A thousand miles away from the U.S. Women’s Open at Riviera Country Club, Green Valley Ranch Golf Club in Denver, Colo., hosts the most lucrative women’s state open in America. The tournament has helped launch players to the Epson and LPGA Tours. Two players near the top of the leaderboard at Riviera this week, Lauren Coughlin (T25) and Jennifer Kupcho (T3) are both past champions of the Colorado Women’s Open.
For Epson Tour member and Colorado native, Becca Huffer, the tournament is a lifeline that has kept her career going. Huffer became the first three-time winner of the Colorado Women’s Open on Friday, with a thrilling final-round 67.
“Having more opportunities to play for good purses is huge," Huffer says. "It’s pretty awesome that the first-place check for the men and women are the same. You don’t see that at other tournaments.”
The 35-year-old Notre Dame alumna has been playing golf professionally since she graduated in 2012. She spent most of her career on the Epson Tour, with one full season on the LPGA in 2019 and conditional LPGA status in 2024.
Huffer calls herself a “a good deal-finder,” which is how she’s been able to scrape by after years on the Epson Tour. She’s also never lost money on the mini tours and that’s in large part because of the CWO. For the win at this year’s tournament, she takes home $50,000, bringing her lifetime CWO earnings over $175,000.
Huffer trailed amateur Lavanya Gupta by two heading into the final round after scores of 69 and 70. Her good friend and fellow Epson Tour member, Clariss Guce, was tied with Huffer at 5-under through two rounds. After the second round, Guce, a two-time Epson Tour winner, noticed something in Huffer’s setup on the range.
“She came up on the range and said your hands are way too far forward,” Huffer says. It turned out to be the most valuable (or costly, depending on your perspective) observation of the week.
Huffer striped it in the final round and all the pieces of her game came together. She made four birdies, turned in 32 and had the lead. Then she added three more birdies at 10, 11, 12 to take total control. At 7-under through 12, she had the course record in her sights. But it’s been seven years since her last CWO win and closing a golf tournament is never easy.
At the beginning of May, she started using a long putter and saw immediate results. In her first Epson event with the new putter in Las Vegas, Huffer posted a third round 62 and finished T5. The broomstick has been solid since.
“It freed up my game,” she says. “I haven’t shot over par with it yet.”
She felt nervous on the closing holes at Green Valley Ranch. Quick strokes led to short misses.
Huffer gave one back with a bogey at the long par-4 15th. She dropped another on both 16 and 17. By the time Huffer stood on the 18th tee, she had squandered the lead and lost her momentum.
But Huffer was in her home state at a tournament she’d won twice. Her younger brother, Zach, was caddying. She’d been tantalizingly close to earning her full LPGA card in recent years and battled through more on-course challenges than she could count. The veteran wasn’t about to collapse.
“It’s just another golf hole. It doesn’t matter. Just go play golf,” Zach said.
It was their dad’s birthday, and he had been cheering the duo on all day. As it’s the one tournament a year her dad gets to watch, Huffer wanted to give him a birthday to remember.
She collected herself and hit three solid shots on the long par-5 to eight-feet.
“Just relax and make a good stroke. It’s a good result no matter what,” Zach said. It was a left-edge putt, and Huffer felt her nerves settle.
“I hit it and the second I looked up I knew it was in,” she says.
The putt dropped, taking her to 10-under for the tournament. Now she had to wait for Guce, in the final group, who had a 20-footer to force a playoff. When the putt missed, Huffer won her third Colorado Women’s Open.
“We’re friends and both want to see each other succeed,” Huffer says of Guce. “But I’m also a competitor and I want to win. I told her I owe her some ice cream for my lesson.”
Huffer’s family celebrated her dad’s birthday with cake after the win.
“Getting to be a three-time winner is super cool,” Huffer says. “It’s huge. It’s helped fund my career.”
There’s little time to rest. Huffer is headed to Michigan for an Epson Tour event next week.
“I feel like I’m playing some of my very best golf,” she says. “Getting to roll into the rest of the season with this confidence will be good. Hopefully it continues.”
