Scott Hoch was one of the most consistent players of his era on the PGA Tour. Born in Raleigh, N.C. in 1955, he spent his early years with his dad who ran the pools at Wildwood and Raleigh Country Clubs. If he didn’t go play golf, his dad would put him to work at the pool. He played a lot of golf.

Hoch graduated from Wake Forest University in 1978 and is in the school’s hall of fame. He turned professional in 1979 and won 11 times on the PGA Tour, playing in 644 events and making 498 cuts, earning over $18 million.

He won the Vardon Trophy for low stroke average on the Tour in 1986 and was a member of two Ryder Cup teams in 1997 and 2002.

Although he never won a major, he finished runner-up to Nick Faldo in the 1989 Masters play-off and missed a playoff for the 1987 PGA Championship by one stroke.

When asked about his career, Hoch said, “It was a matter of determination. I knew I was never the best. I wanted to do well and prove myself. I didn’t have the highs of some players but I didn’t have the lows either. I was pretty even keel throughout my career.”

Since joining the PGA Champions Tour in 2007, Hoch has won three times so far with earnings over $3 million.

Scott Hoch was inducted in the Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame in 2011.

Skip Alexander was raised in North Carolina and won the Carolinas Amateur and Publinx, the North and South and was qualifying medalist in the 1941 US Amateur.  Skip played No. 1 for the Duke University golf squad and led the team to Southern Conference championships in 1939 and 1940. 

He won the 1946 Carolinas Open and shot 58 at Lexington (NC) Country Club in 1947.  After service, Alexander joined PGA Tour and won the 1948 Tucson Open.  Also won the Capital Open, and tour events in Peoria and Decatur, IL. 

Surviving a plane crash in 1950 and despite injuries that would require 17 operations, he returned to golf and played on the 1951 Ryder Cup Team at Pinehurst.  He also won the 1959 PGA Stroke Play Championship.

A lifelong member of the Carolinas PGA Section, ‘Flo’ put together an enviable career record – both on and off the course. The 1992 CPGA Professional of the Year and four-time CPGA Resort Merchandiser of the Year, Florence’s playing résumé includes two South Carolina Open titles, four South Carolina PGA Championships, a combined five Carolinas Pro-Pro and Pro-Assistant titles, one Carolinas Assistants Championship and the 1976 Mini Kemper title.

As a club professional, Florence qualified for four PGA Championships and twice represented the United States team in the PGA Cup Matches, the club professionals’ version of the Ryder Cup. Florence spent his entire career in Charleston, most notable as Director of Golf at Wild Dunes Resort and then Bulls Bay Golf Club.

Florence spent his entire career in Charleston, most notable as Director of Golf at Wild Dunes Resort and then Bulls Bay Golf Club.

Terry Florence was inducted into the Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame in 2009.

He passed away in March, 2013 after a long battle with cancer.

According to Golfweek and Golf Digest magazines, only one living golf course architect rivals the legendary Donald Ross for the number of top courses in the USA.  That architect, Tom Fazio, moved his home to North Carolina in his prime designing years, much as Ross did a century earlier.

Many architects have design in their blood, and Fazio is among them.  He started at age 17, assisting his uncle, George Fazio, in a firm that was Tom’s on-the-job training.  He became a partner with Uncle George in the 1970s, took over the business in the early 1980s and created his own firm shortly thereafter.

One of his early co-creations with George was Pinehurst No. 6 Course (1978).  Tom’s solo work such as the Wild Dunes Links Course (1980) on the Isle of Palms, S.C. got him national recognition.

His best judged Carolinas works at the turn of the century were Wade Hampton GC in the North Carolina mountains (1987), Forest Creek GC in the North Carolina Sandhills (1996), and Belfair Club West Course on the South Carolina coast (1995).  The variety of his designs over all types of terrain is testimony to his creativity.  “A golf course should reflect the natural beauty of its environment,” he said in describing his design theory in part.

His other North Carolina designs include Champion Hills GC, Eagle Point GC, Old North State Club, Pinehurst No. 8, Porters Neck P&CC, Treyburn CC and complete redesigns of Pinehurst No. 4 and UNC Finley GC in Chapel Hill.

His other South Carolina designs are Barefoot Resort’s Fazio Course, Belfair’s East Course, both courses at Berkeley Hall, Callawassie Island, Cliffs at Keowee Vineyards, Cotton Dike Course at Dataw Island, The Daniel Island Club, Moss Creek Plantation’s Devil’s Elbow Course, the Osprey Point Course on Kiawah Island, the Fazio Course at Palmetto Dunes, Sage Valley GC, The River Course at Kiawah Island, Thornblade Club, TPC at Myrtle Beach, Wachesaw Plantation Club, the Harbor Course at Wild Dunes and Woodcreek Farms.

Tom Fazio was inducted into the Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame in 2002.

Tom Jackson, from Taylors, SC has been actively designing and building golf course since 1965. Prior to starting his own firm in 1971, he worked for two of the country’s leading golf course architects, Robert Trent Jones and George Cobb. During the past 33 years, has been involved with well over 100 golf course projects, the majority being located in the Southeast. These projects include private and semi-private courses, resort courses and public courses, of which seven have been done for various government agencies.
 
His Cliffs at Glassy golf course, north of Greenville, SC opened in 1992 and Golf Digest named the course "Fourth Most Beautiful In The Nation." The Cliffs at Glassy was the first course in the now nationally renowned Cliffs stable that has transformed the Upstate’s reputation as a high-end residential golf haven.

He also designed the course at Prestonwood Country Cub in Cary, NC that hosted the SAS Championship on what was then the Senior Tour. Other notable layouts of his in the Carolinas include Mount Vintage Plantation in North Augusta, rated by the late, great Byron Nelson as a “magnificent layout.”

Tom Jackson was inducted into the Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame in 2007.

A native of Morganton, NC, born there April 19, 1922 William J. (Billy Joe) Patton was one of the game’s most flamboyant amateurs during an illustrious career of almost twenty years. The record is less impressive than the man.  Few amateurs in any country of the world made quite the same impact as Billy Joe Patton.  This was because he responded to the big occasion and was capable of flair.  Possessing of one of the fastest swings in first-class golf, he inevitably hit many loose shots.  When out of form and timing he could play downright badly, but thanks to his great strength and speed of clubhead he could engineer marvelous recoveries, which were useful in stroke play and devastating in match play—all to the delight of the gallery.

In his first Masters in 1954, he shocked the world’s greatest professionals by finishing one shot out of  first place.  The pacesetter after each of the first two rounds, he started the fourth round five shots back but regained the lead with a hole-in-one on the sixth hole.  Still leading going into the par five thirteenth,  he elected to gamble for a birdie by knocking his second shot home; however, he failed and took a seven instead.  As it later turned out, had he played it safe for a comfortable par he would have been the first, and to date the only, amateur to win the Masters.  But playing safe was never Billy Joe’s style of golf.

Probably one of his most dramatic finishes occurred in the finals of the 1951 North and South Amateur and featured a loss rather than a win.  Playing Hobart Manley, Billy Joe stood two up on the 14th tee with only five holes to play.   He played those last five holes one under par—and lost the match!  Hobart finished with 5 straight 3's which boiled down to a birdie, par, eagle, par, birdie finish!

Patton’s Record:

North Carolina Amateur Champion, 1964

Eisenhower Trophy, 1958, 1962

North and South Amateur Championship

Winner, 1954, 1962, 1963

Runner-up, 1951, 1964

Southern Amateur Championship

Winner, 1961, 1965

US Amateur Championship

Semi-finalist, 1962 The US Open

Low Amateur, 1954, 1957

Carolinas Open

Winner 1950-1951

US Walker Cup Team

1955, 1957, 1959, 1963, 1965

Captain, 1969

The Masters

Low Amateur, 1954, 1958, 1960

Billy Joe Patton was inducted into the Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame in 1981.

Willie McRae became a legend in Pinehurst after caddying at the famed No. 2 course for seventy-three years, beginning in the 1940s.  During his colorful career, he carried the bag of five US presidents and numerous celebrities including Michael Jordan and Mickey Mantle.  He also caddied for such prominent  golf names as architect Donald Ross, Bobby Jones, Gene Sarazen and Sam Snead. McRae’s father and his son Paul also  were noted Pinehurst caddies. He worked in the 1951 Ryder Cup matches at Pinehurst and has participated in numerous major tournaments, including the US Open.