The ninth of 12 children who grew up in a home off the second fairway of Roxboro Golf Club, where his father worked on the course, Jim Thorpe learned the game by going out after dark and hitting shots, with the only illumination provided by the back porch light.

A running back in high school, he earned a football scholarship to Morgan State, but abandoned that sport after two years to devoted more time to golf. Thorpe’s brother Chuck played the PGA Tour in the early 1970s and Jim followed suit in the 1975. He lost his playing privileges and returned to the tour’s qualifying tournament in 1978, when he shared medalist honors with John Fought.

After rejoining the circuit, he won three times—at the 1985 Greater Milwaukee Open, where he won by three strokes over Jack Nicklaus, and the Seiko-Tucson Match Play 1985 and 1986. He also won the Canadian PGA championship in 1982. Thorpe also held the distinction of being low pro in the 1985 Western Open, losing in sudden-death to Scott Verplank, who became the first amateur to win a tour event since Gene Littler in 1954.

During his career on the Tour, Thorpe amassed nearly $2 million in earnings, with his best season coming in 1986 when he pocketed $326,087 to finish 15th on the money list

Joe Cheves first came in contact with golf as a caddie and “sometimes” player in 1928.  “It’s been a love affair ever since,” he said at his induction ceremony.

After military service, he became head professional at Twin Valley Country Club in Wadesboro, NC, then moved to Mimosa Hills Country Club in Morganton, NC There, Joe was head professional from 1951 until his retirement in 1981.

A four-time winner of the Carolinas PGA Section Seniors’ Championship, Cheves was founder and long-time President of the American Golf Association, which stages several senior tournaments around the nation each year.

One of his biggest moments as a player came in the 1978 U.S. PGA Seniors’ Championship at Walt Disney World in Orlando, FL, where he nearly won.  Tied at the end of the regulation 72-hole with Joe Jimenez and Manuel de la Torre, Cheves had to settle for second place when Jimenez birdied the first hole of a sudden-death playoff.

Cheves twice received major honors from the Carolinas PGA Section.  In 1964, he was named CPGA Professional of the Year.  Joe Cheves was inducted into the Carolinas PGA Hall of Fame in 1994.

 

Joe Cheves was inducted into the Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame in 1989.

A native and lifelong resident of Orangeburg, South Carolina, Jane Crum Covington began playing golf at age 13.  She won the South Carolina Women’s Amateur five times, the Carolinas Women’s Amateur five times and the Florida East Coast Championship on two occasions.  Her husband, Hub, was the 1942 Carolinas Amateur Champion.

 

A past member of the USGA Junior Girls’ Committee, she was among the founders and served as the first President of the South Carolina Women’s Golf Association.

 

In her youth, she played on the boys high school team, and, while she made the mens golf team at the University of South Carolina, she wasn’t allowed to play in competition.  During her career, she also wasn’t allowed to play at some men only clubs; but she didn’t call it discrimination.

 

“I always thought it was a shame. I hated to be told that because I was born a woman I couldn’t play at some clubs when my son, who was six years old could.”,  she once said.

 

Mrs. Jane Covington was inducted into the South Carolina Golf Hall of Fame in 1978.

 

Jane Covington was inducted into the Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame in 1989.

Grant Bennett is no stranger to Halls of Fame.  Prior to his induction into the Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame, the tall Winston-Salem, NC native was inducted into the South Carolina Golf Hall of Fame (1978), the South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame (1980) and the Carolinas PGA Section Hall of Fame (1985).  Additionally, for a number of years, he served as either Vice President or President of the South Carolina Golf Hall of Fame.

 

Bennett is best remembered as a fine teacher and promoter of junior golf.  His multitude of pupils included fellow Hall of Famers Randy Glover, Jack Lewis Jr. and Carolyn Cudone.  A long-time head professional at Florence (SC) Country Club, Bennett established a junior program that produced many outstanding players; and the high school team he coached won a number of Southern Interscholastic titles.

 

Although he had moved to Columbia in 1979, the folks in Florence didn’t forget him.  In 1984, he became the first non-Rotarian to be named a Paul Harris Fellow, the highest honor bestowed by the Florence Rotary Club. 

 

Early in life, Bennett dreamed of being a big-league baseball player and later a tour golfer, but freak injuries ended the possibility.  Thus, he turned to teaching golf to youngsters.  He served as head professional at Country Club of South Carolina for 13 years, and later at two clubs in Columbia.

 

He served on the USGA Junior Committee for more than two decades, served as chairman of the PGA of America’s Junior Committee in 1959-’60, was twice named South Carolina Professional of the Year and was named Carolinas PGA Professional of the Year in 1956.

 

Grant Bennett was inducted into the Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame in 1988.

Ellen Griffin began playing golf as a child while her father was stationed at Fort Benning, GA.  She had a varied career in the game.  She became a golfer at UNC-Greensboro, and, until her death, operated a teaching facility near Greensboro called “The Farm,” where she worked with several LPGA tour pros. She earned her degree in Physical Education from UNC-Greensboro in 1940 and her Master’s degree from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1943.

Griffin was associated with the P.E. department at UNCG from 1940 until 1968, first as an instructor and later as a full professor.  In addition to coaching golf, she was coach of the school’s first women’s basketball team.  Her honors included UNCG’s Alumni Distinguished Service Award in 1980, Master status in the Ladies Professional Golf Association and LPGA National Teacher of the Year in 1962.  She was named one of the six most outstanding teachers in the U.S. by Golf Digest magazine in 1976.

Griffin was on the faculty of LPGA National Golf School and was among the founders of the National Golf Foundation.  She also served as a Vice President of the Women’s PGA, the forerunner of the LPGA.

Ellen Griffen was inducted into the Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame in 1988.

 

A native of Durham, NC  and a long-time resident of High Point, NC, Henry Poe played collegiate golf at Duke University. His amateur career was highlighted with victories in the Eastern Amateur in 1934 and 1935.  At Durham’s Hillandale Golf Club, which his father operated, he once shot 61, a record that still stands.  He also once posted a record 63 at Hope Valley CC in Durham.

Poe became a professional in 1937, and in that year’s Mid South Open, his first pro event, he was tied for the lead at the end of regulation play, but went on to lose an 18-hole playoff at Pinehurst No. 2 to Dutch Harrison.

He later became an assistant professional at Winged Foot GC, and then succeeded Byron Nelson at Redding (PA) CC in 1940.  He remained there until 1966, when he was hired to build and operate three golf courses in Alabama.  After retiring, Poe moved back to his native state in 1985.

A PGA member for more than 50 years, he was active in PGA affairs at both the sectional and national level.  He was a five-time president of the Philadelphia PGA Section in the 1950's, was a PGA of America Director from 1957-’59, and chaired the PGA’s Annual Meeting from 1958-’69.  He served as Treasurer of the PGA from 1970-’72, as Secretary from 1973-’74 and as President from 1975-’76.  His legacy as PGA President was establishing the National Junior Golf Foundation and the Business Schools for apprentice professionals.

Poe served as a member of the Masters Rules Committee for ten years and as a Director of the PGA Tour Policy Board from 1971-’76.  He is also a member of the Philadelphia PGA Hall of Fame and the Carolinas PGA Hall of Fame.

Henry Poe was inducted into the Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame in 1988.

A long-time resident of Myrtle Beach, Carolyn Cudone dominated golf on the national scene and won numerous championships in three states.  The New Jersey native won that state’s stroke play championship 11 times and the Metropolitan New York title five times.  After moving to Myrtle Beach, she was a five-time winner of the Carolinas Women’s Amateur and a five-time winner of the South Carolina Women’s Amateur.  Nationally, she recorded five straight victories in the USGA Senior Women’s Amateur from 1968-72 and took the women’s North and South Senior six times.

 

Other achievements included selection to the 1956 Curtis Cup team and serving as the team’s non-playing captain in 1970.  She also won the 1960 Women’s Eastern and the 1968 Women’s North and South Amateur.

 

Mrs. Cudone was not only a fine player.  She contributed mightily to the game as a promoter of junior golf.  She was instrumental in the formation of a fine junior program in the Myrtle Beach area.

 

Carolyn Cudone was inducted into the Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame in 1987, following induction into the South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame in 1975 and the South Carolina Golf Hall of Fame in 1979.

Jack Lewis Jr. was one of the all-time great junior golfers in the Carolinas history.  He won the Carolinas Junior three consecutive years (1963-1965), the South Carolina High School Championship in 1964, the Southern High School Championship in 1963 and ‘64 and the South Carolina Amateur in 1964 at age 17.  Lewis also propelled his McClenaghan High School team to four State Championships and five Southern High Schools titles.

 

He was the first four-year recipient of the prestigious Buddy Worsham scholarship at Wake Forest University.  He would lose only one individual match during his college career, which began in 1966.  A member of the 1967 Walker Cup team and the 1968 World Amateur team, Lewis earned first-team All-American honors in 1968 and 1969.  All three Wake Forest teams of which Lewis was a member won the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship, including 1968 when he was the individual champion.

 

Lewis played in the 1967 and 1968 Masters Tournaments as an amateur.  He won the Sunnehanna Amateur in 1966, the North and South Amateur in 1968 and the South Carolina Open in 1968.  After a brief stint on the PGA Tour, Lewis returned to Winston-Salem in 1975 to become head professional at Forsyth Country Club.  During his 10 years at Forsyth, he won the North Carolina Open three times (1979, ‘80 and ‘84) and the Carolinas Open in 1980.  He was named Carolinas PGA Section Player of the Year in 1980.

 

After moving to Atlanta Athletic Club, he won the 1986 Georgia PGA Match Play title.  Lewis became Associate Coach at Wake Forest in 1989 and became Head Coach when Jesse Haddock retired in 1992.

 

Lewis is a member of the South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame and the South Carolina Golf Hall of Fame.

 

Jack Lewis, Jr was inducted into the Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame in 1987.

Clyde Mangum played a lot of golf during his years in Pinehurst.  And, while he won a couple of titles, he wasn’t really a championship caliber player. As an administrator, however, he was one of the best.  He started his golf career when P.J. Boatwright Jr. gave up his post as executive director of the Carolinas Golf Association.  Asked by Richard Tufts why he wanted the job, Mangum replied, “I simply have a real love for the game of golf.”

 

Mangum worked for the CGA from 1959 to 1965 and served as general manager of Pinehurst Country Club golf properties from 1956 until 1971.  That year, he joined the PGA Tour staff as Deputy Commissioner of Operations and held that position until he retired in 1985. In his post with the PGA Tour, Mangum was responsible for all tournament operations, the employment of the tournament staff and supervised the headquarters’ tournament administration department. 

 

He served on the USGA Rules Committee for ten years and as a rules committeeman during the Masters for several years. As a competitor, he won the 1970 Carolinas Father-Son with Clyde III and took the 1962 Dunes International Four-Ball title.

 

Clyde Mangum was inducted into the Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame in 1987.

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 Connecticut native who played out of Pinehurst for many years, Chapman won national titles on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

In the 1940 U.S. Amateur Championship at Winged Foot, his home club, Chapman won the qualifying medal with a four-under-par 140 total, then played 157 holes in eight-under-par on his way to the title.  In the final match, he romped to an 11-and 9 victory over “Duff” McCullough, who had been second-low qualifier.

Eleven years later, after helping the U.S. team to victory in the Walker Cup Match at Royal Birkdale, Chapman stayed around long enough to win the British Amateur Championship, in which be defeated fellow American Charlie Coe in the final.

Chapman also played two other victorious Walker Cup teams—in 1947 at St. Andrews, Scotland and in 1953 at Marion, Mass.
He participated in the Masters Tournament 19 times, surviving the 36-hole cut on 12 occasions.  He finished among the top 24, thus earning a return invitation for the following year, four times with his best finish coming in 1954 when wound up in 11th place.

Chapman won the Carolinas Amateur Championship in 1953 and ‘57 and took the Carolinas Four-Ball Championship in 1956 and ‘59.  He also won national titles in France (twice), Canada and Italy. Richard Chapman was inducted into the Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame in 1986

A native of Dallas, NC, John Derr started his journalistic career as a high school correspondent for The Gastonia Gazette.  Later, John held sports editing jobs at Asheville and Greensboro before becoming a writer/electronic reporter under Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell during World War II.

After the war he joined CBS radio in New York and was there as CBS made the transition into television.  He was a member of the announcing team when the Masters Tournament was first telecast in 1956 and, since 1976, has directed the Masters Progress Report, as up-to-the-minute accounting of the tournament action that is available to newspapers, radio and television stations.

Derr was the first executive director of the World Golf Hall of Fame in Pinehurst, and later became president of the facility.  In 1976 he became executive director of the Carolinas PGA Section and helped that group enjoy a period of tremendous growth and prosperity.

 

John Derr was inducted into the Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame in 1986.