It seemed only appropriate that Dustin Jensen go out with a standing ovation of sorts.
Last week, the longtime director of youth programs for the CGA oversaw his final junior tournament, the 10 & Under Junior Series Championship at Boulder Country Club. Afterward, players, parents, tournament officials and bystanders all joined in giving Jensen a round of applause as his many years of helping out junior golfers drew to a close.
After 10 years of working for the CGA — seven as the director of youth programs — Jensen departed a week ago to become the associate director of alumni relations and the booster club at his alma mater, Jamestown College in Jamestown, North Dakota.
Jensen (pictured) said he made the move primarily to get closer to his family in North Dakota, but stepping away tugs at his heart after being a very popular mentor to many hundreds of young golfers in Colorado.
“That’s going to be so difficult,” he said shortly before leaving. “The kids graduating high school now, I met them 10 years ago when they were 7 or 8 years old. Now they’re walking out of here going all over to college. It’s crazy to have met these guys when they were 3 feet tall and 45 pounds and hardly able to swing a golf club, and now they’re some of the top players in the country as juniors.
“And even the players that aren’t the best, they all love the game, and they’re fun to work with.”
Whether you’re Ed Mate, the CGA’s executive director who hired Jensen in 2002 after he served as a CGA summer intern in 2001, or one of the youngsters who plays in CJGA events, Jensen has made a deep and lasting impression.
“Dustin has been here so many years, and he’s done probably the best job out of anybody,” said AJ Ott of Fort Collins, winner of the boys division of the CJGA 11-13 Junior Series Championship. “He’s just been great. He’s so supportive and he’s run the tournaments just top-notch.”
That, and much more. Under Jensen’s guidance not only have the number of junior tournaments increased several fold, but junior outreach programs and fundraising efforts have expanded considerably, especially with CommonGround Golf Course and its Kids Course opening up so many opportunities since debuting in 2009. Jensen also played a key role in creating the Junior Golf Experience interactive exhibit at the Denver Golf Expo, as well as the one-stop coloradojuniorgolf.org web site, and he came up with the idea of giving out Academic All-Star Awards to complement recognition of on-course accomplishments for junior golfers.
Jensen also spearheaded the CGA hosting the 2011 boys Junior America’s Cup after the tournament was moved from Mexico to Colorado because of safety concerns south of the border. The CGA team subsequently posted its best finish ever in the JAC, third place.
“The organization is so fortunate that we had somebody with Dustin’s passion for kids working for us for the last decade,” Mate said. “It’s a great example of putting the right guy in the right place for the right job. And we’re going to really miss him a lot. But the fortunate thing for us is he raised the bar. We’re so much further down the road because of what’s he done.”
In fact, Jensen raised that bar so much that his duties will be handled by two CGA staffers. Erin Bessey, the Eisenhower-Evans Scholarship Recruiter the last several years, will be the CGA director of youth programs, managing the association’s outreach programs and some fundraising efforts, handling the CGA’s community partnerships with schools and non-profit organizations, as well as still being very involved with Evans Scholars-related work. She’ll also oversee the junior competitive program.
Meanwhile, Eric Wilkinson, who has been manager of member services for the CGA, is becoming director of junior competitions.
“The (director of youth programs) job has evolved over the last decade,” Mate said. “Youth programs is really too big a job for one person. So we have done what we needed to do for some time and separated junior development — which is outreach programming and giving kids a chance who wouldn’t otherwise have one — and junior competitions.
“The good news is, Dustin did such a great job with both, and now we’re going to be able to focus two individual people separately on that. It will allow us to be very focused on those two distinct programs, because they are different.”
Jensen believes the youth programs will be in good hands with Bessey and Wilkinson.
“I’m real excited for Erin Bessey,” he said. “I don’t think I could have taken the (Jamestown College job) if she wouldn’t have been working here. Knowing her and how good she is at what she does, it feels like handing it over to a young running back almost. I’m handing it off to someone who you know is going to do a better job than you do.
“And now with Eric coming from the other side to run a lot of the tournaments, the two of them have been around for a long time, they know everything, they know the kids, so I just see it getting better and better.”
Jensen said he expected to work at the CGA “forever. I didn’t plan to leave. I love what I do, but that one right opportunity came along and (my wife and I) just had to do it.”
After Jensen expressed interest in the Jamestown College position, “The next thing you know the president (of the college) was calling, saying we want to get you up here,” Jensen said. “It gave us an opportunity to go back to family. So I don’t want to leave, but it’s the perfect time. My brother is expecting a child at the end of the month and we have four nieces and nephews up there. We’ve got some family friends who are extremely successful and they said the one thing they regret is that they didn’t give up their careers to move closer to family. And that really resonated with us.
“This also gives me a chance to go back and kind of give back to the school that really helped me. So it’s exciting and yet it’s a double-edged sword. I’m giving up something great to do something that I’m excited about.”
Jensen grew up in North Dakota, then attended Jamestown College, competing in both track & field and golf at the NAIA school. After doing a summer internship at the CGA in 2001, then completing college, Jensen was hired full-time by Mate in 2002.
“Who gets lucky enough to get an internship, and get hired to run golf tournaments in Colorado?” Jensen said. “It was a dream come true. Ten years later I owe a lot to Ed and the CGA staff. … The CGA is such a great family. I’m not leaving co-workers. I’m leaving family.”
Jensen said he’ll return to Colorado for the CGA/CWGA annual awards brunch, which will be held Nov. 20 at Pinehurst Country Club in south Denver. A reception for Jensen is planned for immediately after the brunch.
