Rich Langston has lived in Colorado for about 45 years now, but there’s no mistaking his West Texas roots.

He can regale anyone within earshot with mesmerizing tales or anecdotes, complete with that distinctive West Texas twang. And, after 23 seasons as a highly-regarded volunteer rules official in Colorado, he certainly has plenty of material.

For instance, ask him about his most unusual ruling, and he’ll recount a story from the final round of a CGA Public Links Championship in the mid-1990s. That was when he was stationed at the par-3 16th hole at Hyland Hills Golf Course.

He noted how a competitor hit his tee shot into a greenside bunker, and when he took his stance, the ball moved. The player asked Langston how to proceed, and Langston told him to replace the ball and add a stroke. The golfer replaced the ball, took his stance and … once again his ball moved.

“He turned around and I looked at him and he said, ‘What the hell?'” Langston remembers. “At that time, probably a 2-foot-diameter big greenback turtle raises up out of the bunker (from beneath the surface of the sand). Part of his stance was probably mashing that turtle and underneath the sand she was moving around and raised up out of there. I said, ‘Go to a different part of the bunker, drop your ball and forget about that one stroke we talked about.’ We got to looking and I raked some sand and I saw some eggs. I called the golf shop. Eventually 74-75 (turtle) eggs were pulled out of there.

“It was funny as could be. … And by this time there were about three groups backed up on the 16th tee. But it’s sort of like when you make a birdie putt on 18 — something always keeps you coming back. Well, that’s what always kept me coming back.”

But after being a mainstay as a rules official in Colorado since 1993, Langston won’t be coming back in that role — at least not on a regular basis. Langston, who turns 75 years old this week, recently sold his house in Lakewood and will be relocating on Nov. 2 or 3 with his life partner Janet to Bartlesville, Okla., just north of Tulsa.

Though he plans to return next year to work the Colorado PGA Professional Championship and possibly the CoBank Colorado Senior Open, he’ll no longer be the fixture in Colorado golf he has been. That will leave a big void, considering that he estimates he’s devoted about 1,250 tournament days over his lifetime as a rules official — not counting travel days.

“Rich is a workhorse. He carries a lot of the load,” said Mike Boster, a fellow prominent chief rules official. “It’s not going to be easy to make it up. Losing Joe (Salvo, the CGA Rules Commitee chairman who passed away) in April and Rich in the fall, we’re going to be looking for talent. Rich has just been a mainstay of our rules group. Nobody is irreplaceable but it’s not going to be easy.”

How important has Langston been to Colorado golf? Important enough that the Colorado PGA granted him honorary membership, which Langston calls “the coolest, neatest, nicest thing that I’ve ever had in my life.” (At left, Langston was presented with a flag, signed by the players, at the Colorado PGA Professional Championship by executive director Eddie Ainsworth.) And important enough that the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame gave Langston its distinguished service award.

“I’m not sure how you say thank you for all the stuff he’s done for the CGA,” executive director Ed Mate said after Langston worked his final event for the association, the Mid-Amateur, early this month at Lakewood Country Club. “It’s incredible. I’ve never met somebody who loves golf as much. What he does as a rules official is his outlet for that love of the game. He’s just as good as they come.”

Langston has run the gamut with his golf volunteerism as a rules official over the years, working events run by the CGA, CJGA, Colorado PGA, AJGA, USGA, Colorado Open championships, Colorado High School Activities Association, Junior America’s Cup, Kansas Golf Association and college events. He plans to look into helping out with selected Oklahoma Golf Association tournaments, but no longer will work anywhere close to the 70-some tournament days — with the accompanying 30-some travel days — he’s worked this year.

“Even if I didn’t have this move being planned, I would still cut back this coming year,” he said. “And it’s not because I’m an old guy. I’m still 10 foot tall and bullet-proof (said with a smile). But it’s time. When I shut my business down 11 years ago, it was time to do it. There was no other reason.”

Langston admits that his hectic rules official schedule has taken its toll.

“This last year, I think in the month of May and into June I was on the golf course or traveling to and from a golf course 26 out of 34 days,” he said. “I was tired. There were a couple of days I really wasn’t ready to be on the golf course. It wasn’t because of the event or the people or the players; it was me. I was tired. And one time during that stretch there was 13 straight days. Maybe I’d have liked to play a round or two of golf in the springtime. I mean, sometime you’ve got to take your laundry to the cleaners. Sometimes you’re hard-pressed to find time to go get the oil changed in your car.”

But there’s also a care-free reason for cutting back.

“I’m going to be 75. If you hit ‘three-quarters’, what you ought to do is just go play like Lewis and Clark,” Langston said. “You just start a brand-new adventure. And Janet is game for it. I’ve been in Denver for 45 or 47 years, and she’s been here for 24 years. Denver has been good to us, but I’m not going to miss certain things about Denver, and there’s going to be things that I will miss. But as far as taking an hour and 15 minutes to drive crosstown at 6 in the morning because of traffic, I can live without that.”

Langston, who retired 11 years ago after owning a construction business, took a shine to Bartlesville a number of years ago when he was visiting Bryan Heim, a former Cherry Hills Country Club assistant professional who had taken a job as PGA head professional at Hillcrest Country Club in the Oklahoma town. Heim has since returned to Colorado as PGA head professional at Columbine Country Club.

Langston was working the Ping Junior Invitational in Oklahoma when he made the side trip to visit with Heim and his family.

“I just really liked what I saw in Bartlesville,” he said. “It’s a town of 35,000 but the feel of the town is more like a town of 300,000 or 400,000. … They’ve always taken care of the town. So many smaller communities anymore — especially those outside a metro area — have experienced some decay. I hate it; it’s not what I grew up with. In Bartlesville, they’ve taken care of it nicely. And it’s an affordable town.

“Bartlesville felt right. (But) I don’t know anybody there; I don’t know a soul.”

After getting in only four rounds of golf so far in 2015, Langston is looking forward to playing more, rather than just observing others playing. (Though he didn’t do it this year, Langston has shot his age — or better — about a half-dozen times.) And Hillcrest CC in Bartlesville is a Perry Maxwell design, and Langston loves courses designed by Maxwell.

Without a doubt, though, many golfers in Colorado will miss the thin Texan who has long made the Centennial state his home. That’s especially true for the thousands of junior players — and former junior players — Langston has impacted over the years.

“If you find (tournament players) who are in their 20s, 30s, even 40s, they know Rich from being a rules official and being so personal and personable,” said fellow chief rules official Greg With. “He knows every one of them.”

Langston (left, filling divots at Lakewood Country Club during the recent CGA Mid-Amateur) remembers silencing the room at a pre-tournament banquet for the 1999 Junior America’s Cup held at Perry Park Country Club.

“I said I do not enjoy being on the golf course with a bunch of kids,” he recalled. “But I love being out there with young players — and there is a difference.

“I don’t in any way, shape, fashion or form think that I have helped ‘sculpt their youth’. Hey, that’s for their mom and dad to do. But I enjoy being around young people. What I’ve always found is, you treat them with respect, and it comes right straight back to you.”

One of those instances came at the 2013 Ram Masters Invitational at Fort Collins Country Club, where a one-stroke penalty incurred on the final hole by freshman Jimmy Makloski, who was making his college debut, made the difference between host Colorado State finishing second or forcing a playoff for the team title. Langston was the rules official who dealt with the matter, one in which Makloski addressed his ball on the green and the ball subsequently changed position. When Makloski and then-assistant coach Bret Guetz acknowledged that Makloski had addressed the ball, Langston informed them it would be a one-stroke penalty.

“About two weeks later and I saw Ray (Makloski), Jimmy’s dad,” Langston said. “I said that was probably one of the toughest decisions I ever got brought into. Ray looked at me and said, ‘We were glad it was you.’ That was as big a compliment as a person could ever have. In all likelihood Jimmy would have been able to secure the (team) victory for CSU (if not for the penalty). You’ve got to remember this was his freshman year and his first (college) tournament. There’s not many people around that exhibited the class that Jimmy showed and that Bret showed. But you know what? In this business that’s what I’ve grown to expect.”

And people in Colorado golf have known what to expect from Langston (left) — nothing less than his all.

“I remember once I teed off (for a round of golf) and my phone rang,” he recalled. “I’m walking down the fairway talking to a member of the (Colorado PGA) who was on the Western Slope and he had a member-guest four-ball going on (and had a rules issue). It was important to him that he get it right. For God’s sake, if you can get something right by making a telephone call … it takes more maturity to do that than it does to make a wrong decision. I’ve always told every pro I’ve dealt with, ‘Don’t ever hesitate to call me.’ I don’t care what day of the week it is; that’s why I gave you my cell number. You owe it to your constituency: Get it right.”

And Langston can be assured as he leaves Colorado that he got it right.
 

When the executive directors and the staffs from the CGA and the Colorado Section PGA met last October to determine what programs it made the most sense to team up on, junior golf ended up major priority No. 1.

A year later — after plenty of brainstorming, meetings and work on all sides — the seeds bore fruit on Monday, when it was announced that the CGA and Colorado PGA are joining forces in a major effort to bolster junior golf in the state.

As part of a memorandum of agreement signed by CGA president Phil Lane and Colorado PGA president Leslie Core-Drevecky (pictured) on Monday at the Section’s Fall Membership Meeting at Heritage Eagle Bend Golf Club, a Junior Tour will be created that includes four junior major championships in Colorado.

Three of those events currently exist — the CGA’s Junior Stroke Play and Junior Match Play, and the Colorado PGA Junior Championship — and will be part of the Junior Tour, along with the Tour Championship, though the names will be rebranded.

All the major championships will feature both boys and girls competitions. There will also be plenty of other Junior Tour tournaments, mostly 36-hole events on Mondays and Tuesdays, with those competitions meant for top-level junior players who aspire to play college golf (handicap 8.1 or lower).

In addition, there will be a developmental Junior Series that will help players not yet ready for the Junior Tour to progress with their game.

Staff from the CGA and Colorado PGA will jointly oversee both the Junior Tour and Junior Series.

Another aspect of the collaboration will be the creation of a website that acts as a clearinghouse for all things junior golf-related in Colorado, including but not limited to registration for Junior Tour and Junior Series events; the PGA Junior League; the Colorado PGA Golf in Schools program, which exposes school kids to the game through P.E. classes; the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy and the Drive, Chip & Putt Championship.

The name for that website as well as the name for the collaborative program in general — and many other details — have yet to be finalized. But with 2016 being the first year for the program, the plan is to have all the details ironed out in time for a Golf Summit that’s scheduled for February.

“With the two organizations and what great things they’ve accomplished, just imagine now becoming one powerhouse where our focus is all going to be about the kids and the families. How can that not be great?” said Eddie Ainsworth (left), executive director of the Colorado PGA. “For me, this is a major day. This is just huge.”

Between the CGA and the Colorado PGA, many pieces that will make up this collaborative effort have been in place, while others will be new. The bottom line is to streamline the junior golf process, fill in the voids, further build the junior golf ranks, and create some new excitement with a series of grand slam events.

“It’s the best practices of two organizations (being joined) and I think they’re really going to be complementary,” said Ed Mate, executive director of the CGA. “We’re basically taking the best of what the PGA has been doing — you’ve seen how much they’ve grown their junior golf programs in the last few years — and the history and the legacy of the CGA and the CJGA, and putting the two together. It’s really exciting.

“It will be better (for junior golfers) because it’ll be cooler. It’s going to be better because the tournamemts are going to feel different. They’re going to feel more like, ‘Wow!’ It’s going to be better for parents because the website is going to be simple to use and easy to navigate and very user-friendly. It’s going to be better top to bottom.”

The CGA plans to revamp the trophies for its oldest junior championships — the Junior Match Play, which dates back to 1951, and the Junior Stroke Play, which began in 1977. But the list of champions for those events, which include such luminaries as Hale Irwin, Mike Reid, Brandt Jobe and Mark Hubbard, will remain a fixture on the re-done trophies.

“The kids are going to want to win the ‘Grand Slam’ (in a calendar year),” noted Mate (left). “How cool will that be?”

Mate likened the impending tweaking of the championship names to what was done for the PGA Tour’s BMW Championship, which for most of its storied history was known as the Western Open.

The Colorado associations are following the lead of Nebraska and Northern California, where PGA Sections and golf associations have joined forces for the betterment of junior golf. For the CGA and CPGA, Monday’s memorandum of agreement has been more than a year in the making.

“We’re just at the beginning of a long journey,” said Mate, who once worked at the Colorado PGA. “(Nebraska and Northern California) are three or four years in, and their feedback is, ‘This is the best thing we’ve ever done.’ It’s not without its challenges. You have two organizations and a lot of people’s fingers in the pie. The thing I probably appreciate more than anything at this stage of my life is, ‘Is it sustainable?’ We’re going to build this to last.”

And beyond the benefits for junior golf, this collaboration marks another area where the CGA and the Colorado PGA have found it makes more sense to work in tandem than separately. Those areas have also included the annual Golf Summit and the upcoming Century of Golf Gala, which will celebrate 2015 marking the 100th “birthday” of the CGA.

“I’ve been saying it since the first day I’ve been in this job: We’ve all got to check our logos at the door and work together,” Ainsworth said. “We can make more things happen. I know Ed’s heart, I know my heart. It’s about junior golf, it’s about making a difference and introducing more people to the game.

“It’s like Ed said, ‘Everybody’s chips are in and we’re going to make this thing work.'”

As part of the changes, the CJGA, which was jointly created in 1984 by the CGA and the Colorado PGA but eventually was overseen exclusively by CGA staff, will go by the wayside, with many of its functions becoming part of what will be essentially a joint operating agreement.

“A lot has changed (since ’84),” Mate said. “Now we’re going back to the spirit of working together.”
 

The Denver Golf Expo has undergone plenty of tweaking over its 21-year run. There’s always something that gets changed from year to year in attempts to make the show better or to attract more attendees.

This winter’s 22nd annual Expo will be no different in that respect. And for the first time in recent years, one of those alterations will involve a small but notable change of dates.

In recent years, the Expo has been a fixture at the Denver Mart (58th Ave. and I-25) during the first two weeks of February — usually the second weekend of the month. In the past half-dozen years, it’s always been held sometime between Feb. 6-14. But this year, the 10,000 or so regular attendees of the show will mark a different set of dates on their calendar.

With show organizers especially aware of not wanting to compete against the Super Bowl (Feb. 1 this year) or Valentine’s Day (Feb. 14), the Expo will have some of its latest dates ever, Feb. 20-22 — two weeks later than last year.

“We never want to be up against the Super Bowl, and Valentine’s Day is historically not good for us,” said Mark Cramer, who owns and operates the Denver Golf Expo along with his wife, Lynn. “Couples are doing couples’ things that day — understandably so — and attendance drops off.”

Attendance for the Expo has fallen each of the last three years, so perhaps a date change might help in that regard. As always, much will depend on the weather that weekend. But Cramer is taking some proactive steps to attract more visitors to the show.

Most notably, in order reach more people who might attend, Cramer hired a Boulder-based internet marketing firm to rebuild the Expo web site (denvergolfexpo.com) and help with search-engine optimization. That search-engine work is designed to give the show an even higher profile among golf fans, particularly in the weeks and days leading up to the Expo.

“Everything is going mobile and internet regarding marketing and advertising; newspaper, TV and radio and not pulling like they used to,” Cramer said. “All the years I’ve done this (since July of 2000), every year I hear ‘I forgot about it or didn’t see any advertising’. It drives me nuts because we always spend a lot of money on advertising in order to get as many people in as we can. So I hope what we’re doing will pop up in attendance.”

And, as in recent years, the Expo will run ads locally during telecasts of tour events as the show approaches.

During the Expo itself, Cramer is planning more interactive activities, as attendees have requested through surveys.

As has regularly been the case since the Cramers began running the Denver Golf Expo, the CGA, CWGA, CJGA and Colorado PGA will have a major presence at the show, hoping to grow the game by reaching out to attendees.

Among their efforts will be the Used Club Sale (pictured above), which benefits junior developmental programs; the newly renamed “Junior Golf Central” for kids; the Colorado PGA’s free 10-minute golf lessons; and educational seminars that will take place throughout the Expo, including the USGA Handicap Seminar that CGA and CWGA staffers will conduct.

In addition, as part of the CGA’s centennial year celebration in 2015, the association will publicly launch its new logo and branding at the Expo. Both the CGA and CWGA, with adjacent booths at the Denver Mart, will be promoting their core programming and the many and varied services that they provide. CWGA members who show their GHIN membership card — or the smart-phone equivalent — will receive a memento.

The CGA and CJGA continue to accept donations for the Used Club Sale both at their office (5990 Greenwood Plaza Blvd., Suite #102, in Greenwood Village) and at the PGA Tour Superstore (9451 E. Arapahoe Road, just east of I-25) during normal business hours. For those who can’t travel to donate clubs, the CGA/CJGA can pick up donations in the metro area. To arrange for that, call 303-366-4653. Reminder: The associations no longer accept clubs on consignment for the Used Club Sale — just straight donations.

Junior Golf Central, which evolved out of the Junior Golf Experience (left), will have a “Drive, Chip and Putt” theme this year, playing off the championship of the same name that was launched in 2013 by the Masters Tournament Foundation, the USGA and the PGA of America. The DC&P Championship is a free nationwide junior skills competition — designed to promote interest and participation in golf — that culminates each year on the Sunday before the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia.

Drive, Chip and Putt holds local and regional qualifiers throughout the U.S. for boys and girls age 7-15. This year, local qualifiers will be conducted in June and July in Colorado (CLICK HERE for sites), with winners advancing to the sub-regional Aug. 30 at CommonGround Golf Course. From there, the top players go to Torrey Pines in La Jolla, Calif., for the regionals on Sept. 19.

At the Denver Golf Expo, each of the three skills (drive, chip and putt) will be part of Junior Golf Central. The Colorado PGA, which hosts the local and sub-regional DC&P qualifiers in the state, will have a running leaderboard throughout the weekend. And the long drives for kids will be announced over the public-address system.

All in all, Cramer hopes the efforts of event organizers and participants make for a better show than ever.

“We always try to hit all the right bases,” he said.

For a list of exhibitors who plan to participate in the Denver Golf Expo, CLICK HERE.
 

After all, the associations do many other things, including running championships and national qualifiers, growing and protecting the game of golf, handling handicapping and course rating, serving as the local steward for the Rules of Golf and operating the Colorado Junior Golf Association.

The CGA and CWGA both have long held 501(c)3 status as a charitable non-profit — and they have been major supporters of the Evans Caddie Scholarship for several decades — but it wasn’t until the associations officially purchased a golf course that the real push began.

Nowadays, the CGA and CWGA are becoming more and more philanthropically oriented, with most of their efforts benefiting youth development programs. Among the major initiatives they operate outright or have a major hand in, there’s the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy, the Evans Scholarship, the Colorado PGA Golf in Schools program, the Hale Irwin Elite Player Program, the CJGA and other junior development programs. And that just hits some of the biggies.

Which brings us to an event which greatly benefits many non-profits throughout the state, Colorado Gives Day, which will take place Tuesday (Dec. 10). The concerted 24-hour effort encourages Coloradans to donate to their favorite local non-profit organizations.

Last year, the event produced $15.7 million for the 1,258 non-profits that participated.

With the CGA and CWGA committed to their community outreach efforts, they’re hoping donors will help the cause on Colorado Gives Day. The CGA and CWGA will have separate donor sites for the event.

“The CGA for many years didn’t have many programs that resonated with donors,” CGA executive director Ed Mate noted. “Starting with (the CGA and CWGA’s ownership) of CommonGround Golf Course and the programs we have there, that has completely changed. Now we’re very philanthropically oriented. Our outreach efforts reach far beyond what they did before. Now every year that goes by, philanthropy is a high priority. And (Colorado Gives Day) is a very prominent part of that.

“It’s a rallying point for our giving campaign. Colorado Gives Day gives you a landmark date to get people thinking about (contributing).”

The CGA participated in Colorado Gives Day for the first time last year and received donations of $2,500 for youth development programs. This year — working in conjunction with the newly formed Colorado Golf Foundation, which eventually will serve as the funding arm for all of the CGA’s philanthropic efforts at CommonGround — the association has stepped up efforts to promote donations through Colorado Gives Day.

Meanwhile, the CWGA is involved in Colorado Gives Day for the first time this year. In addition to the work it does on behalf of the Evans Caddie Scholarship, the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy, the Golf in Schools program and the CJGA, the CWGA runs many clinics and social events for women and supports LPGA-USGA Girls Golf of Aurora.

CWGA executive director Robin Jervey said anything the association raises through Colorado Gives Day will go to the girls junior golf efforts the CWGA supports.

“With this being the first year for us, you never know what to expect,” Jervey said. “But right after Kim (Schwartz, CWGA membership programs and marketing manager) sent out the information late last month, a couple of donations popped in, and from names I hadn’t heard of before. That’s a good sign that people do care. And hopefully they’ll show support on the 10th.”

In both the cases of the CGA and CWGA, donations will benefit outreach programs at CommonGround. The course sustained significant damage to eight holes during the September floods, and they’re in the process of being repaired. In the meantime, the course has been operating a nine-hole layout.

“Any dollars that come our way will benefit (the programs at) CommonGround in a roundabout way,” Jervey said.

In addition to whatever donations the CGA and CWGA receive on Tuesday, FirstBank is providing a $250,000 Colorado Gives Day incentive fund that will be proportionally allocated, increasing the value of each donation made that day.

To visit the CGA page for Colorado Gives Day, CLICK HERE.

For the CWGA page, CLICK HERE.

Now it’s the CJGA’s turn.

Starting this year, 14-18-year-old golfers will be permitted to use distance-only measuring devices in CJGA tournaments, as well as in the CGA and CWGA Junior Stroke Play and Junior Match Play Championships.

In other words, many of the state’s top events for junior players will feature a lot more golfers lasering the distances of their shots, and a lot fewer pacing off the yardages from sprinkler heads and the like.

“We traditionally follow the AJGA (American Junior Golf Association) lead on policy changes, and they’re allowing (distance-only range-finders) in all their events in 2013,” said Eric Wilkinson, the CGA’s director of junior competitions. “We want to stay consistent with national junior tours and other (golf organizations) around us. A lot of other state and regional junior golf associations are allowing them, and we didn’t want to be in a position where players in our events weren’t allowed to use them.”

Added Kelley Mawhinney, tournament and junior golf operations manager for the CWGA: “We wanted to be on the same page (as the AJGA). We don’t want to confuse players” with varying rules.

The AJGA allowed range-finders on a trial basis in four tournaments in 2012. Distance-measure devices are already permitted in college events, but the USGA doesn’t allow them in its national championships or its qualifiers.

Wilkinson was quick to note that the CJGA allowance applies only to 14-18-year-olds in the association’s tournaments, and not to younger players. Also, devices measuring only distance will be permitted; those that gauge such things as slope, wind speed, elevation, temperature, etc., are forbidden, even if such functions are turned off or ignored. So are the use of smart phone apps.

“It’s up to fellow competitors to police it themselves, but we’re trying to educate players in advance,” Wilkinson said. “We know we’ll get a lot of questions at our first event, so we want to be proactive.”

The first tournament in which the distance measuring devices will be allowed is the CJGA Spring Series event this weekend (April 27-28) at Walking Stick Golf Course in Pueblo.

While the increased affordability of the devices have made the Colorado associations amenable to permitting them for juniors, the organizations are still sensitive that some teenagers may not be able to afford range-finders. For that reason, distance information can be shared among players. For example, a competitor without a range-finder can get the distance to the pin from a fellow player, or can borrow such a device.

The approval of the use of such devices — which came from the CGA Junior Tournament Committee and the CWGA Rules and Tournament Committees — will affect many events, but most notably the CGA and CWGA junior state championships. Those tournaments are among the most prestigious in Colorado, with both the CGA and CWGA Junior Match Play dating back to the early 1950s, and the boys and girls Junior Stroke Play originating in the late 1970s.

Although CJGA officials discussed the possibility of the use of distance measuring devices speeding up play — especially among players with a higher handicap — Wilkinson said that wasn’t a major reason the association’s policy was changed.

Indeed, Pete Lis, who just left his job as CGA director of rules and competitions to become an LPGA Tour rules official, said he isn’t convinced that range-finders speed up play.

“At the end of the day, I don’t think it makes any difference,” Lis said recently. “I’ve seen some players pace off the yardage and shoot it too, so I think an argument can be made that it worsens pace of play. But I don’t think it makes that much difference.”
 

Last week, the longtime director of youth programs for the CGA oversaw his final junior tournament, the 10 & Under Junior Series Championship at Boulder Country Club. Afterward, players, parents, tournament officials and bystanders all joined in giving Jensen a round of applause as his many years of helping out junior golfers drew to a close.

After 10 years of working for the CGA — seven as the director of youth programs — Jensen departed a week ago to become the associate director of alumni relations and the booster club at his alma mater, Jamestown College in Jamestown, North Dakota.

Jensen (pictured) said he made the move primarily to get closer to his family in North Dakota, but stepping away tugs at his heart after being a very popular mentor to many hundreds of young golfers in Colorado.

“That’s going to be so difficult,” he said shortly before leaving. “The kids graduating high school now, I met them 10 years ago when they were 7 or 8 years old. Now they’re walking out of here going all over to college. It’s crazy to have met these guys when they were 3 feet tall and 45 pounds and hardly able to swing a golf club, and now they’re some of the top players in the country as juniors.

“And even the players that aren’t the best, they all love the game, and they’re fun to work with.”

Whether you’re Ed Mate, the CGA’s executive director who hired Jensen in 2002 after he served as a CGA summer intern in 2001, or one of the youngsters who plays in CJGA events, Jensen has made a deep and lasting impression.

“Dustin has been here so many years, and he’s done probably the best job out of anybody,” said AJ Ott of Fort Collins, winner of the boys division of the CJGA 11-13 Junior Series Championship. “He’s just been great. He’s so supportive and he’s run the tournaments just top-notch.”

That, and much more. Under Jensen’s guidance not only have the number of junior tournaments increased several fold, but junior outreach programs and fundraising efforts have expanded considerably, especially with CommonGround Golf Course and its Kids Course opening up so many opportunities since debuting in 2009. Jensen also played a key role in creating the Junior Golf Experience interactive exhibit at the Denver Golf Expo, as well as the one-stop coloradojuniorgolf.org web site, and he came up with the idea of giving out Academic All-Star Awards to complement recognition of on-course accomplishments for junior golfers.

Jensen also spearheaded the CGA hosting the 2011 boys Junior America’s Cup after the tournament was moved from Mexico to Colorado because of safety concerns south of the border. The CGA team subsequently posted its best finish ever in the JAC, third place.

“The organization is so fortunate that we had somebody with Dustin’s passion for kids working for us for the last decade,” Mate said. “It’s a great example of putting the right guy in the right place for the right job. And we’re going to really miss him a lot. But the fortunate thing for us is he raised the bar. We’re so much further down the road because of what’s he done.”

In fact, Jensen raised that bar so much that his duties will be handled by two CGA staffers. Erin Bessey, the Eisenhower-Evans Scholarship Recruiter the last several years, will be the CGA director of youth programs, managing the association’s outreach programs and some fundraising efforts, handling the CGA’s community partnerships with schools and non-profit organizations, as well as still being very involved with Evans Scholars-related work. She’ll also oversee the junior competitive program.

Meanwhile, Eric Wilkinson, who has been manager of member services for the CGA, is becoming director of junior competitions.

“The (director of youth programs) job has evolved over the last decade,” Mate said. “Youth programs is really too big a job for one person. So we have done what we needed to do for some time and separated junior development — which is outreach programming and giving kids a chance who wouldn’t otherwise have one — and junior competitions.

“The good news is, Dustin did such a great job with both, and now we’re going to be able to focus two individual people separately on that. It will allow us to be very focused on those two distinct programs, because they are different.”

Jensen believes the youth programs will be in good hands with Bessey and Wilkinson.

“I’m real excited for Erin Bessey,” he said. “I don’t think I could have taken the (Jamestown College job) if she wouldn’t have been working here. Knowing her and how good she is at what she does, it feels like handing it over to a young running back almost. I’m handing it off to someone who you know is going to do a better job than you do.

“And now with Eric coming from the other side to run a lot of the tournaments, the two of them have been around for a long time, they know everything, they know the kids, so I just see it getting better and better.”

Jensen said he expected to work at the CGA “forever. I didn’t plan to leave. I love what I do, but that one right opportunity came along and (my wife and I) just had to do it.”

After Jensen expressed interest in the Jamestown College position, “The next thing you know the president (of the college) was calling, saying we want to get you up here,” Jensen said. “It gave us an opportunity to go back to family. So I don’t want to leave, but it’s the perfect time. My brother is expecting a child at the end of the month and we have four nieces and nephews up there. We’ve got some family friends who are extremely successful and they said the one thing they regret is that they didn’t give up their careers to move closer to family. And that really resonated with us.

“This also gives me a chance to go back and kind of give back to the school that really helped me. So it’s exciting and yet it’s a double-edged sword. I’m giving up something great to do something that I’m excited about.”

Jensen grew up in North Dakota, then attended Jamestown College, competing in both track & field and golf at the NAIA school. After doing a summer internship at the CGA in 2001, then completing college, Jensen was hired full-time by Mate in 2002.

“Who gets lucky enough to get an internship, and get hired to run golf tournaments in Colorado?” Jensen said. “It was a dream come true. Ten years later I owe a lot to Ed and the CGA staff. … The CGA is such a great family. I’m not leaving co-workers. I’m leaving family.”

Jensen said he’ll return to Colorado for the CGA/CWGA annual awards brunch, which will be held Nov. 20 at Pinehurst Country Club in south Denver. A reception for Jensen is planned for immediately after the brunch.