The late Gene Torres spent the first third of his life in Colorado and the last two-thirds in New Mexico, making his mark in golf in both states and throughout the southwest. Along the way, his steady play earned him the nickname “The Rock.”
His feats in the Centennial State include winning the boys state high school individual title in 1956 as a senior at Trinidad High School, recording a five-stroke win at Greeley Country Club. In a field featuring 22 future Colorado Golf Hall of Famers, he captured the 1972 Colorado Open title at Hiwan Golf Club with a 2-under 282 score. Torres was runner-up in the event the year before, losing by a single shot, to eight-time PGA champion Dave Hill. In the 1970s alone, he recorded six top 10s at the Colorado Open. He also won the Rocky Mountain Open titles in Grand Junction in 1965 and 1967 and three Navajo Trail Open crowns in Durango.
He had a successful run the Colorado and National Jaycee tournaments. He qualified for the national meet in Ann Arbor in 1954 (finishing 36th), he won the 1955 Colorado Jaycees and finished 60th (out of 230) in the national meet in Albuquerque. A year later, he again claimed the Colorado title and tied for 10th—with Jack Nicklaus—in the national tournament in Columbus, Ga.
After serving in the Navy for three-and-a- half years aboard the aircraft carrier USS Shangri-La, he married and moved his family to Las Vegas, New Mexico, in 1962 to become the head golf professional at the New Mexico Highlands University Golf Course, where he dedicated his life for 43 years until passing away in 2005 at age 67. Shortly before his death, New Mexico Highlands University renamed its course in his honor. He also taught physical education at the school and started the Cowboys men’s golf team in 1967 and coached it for two decades.
Overall, Torres won more than 80 professional tournaments, including six Sun Country PGA Section Championships, five New Mexico Opens and four San Juan Opens. He qualified for the U.S. Open at Oakmont in 1973, where he played respectably but missed the cut.
In 2004, Torres received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Sun Country Section of the PGA, which he’d joined in 1970. The New Mexico Sports Hall of Fame inducted him posthumously in 2022. With his wife, Dodie, he had five children: two sons (Glen and Gene, a PGA professional in Santa Fe) and three daughters (Michele, Janeen and Trisha); he had 14 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
