The Colorado men’s golf team is back in the hosting business this week, with the 16th annual Mark Simpson-Colorado Invitational set for Boulder Country Club and the Les Fowler Individual Invitational running at Bear Creek Golf Club in Southwest Denver.
The Simpson and Fowler events carry familiar names for CU. They honor Les Fowler, who coached the Buffaloes from 1948-77, and Mark Simpson, who led the program from 1977-2005.
Both men also played for Colorado, and each spent 29 years at the helm. Current head coach Roy Edwards, now in his 21st season, created both tournaments to recognize them.
At Boulder Country Club, Arkansas State returns as the defending champion after edging Colorado by a stroke last September at Colorado National Golf Club. This year’s course is a par-70, 7,085-yard layout, and BCC is hosting the event for the third time after previously serving as the site in 2015 and 2022. The Simpson will play two rounds Tuesday before the final round Wednesday.
Colorado will have all nine players in action in the Simpson, with four competing as individuals. The five counting toward the team score are seniors Brandon Knight and Ty Holbrook, juniors Parker Paxton and Asher Whitaker, and sophomore Tyler Long.
Tuesday’s opening round begins with a shotgun start at 8:15 a.m., with CU starting on holes 1 through 4 and grouped with Utah, Wyoming and the University of San Diego. The field will finish the first round and go right into the second.
The four Buffs playing individually are graduate Jackson Rivera, sophomore Casey Kosney and freshmen Gavin Amella and Colt Farrow.
The Simpson field includes 17 teams: Colorado, Arkansas State, Air Force, Boise State, Colorado State, Denver, Long Beach State, Missouri-Kansas City, Nevada, Northern Colorado, Pacific, San Diego, Texas-El Paso, Utah, Utah State, Utah Valley and Wyoming. Live results are available at https://scoreboard.clippd.com/tournaments/245531.
Meanwhile, the Fowler is an individual-only event with no team scoring. It was last held in 2024 and before that in 2019.
The field at Bear Creek includes players from Air Force, BYU, Colorado Christian, Colorado-Mines, Colorado State, Denver, Garden City CC, Long Beach State, Nevada, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. Bear Creek is a par-72 course stretching 7,276 yards and sits between Southwest Denver and Morrison, near Red Rocks Amphitheater.
That tournament opens with two rounds Monday at 8 a.m. and wraps up with the third and final round Tuesday. Live results are posted at https://2026lesfowler.golfgenius.com/pages/13089840177457695210.
This is already Colorado’s fourth tournament of the young season, all of them coming since Sept. 14.
The Buffs started with a runner-up finish in San Diego’s Vuori Invitational, losing to No. 13 Arkansas by one stroke, then rolled to a 15-shot win at the Air Force Gene Miranda Falcon Invitational before placing seventh at the New Mexico William H.
Tucker Invitational on Saturday.
Colorado has had plenty of success in the Simpson over the years, winning it outright five times and sharing the title three more times. The Buffs’ last outright win came in 2019, and they have finished second in each of the last four years by a combined eight strokes.
“Certainly we are excited to host the Simpson once again at Boulder Country Club, and to show off its freshly completed renovation,” Edwards said. “BCC is one of our main home courses along with Colorado National and TPC Colorado we are proud to call our own.
“We have had a really good start to the year with the only speed bump being the final round of the Tucker,” he continued. “We expect our guys to come out hungry and determined to play well this week. We have a great field of teams coming into Boulder and we encourage any and all to come out and watch.”
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