by Charles C. Bonniwell
Cherry Creek Valley resident Jim Bunch was recently inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame at a dinner held at the Sanctuary Golf Course in Castle Pines, Colorado. Bunch, a longtime member of the Denver Country Club (DCC), was inducted for his prominent roles with the United States Golf Association (USGA) and the Western Golf Association (WGA). He was the first head of WGA based in Chicago, Illinois, from Colorado since DCC member and legendary golf executive Frank
Inductee: Jim Bunch, a recent inductee to the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame, at the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews (Scotland) at which he is a member.
Woodward in 1912.
A prominent attorney and investment banker in Colorado, Bunch was originally from Chicago, where began his love affair with golf at age 12, being a caddy at various clubs in the Chicago area. He was a protégée of the late Will Nicholson, a Denver banker and USGA president, whose father was mayor of Denver. Bunch recalled at the dinner that Nicholson approached him about being on the USGA Executive Committee, telling him it would involve about two weeks a year of his time. Bunch soon discovered he was spending 150 nights a year on the road performing USGA related work, often largely at this own expense.
As an Executive Committee member, Bunch was expected to be an expert on the Rules of Golf. He was an important rules official at the United States Open and The Masters for almost a decade. In addition, he was tasked in making important rulings across the world in conjunction with the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, Scotland where he became a member. He recalls getting a call from Ireland for a ruling in an important event where a competitor hit a mushroom thinking it was his golf ball. Bunch’s alternatives were: (1) no penalty; (2) a shot for making a swing; or (3) a two-stroke penalty for hitting the wrong ball. He declared it was (2) a missed stroke, a ruling which was not free of dispute to this day.
At his first event as a rules official at the U.S. Open he was assigned the group which included Tiger Woods. When Woods found out this was Bunch’s first assignment at the U.S. Open, he sternly admonished him: “Don’t screw up!” Bunch notes that Woods could not h
Presentation: Jim Bunch as Chairman of the Board of the Western Golf Association awards the winner’s trophy for the 2012 BMW Championship (formerly the Western Open) to Rory McIlroy.
ave been more of a gentleman during the round.
After finishing his term on the Executive Committee of the USGA, Bunch became the Chairman of the Board of the Western Golf Association. The Association runs, inter alia, the PGA Tour event the BMW Championship, formerly known as the Western Open which was first contested in 1899. It is the second oldest event involving professionals in the United States after the U.S. Open.
A key aspect of the WGA is administrating the Evans Scholarship program where eligible caddies can earn full scholarships to four-year universities. Since founded in 1930 by U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur winner Chick Evans, it has produced more than 10,600 alums. As Bunch stated, “Caddying is in my DNA . . . The Evans Scholars program is one of the great things golf has done. It changes lives for families. When you’re touching lives, I can’t think of any thing more worthwhile as a golfer.”
Rubbing Elbows: As a member of the Executive Committee of USGA for almost a decade and Chairman of the Western Golf Association Jim Bunch has gotten to know the greats of golf including Jack Nicklaus.
At the University of Colorado winners of an Evans scholarship stay at an elaborate home in Boulder by the University, owned by the WGA. It has recently undergone a $1 million renovation thanks to Bunch and many others.
Looking back over his 75 years, Bunch believes his volunteer work with the USGA and WGA were some of his most wonderful and fulfilling aspects of a long and productive life. “There is nothing quite like giving back to a game and people you love,” he noted.