Karen Spaulding grew up in Puerto Rico and Connecticut, where she developed a love for skiing and sailing. In high school, she came across a ski magazine highlighting Colorado’s fresh powder — a stark contrast to the icy conditions back East — and decided to pursue college in Colorado. She attended the University of Colorado Boulder before earning her law degree from Northwestern School of Law at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. After graduation, she returned to Colorado, where she built a long career in private practice as a commercial litigation attorney.
Spaulding was first introduced to golf by her father around the age of 12 or 13, playing at a public course in Norwalk, Connecticut with a set of mismatched clubs pieced together from a local department store. She continued playing casually in college before getting more involved in the game after returning to Colorado from law school. In 1999, she joined a Friday afternoon group at Applewood Golf Course, which sparked her long-standing involvement in the Applewood golf community. Since 2023, she has been a member of the Applewood Ladies League and has served as its Rules Chair since 2024. She was also the 2024 Applewood Ladies Co-Champion and the 2025 Applewood Ladies Champion.
KK: You recently retired from a long career in commercial litigation — what kind of work were you doing, and what did you enjoy most about it?
KS: I started off at the Colorado Attorney General’s Office working in labor and civil rights. I did that for a couple of years and then got into private practice — workers’ compensation litigation and commercial litigation. I’ve been doing commercial litigation, and principally for the last 20 years, I’ve been at Beatty & Wozniak, which is an energy law firm.
We represent energy companies, oil and gas companies, and we litigate on their behalf, either if they have complaints on the plaintiff side or if they are on the defense side. Litigation — business litigation — can be a long slog. It can go on for years and years at a time, and 98 percent of the cases get settled, but the ones that go to trial are pretty intense. That’s a fun aspect of litigation, actually getting to trial and being able to conduct your direct exam and your cross exam and have the jury or the judge decide one way or the other.
I semi-retired in January 2023 and have been working part-time on one case for one client. It finally just settled this month. I’ve also done a lot of employment law over the years and still get calls with employment-related questions, so I’m keeping a little bit busy — but with more time now to play golf.
KK: You’ve been involved in the Applewood golf community for many years — how did you first hear about the CGA and get connected?
KS: I got involved with the CGA through Applewood when I started in the Applewood Ladies League. I joined that in 2023. I knew tangentially of the CGA, but with the Friday Afternoon Club, the ladies were not really interested in doing anything other than just hitting socially. Nobody really got into scoring or handicapping or any other aspect of the CGA.
I’ve been in the Friday League since 1999, but the 18-hole ladies league has been part of the CGA, and that’s how I got more connected.
KK: When did you join the CGA Board, and how did that come about?
KS: One of our financial planners over at Northwestern Mutual was Ed Mate’s niece, so she introduced me to Ed. Before I became a board member, he wanted to try to implement a system at CommonGround where there were more marshals out there helping people get around the course in a timely manner. So, in the summer of 2024, I said, yeah, I’ll come on out and help.
I got to help with the Tagmarshal preview, figuring out how that worked and getting the golf carts geolocated and all that kind of stuff. Then I interviewed in November of 2024, and they voted on me at the December 2024 meeting. I officially became a board member starting in 2025.
KK: What does your involvement with the CGA look like right now?
KS: I have not yet been asked to serve on a specific committee, so I got involved in other ways. I started working with the Solich Caddie and Leadership Academy. Last year was my first year — I went to one of the Evans Scholar selection meetings where they do interviews and choose the caddies for the Evans Scholarship.
Gary, my husband, and I started mentoring caddies last summer and are doing it again this summer. I just love going out there with the caddies and helping them out. They’re such a great group of kids — really nice, wanting to learn, wanting to talk. You can see their confidence grow over the course of the summer.
I also got involved in birdwatching at CommonGround. Joe McCleary led that group, and they wanted someone else to help. I had never done birdwatching before, but I signed up and got a pair of binoculars. It’s been really fun, and I know the course better now so I can help keep people safe while they’re out there.
KK: Is there a CGA project or initiative that stands out as especially meaningful to you?
KS: Definitely the caddies. Tagmarshal was just a couple of months, but working with the Solich caddies has been really meaningful — doing that most of last summer and continuing again this year.
Mentoring them has been the most rewarding part. Seeing how much they grow, even just over one summer, is really special.
KK: You’ve been playing golf for a long time — is there a favorite memory or moment that stands out?
KS: My two holes-in-one were pretty cool. Both were after the season was over. At Applewood on October 14, 2023, I got a hole-in-one on the 14th hole. That was my first one, and I had never seen a hole-in-one before — in person — so that was pretty special.
Then on November 16, 2025, I was at Lake Arbor with some friends, and on the 15th hole I hit a 9-iron in for another hole-in-one.
I also had a really funny eagle at Evergreen. I shanked my second shot into the woods, it hit a rock, came out onto the green, and rolled into the hole. That was pretty fun. A lot of those moments are just the luck of the draw.
KK: If you could give one piece of advice to your younger self — or to women getting into golf today — what would it be?
KS: I think there are a lot more opportunities for young golfers now — whether it’s First Tee, Youth on Course, or other programs — to get into golf and stay in golf. I really didn’t have that opportunity as a kid.
So, I would say if kids are able to get involved, that’s something I wish I had. There are so many more ways now to get started and stick with the game.
KK: Is there anything else you’d like people to know about you or the CGA?
KS: With the CGA’s mission of making golf — and all it has to offer — available to everyone, I think the organization is doing a great job. Getting kids involved through schools, Youth on Course, Team Colorado, the Solich Academy, and the Evans Scholarship — all of that is really important.
I think the CGA is doing a great job of growing the game.
