Steve Jones’ golf career was highlighted by a U.S. Open title and eight PGA Tour victories overall, but many observers think he could have won a lot more if not for injuries, accidents and maladies that wiped out many seasons.
However, it’s a testament to Jones’ success that despite the many physical problems he endured, he was voted into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame on Tuesday.
Jones, who grew up in Yuma, Colo., and played golf at the University of Colorado, was one of six people elected to the Hall, which will hold its induction ceremonies on April 18 at the Denver Marriott City Center.
Joining him in being enshrined will be former Denver professional standouts Steve Atwater (Broncos) and Adam Foote (Avalanche), along with longtime former Rockies manager Don Baylor, former NFL kicker Don Cockroft and ex-major league pitcher Stan Williams. Like Jones (Yuma High School), Cockroft (Fountain) and Williams (Denver East) attended high school in Colorado.
Jones was overjoyed to be in such select company.
“When you’re not playing to the level you used to play at, you think, ‘Why me?'” Jones said in a phone interview this week. “I’m surprised and thrilled. To be inducted with all those guys is definitely an honor.”
For Jones, the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame induction will be the second major honor he’ll receive in Colorado within a year. He’s also scheduled to be inducted into the CU Athletic Hall of Fame on Nov. 15.
“It’s nice to be recognized and great to be part of Colorado and the history there,” he said. “You always are trying to do more. My career is on the downswing like everyone that gets older, but (to be going into two halls of fame) is a double honor.”
Jones captured all eight of his PGA Tour titles in the 10-year period from 1988 to 1998. His signature victory came at the 1996 U.S. Open at Oakland Hills in Michigan, where he prevailed by one stroke over Davis Love III and Tom Lehman. The tournament ended a seven-year win drought for the lanky golfer from Colorado’s eastern plains. He became the first sectional qualifier to win the U.S. Open since 1976.
Jones was sidelined from competitive golf for almost three years following a 1991 dirt-bike accident that threatened his career. That accident caused severe ligament and joint damage in Jones’ left ring finger along with other injuries. It’s little wonder then why Jones was named the PGA Tour’s Comeback Player of the Year in 1996 following his U.S. Open triumph.
Jones has also had his career derailed at different times by an irregular heartbeat, a thumb injury, shoulder issues and most recently, by a case of tennis elbow that kept him from competing for 3 1/2 years and long delayed his debut on the Champions Tour. All told, Jones has sat out six full tour seasons since 1990 because of injuries and ailments.
Jones has a long history of success in Colorado, and not only in golf, as he ran track and was an all-state basketball player in high school. But golf is where he really made his mark — locally, nationally and internationally. He won a couple of Colorado state sand green titles and made it to the semifinals of the 1976 U.S. Junior Amateur, then graduated to victories in two state amateurs — the 1980 CGA Match Play and the 1981 CGA Stroke Play.
At CU, Jones was a four-time first-team All-Big Eight golfer as well as a second-team All-American. In his senior season alone, he recorded nine top-10 finishes.
In 1981, Jones just missed becoming just the second amateur to win the Colorado Open. But PGA Tour player Dave Hill denied him by winning his fourth Colorado Open.
Seven years later, however, Jones wouldn’t be stopped again as he earned the 1988 Colorado Open championship. That was the same year he won his first PGA Tour title at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.
Though tennis elbow kept Jones from competing from mid-2007 until early 2011 (when he was 52), he is playing now on the Champions Tour. The Colorado Golf Hall of Famer had his best official Champions showing in July at the First Tee Open, finishing 13th.
“I’ve been playing for a year and a half now, and I’m definitely showing lots of signs of improvement,” Jones said. “When you’re off for four years, it’s going to take a few years to get going. I’m starting to make a turn. I just need more ‘reps.'”
Also in the last decade, Jones served as an assistant captain under Hal Sutton for the U.S. team at the 2004 Ryder Cup, not coincidentally held at Oakland Hills, site of his U.S. Open victory.
Jones will be the 11th golf-related inductee into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame, following N.C. “Tubb” Morris (1971), Babe Zaharias (1974), Joan Birkland (1981), Hale Irwin (1986), Dale Douglass (1989), Judy Bell (1996), Barbara McIntire (1998), Jack Vickers (1999), Dow Finsterwald (2008) and Will Nicholson Jr. (2012).
