Called the “quintessential amateur golfer” in the most complimentary sense, Kent Moore has somehow pulled off the juggling act of maintaining his top-level playing prowess while being a committed husband and father, a successful businessman and an active civic leader.
While at Littleton’s Arapahoe High School, Kent earned his first notable golf accomplishment: the 1973 Colorado Golf Association Junior Match Play Championship. Many more followed.
After graduating from Purdue University, where he was the team’s top player and captain golf team, in 1978, Moore returned to Colorado, joined Cherry Hills Country Club in 1983 and won the 1986 CGA Stroke Play Championship and 1989 CGA Match Play Championship, joining Hale Irwin and Brandt Jobe among a distinguished list of Colorado golfers who have earned state junior, match play and stroke play titles.
Those victories also meant the Moore had won CGA championships in the 1970s and 1980s—a trend he would continue during the 1990s (’95 Mid-Amateur), the 2000s (’06 Senior Match Play), the 2010s (’14 Senior Amateur,’16 Super-Senior Amateur, 2017 Super-Senior Match Play) and the 2020s (’20 Super-Senior Match Play). That’s an astounding six consecutive decades with at least one CGA championship.
Beyond that, he’s qualified for 11 USGA national championships—the last (for the time being) coming in the 2019 U.S. Mid-Amateur held at Colorado Golf Club and CommonGround Golf Course, where he was the oldest player in the field, at 63. He has been named the CGA/PGA Co-Junior Player of the year, CGA’s open-age co-Player of the Year (1989), the Senior Player of the Year twice (2006 and ’14) and the Super-Senior Player of the Year (2017).
Moore has been a tournament director for the Colorado Opens, and he continues to compete successfully, having played in at least a half-dozen USGA championships. Moore coached the Wheaton (Ill.) College men’s golf team from 2011-2015. His wife, Janet, preceded him into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2001.
