Jobe, who lived in Colorado from 1970 to ’99 before moving to Texas, finished a season-best fifth on Sunday in the PGA Tour Champions’ Insperity Invitational in The Woodlands, Texas. In his last two tour stars, Jobe has placed ninth (with Scott McCarron) in the Bass Pro Shops Legends of Golf team event and fifth at the Insperity.

Jobe (pictured) made six birdies in his Sunday round of 4-under-par 68, which left him with a 9-under 207 total. He endd up two strokes behind champion Bernhard Langer, who notched the 37th PGA Tour Champions victory of his career.

Jobe finished third in last year’s U.S. Senior Open, shooting a third-round 62 in the process. This year’s Senior Open is set for The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs June 28-July 1.

Saunders Emerges from Drought with Top 10 on PGA Tour: Former Fort Collins resident Sam Saunders had missed the cut in four of his previous six PGA Tour starts and hadn’t cracked the top 40 in an event since mid-February, but that didn’t stop him from a top-10 finish on Sunday in the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte, N.C.

Despite playing his last five holes in 2 over par on Sunday, Saunders tied for ninth place in the event, ending up seven strokes behind winner Jason Day.

Saunders posted rounds of 70-69-68-72 for a 5-under-par 279 total.

It’s the second top-10 of the PGA Tour season for Saunders, who finished eighth at the CareerBuilder Challenge in January.

Ex-Buffs Coleman, Lee, Childs earn top-10s on Symetra Tour: Three former University of Colorado golfers recorded top-10 finishes Sunday in the Symetra Tour’s IOA Invitational in Milton, Ga.

Former LPGA Tour player Jenny Coleman rebounded from a first-round 78 to post back-to-back 69s and share sixth place. Esther Lee, who played her final three seasons at CU after transferring from Duke, and Emily Childs, who played as a freshman at CU before going to Cal, tied for 10th place.

Coleman’s even-par 216 total left her four strokes behind champion Elizabeth Szokol. In notching her best Symetra Tour showing since placing third in February 2016, Coleman made a total of nine birdies in the final two rounds.

Lee, who earned her first Symetra top-10, went 74-71-72 to check in at 217 along with Childs, who carded rounds of 75-70-72. Childs had four top-10s last year on the Symetra circuit.

The former Colorado School of Mines golfer traveled more than 3,000 miles from home — to Bogota, Colombia in South America — to post one of the best finishes of his young Web.com Tour career.

Knous shot four consecutive sub-par rounds — 70-69-69-70 — to finish at 6-under-par 278 on Sunday in the Club Colombia Championship. The showing was worth $10,850.

Though Knous (pictured) ended up nine strokes behind champion Ben Taylor, he finished just three shots out of a second-place tie. On Sunday, he eagled the par-5 10th hole to go along with two birdies, a bogey and a double bogey.

It was the fourth top-20 finish in 29 career starts on the Web.com Tour for Knous, an NCAA Division II individual runner-up as a senior at Mines in 2012. His best Web showing was an eighth place at the Ellie Mae Classic at TPC Stonebrae in August.

Elsewhere on the major pro tours, David Duval — who just moved back to Colorado after a short stay in Florida — missed the cut in his first PGA Tour start of the 2017-18 season. The former world No. 1 posted rounds of 79-76-81 for a 21-over-par 236 total at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on the Monterey Peninsula in California.

Shane Bertsch of Parker, who was originally in the field at Pebble Beach, withdrew prior to the start of the tournament due to back problems. Former Fort Collins resident Sam Saunders finished 26th in the AT&T with a 7-under-par 280 total.

— Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Brandt Jobe (pictured) tied for third in the PGA Tour Champions 3M Championship in Blaine, Minn. Jobe shot rounds of 67-64-67 for an 18-under-par 198 total, which left him two strokes out of a playoff. Since the end of May, Jobe’s finishes have gone eighth, first, 25th, third, second and third. He’s currently fifth on the 2017 Champions money list with $1.17 million.

— For the second straight week, Becca Huffer of Denver posted a top-10 finish on the Symetra Tour, this time placing third in the PHC Classic in Milwaukee. Scores of 68-71-68 put Huffer at 9-under-par 207, four strokes behind champion Brittany Marchand. The former CoBank Colorado Women’s Open champion has jumped up to 41st on the Symetra Tour’s 2017 money list with $15,155.

— Jim Knous of Englewood recorded his best finish ever in a Web.com Tour event by placing eighth in the Ellie Mae Classic in Hayward, Calif. Knous went 66-64-66-71 for a 13-under-par 267 total, which left him five strokes behind winner Martin Piller. Knous vaulted into 82nd place on the Web.com’s 2017 money list with $47,071.

— Former Colorado resident Sam Saunders placed eighth in the PGA Tour’s Barracuda Championship in Reno, Nev., an event which features modified Stableford scoring. His 39 points ended up five behind the total for winner Chris Stroud. Saunders has recorded two straight top-20 finishes on the PGA Tour.

 Meanwhile Denver native Mark Hubbard posted his best finish — by far — of the 2016-17 PGA Tour season with his 18th-place showing in Reno. Despite a double bogey on his final hole, Hubbard ended up with 32 points. Hubbard’s previous best finish of the season was 42nd.
 

Now that we’ve flipped the calendar to 2014, perhaps a good New Year’s wish for fans of Colorado tour players is that this year turns out to be as successful for local competitors as 2013 was.

Last year proved to be arguably the best collectively in at least the last handful of seasons for tour players with strong Colorado connections.

There were six victories on top-level tours in 2013 by current or former Coloradans, plus several more another level or two down.

Making it to the winner’s circle were former Colorado State University golfer Martin Laird (PGA Tour Valero Texas Open), Aurora’s Mark Wiebe (Champions Tour Senior British Open and Pacific Links Hawaii Championship), former Castle Rock resident Esteban Toledo (Champions Tour Insperity Championship and Montreal Championship) and Evergreen’s Craig Stadler (Champions Tour Encompass Championship).

Also gaining big victories were onetime Golden resident Andrew Svoboda (two on the Web.com Tour), former Denverite Mark Hubbard (one on PGA Tour Canada), former University of Denver golfer Sue Kim (one on the Symetra Tour), and former University of Colorado player Emily Talley (Big Break NFL on the Golf Channel).

Add it all up and it was hardly a typical year for Colorado’s “local” tour players.

The 2014 tour golf schedule begins this weekend as the PGA Tour’s Hyundai Tournament of Champions runs Friday through Monday (Jan. 3-6) in Maui, Hawaii. The LPGA and Champions Tours get rolling later this month.

Here’s some of what’s new on the major tours in 2014 from the perspective of players with strong Colorado ties:

— This week marks just the third time Laird (pictured above) has competed in the Tournament of Champions. After all, the event is limited to winners of PGA Tour events the previous year, with this week’s field numbering just 30.

Laird, who qualified by winning the 2013 Valero Texas Open, has made the most of his two previous T of C appearances, finishing fourth in 2010 and second in 2012.

Unlike previous years, the Tournament of Champions isn’t the PGA Tour season opener this time. With the newly instituted wraparound schedule, this will be the seventh event of the 2013-14 season.

— When the Web.com season begins in 2014, it will have two new faces familiar to many Colorado golf fans. Hubbard, who grew up in Denver, and Derek Tolan of Highlands Ranch, winner of two HealthOne Colorado Opens, will compete on the circuit on a regular basis for the first time this year.

Hubbard earned a card by finishing third on the PGA Tour Canada 2013 money list and improved his status by placing 15th in the Web.com qualifying finals. Tolan will have conditional status after ending up 105th in the final stage of Q-school. Both are former CGA champions.

Meanwhile, new Colorado resident Sam Saunders, grandson of Arnold Palmer, will return to the Web.com Tour after finishing 11th in qualifying last month.

— Mike Reid, who played part of his high school golf career at Cherry Creek, will be back on the Champions Tour full time in 2014 after ending up second in the tour’s national qualifying tournament.

Reid, winner of two Champions Tour majors, competed in just seven official Champions events in 2013.

— Two “local” players regained top tour status by virtue of their season-long showings in golf’s versions of the high minors.

Kim (pictured at left) is back for her second season on the LPGA Tour after finishing sixth on the Symetra money list as the top 10 automatically earned LPGA cards. And Svoboda returned to the PGA Tour after placing 25th on the Web.com Tour’s 2013 regular-season money list and fifth on the Web.com Tour finals priority rankings.

For a rundown on all players with strong Colorado ties who are competing on major golf tours in 2014, CLICK HERE. (Note: This rundown is updated on a weekly basis throughout the year.)

Four players with strong Colorado ties have won significant tour events in the first six months of the year, one leads a 2013 tour money list, and one competed on Golf Channel’s “Big Break” series.

One Colorado Golf Hall of Famer returned to the LPGA Tour after a two-year absence, and another lost his fully-exempt status on the PGA Tour.

In short, “locals” have crammed a year’s worth of notable events into six months.

Here’s the rundown:

— Former Colorado State University golfer Martin Laird ended a two-year PGA Tour victory drought by shooting a course-record-tying 63 in the final round of the Valero Texas Open, where he overcame runner-up Rory McIlroy. It was the third PGA Tour win of Laird’s career.

The Scotsman, who later finished in the top five at The Players Championship for the second consecutive year, stands 23rd on the 2013 PGA Tour money list.

— Evergreen resident Craig Stadler (pictured), in the same month he turned 60, won his first Champions Tour event in eight years and nine months when he prevailed in the Encompass Championship last month.

The former Masters champion won three times in 2003 and five times in 2004 on the Champions Tour, but hadn’t hit pay-dirt again until this year. His feat marks the longest time between victories in Champions Tour history.

— Former Castle Rock resident Esteban Toledo has had a stellar rookie season on the Champions Tour, capped by a victory in the Insperity Championship, where the native of Mexico prevailed in a three-man playoff on Cinco de Mayo.

With five top-10 finishes — and eight top-20s — Toledo sits seventh on the 2013 Champions Tour money list.

— Former University of Denver golfer Sue Kim likewise won a playoff for her victory this year. The Canadian posted her win last month in the Symetra Tour’s Decatur-Forsyth Classic.

Kim, who is conditionally exempt on the LPGA Tour, leads the Symetra Tour money list in 2013. She’s posted three top-three finishes this year.

— Former University of Colorado golfer Emily Talley was picked to compete in this year’s Golf Channel “Big Break Mexico”, which featured 12 professionals vying in various skills challenges for the right to play in a PGA or LPGA Tour event, plus other prizes.

But Talley, who competes on the Symetra Tour, was one of the first players eliminated from the show. At 22, she was the youngest Big Break competitor this year.

— Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Jill McGill has won $2.34 million in her LPGA Tour career but hadn’t competed on the circuit in two years. That changed in May when she placed 61st in the Bahamas LPGA Classic. McGill, winner of two USGA amateur championships, has played in three LPGA events so far this year, and is entered in this week’s Manulife Financial LPGA Classic.

— Another Colorado Golf Hall of Famer, Brandt Jobe, lost his fully-exempt status on the PGA Tour in May. As part of his major medical extension, he needed to earn at least $303,178 in his first 10 Tour events of the year to keep his full status.

Jobe missed that mark, and now he’s relying on veteran members’ status and sponsor exemptions to get into tournaments.

For a weekly update on tour players with major Colorado ties, CLICK HERE.