Gary Potter, like Hamer a member of the Hall of Fame, helped organize the day for his friend, who passed away in February at age 74. Hamer and Potter won three CGA senior team championships together.

Potter said a number of Hamer’s fellow competitors from the state in the 1960s and ’70s are planning to attend, including Gary Longfellow, Larry McAtee, John Olive and Carter Mathies. After an 11 a.m. lunch gathering of the larger group, about 16 people plan to play a round of golf at BCC.

Hamer (pictured) won 10 CGA championships through the years, including the CGA Amateur (then known as the Stroke Play) in both 1969 and ’70. He’s one of just four players since 1960 to have captured that title in back-to-back years, joining Hale Irwin, Bob Byman and Kane Webber. Hamer, who played golf at both Lakewood High School and the University of Colorado, also qualified for the 1993 U.S. Senior Open that Jack Nicklaus won at Cherry Hills Country Club and he finished third in the Colorado Open in 1969, when he was named state amateur of the year. At BCC, Hamer won 15 club championships.

He was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2002.

Hamer, a Mississippi native and Lakewood High School alum who played golf for the University of Colorado from 1962 to ’64, was one of Colorado’s top amateur players in the 1960s and early ’70s — an era which also featured such luminaries as Hale Irwin, Les Fowler, Larry McAtee and Jim English.

Hamer, a longtime member at Boulder Country Club, won the CGA Amateur in both 1969 and ’70 and he remains one of just four players since 1960 to have captured that title in back-to-back years, joining Irwin, Bob Byman and Kane Webber.

“It’s a sad day for BCC and the Colorado golf community,” Boulder Country Club director of golf Kevin Bolles said in an email.

“I just remember how great a competitor he was,” added longtime friend and fellow Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Gary Potter, with whom Hamer won three CGA senior team championships.

Indeed, Hamer at one time had aspirations of becoming a PGA Tour player. And he certainly had some game. At the 1963 CGA Amateur (then known as the CGA Stroke Play), Hamer posted a very respectable score of 6 under par for 72 holes. The only problem was, there was one player better than him in the field — a guy named Irwin, who was 15 strokes in the distance.”¨ “I remember thinking there was probably a few other guys out there like Hale, so that ended those thoughts (of turning pro),” Hamer later told the (Boulder) Daily Camera. “If I had known how good Hale was, though, I might have tried it.” Irwin, of course, went on to win three U.S. Opens.

But Hamer, who worked as an investment advisor in Boulder, more than held his own in the Colorado amateur ranks. Besides winning the ’69 and ’70 CGA Amateur, he prevailed in the 1992 and ’96 CGA Senior Amateur and qualified for the 1993 U.S. Senior Open that Cherry Hills Country Club hosted. In addition, Hamer finished third in the Colorado Open in 1969, the year he was named state amateur of the year.

And at Boulder Country Club, competing against players such as Fowler and 1962 CGA Match Play champion Ray Pierson, Hamer won 15 BCC club championships.

Hamer was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2002.

“His record of championships won speaks for itself and his conduct on the course speaks to his character as a gentleman,” fellow Hall of Famer Gary Longfellow once noted.

No services are planned for Hamer, who lived with wife Gayle in Surprise, Ariz., in recent years. The Hamers’ son Ty is the general manager and head golf professional at Quail Dunes Golf Course at Fort Morgan. Also surviving John is daughter Shannon.
 

The three-time U.S. Open champion attended Friday’s second round of the Stroke Play at Pinehurst Country Club to watch his son, Steve, compete in the event. Steve Irwin, the 2004 CGA Match Play winner, shares 18th place at the halfway point at Pinehurst following rounds of 72-73 for a 5-over-par 145 total.

Fifty years ago, in the months after Hale Irwin won the Colorado state high school title while at Boulder High School, he put on a clinic at the CGA Stroke Play that made an indelible mark on some of his fellow competitors.

John Hamer, like Irwin now a member of the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame, put Irwin’s golf abilities as a then-18-year-old into perspective.

Hamer, who like Irwin was a University of Colorado golfer during the 1960s, was starting to ponder whether he’d eventually take a shot at the PGA Tour. And at the 1963 CGA Stroke Play, he said he finished with a very respectable 6-under-par total for 72 holes.

Hamer placed second that week, but suffice it to say he wasn’t a close runner-up. Irwin won the tournament — by 15 strokes.

“I remember thinking there was probably a few other guys out there like Hale, so that ended those thoughts (of turning pro),” Hamer said. “If I had known how good Hale was, though, I might have tried it.”

That 1963 victory was the first of three in a row by Irwin in the CGA Stroke Play — at that time an unprecedented feat in the tournament. To this day, only one other player has won three straight — Bob Byman — and coincidentally, he too grew up in Boulder.

Like Irwin’s performance 50 years ago made an impression on Hamer, it still registers for Irwin — more so than his second and third Stroke Play titles.

“That was a lot of years ago, but I remember that first one; that made an impression on me,” Irwin said Friday.

“I was an upstart young guy and then there was the old guard — guys like Les Fowler and Jim English. I was relatively new to Colorado and I happened to have a very good tournament. I do remember playing awfully well.”

Of course, as Irwin is quick to note, it didn’t hurt that the tournament was played at what is now known as Flatirons Golf Course, which was Hale’s home course.

“You look at tournaments that get you started down a successful path, and that one kind of got me going,” he said.

Irwin would finish his amateur career with four CGA titles — he won the 1966 Match Play at Boulder Country Club by defeating fellow CU golfer Larry McAtee, the three-time defending champion, 5 and 4 in the 36-hole final.

Irwin, of course, has gone on to win an NCAA title while at CU, then 20 times on the PGA Tour (including the 1974, ’79 and ’90 U.S. Opens) and a record 45 times on the Champions Tour. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1992.

The CGA and CWGA now operate the Hale Irwin Elite Player Program out of CommonGround Golf Course, which is owned and operated by the golf associations.