Jim Colbert was a successful golfer on both the PGA Tour and PGA Tour Champions, a successful television commentator for the game and a successful businessman whose company managed more than 20 golf courses.
But Colbert was also a major figure at Bighorn Country Club in Palm Desert, where he worked with founding members of the club to shape one of the most successful private clubs in the Coachella Valley.
Colbert, a winner of eight PGA Tour event and 20 titles on the PGA’s senior tour, died Sunday at 85. A long-time resident at Bighorn in south Palm Desert, Colbert and his wife Marcia had been at the club throughout this season.
“Jim was part of the very foundation of Bighorn. Alongside R.D. Hubbard, he helped shape the vision, culture, and spirit of this club from its earliest days,” said Bighorn chairman John H. Beury III, nephew of Hubbard, who led the investment group that bought Bighorn in 1996, in a message to Bighorn members. “His love of the game, appreciation for excellence, and understanding of what makes a club truly special helped influence so much of what Bighorn has become today.”
Colbert and Hubbard became close friends and Hubbard would often consult with Colbert on Bighorn issues until Hubbard’s death in 2020.
“Jim often spoke about the importance of family, and despite all of his professional success, he always said his greatest legacy was his wife Marcia, their daughters, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren,” Beury said in his message to the membership. “That perspective says everything about the kind of man Jim was. He had just celebrated his 85th birthday here at Bighorn surrounded by his three daughters, and even in his final days, he remained a daily presence at the club he loved so deeply.”
Colbert attended Kansas State on a football scholarship, but injuries led him to golf. He turned pro in 1965, joined the PGA Tour one year later and claimed his first victory at the 1969 Monsanto Open. He won two of his eight titles in 1983, finishing a career-best 15th on the money list.
Colbert was a member of the tour policy board during a critical time in 1983, and famously sounded a warning to then-Commissioner Deane Beman that some of the leading players in the game, including Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, were attempting a coup. Thanks to Colbert’s efforts, Beman survived and his contract was re-upped a year later and spent more than another decade in office turning the tour into a financial success.
A bad back curtailed Colbert’s playing career and he became an analyst for ESPN’s golf coverage in 1987. But Colbert had already bet on himself in Las Vegas, buying his first course in 1980 and launching a successful golf course management company, Jim Colbert Golf, which operated as many as 23 courses. In 1991 Colbert left ESPN to join the PGA’s senior tour in 1991 and went on to win 20 tournaments, twice being named the 50-and-over tour’s player of the year.
He helped design Colbert Hills on the northwest edge of Manhattan, Kansas, at his beloved alma mater, which opened in 2000 and is ranked as the best public course in Kansas by Golfweek. The course also is the home to the Wildcats men’s and women’s team as well as the First Tee National Academy and a First Tee facility.
Throughout the last three decades, Colbert was a force at Bighorn and an advisor to Hubbard. In an interview with The Desert Sun last year, Colbert remembered the impact the Battle at Bighorn, prime-time television event under the lights, had on the club. That match featured Tiger Woods and Sergio Garcia in a head-to-head match on ABC.
“We paid a million dollars for the tournament, and it was like $250,000 for the lights,” Colbert said. “I mean, it wasn’t an official event, but it was August, and the T.V. show. And in the next month, we sold like $40 million in real estate. Just from television and the people that came.”
He was inducted into the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame in 1998, one of five Hall of Fames where he is enshrined: Kansas State Athletic Hall of Fame (1991); Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame (Class of 2000); Kansas City Golf Hall of Fame (2018); and Las Vegas Golf Hall of Fame (2019).
“Jim had a great life, and his friendship, presence, and contributions to Bighorn will never be forgotten,” Beury said.
Golfweek contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: PGA star, commentator and Bighorn mainstay Jim Colbert died Sunday at 85
Reporting by Larry Bohannan, Palm Springs Desert Sun / Palm Springs Desert Sun
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
