Jim Colbert obit

Jim Colbert, 8-time PGA Tour winner and entrepreneur, dies at 85

 He was not on the list.

Jim Colbert, an eight-time PGA Tour winner and former two-time Player of the Year on PGA Tour Champions, died on May 10. He was 85.

Colbert attended Kansas State on a football scholarship but turned his attention to the links after an injury on the gridiron. He was the runner-up at the 1964 NCAA Championship.

Colbert turned pro in 1965, joined the 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.

"He was the best player director that ever served with me," said Beman, who recounted that his family traveled with that of Colbert's in the summer when their kids were out of school and they had a regular bridge game too. "He was interested in the entire Tour, not just himself, and that’s how he made decisions as a board member for the benefit of the Tour. There’s no telling where the Tour would be if Jim hadn’t been there."

Colbert left the Tour as player in 1987 due to a brittle back, and 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, according to the PGA Tour. He also became a golf analyst at ESPN from 1987-1990.

Colbert kept his game sharp and in 1991, at 50, enjoyed the most fruitful years of his career as a player, winning 20 times. He was named Rookie of the Year on the 50-and-over circuit in 1991 and won a senior major in 1993, the Senior Players Championship. Sporting his trademark bucket hat and with his collar always turned up, Colbert topped the money list in 1995 and 1996, winning Player of the Year in both years. After an injury-riddled 1997, he was named Senior Tour Comeback Player of the Year.

He helped design Colbert Hills on the northwest edge of Manhattan, Kansas, at his 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. 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).

Colbert was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, on March 9, 1941, but his family moved to Kansas City in 1952. He married his high school sweetheart, Marcia, and they lived there until 1974. In more recent years, they split time between Las Vegas and Palm Desert, California.