During his prime, English was one of the best amateurs around, both regionally and nationally. He’s a member of three state golf halls of fame — Colorado, Iowa and Nebraska — and would be a good candidate for Kansas’ as well if that state’s rules didn’t include a 10-year residency requirement.
He’s won state opens or amateurs in all four of those states, accumulating 14 of those titles in all when including senior and team events in Colorado. He claimed the Colorado Open before the modern tournament debuted at Hiwan in 1964, and won open-division state amateurs five times in Colorado — the State Stroke Play in 1958, ‘59 and ‘61, and the State Match Play in 1957 and ‘60.
Nationally speaking, English finished low amateur in the 1959 U.S. Open, in the process beating Jack Nicklaus and Charlie Coe, the U.S. Amateur finalists later that year in Colorado Springs. English also won the prestigious Trans-Mississippi in 1950, defeating Jack Vickers in the championship match. Vickers is best known now for being the founder of the International PGA Tour event in Castle Rock.
English’s accomplishments on the course are the reason he was sought out to become a Golf Digest course evaluator in the mid-1960s. At first, he’d rate just a handful of courses each year, but that number has gradually grown to the 30-35 annually it is today.
Given that the unpaid evaluators only receive complimentary green fees and a cart — everything else, they’re required to take care of themselves — English is in a good situation to fit the bill for Golf Digest. His son, Tom, is a Northwest Airlines pilot who lives in Colorado Springs, so Jim flies “almost for free.” He therefore has evaluated courses not only in Colorado, but in roughly a dozen states.
Among his notable stops have been Cypress Point and Pebble Beach in California, Cherry Hills here in Colorado, and The Country Club at Brookline and Winged Foot in the Northeast. All place among the top 55 courses in the country, according to Golf Digest’s most recent rankings.
English is reluctant to publicly divulge many of his favorites, but does say, “Everybody talks about Pebble Beach and Cypress, and I love both of those.”
But evaluators also rate plenty of brand-new courses, both public and private.
“Nowadays some of the best courses are public,” English said. “Some are excellent. There are nine criteria on our form, but it’s very subjective. It’s hard to ignore places with great reputations. But there are a lot of great new courses, so you’ve got to be as objective as you can.”
English fully acknowledges that some course officials who want good ratings don’t hesitate in not-so-subtlely pressuring Golf Digest evaluators.
“You feel it more with new courses coming on board,” English said. “They want a good rating. They’ll say, ‘Give us a good evaluation,’ but as I say, you’ve got to be as objective as possible.”
English takes it to heart that the magazine mandates that evaluators not accept anything from the course aside from complimentary golf and a cart. “I’ve never even taken a sleeve of balls,” he said.
For the record, three Colorado courses are on Golf Digest’s most recent list of America’s 100 greatest courses: Castle Pines in Castle Rock (No. 36), Cherry Hills just south of Denver (No. 53) and Sanctuary in Sedalia (No. 73). Pine Valley in New Jersey is ranked No. 1 in the nation.
Like all of them, English is still going strong.
