Jobe, who lived in Colorado from 1970 to ’99 and won a Colorado Open, three CGA Match Plays and a CGA Amateur, tied for eighth on Saturday in the Mitsubishi Electric Championship on the Big Island in Hawaii.

Jobe (left) shot three consecutive rounds in the 60s — 69-69-68 — to post a 10-under-par 206 total, which left him seven strokes back of champion Tom Lehman, who posted back-to-back 65s to close the tourament. In Saturday’s final round, Jobe made an eagle, five birdies and three bogeys.

Jobe, 53, has now recorded 21 top-10 finishes in 65 PGA Tour Champions events, which means he hits that standard nearly a third of the time. He’s finished in the top 20 in the Schwab Cup standings each of his three full seasons on the circuit. Jobe’s lone win to date on the senior circuit came in 2017 at the Principal Charity Classic in Iowa.

For all the scores from the Mitsubishi Electric Championship, CLICK HERE.

— Second Top-20 of Clark’s PGA Tour Career: Denver native Wyndham Clark recorded the second-best finish of his young PGA Tour career on Sunday by tying for 18th place in the Desert Classic in La Quinta, Calif.

Clark, who won the 2010 CGA Amateur and the 2017 Pac-12 individual title at Boulder Country Club, posted rounds of 65-67-72-68 for a 16-under-par 272 total this week, which left him 10 strokes behind winner Adam Long.

Clark would have finished much higher, but back-to-back double bogeys on his back nine in Saturday’s third round proved costly.

Nevertheless, it was by far Clark’s best showing of the 2018-19 wraparound season. In 15 PGA Tour starts for his career, his only better finish was a 17th place at the Sanderson Farms Championship in October 2017. 

For scores from the Desert Classic, CLICK HERE.

This week marks the first full-field event in 2019 for any of the three major professional golf tours based in the U.S.

When the PGA Tour’s Sony Open in Hawaii starts today (Jan. 10), two players who grew up in Colorado will be in the field — Wyndham Clark and Jim Knous — along with former Fort Collins resident Sam Saunders.

Clark and Knous are rookies on the PGA Tour for the 2018-19 wraparound season after graduating from the Web.com circuit. Two other golfers who spent their entire youth in Colorado — Jennifer Kupcho and Becca Huffer — will be rookies on the LPGA Tour after successfully negotiating Q-school. The 2019 LPGA season begins on Jan. 17, though Kupcho has deferred becoming a member until she completes her college eligibility at Wake Forest in May. Former University of Colorado golfer Robyn Choi likewise will be an LPGA rookie in 2019.

The remarkable thing about this year is the number of golfers who grew up in Colorado and will be competing on the three major U.S.-based tours — PGA, LPGA and PGA Tour Champions, which starts its season on Jan. 17.

On the PGA Tour, there’s Clark, Littleton-based Knous and part-time Denver resident Kevin Stadler.

On the LPGA circuit, there’s Westminster’s Kupcho and Monument’s Huffer.

And on PGA Tour Champions, there’s Hale Irwin, Brandt Jobe and Steve Jones. And depending on how you classify Mike Reid, who lived in the Denver area for a year and a half and helped Cherry Creek High School win a state team title in 1971, he might be included as well.

Add up the total for the three major circuits, and it’s an unusually high representation from Colorado. And that’s without including other major tour golfers who have lived in the state as adults or who played their college golf in the Colorado.

Some recent historical perspective may be in order.

The number of golfers who grew up in Colorado and have competed in at least 10 tournaments on one of the three major U.S.-based tours in the last decade is relatively small, indicating how tough it is to become a regular at the very highest level of golf.

Here’s the rundown:

PGA TOUR

— Kevin Stadler 159 events since the beginning of 2009.

— Mark Hubbard 84 events.

— Brandt Jobe 80 events since the beginning of 2009.

— Shane Bertsch 65 events since the beginning of 2009.

— Jonathan Kaye 28 events since the beginning of 2009.

— Leif Olson 22 events since the beginning of 2009.

— Wyndham Clark 13 events.

LPGA TOUR

— Jill McGill 38 events since the beginning of 2009.

PGA TOUR CHAMPIONS

— Hale Irwin 159 events since the beginning of 2009.

— Mike Reid 130 events since the beginning of 2009.

— Steve Jones 68 events.

— Brandt Jobe 64 events.

— R.W. Eaks 49 events since the beginning of 2009.

So with eight or nine Colorado-grown golfers competing on the big-three U.S.-based golf tours this year alone, it’s certainly a high-water mark for the Centennial State.

In fact, on the women’s side, just one golfer who grew up in Colorado has competed in an LPGA Tour event since the end of 2013 — Kupcho, who has played in three since 2016.

For a look at all players with strong Colorado connections on major professional tours around the world, CLICK HERE to view our weekly local pro roundup, which is updated weekly.

After placing 20th in 2016 and ninth last year, Jobe wrapped up the 2018 season on Sunday by finishing 20th in Schwab points.

The Kent Denver graduate — winner of one Colorado Open, three CGA Match Plays and one CGA Amateur — ended up 19th on Sunday in the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship at Phoenix Country Club. He shot rounds of 69-69-67-71 for an 8-under-par 276 total, leaving him 14 strokes behind champion Vijay Singh.

This season, Jobe (pictured) didn’t win — his lone Champions victory came in 2017 — but he recorded six top-10 finishes. That includes a second in the Ally Challenge and two top-fives in senior majors — at the Constellation Senior Players (third) and the U.S. Senior Open at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs (fifth).

Jobe turned 53 on Aug. 1.
 

Despite a bogey on his final hole, Laird shared seventh place Sunday in the Sanderson Farms Championship in Jackson, Miss.

The Scotsman (left) recorded rounds of 72-67-66-70 for a 13-under-par 275 total, which left him eight strokes behind winner Cameron Champ.

The last better showing by Laird came in the 2017 Quicken Loans National, where he placed third. He also tied for seventh last April in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, a team event where his partner was Russell Knox.

Laird now has 36 top-10 finishes in his PGA Tour career, including three wins.

Also in the Sanderson Farms Championship, part-time Denver resident Kevin Stadler made his first PGA Tour start since 2015, but missed the cut by two after rounds of 70-75. Stadler will tee it up again at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, which starts Thursday in Las Vegas. For more on Stadler’s return, CLICK HERE.
 

Jobe Back in Champions Season Finale: Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Brandt Jobe, like Stadler a product of Kent Denver High School, will advance to the final event of the PGA Tour Champions Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs.

Jobe finished 37th on Sunday in the Invesco QQQ Championship in Thousand Oaks, Calif., but easily made the field for the 36-player Charles Schwab Cup Championship, which will be held Nov. 8-11 in Phoenix.

Jobe will go into the season finale 19th on the Schwab Points list, having dropped two spots from last week.

It will be the third straight year Jobe has qualified for the Charles Schwab Cup Championship.

One player with Colorado ties who didn’t advance on Sunday — and therefore saw his season end — was former Castle Pines resident Esteban Toledo, who finished 51st in Charles Schwab Cup points.
 

Seventy-four players were in the field for the Dominion Energy Charity Classic, which concluded on Sunday in Richmond, Va. The top 54 in the Schwab Cup standings advance to the Invesco QQQ Championship, which starts Friday in Thousand Oaks, Calif. Then the top 36 after that event will compete in the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship in Phoenix Nov. 8-11.

After a 23rd-place finish on Sunday, Jobe (pictured) is 17th on the points list. Toledo dropped two spots, to No. 50, but kept his season alive. Hallberg fell one spot, to No. 63, and was eliminated from the playoffs.

With a second-place finish on Sunday — behind champion Woody Austin — Bernhard Langer remains the leader in the Charles Schwab Cup points standings.

The winner of the Charles Schwab Cup will receive a $1 million bonus.

The Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs, which includes the last three events of the PGA Tour Champions season, begins next week at the Dominion Energy Charity Classic in Richmond, Va.

Only 72 players — based primarily on the 2018 Champions season-long money list — advance to the playoffs. And that total includes three golfers with strong Colorado connections — Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Brandt Jobe (pictured), former Castle Pines resident Esteban Toledo and Boulder County resident Gary Hallberg.

After the regular-season-ending SAS Championship, which concluded on Sunday in Cary, N.C., Jobe stands 16th on the Charles Schwab Cup points list, while Toledo is 48th and Hallberg 62nd.

Two of Hallberg’s four top-30 finishes this season on PGA Tour Champions came in his final two starts of the regular season as he placed eighth at the PURE Insurance Championship and 26th in the SAS Championship. The strong performances this fall landed him a spot in the playoffs.

With bonuses going to the top five finishers in the Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs, the top 54 players will advance to the Invesco QQQ Championship Oct. 26-28 and 36 will make it to the Charles Schwab Cup Championship Nov. 8-11.

The winner of the Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs will receive a $1 million bonus.
 

It came by the slimmest of margins, but a second player who grew up in Colorado will be a rookie on the PGA Tour in the 2018-19 wraparound season.

Wyndham Clark earned his card by finishing in the top 25 — 18th in his case — on the regular-season Web.com Tour money list.

Then on Sunday, Jim Knous of Littleton also landed a promotion by placing in the top 25 on the cumulative money list for the four-event Web.com Tour Finals.

How did Knous do it? By earning the 25th — and last — card available through the Web Finals. In fact, just $490 in Finals earnings separated Knous from player No. 26, Justin Lower, who will have to make do with a return to the Web.com circuit in 2019.

Talk about being on the bubble.

“It was a brutal day emotionally,” said Knous, who made a key 5-foot save for par on his final hole Sunday. “I wasn’t quite sure how much my performance would affect the overall outcome. It kind of just depended on what everybody else did. That’s pretty terrifying. So I really just kind of did my best to stay calm and inside I was really freaking out and just super psyched that at the end of the day finished right there on No. 25.”

Knous is one of five Web Finals graduates who will be PGA Tour rookies.

Knous (pictured) was inside the Finals top 25 after each Finals event as he set himself up nicely with a 10th-place showing in the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship late last month.

But throughout the season-ending Web.com Tour Championship that ended on Sunday in Atlantic Beach, Fla., Knous was right around the Finals bubble — meaning the 25th spot.

But despite finishing 57th in the Tour Championship, Knous withstood the challenges to end up 25th on the Finals money list. The former Colorado School of Mines golfer carded rounds of 67-69-70-71 for a 7-under-par 277 total in Atlantic Beach.

Not surprisingly, when Knous walked up to be presented his PGA Tour card on Sunday afternoon, he pumped his fist in the air.

Knous will go into the upcoming PGA Tour season with the lowest priority of the 50 Web players who earned cards. But that’s certainly eminently better than being on the outside looking in. The 2018-19 PGA Tour season begins Oct. 4-7 with the Safeway Open in Napa, Calif.

Knous, an NCAA Division II individual runner-up as a senior at Mines in 2012, has spent the last two years on the Web.com Tour, recording four top-10 finishes — three of them coming since mid-July. The 28-year-old Basalt native tied for fourth in both the Utah Championship and the WinCo Foods Portland Open.

Coincidentally, Clark and Knous played off for the title at the 2010 CGA Amateur at Boulder Country Club, with Clark prevailing on the second extra hole after Knous had shot a course-record 60 in the final round.
 

Second Straight Champions Top-5 for Jobe: The final round certainly wasn’t what Brandt Jobe was looking for, but for the second straight week, the Colorado Golf Hall of Famer recorded a top-five finish on PGA Tour Champions.

Jobe shared the lead going into the final round of the Sanford International in Sioux Falls, S.D., but a 2-over-par 72 on Sunday dropped him back to a tie for fourth place.

That showing comes after finishing a season-best second last weekend at The Ally Challenge following a six-week layoff due to a hurt left shoulder.

In South Dakota, Jobe went 63-67-72 for an 8-under-par 202 total, which left him five shots behind champion Steve Stricker.
 

Jobe, who held the solo lead after day 1, shot rounds of 65-71-67 for a 13-under-par 201 total in The Ally Challenge in Grand Bland, Mich., where Paul Broadhurst won by two after a final-hole birdie.

After parring nine straight holes on the front nine on Sunday, Jobe (left) shot a bogey-free 5-under-par 31 on the back side.

It was Jobe’s ninth top-three finish in 59 starts on PGA Tour Champions. He’s won once, placed second twice and third six times.

“It’s frustrating because you only get so many chances, right?” Jobe said. “I had a good chance today, especially the way I played the back nine. Gosh, I mean, 18 I’ve got L-wedge in, I hit it 15 feet on 17. So every hole I had a great chance on the back nine; that’s all you can ask for. I just didn’t get it done, which is frustrating.”

With the showing, Jobe jumped up to 16th on the 2018 PGA Tour Champions money list. His long layoff was due primarily to problems with his left shoulder.
 

Knous’ Status Hangs in Balance Heading into Season Finale: Whether Jim Knous of Littleton joins Colorado native Wyndham Clark in earning a PGA Tour card through the 2018 Web.com Tour season will come down to the final event of the year.

Clark landed his PGA Tour playing privileges by finishing in the top 25 on the Web’s regular-season money list. Now Knous, a former Colorado School of Mines golfer, is trying to do likewise by placing in the top 25 on the cumulative money list for the four-event Web Finals.

Knous came into the week 16th on the Finals money list, but dropped a a spot by placing 24th Sunday in the penultimate event of the season, the Albertsons Boise Open in Idaho.

Knous carded scores of 69-67-69-69, but bogeyed his final two holes on Sunday for a 10-under-par 274 total, which left him nine strokes behind winner Sangmoon Bae.

So Knous’ goal will be to remain in the top 25 on the Web Finals money list at the conclusion of the Web.com Tour Championship, which is set for Thursday through next Sunday in Atlantic Beach, Fla.

Boulder Native Cunningham Earns Web.com Tour Card: Boulder native and former Louisville resident George Cunningham assured himself of his Web.com Tour card for 2019 on Sunday by placing in the top three for the second straight week on PGA Tour Canada.

Cunningham — grandson of the late Chuck Melvin, who played in six Colorado Cup matches — earned his promotion by finishing in the top five on the PGA Tour Canada’s season-long money list (second in his case, with $102,167).

Cunningham, winner of the GolfBC Championship in June, tied for second Sunday at the season-ending Freedom 55 Financial Championship in London, Ontario., a week after placing third in the Mackenzie Investments Open. This week, he shot scores of 67-66-66-64 for a 17-under-par 263 total, which left him two strokes behind champion Danny Walker.

“I’ve learned a ton this year,” Cunningham said. “I’m such a different player, I feel like, from when I was in college, and I thought I was playing really well in college. Every single thing I’ve learned this year is off the charts.”   

In fact, two locals posted top-four finishes on such tours.

Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Brandt Jobe (left) placed a season-best third in a PGA Tour Champions major, the Constellation Senior Players Championship in Highland Park, Ill.

And Denver-area resident Jim Knous tied for fourth in the Web.com Tour’s Utah Championship in Farmington after leading going into the final round.

Jobe, who finished fifth in the U.S. Senior Open at The Broadmoor two weeks ago, continued his stellar player in senior majors. He’s now competed in a dozen such events since 2016 and owns eight top-10 showings and seven top-5s.

Jobe was tied for the lead with three holes left in his round Sunday at the Senior Players, but finished two strokes behind Vijay Singh and Jeff Maggert, who played off for the title, with Singh winning.

Jobe, who lived in Colorado for 29 years, went 67-67-70-66 for an 18-under-par 270 total. He moved up to No. 15 on this year’s PGA Tour Champions money list with $605,613.

Meanwhile, Knous posted his best finish ever on the Web.com Tour with his fourth-place showing on Sunday.

Knous set the 54-hole scoring record for the Utah Championship by posting scores of 65-64-62. But the Colorado School of Mines golfer couldn’t get his putter working on Sunday and shot a 72 for a 21-under-par 263 total. That left him three strokes behind winner Cameron Champ.

Despite a final-hole bogey, Sunday’s showing was worth $30,800 for Knous.

Even closer to Colorado, the Wyoming State Open wrapped up on Sunday in Cheyenne, and though Colorado PGA professional Geoff Keffer took home the top professional prize of $10,000, he finished runner-up in the event to amateur John Murdock, a University of Wyoming golfer from Laramie.

Murdock shot rounds of 63-67-65 at Airport Golf Course, giving him a winning total of 15-under 195. Keffer, a five-time Colorado PGA Player of the Year, finished a stroke behind after going 61-66-69.

Doug Rohrbaugh of Carbondale, the 2013 CoBank Colorado Senior Open champion, won the senior pro division in Cheyenne, going 68-70-71 for a 1-under-par 209.

For scores from the Wyoming State Open, CLICK HERE.
 

Brandt Jobe has won so much in Colorado over the years, but on the biggest of stages, he’s had to settle for being heart-wrenchingly close.

It happened at the PGA Tour’s International at Castle Pines in 2005, when he led by nine points early in the final round in the modified Stableford format, only to finish second for one of the four times he did on golf’s top tour. And as it turned out, Jobe never did win on the PGA Tour.

Then on Sunday, Jobe, who was back in the state where he lived from 1970 to ’99, was tied for the lead at the U.S. Senior Open with three holes left at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs. Alas, a bogey on the 15th hole — his only one in the final dozen holes — foiled his chances. The 52-year-old Colorado Golf Hall of Famer shot an even-par 70 on Sunday and tied for fifth place at 1-under 279, two strokes behind champion David Toms.

“It would have been cool” to win in his old home state, Jobe said. “That was my goal. That would have been so cool. Two unbelievable chances (this and the 2005 International). It was out there for me. As well as I was putting — which was crazy because I putted so bad the first two days — but I putted so good the last two days. I guess it wasn’t meant to be. It wasn’t my day.”

Jobe (pictured) has won a Colorado Open, three CGA Match Plays and a CGA Amateur in Colorado, in addition to some state junior titles. And, coincidentally, his first two CGA Match Play victories came at The Broadmoor, on what was then known as the South Course.

And it looked like he might notch another victory at the resort on Sunday, albeit of a much bigger variety. After making numerous par saves and sinking a 35-foot downhill breaker for birdie on No. 8 and a 5-footer at No. 1, Jobe shared the lead on the 15th tee.

There, though, he pulled his 2-iron tee shot into a fairway bunker that was 290 yards out. His next shot finished in the rough short of the green, and after a nice pitch, he missed a 6-foot par putt, taking a bogey. With playing partner Paul Goydos making a birdie on the same hole, Jobe was quickly two behind. And he couldn’t catch up.

“It feels like a lost opportunity,” said Jobe, who has one PGA Tour Champions win, but was looking for his biggest title.

“The 15th hole was my undoing,” he said. “It kind of took me out of it. I hit my 2-iron this week unbelievable. But there I pulled it. I didn’t think it got to the bunker, which would have been alright because I only had a wedge in. It was the worst 2-iron I hit all week, which was surprising.

“They fluffed (the sand in) the bunkers and I had no chance. I was in the middle of the bunker and it should have been at least a decent lie to have a chance. I’ve got nothing. It was either blade it into the grandstands or chunk it down front (so he did the latter). I hit a great chip and hit a good putt but misread it.”

Jobe was trying to become the third player to win the U.S. Senior Open after growing up in Colorado, following Dale Douglass (1986) and Hale Irwin (1998 and 2000).

“There are going to be guys losing sleep over this championship,” FS1 analyst Paul Azinger said, speaking of several contenders.

On the positive side, Jobe notched his seventh top-10 finish in senior majors. He’s been third and fifth in the U.S. Senior Open, second and fourth in the Senior Players, third and eighth in the Senior PGA, and fifth in the Senior British Open.

“At the end of the day, I guess I was maybe fortunate to have a chance because I didn’t play as well as I would have liked to,” said Jobe, who was competing in Colorado for the first time in a dozen years. “Whenever you’re that close, you’ve got to kind of take it. And I didn’t.”

But it was “a great week. I enjoyed it. They did a great job. That was how it should be. It was so hard it drove us crazy. But at the end of the day, good players are going to win.”

Low Am Wilson Matches Giles’ Feat: Jeff Wilson of Fairfield, Calif., became just the second player ever to claim low-amateur honors at both the U.S. Open and the U.S. Senior Open by hitting the mark in the latter on Sunday. He joined Vinny Giles in that elite club after having been the top amateur in the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.

“He was a great amateur player and to be mentioned in the same light as that, that’s terrific,” Wilson said of Giles. “I haven’t really thought about it. I was really trying to kind of just finish. You can’t get ahead of yourself or bad things could happen real quick. But that’s awesome.”

Wilson finished 31st overall at 10-over-par 290 after a final-round 73. Mike Finster was second among amateurs at 293.

Notable: Among those watching the action again Sunday at The Broadmoor was Broncos general manager John Elway (left, in striped shirt), the honorary chairman of the U.S. Senior Open. … Jerry Kelly, who led after the first three rounds and finished second on Sunday, said his son is attending school in Boulder, at the University of Colorado, and that the family is considering buying a home in the Centennial State. … On a blustery day, only three players shot under par on Sunday — Duffy Waldorf (68), Miguel Angel Jimenez (69) and Paul Broadhurst (69). That’s the fewest in the final round of a U.S. Senior Open since 1991 at Oakland Hills in Bloomfield Township, Mich., where there were two.