Gene Miranda of Colorado Springs (top photo) and Tom Connell of Denver, both mainstays in Colorado golf for the last 40 years, were elected to the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame on Friday.
Miranda, best known as the golf coach at the Air Force Academy for more than a quarter-century, and Connell, who retired in 2009 after 28 years as the head professional at Denver Country Club, will be inducted on Oct. 3 at Cherry Hills Country Club.
“To me this is tops,” Miranda said when asked what the impending induction means to him. “To be nominated by my peers in the (Colorado) PGA is an honor in itself. And to be selected to join so many other great people “¦ This sport has given me much more than I can ever repay.”
As for Connell, his reaction was low-key.
“I tend to stay below the radar,” he said. “I’ve done a few things.”
The Hall of Fame board also will give out two annual awards on Oct. 3. University of Denver women’s golf coach Sammie Chergo was named Golf Person of the Year for 2009, while the 2009 Board of Directors for CommonGround Golf Course will receive the Distinguished Service Award.
Chergo led the Pioneers to a fifth-place finish in the 2009 NCAA Finals, marking the best showing in program history. The performance came a year after DU placed sixth at the national tournament.
As for the CommonGround Board, last spring it completed a 14-year odyssey by making CommonGround a reality. The Aurora course, which opened to the public on May 23, 2009, is owned and operated by the CGA and CWGA, and as such is home to many for-the-good-of-the-game initiatives. The 2009 CommonGround Board consisted of Tom Lawrence, Marti Alter-Cudlip, Joanne Braucht, Carlene Decker, Pat Kuntz, Dennis Lyon, Joe McCleary, Peggy Milford, Kent Moore and Will Nicholson.
When it comes to Miranda, it might be quicker to detail what he hasn’t done in Colorado golf than what he has. The 70-year-old has the distinction of having held 10 PGA job classifications, including head golf professional, director of golf, general manager, college golf coach and golf instructor. He’s semi-retired now, but remains the director of instruction at Eisenhower Golf Club at the Air Force Academy.
Miranda is a golf institution in the Colorado Springs area. He not only served for more than 25 years as Air Force’s golf coach — in separate stints as an officer and a civilian from 1972 to 2002 — but he played key roles at Eisenhower Golf Club, Gleneagle Country Club and Woodmoor Pines Golf & Country Club. A former associate professor of physical education at the Academy, Miranda now has the golf team’s annual invitational tournament named after him. He was inducted into the Golf Coaches Association of America Hall of Fame in 1997 and retired as Air Force coach in 2002.
“The thing I’m most proud of is what the people I’ve coached and worked with have done with their lives,” Miranda said, citing current Air Force Academy superintendent Mike Gould as one example. Gould was an assistant coach under Miranda in the early 1980s. “Ten of my former players are now general officers.”
Miranda, a PGA Master Professional, was named 2003 Golf Professional of the Year by the Colorado PGA, and he remains a member of the CGA Board of Governors. He’s also a respected rules official.
Connell just completed an extraordinarily long run as head professional at one of Colorado’s oldest country clubs. He held that title at Denver Country Club from 1982 to 2009.
Connell excelled as a player and as a club professional. As a competitor, he won the 1967 state high school title while at Wasson in Colorado Springs, and he qualified for the 1975 and 1980 U.S. Opens.
After stints as an assistant pro at Valley Hi, the Country Club of Colorado and Cherry Hills, Connell took over as head pro at the Sheraton Steamboat Resort in 1979 and moved to DCC in 1982.
During his years at Denver Country Club, Connell served as host professional for the Curtis Cup in 1982, was the president of the Colorado PGA in 1985, was named Colorado PGA Teacher of the Year in 1986 and Professional of the Year in 1988, and earned the Section’s 2008 Bill Strausbaugh Award, which is given for exemplary mentoring of fellow PGA professionals. Connell also played a key role in junior golf in the state, particularly during his time as Colorado PGA president.
After Connell retired from DCC in 2009, the CGA presented him its Presidents’ Award, given to a Colorado PGA member for a lifetime of outstanding service to golf.
“I started working at Colorado Springs Country Club when I was 11 years old,” Connell noted. “I’m 60 now, so you can do the math. My playing career was pretty good. And I worked for some of the greatest professionals in Colorado — Paul Ransom, Winston Howe, Warren Smith — so that’s a pretty good safety net.
“To be a professional all that time at Denver Country Club, I’ve been exposed to a lot of interesting things. I hadn’t gone through it in 30 years, but when I updated my resume, I said to myself, “˜It’s no wonder you’re so tired.'”
For information about attending the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame induction ceremonies on Oct. 3, or the Hall of Fame’s golf tournament on Oct. 4 at Cherry Hills, contact Colorado Golf Hall of Fame executive director Kim Eaton by e-mail at cogolfhalloffame@comcast.net.
