Assuming nothing changes before Thursday’s first round, that distinction will go to Colorado Golf Hall of Famer and Colorado Sports Hall of Famer Steve Jones (left). Even though the 1996 U.S. Open champion recently turned 60, Jones is in the field at Pebble Beach.

Perhaps that has something to do with the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am being the first of Jones’ eight PGA Tour victories, coming 31 years ago. It was then that he sank a 20-foot birdie putt on the second playoff hole to defeat Bob Tway.

It will be the former University of Colorado golfer’s first PGA Tour start in over six years, since the 2013 Humana Challenge. He competed in seven PGA Tour Champions events in 2018, finishing as high as sixth place.

Other players with strong Colorado ties who are scheduled to play on the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am — in addtion to Jones, Clark and Knous — are local resident David Duval, former Colorado State University golfer Martin Laird and former Fort Collins resident Sam Saunders.

It will be the first PGA Tour start for Duval since August.

For the entire field for the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, CLICK HERE.

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.

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.
 

(NOTE: This story was updated on Oct. 25 with reaction and additional details from Howe.)

————————————————————————

If the person who was voted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame on Wednesday can be judged by the people who submitted letters of recommendation on her behalf, Lauren Howe will be a stellar addition to the Hall.

World Golf Hall of Famer and former USGA president Judy Bell, 12-time PGA Tour winner Dow Finsterwald and Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Tom Connell all sung the praises of Howe, a longtime Coloradan who was one of the best female players in the country at various times during mid- and late 1970s and through much of the ’80s.

“Lauren was an amazing athlete with a passion to succeed,” wrote Connell, who saw Howe develop as a teenage golfer and now is a fellow instructor of hers at CommonGround Golf Course in Aurora. “… For a 10-year period beginning in 1974, I was a witness to a remarkable series of accomplishments by a young prodigy from Colorado and later a seasoned professional on a national stage, coached by a brilliant teacher who happened to be her father, and supported by a large, loving family.”

Added Finsterwald, who’s also a member of the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame: “Since moving to Colorado Springs at age 14, Lauren took the golf scene by storm.”

For her many accomplishments as a player, and for her continuing devotion to the game through her work as a golf instructor, Howe on Wednesday was voted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame. The Aurora resident will be inducted on June 2 at Denver Country Club.

Asked her reaction to the impending induction, Howe said on Thursday morning, “In the back of my mind, I knew it could be coming. And yet it still hit me … I’m tearing up now. It’s just so precious to me, especially having not played in a while and everything. It really hit me like a big wave.”

Also being honored on June 2 by the Hall of Fame will be Jennifer Kupcho of Westminster (as Golf Person of the Year); Mark and Lynn Cramer, who own and operate the Denver Golf Expo (Lifetime Achievement Award); golf course superintendents Fred Dickman from The Broadmoor and Barry Kendall from Green Valley Ranch (Distinguished Service Awards); and Dillon Stewart of Fort Collins and Lauren Lehigh of Loveland (Future Famer Awards). Coincidentally, Howe has been Lehigh’s swing instructor for over a decade. See below for the accomplishments of all these honorees.

As for Howe herself, she was quick to recognize the many people who helped her along the way, including the big-name women’s players of the era who took her under their wings during her early years.

“When my dad (Winston Howe Jr.) was the pro at Country Club of Colorado, one of the biggest influences in my life was to be able to go up and play golf with Judy Bell, Barbara McIntire, Tish Preuss, Nancy Syms, Cindy Hill, Bonnie Lauer — all of those gals. They were always so kind to me and walked me through a lot of things. I am so grateful to them for that.”

And of course, Howe pays tribute to her dad, who doubled as her instructor.

“My father was my teacher,” Lauren Howe said. “He always made sure that as he was working with me, he never got a jaundiced eye. He would take me back in the day to Bob Toski, Jim Flick and to Paul Runyan for my short game. To this day I think (my dad) was the best diagnostician in all the land.”

Lauren Howe’s top golf accomplishment was winning on the LPGA Tour, in 1983 at the Mayflower Classic. But she had been making an impact on the regional and national golf scene since the first half of the 1970s.

The first big breakthrough came in 1973 when she won the San Francisco Women’s City Championship shortly before turning 14.

After turning 15 in 1974, she advanced to the finals of the U.S. Girls’ Junior, losing in the title match 7 and 5 to Nancy Lopez, who was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1987. In 1975, Howe was the co-medalist in the stroke-play portion of the same national championship. And in 1976, she was the solo stroke-play medalist.

Howe certainly made her mark in Colorado at an early age as well. In 1975, at age 16, she not only won the CWGA Junior Match Play, but the open-age CWGA Stroke Play. 

Girls high school golf in Colorado wasn’t an officially sanctioned sport until 1990, but Howe was the No. 1 player on the boys team at St. Mary’s in Colorado Springs for the three years she spent in high school.

In 1976 as a 17-year-old, the Utah native qualified for the U.S. Women’s Open, which was held in a Philadelphia suburb the week following the U.S. bicentennial. An assistant to Winston Howe who was friends with JoAnne Carner set up a practice round pairing that included the 1971 national champion and the Colorado teenager. “That was so cool,” said Howe, who went on to make the cut and finish 39th in the top tournament in women’s golf. (Coincidentally, Carner won that U.S. Women’s Open — her second — in a playoff.) That same year, Howe won the Mexican Women’s Amateur.

“The year when I was 16 was my best playing year — ever,” Howe said. “It was like I was on fire that whole year. Sixteeen was a good year. I played without any doubt. If there was ever a qualifying, it wasn’t, ‘Am I going to qualify?’ It was more like, ‘Am I going to win the qualifier?’ I wish I could get that back.”

After one year of college golf at the University of Tulsa — as a teammate of Lopez — Howe won the prestigious Women’s Western Amateur in 1977. Then she turned pro at age 18. That same year she was named the Woman Athlete of the Year by the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame. 

In 1978, Howe joined the LPGA Tour after winning the Q-school tournament — becoming the youngest medalist at that time and setting a scoring record that stood for more than two decades.

“All this stuff is really so touching to me,” Howe said in recalling some career highlights. “One of the coolest memories came after winning the school. My dad went with me to the qualifying school and we drove out of the parking lot singing, ‘We are the champions.'”

In 1983 after recording her victory in the LPGA Tour’s Mayflower Classic in Indianapolis, Howe was named Golf Person of the Year by the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame. That season she finished 19th on the LPGA money list.

Also during her 13-year LPGA Tour career, which was interrupted at times by injuries, Howe finished second in the 1986 Mazda LPGA Hall of Fame Championship, where she lost in a playoff to Amy Alcott. That season, Howe notched five top-10 finishes on the LPGA circuit.

Howe (left) has been a golf instructor since 1991 and spent 2003-08 teaching at the World Golf Village in St. Augustine, Fla., before returning to Colorado, where she’s been based for the last decade. She now teaches at CommonGround GC, which is owned and operated by the CGA.

Despite her extensive playing career, Howe isn’t playing golf these days, but hopes to in the future. Two years ago while competing in a Legends Tour event near Plymouth, Mass., Howe was involved in a major automobile accident in which she sustained injuries to her brain, knee and wrist. Surgeries ensued.

“I can’t stand on a practice tee like I used. I’ve changed the way I’ve got to teach,” she said. “There are still ramifications, but we’ve settled the lawsuit and I have started at a brain clinic, which is the biggest thing.”

As for the possibility of playing and competing again, Howe said, “I haven’t played in two years. I really want to play in the (U.S. Senior Women’s Open. Next year) would be ideal. It might be optimistic, but I’m going to act as if” that might happen.

In the meantime, she’ll relish going into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame. Asked about the reaction she’s gotten since telling friends and families the news, Howe said, “My best friend from high school said, ‘It’s about time.’ And my parents (Winston and Dolores, who now live in Highlands Ranch) were really happy. I have six brothers and sisters who were over the moon too.”

While Howe will be the lone Colorado Golf Hall of Fame inductee on June 2 at Denver Country Club, several other people will receive awards from the Hall:

— Golf Person of the Year: Jennifer Kupcho of Westminster earns this honor from the Hall of Fame for the second time in three years. The 21-year-old has been the No. 1-ranked women’s amateur in the world almost continuously since July. In May, the Wake Forest golfer became the first Colorado resident to win the Women’s NCAA Division I individual title after finishing sixth and second at that national championship the previous two years. She represented winning U.S. teams in three prestigious international competitions this year — the Curtis Cup, Arnold Palmer Cup and the World Amateur Team Championship. In that last event, Kupcho finished second individually out of a field of 170. Kupcho competed in the LPGA Tour’s Marathon Classic in July, finishing 16th, her best showing in an LPGA event. The NCAA championship in May was one of three individual victories for Kupcho during the spring portion of the college season. In August, Kupcho became the first American woman to win the Mark H. McCormack Medal as the top women’s player in the World Amateur Golf Rankings as of the conclusion the U.S. Women’s Amateur.

— Lifetime Achievement: Mark and Lynn Cramer have owned and operated the Denver Golf Expo since purchasing it from PGA professional Stan Fenn in 2000, and every year it’s been a winter mainstay on the Colorado golf calendar. The Expo typically draws about 10,000 attendees each year at the Denver Mart. The Cramers take pride in supporting the major golf organizations in Colorado — and in the support those organizations give the Expo. The Expo over the years has made donations totaling $85,000 to the Colorado PGA charitable foundation, now known as Colorado PGA REACH.

— Distinguished Service: Course superintendents Fred Dickman from The Broadmoor Golf Club and Barry Kendall from Green Valley Ranch Golf Club overcame major weather-related obstacles so that big-time championships could be conducted with as little disruption as possible. In the case of The Broadmoor, a major hailstorm hit the area less than two weeks before the U.S. Senior Open was scheduled. But thanks to tireless work by Dickman and his staff, there was very little indication that anything had happened by the time the senior pros teed it up in late June. As for Green Valley Ranch, heavy rain, hail and winds estimated at 60 mph hit the area the evening before the scheduled first round of the CoBank Colorado Open. Thursday’s round was canceled and the tournament was reduced to 54 holes for the first time since 1981. But Kendall and his crew worked 11 straight hours pumping the water off the course and from the bunkers. By the weekend, players were raving about the course condition.

— Future Famers: Dillon Stewart of Fort Collins won the individual title in the 2018 boys Junior America’s Cup, which featured some of the top junior golfers from the western U.S., Canada and Mexico. He also led Colorado to its first team title ever in the boys Junior America’s Cup. Earlier in the year, Stewart became the first Colorado boy to win the AJGA Hale Irwin Colorado Junior. In the fall, as a senior, he captured the 5A state high school individual championship and led Fossil Ridge to its first team title in boys golf. Also late in the season, Stewart notched his second AJGA title of 2018 at the AJGA Junior at Big Sky in Montana. He shared medalist honors in qualifying for the U.S. Junior Amateur and finished second at the Colorado Junior Amateur. Stewart, the Junior Golf Alliance of Colorado’s 2018 Boys Player of the Year, has verbally committed to play college golf at Oklahoma State

Lauren Lehigh of Loveland was one of 24 players (12 girls) worldwide to be named to the Transamerica Scholastic Junior All-America Team by the AJGA. The Loveland High School senior earned that honor by placing in the top five in an AJGA open or invitational, then based on the following criteria: standardized test scores, grade-point average, school leadership and community service. She won the girls division of the Colorado Junior Match Play, one of four Junior Golf Alliance of Colorado majors. During the course of 2018 at JGAC events, Lehigh won three times, placed second seven times and third three times. One of the runner-ups was in her title defense at the 4A state high school tournament. Lehigh finished third among girls at the AJGA Hale Irwin Colorado Junior. She helped lead Colorado to a fifth-place finish at the Girls Junior Americas Cup competition at Hiwan Golf Club in Evergreen, where Lehigh tied for 14th place individually. She also placed 13th nationally in Big I National Championship. Lehigh, who’s been a member of the Hale Irwin Player Program for three years, has verbally committed to play in college at the University of New Mexico. Earlier this month, she was named the JGAC’s Girls Player of the Year for 2018.
 

Twenty years ago, McIntire (left in a USGA photo) went into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame.

In 2015, she was named the Colorado Female Player of the Century as part of the Century of Golf Gala festivities.

And now, the Colorado Springs Sports Hall of Fame has come calling. On Tuesday (Oct. 23) at The Broadmoor World Arena, McIntire will be one of six people/teams that will go into the Hall. It’s fitting, given that McIntire has been a fixture in the Springs and was a longtime business partner of World Golf Hall of Famer Judy Bell at The Broadmoor.

For many years, McIntire was one of the most prominent figures in women’s amateur golf.

In 1956, she came within a stroke of becoming the first amateur to win the U.S. Women’s Open. Instead, she tied for first with Cathy Cornelius, then lost to her in an 18-hole playoff. In addition to her two U.S. Women’s Amateur victories (1959 and ’64), McIntire prevailed in the 1960 British Ladies Amateur. As a teenager, McIntire was twice runner-up in the U.S. Girls’ Junior, in 1951 and ’52. She lost in the ’52 final 1 up to Mickey Wright. In Colorado, she won the CGA Women’s Stroke Play Championship in 1962.

Six times, McIntire played on U.S. teams at the Curtis Cup, and later she captained two winning American Curtis Cup squads.

In 2000, McIntire received the Bob Jones Award, the highest honor given by the USGA, recognizing a person who demonstrates the spirit, personal character and respect for the game exhibited by Jones, who won the Grand Slam in 1930 and nine USGA championships in all.

McIntire also served as the chairperson of USGA Women’s Committee for two years in the mid-1990s.
 

McGill (left in a Golf Channel photo) improved on her 35th-place performance in 2017 thanks to an impressive 2-under-par 70 on Wednesday in French Lick, Ind., which tied for the low final round of the event.

The Denver native, who won the 1993 U.S. Women’s Amateur and ’94 U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links, placed 23rd on Wednesday out of a field of 80 players. With a five-birdie three-bogey day in round 3, she posted a total of 12-over-par 228, finishing 20 strokes behind champion Laura Davies, who also won the U.S. Senior Women’s Open this year. McGill’s 70 was 10 strokes better than what she carded on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Sherry Andonian-Smith, the Colorado PGA’s inaugural Women’s Player of the Year in 2018, tied for 37th place on Wednesday (233 total) and World Golf Hall of Famer and part-time Coloradan Hollis Stacy tied for 67th (244).

It’s been a memorable year for Andonian-Smith, who also qualified for the inaugural U.S. Senior Women’s Open, finished second at the Colorado PGA Professional Championship, won her second Colorado PGA West Chapter Championship in three years, and became one of the first two Colorado women to qualify for the 2019 national PGA Professional Championship.

Here are the round-by-round scores for the players with strong Colorado ties who competed in the Senior LPGA Championship in French Lick, Ind.:

23. Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Jill McGill 78-80-70–228
37. Colorado PGA member Sherry Andonian-Smith 81-73-79–233
67. Part-time Colorado resident Hollis Stacy 78-80-86–244

For all the scores, CLICK HERE.

Competing at a course she estimated at the time that she’s played more than 1,000 times, Eaton lapped the field in her old hometown of Greeley, prevailing by 16 strokes in a 36-hole event six years ago.

We bring that up now because the Women’s Senior Stroke Play will return to Greeley CC next week — specifically Monday and Tuesday. And Eaton (left) — a Colorado Golf Hall of Famer who has now won the championship five times, including last year — will be in the field looking for a shot at history.

Should she prevail at her old home club, it would be the 26th CGA/CWGA title of her career, which would break the record she currently shares with another Hall of Famer, Carol Flenniken.

Eaton, who recently turned 59 and is now a full-time resident of Arizona, has won four Stroke Plays, one Match Play, five Senior Stroke Plays, four Senior Match Plays, one Junior Match Play, seven Brassies, one Mashie, one Chapman and one Mixed championship in Colorado.

While Eaton may know the Greeley Country Club course better than anyone in the 104-player Senior Stroke Play field — 14 golfers are in the championship flight — there’s no lack of competitors capable of winning the title next week.

Another Colorado Golf Hall of Famer, Janet Moore of Cherry Hills, teamed up with Eaton to win this year’s CGA Women’s Brassie, which marked her 21st CGA/CWGA win, putting her in the mix for the all-time record when all is eventually said and done. Moore competed this summer in the inaugural U.S. Senior Women’s Open.

Also scheduled to be in the field in Greeley are 2016 champion Deb Hughes of Green Valley Ranch, 2018 CGA Women’s Senior Match Play winner Tiffany Maurycy of Cherry Creek, and two players who advanced to match play at the 2017 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur (along with Eaton), Kristine Franklin of Colorado National and Susan Hartwell of Hyland Hills.

The championship flight is one of eight flights that will produce a winner next week in Greeley. For Monday’s tee times, 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.
 

It wasn’t quite Babe Ruth’s “called shot” from the 1932 World Series, but it was nevertheless an impressive example of an athlete noting what needed to be done, then going out and flat doing it.

After Friday’s second round of the U.S. Senior Open at The Broadmoor, Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Brandt Jobe was eight strokes out of the lead, but said, “You shoot a 66 or 65, you’re back in the tournament.”

Twenty-four hours later, Jobe walked off the East Course in his old home state with a nifty 4-under-par 66 — which matched the best round Saturday — that vaulted him into fifth place and just three strokes out of the lead going into Sunday’s final round.

Reminded Saturday of his words from a day earlier, Jobe chucked and said, “I delivered.”

It’s the second straight year that Jobe has gone low in the third round of the U.S. Senior Open to land a spot on the leaderboard. A year ago in Peabody, Mass., Jobe tied the U.S. Senior Open single-round scoring record by shooting an 8-under-par 62 in round 3. That one put him within six strokes of the lead.

“Saturdays have been good,” he noted this time around. “These last two Saturdays (at the Senior Open), if I could make the Saturdays the rest of the week, I’d be in a little better shape.”

At The Broadmoor, Saturday’s 66 and 1-under-par 209 total left Jobe with half the 54-hole deficit he faced last year as Jerry Kelly leads at 206, 2001 PGA Champion David Toms is in second place at 207 and 2017 Senior Open runner-up Kirk Triplett and Tim Petrovic share third at 208.

“I’ve got to go out there and probably shoot another 66” on Sunday to have a realistic chance to win, Jobe said. “I’ve got a lot of good players ahead of me obviously.”

Many local fans will be rooting for Jobe, who lived in Colorado from 1970 to ’99. During that time, he won a Colorado Open, three CGA Match Plays, one CGA Amateur, one CGA Junior Amateur and one CGA Junior Match Play. (Coincidentally, his first two CGA Match Play wins came at The Broadmoor, on the South Course.) The Kent Denver graduate also finished second in The International at Castle Pines in 2005 after having a healthy lead going into the final day. His mom, dad, brother, sister and brother-in-law still live in Colorado.

Jobe never won on the PGA Tour — he finished runner-up four times. And so far in his PGA Tour Champions career, the 52-year-old Jobe has won once — last year’s Principal Charity Classic in Des Moines, Iowa.

But Jobe is leading the PGA Tour Champions in driving distance this year, and often seems to do well in senior majors.

He’s posted six top-10 finishes in those events, which is notable considering he didn’t play in his first one until 2016. He’s been second and fourth in the Senior Players, third in that 2017 U.S. Senior Open where he shot the third-round 62, third and eighth in the Senior PGA, and fifth in the Senior British Open.

“My length, it’s huge out here,” he said. “Even (playing partner Bob Estes) is fairly long for out here and I was hitting it 30 (yards) by him. And the harder the course, the fewer people that can hang in there. The difficulty and the length helps me.”

So does playing four rounds in senior majors vs. three in regular PGA Tour Champions events.

“Four rounds always helps, no doubt about it,” he said. “Putting four rounds together vs. three, the guy that’s playing the best is going to continue to rise. It’s not as much of a sprint when you play four rounds. In three-round (events), if you don’t get it going (early) you kill yourself. I’ve gotten used to it. I’ve learned a lot out here.”

On Saturday, Jobe switched putters to a virtually identical model with perhaps a little less loft, which seemed to turn things around after what he called “horrible” putting days Thursday and Friday. He birdied three of his first six holes, making a couple of 15-footers and saving a par from 5 feet on 4, and finished with five birdies and one bogey on the day.

“I’ve had the (old) putter for a year and there’s something wrong with it,” he said. “It got bent in the hosel. They fixed it, but now it looks like it’s doing it again, so I said, ‘I’m not going to putt with it anymore.'”

Jobe now lives in Texas and will soon be moving to Oklahoma City. But the Kent Denver graduate explained on Saturday why he left Colorado 19 years ago after living in the state for nearly three decades, mostly recently in Castle Rock.

“I finally kind of realized it’s tough,” he said. “Even coming back here I laugh because the ball does so many different things than it does (at sea level). It’s just different golf here.

“It’s hard to do this kind of altitude and the way the ball goes when every week (on tour) we’re at sea level. That’s kind of why I made the change. And also just to get somewhere where the winters weren’t so difficult.”

For scores from the U.S. Senior Open, CLICK HERE.

For Sunday’s pairings at The Broadmoor, CLICK HERE.