Hall of Fame credentials are a must when it comes to joining the elite company that has received the Nicholson Award.
Including this year’s honoree, the last six recipients of the award are members of the World Golf Hall of Fame. And the inaugural honoree — Denver’s Will Nicholson Jr., who the award is named for — will be inducted into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame next month.
This year’s Nicholson Award winner, like last year’s, has long since been enshrined in the Colorado Sports Hall. Hale Irwin, who graduated from Boulder High School and the University of Colorado before embarking on a career in which he won three U.S. Opens, will receive the Nicholson honor May 8 at the University Club in Denver.
Irwin will follow this stellar cast in earning the Nicholson Award, which is given for a lifetime of commitment and dedication to the game of golf: Nicholson himself, a former USGA president and a man who for many years was responsible for setting up Augusta National for the Masters; Arnold Palmer; Jack Nicklaus; Tom Watson; Ben Crenshaw; and Colorado Springs resident Judy Bell, the only woman ever to serve as USGA president.
Add it up and those honorees account for a combined 38 major championship victories and two USGA presidencies.
“When informed (about receiving the 2012 award), I was surprised and honored,” Irwin said in a recent e-mail. “To be in that illustrious company is wonderful stuff! … I am delighted.”
Irwin’s credentials fit in quite nicely with his predecessors. With his U.S. Open victories in 1974, ’79 and ’90, only four players in history have won the national title more times (Nicklaus, Ben Hogan, Bobby Jones and Willie Anderson claimed four victories each). And, in capturing the crown in 1990 at age 45 (pictured), Irwin remains the oldest U.S. Open champion.
Beyond that, Irwin owns a total of 20 PGA Tour wins, a record 45 Champions Tour victories (16 more than all-time runner-up Lee Trevino) and the 1967 NCAA title while at CU. He also played on five U.S. Ryder Cup teams and captained the American squad in the inaugural Presidents Cup in 1994. He’s competed in more than 1,000 tournaments on the PGA and Champions Tour combined.
Besides all his accomplishments in golf, Irwin quarterbacked the Boulder High football team as a senior and led BHS to the 1963 state golf title while winning the individual championship, and he was an All-Big Eight safety at CU.
As an amateur golfer, Irwin claimed three straight CGA Stroke Play championships (1963-65) and a Match Play crown in 1966.
On top of everything else, Irwin has made his mark as a golf course architect. Among the Colorado courses he’s designed are Indian Peaks in Lafayette, the Mountain Course at Cordillera in Edwards, and Highlands Ranch Golf Club.
Though Irwin now lives in Arizona, his Hale Irwin Golf Services and Irwin Golf Management, with Irwin’s son Steve as vice president, are based in Colorado. The latter company was recently selected to manage Terradyne Country Club in Andover, Kan., near Wichita.
With their prominent positions in golf, and their strong ties to Colorado, Hale Irwin and Nicholson are certainly no strangers to one another.
“I have known Will for a long time,” Irwin said. “He is a man of great integrity and has shown that by example with all the positions in business and golf that he has held.”
Those who wish to attend the seventh annual Nicholson Awards dinner on May 8 (reception at 5:30 p.m. and dinner at 6:30) can contact Gary Potter at gpotter@mho.com or at 303-885-4538 for more information. The cost is $125.
