C. Paul Brown of Grand Junction, a champion of Western Slope golf both on and off the course, was voted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame on Wednesday, along with two men who made their mark on the game on the Front Range, Jim Johnson of Golden and Greg Mastriona of Westminster.
The three are scheduled to be inducted in the 42nd class of the Hall of Fame, on June 8 at the Club at Rolling Hills in Golden.
Appopriately, Johnson was the longtime PGA head professional/director of golf at Rolling Hills, collectively serving in those capacities from 1975 to 2001 before retiring.
Mastriona spent all of his career with the Hyland Hills Park and Recreation District, first as an assistant golf course superintendent at Hyland Hills Golf Course, then for 40-plus years as executive director of the district. The courses at Hyland Hills now bear the name of Mastriona, who retired at the end of 2012.
Joining the inductees in being honored on June 8 will be three recipients of special awards from the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame.
Doug Rohrbaugh, the head professional at Ironbridge Golf Club in Glenwood Springs, earned the Golf Person of the Year award after winning the HealthOne Colorado Senior Open, the Colorado PGA Professional Championship and the Colorado Senior PGA Professional Championship, plus qualifying for the U.S. Senior Open.
Colorado Golf Club in Parker, which hosted the Solheim Cup in 2013 after being the site of the 2010 Senior PGA Championship, will receive the Distinguished Service Award.
And D’Ann Kimbrel, a highly respected course superintendent at the Riverdale golf facility in Brighton for more than 25 years, gained the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Brown has had a stellar record as both a player and volunteer in Colorado golf. He served on the Colorado Golf Association Board of Governors for 19 years, beginning in 1981. And he’s been the volunteer men’s golf head coach at Colorado Mesa University since 2010.
Brown, a second-team All-Pac-10 golfer at the University of Arizona, holds the distinction of being the only amateur winner of the Rocky Mountain Open since 1966. He claimed the title in 1987. Brown also captured the Colorado West Amateur championship 13 times, and the CGA Western Chapter title five times from 1983 through ’93.
With the impending honor of Johnson, a dozen longtime members of the Colorado PGA will have been inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame since 2009. Johnson, a native of Greeley, spent a total of 31 years working at Rolling Hills, including five as an assistant professional.
As a member of the Colorado PGA, he’s won seven major awards from the Section, including Golf Professional of the Year in 1985 and Senior Player of the Year three times. He also competed in two U.S. Senior Opens and a Senior PGA Championship.
During Johnson’s years at Rolling Hills, he helped found the Ashley Forey Invitational, arguably the most prestigious girls high school tournament in the state, aside from the state meets.
Mastriona has the rare distinction of having several courses in Colorado named for him, all at Hyland Hills — 18- and 9-hole regulation layouts as well as two 9-hole par-3 courses. He was a driving force in expanding Hyland Hills from an 18-hole layout into the facility it is today. And as head of the Hyland Hills Park and Recreation District since 1972, he not only oversaw the golf courses, but a popular water park that was his brainchild, Water World.
Hyland Hills has long been highly regarded among public golf courses in Colorado, and it hosted the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship in 1990.
And Mastriona was a major proponent of junior golf throughout his career as the Hyland Hills junior program became a standard for success, with 300-500 juniors participating each summer.
