Craig Hurlbert spent his summers with his grandfather on his farm in Montana. It was there that he not only was taught the game of golf, but life lessons that have propelled him to the highest places in both business and amateur golf.
Hurlbert’s grandfather, Carl, immigrated from Denmark in 1923. His grandmother, Marie, came over with her family in the early 1900s. They were processed at Ellis Island like so many other European immigrants during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Married in 1930, the couple settled in northeastern Montana and began what has now become Wheat Wind Farms in 1940.
Fast forward 36 years and a 13-year-old Craig picked up a golf club for the first time with his Bapa. The two would play in a league twice a week at Big Muddy Golf Club when Craig helped on the farm in the summer.
Now defunct, Big Muddy was a nine-hole sand-green golf course where they hayed the fairways twice a year. This is where Hulbert and his grandfather fell in love with the game of golf.
“He wasn’t a great player,” Hulbert told Golfweek. “But there’s NOBODY that loved the game more than he did…He had such a happy spirit on the golf course. He made it super fun. It wasn’t something that I dreaded to do.”
As he grew older, Hurlbert got better at the game back home in Billings “on real golf courses” where he truly honed his craft.
After playing collegiately for a year at New Mexico State, Craig left collegiate golf to study finance and business at San Diego State. Soon after, he earned a Masters degree in corporate finance at Long Beach State. From there, Hurlbert launched himself into the business world.
This left a gap in his golf game. Hurlbert didn’t really play competitively until he started knocking the ball around with some elite senior amateurs at his home club, Carlton Woods, in Houston, Texas.
“I was right there with them.” he said. “I started saying to myself ‘jeez, maybe my game can stack up.’”
At the time, Hurlbert was in no man’s land. At 53, he was too old to hang with the mid-ams regularly and too young to play in most senior events. He used the time as an advantage. With about two years to reform his game into competitive shape, Hurlbert was ready to take on the senior amateur circuit.
Upon turning 55 in the summer of 2017, he dipped his toe in the water, playing just a few events. In 2018 and ’19 he played nearly 30 events combined. He was consistent throughout with eight top 10s, a…
..
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Golfweek…