event in Colorado on a regular basis.
“Once they even pick you, you still have to come up with the sponsor money,” Turner said. “And you’ve got to have a sponsor with mid-7 numbers here.
“One of the reasons it’s hard is hotel space up here. So our hotel space is Loveland, and they don’t consider Denver close enough. Probably Boulder would have enough hotel rooms. One of the problems is, our hotels in the summer are already really full. … So even though we have the hotel rooms, there are so many summer events in Colorado that it’s hard to get available hotel rooms. I’m not saying it’s an uphill battle. I think the players want to play here. I not only think that, I know they want to play here, because they enjoy the course, they enjoy the facility.
“It’s what type of sponsor could host an event here? It almost has to be a national sponsor. … It’s kind of far-fetched that a regional sponsor can even shoulder something” like that.
Blue Federal Credit Union is taking over title sponsorship of the Korn Ferry Tour event at TPC Colorado this year after being presenting sponsor in recent years.
“I do believe that this tournament still serves its purpose,” Stephanie Propps, president and CEO of Blue Federal Credit Union, told Colorado Golf Journal on Tuesday. “I don’t know that it’ll get replaced by a bigger PGA Tour event. If it did, I’d be surprised just because I think this is such a feeder for — and such an opportunity for — players to come and get a taste of what it’s like to be on the PGA (Tour) but not quite on the PGA. So I don’t anticipate that would happen.
“… We really like being a part of something that has more to do with development and the next step for players, as opposed to being already on the (PGA) Tour. There’s just something special about being a part of this piece of it. It’d be interesting to see if that actually happened though.”
TPC Colorado has the length to host a potential PGA Tour event, with No. 13 stretching out to 773 yards.
Propps said the company would have to evaluate its position if such a PGA Tour opportunity presented itself to what has been a Korn Ferry Tour event.
“We really like this location,” she said. “If this Berthoud community and this course is the path that (the PGA Tour) went, we’d have to really talk about that. Between the proximity and the location and just the fact that it’s the Korn Ferry is so compelling for us. I’m not sure if we would. We’d have to just evaluate. It’s a great question, though.”
Another question in a larger sense would be how significantly altering the PGA Tour schedule would go over with the biggest-name players, movers and shakers such as Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler and the like?
“It’s funny,” McIlroy said on Tuesday at the U.S. Open. “As they’ve done all this work, you start to realize that the way the Tour was before LIV came along was actually pretty good. It was a pretty good structure, and everything sort of worked pretty well.
“… Now that LIV looks like it’s less of a threat, I think, as I said, the old ways of the PGA Tour weren’t actually that bad.”
TV contracts and existing sponsors figure prominently into the PGA Tour scheduling as well — along with whether individual tournaments are designated Track 1 or Track 2 events.
The par-3 eighth hole at TPC Colorado.
The Denver metro area is no stranger to hosting annual PGA Tour events, though there have been just two since 2006. The International was held at Castle Pines Golf Club in Castle Rock every year from 1986 through ’06, and the Denver Open (or slight variations of that name, depending on the year) was played six times from 1947 to ’63, at venues such as Denver Country Club, Wellshire Golf Club, Cherry Hills Country Club and Meadow Hills Country Club.
There have also been plenty of one-off PGA Tour events/major championships held in Colorado, including U.S. Opens at Cherry Hills in 1938, ’60 and ’78, and PGA Championships at Cherry Hills in 1941 and ’85, and at Columbine Country Club in 1967. And the BMW Championship has paid a visit to Cherry Hills in 2014 and to Castle Pines in 2024. And with all the net proceeds from the BMW benefitting the Evans Scholarship for caddies, it’s a good bet that that stop will return to Colorado in the coming years, especially after the 2024 tournament raised a record $10.2 million.
— Regarding this year’s Blue Championship, set for July 9-12 at TPC Colorado:
Notable: Once again this year, the tournament will feature a $1 million purse, with $180,000 going to the winner. … Regis Jesuit and University of Denver grad Chris Korte, a regular on the Korn Ferry Tour this year, spoke via video during Tuesday’s media day press conference. Korte started the season with conditional status on the KFT, but a second-place finish at the Argentina Open on March 1 not only made him exempt, but put him in solid position to possibly earn one of the 20 PGA Tour cards that will go to the top players on the KFT points list at season end. But Korte missed roughly two months of the season with a wrist injury, only returning to action in late May. After the runner-up finish, the momentum “was unfortunately derailed,” he said. “… I spent 10-12 weeks doing a lot of (physical therapy), getting that wrist stronger. Luckily, no surgery was involved. It was just some tendon issues. It’s been awesome to play the last three weeks.” Korte currently sits 45th in the KFT season-long points standings. … Last year’s KFT champion at TPC Colorado, Neal Shipley, qualified for the U.S. Open last week and will tee it up at Shinnecock Hills starting Thursday. It will be Shipley’s second U.S. Open as he finished 26th in 2024 — a berth he earned with his runner-up finish in the 2023 U.S. Amateur at Cherry Hills Country Club south of Denver. “I’m just really excited for the opportunity to compete against the best in the world in a major,” Shipley said. “You only get to play in so many majors throughout your career, no matter who you are. So I’m really excited to just really enjoy the week.”
Ticket Information: Tickets remain on sale for next month’s Blue Championship at TPC Colorado, with daily grounds tickets running $10 and weekly grounds tickets $30, in addition to other options.
As has been the case in the past, kids 17 and under receive free general admission when accompanied by a ticketed adult. Military members and first responders and their families can receive free admission with a valid government ID.
Children’s Hospital Colorado is the primary beneficiary of The Blue Championship this year.
To buy tickets or for related information, CLICK HERE.
Executive Women’s Day: The Blue Championship will hold its inaugural Executive Women’s Day at the event on Thursday, July 9 at 10 a.m. at TPC Colorado. It’s being billed as a “celebration of the power and accomplishments of women in the Front Range community and beyond.”
Executive Women’s Day festivities — which cost $250 to attend — will feature a keynote address, followed by a panel discussion with Stephanie Propps (president & CEO, Blue Federal Credit Union); Jen Millet (president, Denver Summit FC NWSL); Dr. Lia Gore (chief of pediatric hematology, oncology and bone marrow transplant and the Ergen family endowed chair in pediatric oncology at Children’s Hospital Colorado); Alex Baldwin (president, Korn Ferry Tour) and Tavia Roth (executive director, Berthoud Area Chamber of Commerce).
Included will be a brunch, as well as admission to the opening round of The Blue Championship at TPC Colorado that day.
For more information about Executive Women’s Day, CLICK HERE.
Colorado Golf Journal 