Bob Byman and Sharon Miller both parlayed successful playing careers at the highest levels of golf into prominent teaching positions, and now their credentials have earned them spots in the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame.
The two, along with longtime Rocky Mountain News golf writer Dave Nelson, were elected Thursday to the state Hall, with their induction set for Oct. 5 at the Inverness Hotel in Englewood.
Byman, who put together a phenomenal three-year stretch while still in high school at Fairview in Boulder, went on to win the Bay Hill Classic on the PGA Tour, along with five national opens overseas, before turning primarily to instruction for the last two decades. He recently was named director of instruction at The Legacy Golf Club outside of Las Vegas.
“I’ve had some great success at teaching,” Byman said in a phone interview Thursday. “I’m a better teacher than I was a player, relative to the competition.”
Miller won three times on the LPGA Tour from 1968-74 and competed in 11 U.S. Women’s Opens, but matched or exceeded her playing success with her subsequent teaching career. Among her many honors as an instructor was being named national LPGA teacher of the year in 1989. She spent 22 years in Colorado (1982-2004) as an instructor, working at Lake Valley in Boulder, Englewood Golf Course, Overland and Valley Country Club. At 67, she’s now the national head professional at Bird Golf Schools and lives in Avondale, Ariz.
Byman, Miller, Nelson Voted
into Colorado Golf Hall of Fame
Two former tour pros will be inducted October 5
By Gary Baines
Colorado Golf Journal, Thursday, February 21, 2008
Byman
Miller
“I’m ecstatic,” Miller said Thursday night about her impending induction. “I had heard I was being considered and I was so honored. And now it’s done.”
• Byman grew up in Boulder a decade after another young golf phenom, Hale Irwin. To this day, they remain the only players in history to have won three straight Colorado Amateur Stroke Play championships. Irwin pulled off the feat at age 18, 19 and 20, but Byman accomplished the hat trick at an even younger age, winning at 16, 17 and 18.
“That was very exciting, playing against the best players in the state,” said Byman, a regular at Flatirons Golf Course from 1968 to ‘73. “It was a great confidence-booster.”
But the three state amateurs and the 1973 state high school championship pale in comparison to what Byman accomplished on a national stage while living in Boulder. In 1972, at age 17, he both won the U.S. Junior Amateur and qualified for the U.S. Open, becoming the youngest player in the field at Pebble Beach. That year, by his own reckoning, he won all but two or three of the roughly 15 tournaments he played.
“1972 was incredible year for me; I played some of the best golf of my life,” Byman said. "I don’t know if the game can ever get any simpler than it was in 1972. I always tried to get back to that simplicity I had as a kid.”
Then-Fairview golf coach George Hoos, the person Byman says was the most influential in his early golf career, never coached another player quite like this in his many years at the Fairview helm.
“Bob was 16 going on 26,” Hoos said Thursday. “He was a very mature player at that point. He had all the shots, and the head to go along with it. He was a hard worker, good competitor, super organized and mature beyond his years. We had other kids that played very well, but they weren’t the whole package that Bob was.”
Byman admits he had a sense of invincibility as a player back then.
“Winning breeds winning,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what the environment is, I knew what I could do as a player during those years. I went into every tournament believing I could win, and I wasn’t afraid to win. I’m sure it helped me that I was more comfortable in the situation than other competitors.
“I was very confident, young, brash. At that point, you’re a little naive of what’s out in front of you. I could imagine shots and pull them off. I didn’t know how difficult it would be to do that year after year. You think you’re going to go from one level to the next and be the best amateur, the best pro. But then you get into categories where you’re playing against 40 or 50 guys that were all as great a champions in their area as you were in yours.”
Byman left Colorado in 1973, but kept making waves in golf. After being recruited by former Wake Forest golfer Arnold Palmer at the 1972 U.S. Open, Byman joined the Demon Deacons, becoming a three-time All-American (twice second team, once third). And Wake Forest, with Curtis Strange and Jay Haas also on the team, won back-to-back NCAA titles in 1974 and ‘75. More than a quarter-century later, GolfWorld magazine named the ‘75 Demon Deacons “the best college (golf) team ever.”
Byman won both on the U.S. PGA Tour and internationally as a pro, but his performance dropped off after 1982, and he turned primarily to teaching in 1987.
• Miller was a three-time winner on the LPGA Tour and says she “totally enjoyed it,” but also serving on the LPGA executive board wasn’t easy. Especially problematic was dealing with cheating accusations in 1972 against Jane Blalock and the subsequent legal fallout. Also difficult was making rules regarding minimum-age requirements for the Tour in the wake of Beverly Klass turning pro at age 10 in 1967.
“We were pioneers in some ways,” Miller said. “It was kind of rough at times.”
After ending her 15-year LPGA Tour playing career in 1981, Miller became almost an immediate success as an instructor.
“When I first started teaching, it really came naturally,” Miller said. “I couldn’t get enough of it, and I still can’t. I’m always learning and there’s always something new. Every day is a challenge, fixing (swing problems) and making people happy. I played for myself, but (as an instructor) I work with and for other people.”
• Nelson, before passing away in the 1980s at age 50, wrote volumes about golf in his 26 years at the Rocky Mountain News — covering some national events, but mostly local ones. He was especially instrumental in helping a fledgling Colorado Open eventually achieve its stature as one of the top state opens in the country. The low amateur trophy for the Colorado Open was subsequently renamed in his honor.
Coincidentally, Nelson once served on the selection board for the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame.
The late Denver newspaper sports columnist Dick Connor noted in his farewell to Nelson that Dave was a lousy player.
“And he wound up one damn good golf writer,” Connor wrote. “But, of course, you don’t have to practice crime to write about it, or be an artist to appreciate it.”
In addition to the three inductions on Oct. 5, three awards will be given out.
• Danny Harvanek, the director of instruction at the Golf Club at Bear Dance in Larkspur, has been named Golf Person of the Year. In 2007, Harvanek was given the National PGA Junior Golf Leader Award and was named the winner of the Colorado Section PGA’s Horton Smith Award for leadership in educational programs.
• Don Fox, the longtime head professional at Loveland Municipal Golf Course, will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award. During his career, Fox gained the elite designation of Master Professional and served as president of the Colorado PGA in 1981. He was head pro at Loveland GC (now called the Olde Course at Loveland) from 1959 to 1992.
• Ruby Maruyama, a longtime volunteer for the Colorado Women’s Golf Association, will be given the Distinguished Service Award. Maruyama has for many years conducted the silent auction, which benefits junior golf, at the CWGA’s annual meeting.
