CGA CEO Ed Mate, accomplished PGA professional Doug Rohrbaugh & highly regarded course designer Jim Urbina voted into Colorado Golf Hall of Fame
By Gary Baines – 10/28/2026
The state of Colorado spreads over an area of more than 100,000 square miles, and the 2027 induction class for the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame covers it pretty well — even with just three people being enshrined.
CGA executive director/CEO Ed Mate has lived the great majority of his life in the Denver/Boulder area — in the north central part of the state. Colorado PGA professional Doug Rohrbaugh lives in Carbondale and works in Aspen in the western half of the state. And golf course designer Jim Urbina grew up in Pueblo in the southeastern quadrant of Colorado, though he now lives in Columbine Valley.
That geographically diverse group will make up the trio who will be inducted into the state’s golf hall of fame on Nov. 20, 2027 at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, site of the Hall’s museum, which opened in 2023. They were voted in on Wednesday at a meeting of the CGHOF board.
Not surprisingly, this Hall call was welcome news.
“The first thing that came to mind when (CGHOF president) Chris Nordling shared the news was something Don Fox said when he was inducted: ‘This is like winning an award for eating ice cream!’” Mate wrote in an email on Wednesday. “My career in golf has been a labor of love for over 40 years, and I never dreamed I would be inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame. I’m incredibly honored, and it will take a while for it to fully sink in.”
As for Rohrbaugh, he received a message from Nordling while driving to Arizona — and in an area with little cell reception. After reading the message — in which Nordling introduced himself and said he had very good news — Rohrbaugh texted it to his wife, who was in a separate car.
“When I got the message, I was starting the worst stretch of no reception between Moab and Flagstaff,” Rohrbaugh said in a text Wednesday evening. ”It took 3 1/2 hours before I was able to talk to Chris. It just about killed me. Ha ha. Needless to say, I have been overwhelmed with emotion, excited, humbled, and honored to be a part of the Colorado golf Hall of Fame.”
Urbina, meanwhile, responded with a text featuring five crying emojis.
“A very happy sad,” he subsequently wrote. “My dad just passed away. He was going to be 99 years old. Wish I could have called him today and told him the good news. He would have been proud of me.”
Also being honored during those Nov. 20, 2027 festivities will be 2024 Colorado Golf Hall of Fame inductee Wyndham Clark (Golf Person of the Year), recently retired course superintendent/golf administrator Joe McCleary (Lifetime Achievement Award), the Team Colorado junior elite squad and its leadership (Distinguished Service Award) and 2026 Future Famers Sophia Lee of Columbine Valley and Brayden DeStefano of Peyton.
Here are some of the career highlights for the 2027 CGHOF inductees:
Ed Mate greeting a couple of caddies from the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy.
— Ed Mate: Mate has headed up the CGA for long enough that it may be difficult for many people — even those who have long been entrenched in the inner workings of Colorado golf — to clearly recall when he wasn’t in that role.
To put that into perspective, when Mate became the executive director of the CGA (he’s since added CEO to his title), a potential issue called Y2K was still very fresh in the memory. It was the year 2000 — and his first official day as E.D. was April 1.
“It’s an easy day to remember,” Mate noted early last year. “I’ve always jokingly said it’s the longest April Fool’s joke in history. I’m going to be called in by the board and (told) ‘Just kidding. You didn’t get the job.’”
And now, more than 26 years later, having long since become the longest-serving chief administrator for any of Colorado’s largest golf organizations, Mate is deservingly headed for the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame.
Regarding the two most prominent administrative golf organizations in Colorado that employ full-time executive directors/CEOs — the CGA and the Colorado PGA — no one has been at the helm nearly as long. More than four years ago, Mate surpassed the 22-year runs by Myran Craig of the Colorado PGA (1973-95) and Robin Jervey of the CWGA (1992-2014) — and he’s still going strong.
Mind you, his run as a golf administrator goes much further back than his days as executive director. Before that, he worked as an intern for the CGA starting in 1985, then as a staffer. And he also had a four-year stint at the Colorado PGA.
“Ed has been a tireless warrior for the interests of golf in Colorado,” former CGA president — and longtime CGHOF inductee — Kent Moore noted when Mate was approaching the quarter-century mark as the CGA’s executive director. “A person of great energy that has not diminished at all through the years. His many relationships across the world of golf have brought recognition and distinction to Colorado. He is always willing to pitch in and offer his expertise and the resources of the CGA for the good of the game and Colorado. It has always amazed me that his enthusiasm for the game and those that play it seems to increase with age.”
How long has Mate been executive director? Long enough that he’s served alongside a whopping 14 CGA presidents. For those keeping track, that includes (from longest ago to most recent) Rick Polmear, Dennis Lyon, Jerre Hause, Kevin Laura, Bill Fowler, Jim Magette, Tom Lawrence, Phil Lane, Joe McCleary, Juliet Miner, Janene Guzowski, Moore, Gary Albrecht and now Sara Montgomery.
Mate (right) congratulating Colin Prater after he won the 2025 CGA Match Play.
During Mate’s time guiding the ship that is the CGA, he’s played a significant role in the opening, running and operating of the association’s CommonGround Golf Course; the creation of the Colorado Golf Foundation and the launch of the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy; the CGA’s 100th anniversary and Century of Golf Gala at The Broadmoor; the merger with the CWGA; the huge recent growth of the CGA, to the point it now has about 100,000 members; and the creation of Team Colorado as part of a USGA pilot program designed to develop elite junior golfers. Colorado was one of seven states involved in the pilot program from the start.
“It was honestly a dream job,” Mate said of being the staff leader of the CGA. “It’s what I always wanted to do. I felt very fortunate I was able to return to the organization that I really grew up in — as a junior golfer, as an Evans Scholar. To be able to achieve really my career goal — to become an executive director — at a fairly young age, and to do it here in Colorado was (special). I felt a lot of gratitude and a lot of responsibility to live up to what I thought were pretty high expectations.”
A Colorado native — in fact, he’s a lifelong Coloradan, saying “I’ve never left the shadow of the mountains” — Mate attended (Denver) East High School and played golf there, having cut his teeth as a player at the old City Park Golf Course. He caddied at Denver Country Club and went on to earn an Eisenhower-Evans Scholarship to the University of Colorado.
And while working in his role at the CGA, he’s also made time to serve on the Colorado Open Golf Foundation board, as a director for the Western Golf Association (which oversees the Evans Scholarship nationwide) and for many years until recently as a member of the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame board.
In addition, Mate’s CGA hiring tree has produced plenty of fruit over the years, with Thomas Pagel (now the chief governance officer at the USGA); PGA Tour rules official Pete Lis; LPGA rules official Robert Duke; and University of Jamestown dean of students and VP for student affairs Dustin Jensen, besides those still on the CGA staff.
If it feels like Mate has many bases covered when it comes to the game in the state, you might understand why some observers have noted he’s “the face of golf in Colorado” to a large extent.
Though Mate once worked for six months as the communications director for a Denver-based satellite office of the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership — “I went on my sabbatical; I wandered the desert,” he said with a chuckle — in 1996 he jumped back into golf administration and he’s been a prominent fixture in Colorado golf ever since. “I always tell people I was scared straight.”
And he’s seen — and/or overseen — many changes in the local golf landscape over the years. For more about Mate and his first quarter-century-plus as executive director of the CGA, CLICK HERE.
Doug Rohrbaugh has long been one of the top players in the Colorado PGA.
— Doug Rohrbaugh: Over the years, Rohrbaugh undoubtedly has gotten headlines primarily for his considerable playing ability. But his career accomplishments include far more — both regarding his varied administrative tasks as a PGA professional, but especially his role in player development, with particular emphasis on the instruction of junior golfers. He’s been at it for decades on the Western Slope — whether at the Aspen Junior Golf Foundation, Aspen Golf Club, River Valley Ranch, Ironbridge or Snowmass Club. And he’s still at it these days as the PGA head professional at Aspen Golf Club. He was also the head professional at Ironbridge from 2005-17.
But let’s start with highlights of Rohrbaugh’s extensive playing resumé. With his 2013 victory in the Colorado Senior Open, Rohrbaugh is the only Colorado PGA member in the last 15 years to win any one of the three Colorado Open championships — the CSO, the Colorado Open or the Colorado Women’s Open. And the former Idaho State golfer ran away with the title that year, winning by six strokes.
Also as a senior golfer — over 50 years old — Rohrbaugh accomplished the remarkable feat of claiming three straight Colorado PGA Professional Championships — the most prestigious of the Section’s tournaments and one open to players of any age. He prevailed in that event starting roughly the same period he claimed his Colorado Senior Open title — from 2013 through ’15. Not surprisingly, given those results, Rohrbaugh was named the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame’s Golf Person of the Year during that stretch. He’s also won two Section senior championships.
All told, Rohrbaugh has been honored as the Colorado PGA’s (open-age) Player of the Year once and Senior Player of the Year a record nine times.
On a bigger stage — the biggest stage for senior golfers, in fact — Rohrbaugh also had a nice run. Thanks to his performance at Q-school, he had conditional status on PGA Tour Champions in 2015 and he finished as high as 15th that year at the Greater Gwinnett Championship. All told on the Champions circuit, Rohrbaugh has made 13 starts — with 10 of them being in senior majors: the U.S. Senior Open, Senior PGA Championship and Regions Tradition. Out of those 13, he earned official money four times — all of them in 2015.
On a regional level, besides winning the 2013 Colorado Open, Rohrbaugh prevailed in the 2000 Navajo Trail Open in Durango.
As for his day job, he’s worked in several roles at multiple courses in the area between Glenwood Springs and Aspen. He was executive director of the Aspen Junior Golf Foundation (1992-99, a time when he bolstered the Glenn Frey Golf for Kids tournament), and a teaching pro at Aspen Golf Club, River Valley Ranch, Snowmass Club and RVR again. Then he had the long run as PGA head professional at Ironbridge, and now he’s in a similar role at Aspen Golf Club, along with teaching during the winter in Arizona. Adding to his junior instructional resumé, Rohrbaugh also served as head coach of the Aspen, Basalt and Carbondale high school golf teams in the 1990s and early 2000s.
All told, Rohrbaugh has been a Class A member of the Colorado PGA Section for 32 years. He estimates he averages between 400 and 500 lessons per year. Next month, the Section will present him a Noble Chalfant Award for distinguished service to the CPGA.
“Doug enjoys passing on his knowledge of the game to make his students enjoy and understand the great game of golf and what it stands for,” Colorado Golf Hall of Famer C. Paul Brown wrote in a letter supporting Rohrbaugh’s induction. “… I do not think there is a better ambassador for the game of golf, and the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame will be proud to have Doug Rohrbaugh as a member of this hallowed group.”
Added fellow Colorado PGA professional Chris Johnson: “Doug’s impact on the game of golf — both in Colorado and nationally — has been nothing short of extraordinary. … His character is impeccable, and his commitment to the growth and promotion of the game has been unwavering.”
Jim Urbina feels right at home designing and restoring golf courses.
— Jim Urbina: Judging by the letters of support Urbina’s Hall of Fame nomination received, he’s favorably impressed some big-name people in the golf industry. That includes World Golf Hall of Famer Ben Crenshaw, retired USGA CEO Mike Davis, Bill Coore and Michael Keiser — among others.
“Jim’s contributions to golf course design, restoration and consulting have spanned decades and left an indelible mark on the game — not just in Colorado, but across the globe,” Crenshaw wrote.
“Jim is one of the best talents in the world of first-class golf architecture and construction,” added Keiser. “He has far above-average ability in both the aesthetics of golf and the pragmatic territory of cost.”
Keiser noted that Urbina co-designed — with Tom Doak — the much-acclaimed Old Macdonald course at Bandon in Oregon and “built it from scratch.”
Much of Urbina’s early work came as part of a design team, and in recent years he’s focused largely on restoration of courses, including some very prominent ones. In addition to Old Macdonald, he’s had a hand in the work at Olympic Club in San Francisco (ongoing complete restoration for Jim Urbina Golf Design), Pasatiempo in Santa Cruz, Calif. (green restoration for JUGD), Sankaty Head in Nantucket, Mass. (restoration for JUGD); Pacific Dunes and the Punchbowl in Bandon (part of Renaissance Golf Design team at the time); and Sebonack on Southhampton, N.Y. (Renaissance team) — among others.
As golf aficionados will note, he’s worked on numerous courses that make “best-of” lists.
In Colorado, Urbin’s handiwork can be seen at CommonGround Golf Course in Aurora (Renaissance team); Plum Creek in Castle Rock (working for Pete Dye), and Riverdale Dunes in Brighton (working for Pete Dye).
It’s little wonder why Links magazine once called Urbina “Golf Architecture’s Rising Star”.
In all, Urbina has been designing and building golf courses for more than four decades in the U.S. and the Asian Rim. He was named Golf Magazine’s co-Golf Architect of the Year (with Doak) in 2010. For more than the last 15 years, Urbina has served as the president of Jim Urbina Golf Design.
In addition to his design work, Urbina enthusiastically supports caddying, including the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy at CommonGround. He’s been a mainstay of the CGA’s/SCLA’s caddie committee, and also serves as a director for the WGA, which administers the Evans Scholarship for caddies.
In addition, Urbina contributes to podcasts and docuseries, to golf periodicals and golf architectural books, and he speaks at periodic events sponsored by the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America regarding golf architecture and the role of the superintendent. (He’s a 35-year member of the GCSAA.)
Urbina, 68, was born in Pueblo and graduated from Central High School there — then the University of Northern Colorado. For a while, before jumping into golf course design/construction work full-time, he taught drafting in high school.
“You couldn’t have dreamed my career path,” Urbina once told the (Pueblo) Chieftain. “Anybody that knew me (in his youth) and finds out I’m in the golf business starts laughing.”
With Mate, Rohrbaugh and Urbina set for induction, the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame will reach 164 members.
As for the non-inductee award winners who will be recognized at the Nov. 20, 2027 dinner:
— Golf Person of the Year: Wyndham Clark. It isn’t often that a golfer who grew up in Colorado wins a major championship on tour, but Centennial State native Wyndham Clark has managed to claim two U.S. Open titles in four years, including his 2026 victory at Shinnecock Hills, where the Valor Christian High School graduate led after each one of the four rounds. With that victory, Colorado high school grads have won six U.S. Open titles in the last 55 years, with Clark’s two adding to Hale Irwin’s three and Steve Jones’ one. But Clark not only won the U.S. Open in 2026, but has posted three PGA Tour titles in all, giving the 2024 CGHOF inductee six for his career. His three victories in 2026 matches the most on the PGA Tour this year. On top of that, he capped off his win in the Byron Nelson with a final-round 60.
— Lifetime Achievement: Joe McCleary. McCleary, who played a prominent role when the CGA merged with the CWGA at the beginning of 2018, retired this year after having served as chief business officer and chief sustainability officer for the CGA. McCleary was the volunteer president of the CGA during the integration with the CWGA and was the co-president, post-merger, when the organizations were ironing out the wrinkles in becoming a single association. Earlier in his career, McCleary was the first golf course superintendent at Saddle Rock GC in Aurora and played a major role during grow-in there. Saddle Rock hosted three Colorado Opens (1998-2000) during his years at the course. A past president of the Rocky Mountain Golf Course Superintendents Association, McCleary is among the Coloradans in the forefront of exploring the environmental side of golf and its benefits, and educating others in that regard.
— Distinguished Service: Team Colorado junior elite squad and its leadership. Just a couple years into its existence as part of the pilot program for the USGA’s National Development Program, CGA-led Team Colorado has proven quite the success — at least based on what its players have accomplished. For instance, as freshmen still in their first semester of college golf, Team Colorado members have claimed at least six titles — two each by Brayden Forte (San Diego State) and Ashley Chang (Westmont) and one each by Nicholas Brooks (Butler) and Zoe Bar-Or (Montana). And Forte supplemented that by winning the individual championship at the Junior America’s Cup this year. He also advanced to the round of 16 — out of 264 competitors — at the U.S. Junior Amateur, a first for a Coloradan since Wyndham Clark in 2009. Team Colorado is one of the original seven teams nationwide in the USGA’s National Development Program’s State Junior Team component, coming online two years ago. TC meets regularly with its leadership team, and its junior members receive support on numerous levels from the USGA/CGA. Four golfers from Team Colorado recently represented the U.S. in a friendly match against junior elite squads Puerto Rico and Mexico, in Puerto Rico.
— Female Future Famer: Sophia Lee of Columbine Valley. Lee claimed the 2026 girls titles in arguably the two most prestigious statewide junior championships of the year — the CGA State Junior and the Colorado Junior PGA. A returning member of the Team Colorado Junior elite squad, Lee just missed making match play at the 2026 U.S. Girls’ Junior, falling a stroke shy of a playoff. In another USGA championship, Lee advanced to match play with fellow Team Colorado member Addison Dorsey at the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball. Lee finished second at the 2026 2A state high school meet — to Dorsey — after claiming the title a year before as a freshman.
— Male Future Famer: Brayden DeStefano of Peyton. DeStefano was recently named a member of the Team Colorado junior elite squad for the second straight year. He was among those representing the U.S. in a recent friendly match against Mexico and Puerto Rico, with DeStefano finishing with a 3-2-1 record personally. In the summer before his senior year at Cheyenne Mountain High School, DeStefano advanced to the finals of the open-age CGA Match Play, finishing runner-up. Two years after winning the 2024 Class 4A state high school individual title at Cheyenne Mountain, he placed third this year and helped lead CMHS to its second state team title in three years. On the national/international level, DeStefano missed a playoff of the final match play spots at the U.S. Junior Amateur by one stroke.
