Jim Knous: A Picture of Perseverance

Basalt-native Jim Knous won the 2025 Inspirato Colorado Open with a 69-yard chip-in on the fourth playoff hole

By Jim Bebbington

If you’d like to win the Inspirato Colorado Open some day, consider what it took Jim Knous to finally achieve that goal this past weekend.

He grew up in Basalt, near Aspen, in a climate that made him truly appreciate golf courses that can keep their grasses green in the middle of the summer. Learning to play golf in Basalt as a kid, he says, meant learning to play golf on brown grass. His best finish in the state golf championships was somewhere in the high teens.

Then he attended Colorado School of Mines, tightened his game on the men’s golf team, and as he graduated he has joked that all of his classmates took lucrative engineering job offers and he instead turned them down to try to play professional golf.

Then he played professionally for 12 years – toiling on the mini tours, DP World Tour, various iterations of the PGA Tour minor leagues (Web.Com and Korn Ferry tours) and ultimately a few cups of coffee on the PGA Tour.  He injured his wrist, and the injury ultimately lead him to retire from full-time professional golf in 2023. His last PGA Tour start was Monday-qualifying for the 2024 Waste Management Open, where he finished a respectable 28th.

Then he moved with his family from Colorado to Phoenix to take a role with Ping as a club fitter and engineer, and dabble with U.S. Open qualifiers. Next he played in the 2024 Colorado Open – a favorite son of Colorado returning home! – only to tie for the lead after regulation with another Colorado favorite son, Davis Bryant of Aurora – playing on Bryant’s home course!

Then he lost to Bryant in two playoff holes.

In June, playing in a U.S. Open final qualifier in Ohio, he missed a 3-foot putt on the 18th green to miss by one shot joining a five-man-for-one-slot playoff, with the winner advancing to the U.S. Open.

“So that one hurt for quite a while if I’m being honest,” he said Sunday.

Then this weekend, at Green Valley Ranch Golf Course, he had to chase-down from behind 2019 winner Sam Saunders. By the back nine Sunday the two traded birdies as they played one-group apart. They’re tied! No, Saunders is up by one again! No, they’re tied!

Then on the 18th hole he had to roll in a 7-foot knee knocker to tie Saunders one final time.

Then came four playoff holes. Both played the long par 5 18th hole again, and again, and again. Both men played tired – shots are good but not great. Saunders on the third playoff hole dumps his second shot into the cattails, lost forever. Knous then does the exact same thing. Saunders kept hitting close to the pin; Knous kept sinking more knee-knockers.

Then finally, on the 22nd hole of the day, under hot sunny skies and a brisk winds, he hit a 69-yard pitch onto the green hot, watched it take one long bounce, and saw it dive straight into the cup.

And that’s how Jim Knous became your 2025 Inspirato Colorado Open Champion.

“(It feels) incredible to join the list of past champions,” he said. “This has been one I’ve always wanted to win and to do it in a fashion like that with a little walk-off eagle, slam-dunk one-hop… that was pretty incredible.”

To pull it off Knous shot a final-day 62 – one of only two rounds of 62 by the entire field in all four days of competition. (The other was shot by Zahkai Brown of Arvada on Friday.)

Knous’ dramatic dunk capped the day for his cheering family and friends – his father, his wife Heidi, and an assortment of friends and family walked the whole course with him. His college coach, Tyler Kimble, caddied for him all four days. The win gave him the $50,000 first prize and Saunders more than earned his $20,000 consolation prize.

Saunders, the assistant coach for New Mexico University’s men’s golf team, is also making a similar transition away from full-time pro touring golf.

The ending was a first for many. There had not been a four-hole playoff in at least 20 years at the Inspirato Colorado Open. Knous said he had never won a tournament at any level in such a dramatic way.

“I was shocked that it went in,” he said. “I knew it was going to be good when I hit it, but when everybody started going crazy, I was in shock,” he said.

Top finishers

1. Jim Knous, Basalt, -22 $50,000.00

2. Sam Saunders, Albuquerque, NM -22 $20,000.00

T3. A.J. Ott, Fort Collins -17 $10,333.33

T3. Carson Lundell, Alpine, UT -17 $10,333.33

T3. Josh Anderson, Scottsdale, AZ -17 $10,333.33

Top amateur honors went to Charlie Tucker of Castle Rock, who finished 29th with a score of 8-under.

For full final results, click here. 

Jim Bebbington is the Director of Content at Colorado AvidGolfer and can be reached at [email protected]

Colorado AvidGolfer Magazine is the state’s leading resource for golf and the lifestyle that surrounds it, publishing eight issues annually and proudly delivering daily content via coloradoavidgolfer.com.

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram