Jim Benepe

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1 PGA Tour wins
2 Other regular career wins
3 Amateur wins
4 References

James Lorimer I. Benepe (born October 24, 1963) is an American professional golfer who has played on the PGA Tour and the Nationwide Tour.

Benepe was born, raised and lived most of his life in Sheridan, Wyoming. He attended Northwestern University and was a first-team All-American in 1986 as a member of the golf team. He turned pro in 1986.

Benepe played his first full-year as a professional golfer, 1987, in Asia, on the Australian Tour and on the Canadian Tour. That year, he won the Victoria Open in Australia, the British Columbia Open in Canada; and was the winner of the Canadian Tour's Order of Merit and Rookie of the Year awards. He joined the PGA Tour in 1988.^[1]

Benepe won the 1988 Beatrice Western Open, and was the last professional golfer to win a PGA Tour event in his first start until Garrett Willis won the Tucson Open in 2001. He won the tournament, which was held in Oak Brook, Illinois that year, when to the surprise of everyone, veteran Peter Jacobsen double bogied the 72nd hole. It turned out to be his only career win in an official PGA Tour event. He won the PGA Tour's 1988 Rookie of the Year honors.^[2]

Benepe left the PGA Tour at the end of the 1991 season after struggling the previous several years with back problems and technical problems with his game. After leaving the Tour, he came home to Sheridan and began working in real estate sales and promotions. After a long hiatus, he began playing competitive tour golf again in the late 1990s in select events in Australia, on the PGA Tour and in about 15 events per year on the Nationwide Tour.^[3]

Today he works in the corporate world and lives in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.