Former Masters champion Craig Stadler, a resident of Colorado for more than two decades, and Ann Finke of Colorado Springs, the first female member of the Colorado PGA and a national leader in junior golf, were voted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame on Wednesday.
The two will be inducted as the Hall of Fame’s 44th class next year, likely in mid-May.
“I can hardly put into words (my reaction),” Finke said Wednesday. “It’s amazing. I can’t help but think about that kid playing golf a hundred years ago and wonder, ‘How did I get here?’ I can’t tell you how neat it is. I’m taken aback, to be honest.”
Stadler, an Evergreen resident since 2003 and a Coloradan since 1994, has won 13 times on the PGA Tour, including the 1982 Masters, plus nine times on the Champions Tour, along with the 1973 U.S. Amateur.
Between the PGA Tour and Champions Tour, 11 of Stadler’s victories have come since he moved to Colorado, including two Champions Tour majors: the 2003 Ford Senior Players Championship and the 2004 JELD-WEN Tradition.
Propelled by his victory in a playoff against Dan Pohl at the Masters, Stadler led the PGA Tour money list in 1982, when he posted four wins overall. Twenty-one years later, he became the first Champions Tour player to win on the PGA Tour as he claimed the title at age 50 in the B.C. Open.
Later in 2003, Stadler was named the Champions Tour Rookie of the Year, and in 2004 he earned Champions Tour Player of the Year honors after a five-win season. In his first 15 months as a senior player, the Walrus notched eight victories. Among those was the 2004 First Tee Open at Pebble Beach, where Stadler teamed with Aaron Woodard — son of now-Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Tom Woodard — to also win the junior-pro best-ball competition.
In 2013 at age 60, Stadler claimed another distinction by winning the Encompass Championship — that of having the longest time between victories on the Champions Tour (8 years, 8 months, 28 days).
During his PGA Tour career, Stadler played in each of the first 17 Internationals contested at Castle Pines Golf Club, placing in the top 15 five times.
Stadler’s son Kevin is also a player of some prominence, and Craig caddied for Kevin in his son’s professional debut at the 2002 Colorado Open at Sonnenalp Golf Club just west of Vail, where the younger Stadler won in a playoff over PGA Tour player Gary Hallberg and Brian Kortan. That same year, Craig and Kevin teamed up to win the nationally televised Office Depot Father/Son Challenge. In 2014, the two became the first father and son to compete in the same Masters (pictured above).
In addition to his outstanding playing record, Craig Stadler has co-designed a course in Colorado (with Tripp Davis), Grand Elk Ranch & Club in Granby.
“I’ve had some great memories in Colorado,” Stadler told Golf Digest in 2012. “Denver is a perfect place to be. The city and surrounding area has a great sports scene, a wide variety of golf courses, a ton of things to do and fantastic restaurants. It’s home, and we love being here.”
Stadler, now 62, has previously been inducted into several other Halls of Fame: San Diego Breithard Hall of Fame (1996), the University of Southern California Athletic Hall of Fame (1999), the Argentine Golf Association Hall of Fame (2012) and the Southern California Golf Association Hall of Fame (2014).
Finke (left, teaching kids), meanwhile, has been a fixture on the Colorado golf scene for three decades. During that time — all spent at the Country Club of Colorado in Colorado Springs, where she’s now director of instruction — she’s given about 38,000 lessons, more than 40 percent of those to juniors.
“When you think 40 or 50 swings for each of those, that’s a lot of swings,” Finke said with a laugh on Wednesday.
Finke was the first female to become a member of the Colorado PGA, joining in 1985, six years after she turned pro. She was also the first woman member in the Nebraska Section PGA, gaining that status in 1983.
Finke has drawn particular acclaim for her work with junior golfers, and in 2010 she was named the PGA of America’s national Junior Golf Leader, making her the first female member of the Colorado PGA to earn a major national PGA award.
Finke has had an impact on thousands of junior golfers over the years — not just from her club, but from all around southern Colorado and even Denver and Wyoming — so much so that an area at the Country Club of Colorado has long been dubbed “Finke Hill” by her students. Finke gives roughly 1,000 junior lessons each year and does almost 50 hours of golf clinics, according to the PGA of America.
Perhaps the most recognizable junior player to have been taught by Finke was Tom Glissmeyer, who grew up playing the Country Club of Colorado and went on to qualify for the U.S. Open as a 16-year-old in 2003.
Finke (left) also has taken a very active role in the Pikes Peak Junior Golf organization, including serving as president from 1991 through 2002.
Finke was just the ninth female nationally to become a quarter-century PGA member. This fall, she and Hale Irwin received a legacy award from The First Tee of Pikes Peak, and next month she’ll be honored with the Noble Chalfant Award for distinguished service to the Colorado PGA.
“I’ve had so many neat things happen this year,” Finke said. “I keep thinking, ‘Wow!’ We go out and do our thing, and it’s very gratifying to do something you love. To be recognized for that is really neat.”
On the same night that Stadler and Finke are inducted into the Hall of Fame, the Hall will hand out three awards.
Jim Hajek, the PGA head professional at Fossil Trace Golf Club in Golden, will receive the Golf Person of the Year Award. Hajek recently earned the PGA of America’s national Public Merchandiser of the Year honor, becoming the eighth Colorado PGA national honoree in the last nine years.
Mike and Terri Knode will be given the Distinguished Service Award. They founded the Western Colorado Golf Foundation, a longtime beneficiary of the Rocky Mountain Open which has awarded many educational scholarships to junior golfers from the Western Slope over the years. The Western Colorado Golf Foundation owned the Rocky Mountain Open before being sold last year. Mike Knode serves on the CGA Board of Governors and has also been president for the CGA’s Western Chapter.
Coloradan Homer McClintock will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award. McClintock played a key role in the acquisition of the Evans Scholars house for caddies at the University of Colorado in the late 1960s and in the CGA’s Eisenhower Scholarship linking up with the Western Golf Association’s Evans Scholarship. McClintock also served on the CGA Board of Governors when the CGA started to greatly expand its reach and services.
