Overview
- Colbert’s death, announced by the PGA Tour after Sunday’s passing on May 10, came with no cause provided.
- He won eight PGA Tour titles and 20 PGA Tour Champions events, earning Rookie of the Year in 1991, the Senior Players Championship in 1993, and Player of the Year honors in 1995 and 1996.
- He arrived at Kansas State on a football scholarship, switched to golf after an injury, finished runner-up at the 1964 NCAA Championship, and became known for a bucket hat he adopted after a teenage sunstroke scare.
- He built Jim Colbert Golf into a 23-course operation with roughly 700 employees and about $50 million in revenue, and he helped design Colbert Hills in Manhattan, the home course for Kansas State’s men’s and women’s teams.
- He served on the PGA Tour policy board in 1983 and alerted Commissioner Deane Beman to a player power bid, and after prostate cancer surgery in 1996 he returned to win again in 1998.