The lanky Augusta, GA native was both a fine amateur player and an outstanding administrator.

 

P.J. Boatwright’s playing record included victories in the 1961 Carolinas Amateur, the 1967 Carolinas Open and the Carolinas Four-Ball Championship in 1951 and ‘53.  One of his biggest thrills as a player came in 1951 when he defeated fellow Hall of Famer E. Harvie Ward in the championship match of the Biltmore Invitational.  He also played in four U.S. Amateur Championships and survived the 36-hole cut in the 1950 U.S. Open at Merion.

 

But Boatwright, who grew up in the South Carolina towns of North Augusta, Rock Hill and Spartanburg, is best remembered for his achievements as an administrator.  He served as executive director of the Carolinas Golf Association from 1955-’59, conducting tournaments, working on handicaps and rating courses.  He once joked that he had “played more courses than anyone in the history of the Carolinas.”

 

His work with the CGA prepared him for his next job, which came in 1959 when he joined the United States Golf Association as assistant executive director.  He later became the USGA’s executive director for Rules and Competitions.

 

During his stint with the USGA, Boatwright became known as one of the most knowledgeable Rules of Golf experts in the world.  He participated in a number of quadrennial Rules conferences between the USGA and the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews and was responsible for a multitude of Rules Decisions.

 

He was inducted into the South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame in 1976 and the South Carolina Golf Hall of Fame in 1987.

 

PJ Boatwright was inducted into the Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame in 1985.

 

Jesse Haddock is credited with redefining the term “college golf coach.”  Prior to taking over the position at Wake Forest University, golf coaches were generally regarded as combination bus drivers/baby-sitters. Before he retired in the 1992, his dedication to duty and the success of his program had made the position as respectable as football or basketball coach. A 1952 graduate of Wake Forest, Haddock became golf coach in 1960 when the legendary “Bones” McKinney resigned. 

Three years later, his Demon Deacons won the first of the 18 Atlantic Coast Conference titles they would claim during his regime.  From 1967-77, the Deacons won the ACC crown 10 straight times, and in 1974 and ‘75, Haddock led the team to consecutive NCAA Championships.  Another NCAA title was added in 1986. Under Haddock, 16 Wake Forest golfers won the individual ACC title, while three of his players won the NCAA individual championship —Curtis Strange in 1974, Jay Haas in 1975 and Gary Hallberg in 1979.  Haddock’s players earned All-American recognition 63 times.

Other notable golfers who played for Haddock include: Billy Andrade, Gary Hallberg, Scott Hoch, Joe Inman, Jack Lewis, Jay Sigel, Leonard Thompson, David Thore, Lanny Wadkins and Robert Wrenn. Haddock, who twice coached the prestigious NCAA All-Star team against Japan, was inducted into the Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame in 1980 and into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in 1990.

Jesse Haddock was inducted into the Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame in 1985.

Born and raised in Charlotte, Charlie Sifford was the first African-American ever to play on the PGA Tour and became the first black to win a Tour event when a closing-round 64 propelled him to first place in the 1967 Greater Hartford Open.  He also won the 1969 Los Angeles Open and took the 1980 Suntree Classic on the Senior PGA Tour.  Other victories came in the 1975 PGA Seniors’ Championship, the 1957 Long Beach Open and the 1971 Sea Pines Open on the so-called “second” tour.

 

A long-time caddie at Charlotte Country Club and Myers Park Country Club, Sifford eventually decided he wanted to play golf for a living and turned pro in 1948 (although he didn’t join the PGA Tour until 1960 at age 36).  He quietly endured taunts and insults for more than a decade before becoming the first black to play in a Tour event the 1961 Greater Greensboro Open, where he eventually finished fourth. Breaking the color barrier and playing well at Greensboro didn’t end his race-related problems, however.  He wasn’t allowed to play at some tour stops and wasn’t allowed to use the locker room at some of the places that let him play.  The galleries weren’t always kind to him either. “I’ve had some hard days and some good ones, but if I had it to do over, I’d do the same thing,” Sifford said at his induction ceremony.  “I love the game and the world knows what I did.  I feel good about myself.”

 

He was inducted in the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in 1992.

 

Charlie Sifford was inducted into the Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame in 1985.

Miss Burns, a native of Greensboro, NC, dominated women’s amateur golf during her heyday as a player.  Before turning professional in 1970, she won 10 North Carolina Women’s titles and six Carolina’s Championships.  She also qualified to play in 14 USGA Amateur Championships and six U.S. Opens.  In the U.S. Amateur, her best showings were in 1953 and 1956 where she reached the fourth round.

 

She won the Teague Award as North Carolina’s best woman athlete five times. Then in January of 1970 she joined the professional ranks and gained widespread fame as an instructor.  A short six years later, she was named LPGA Teacher of the Year, an award well earned from her years as a teaching professional at the Surf Club, Golf Acres Driving Range and Par Three, both in Myrtle Beach, SC and the High Meadows Country Club in Roaring Gap, NC.

 

In addition to her work as a teacher, Marge has also done considerable work as a golf administrator serving as an area consultant with the National Golf Foundation, a Director with the Southern Women’s Golf Association.  President of the NC Women’s Golf Association and the LPGA Southeastern Section Teaching Division.  Before turning pro she was a member of the USGA Junior Girls Committee.

 

Asked what were her biggest moments in golf she replied, “All the firsts were thrills, but probably one of the really big ones was playing with Patty Berg the first time at age 13.”  The year 1984 also provided Miss Burns with thrills as she was inducted into the NC Sports Hall of Fame and received her Master’s Professional Classification, the latter being the LPGA highest classification.

 

Miss Burns was inducted into the Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame in 1984.

 

Her record speaks for itself as an outstanding competitor.

1940 Winner, Carolinas Junior Girls; Runner-up 1941-’42

1961 winner, Eastern Amateur

1962 Curtis Cup Alternate

1966-’67 Winner, Middle Atlantic Amateur Championship

Ten time winner, NC Women’s Amateur Championship

Six time winner, Carolinas Women’s Amateur Championship

Four time winner, Greensboro (NC) City Championship

Four time winner, Harder Hall Invitational ( Fla )

Four time South Atlantic Runner-up

Three time Women’s Southern Runner-up

Golf Digest’s “Top Ten,” 1959-1962

Bill Harvey was born and raised in Greensboro, NC, where he resides today and operates a driving range near Sedgefield CC, his home club. Although he has been a golfer most of his life, he didnt start to play serious competitive golf until 1956 at age 26, when he qualified for his first USGA Amateur Championship. That year, playing at the Knollwood Club in Lake Forest, Illinois, Bill drew a bye in the first round, then lost one down after 20 holes to the internationally known Dick Chapman. The loss, however, prompted Bill to improve his game and participate in more competition. This he did and with astounding results. In the next twenty-five years, he would win over three hundred titles. Ironically, he met Chapman again in the third round of the National Amateur at St. Louis in 1960 and revenged his loss with a 4 and 3 victory.

Harvey qualified for the US Amateur 18 times and was named Golfer of the Year by the Carolinas Golf Reporters Association in 1973 after winning the Carolinas Amateur, the Lakewood Invitational in Florida, and the Amateur Tournament of Champions. He was runner-up in the North and South Amateur that year, losing on the 38th hole. In that final match on the second extra hole, Bill played what he later admitted might have been the best shot he ever hit. Having pushed his tee shot into the right woods, he found his ball lying between two trees about two feet apart. With more trees between his ball and the green, he had to manufacture a restricted, cut-shot with a four wood. It came off beautifully, to the great delight of the gallery; however, in all too often Harvey fashion, he three-putted the green to lose.

His best year was 1966 when he entered 38 tournaments and won 18. He played in 25 consecutive Porter Cups and 26 Eastern Amateurs. As much as he loved tournament play, he never tried to qualify for the US Open, thinking that if successful he would deprive some professional the opportunity to play in their championship. A tournament, he felt, belonged only to the pros.

 

1963

Porter Cup, Niagara Falls, NY

1965

NC State Open

1965, 1966 & 1973

Carolinas Open

1966

Dixie Amateur and North and South Amateur

1967

NC Amateur Runner-Up

1973

American Classic

 

5-time Winner Amateur Tournament of Champions

Mike Souchak was born in Berwick, Pa. In 1927 he moved to North Carolina to play football at Duke University and Durham then became his home for the next twenty-two years. He was a standout lineman and kicker; however, he could also play a decent game of golf and it was the latter to which he eventually turned to make his fame and fortune.

 

He turned professional in 1952 after leaving the US Navy and looked as though he would win many major championships. He was a likeable bear of a man with massive strength and a fine rhythmic swing, who won sixteen PGA tour events between 1955 and 1961, including three in 1955 and four in 1956. His consistently good showing earned him a place on the 1959 and 1961 US Ryder Cup Teams. At this writing Mike still holds the PGA 72 hole scoring record (60-68-64-65-257; 27 under par!) and shares the nine-hole record of 27, both scored in the Texas Open of 1955 at the Brackenridge Park Country Club in San Antonio.

 

Although he never won any of golfs four majors, he came very close to winning three consecutive US Opens. In 1959, at Winged Foot in Mamaroneck, NY , he had four solid rounds of 71-70-72-71-284, which placed him in a tie for third place two shots behind the winner Billy Casper. The following year at Cherry Hills he had his best showing. He led through the first three rounds with scores of 68-67-73-208 was two ahead of Julius Boros and seven in front of Arnold Palmer. However, in the final round Palmer made one of his famous charges and fired at 65 to Mikes 75. Mike was again tied for third place at 283 - three shots back. Finally in 1961 at Oakland Hills he played well with rounds of 73-70-68 (one shot back at this point), but his closing round of 73 (total 284) placed him in a tie for third place for the third consecutive year and for the second year three shots back.

 

Since retiring from the tour he served as head pro at Oakland Hills and helped develop and build the Innisbrook Complex at Tarpon Springs , Florida . He has also played in a few PGA Seniors events.

 

Mr. Souchak was inducted into the Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame in 1984.

 

A partial listing of his tournament victories:

1955

The Texas Open

1955-64

The Houston Open

1956

The Colonial Open

 

The Buick Open

1959 - 61

Member Ryder Cup Team

1959

The Western Open

1959

The Tournament of Champions

1960

The San Diego Open

1961

The Greater Greensboro Open

1964

The Memphis Classic

Although Peggy Kirk Bell was born in Finlay, Ohio, she moved to North Carolina in 1953 where she and her husband, Warren, began developing Pine Needles Lodge and Golf Club.

 

Mrs. Bell has had a long and illustrious career in golf as both an amateur and professional, as a teacher and a golf resort owner-operator. After being voted the best athlete in her high school, she went on to the Sargent Physical Education School in Boston, and finally graduating from Rollins College in Florida with a degree in Physical Education.

 

As an amateur, she won the North and South at Pinehurst, the Womens Eastern Amateur and the Titleholders in Augusta, Georgia, where she was the first to break 300 in that tournament. In 1947 she teamed with the late Babe Didrickson Zaharias to win the International Four-Ball. Then in 1948 she was invited to play as a member of the US Curtis Cup Team against the United Kingdom. Twice Mrs. Bell was beaten in the fourth round of the USGA Womens Amateur.

 

Mrs. Bell turned professional in 1950 and qualified ten times to play in the USGA Womens Open; her best finishes were 9th place in 1955 at Wichita, and tied for 10th in 1956 and 1957 at Duluth, Minnesota and Mamaroneck, New York, respectively. She was a Charter Member of the Ladies PGA. After a brief try on tour, she turned to teaching. In 1966 she published a book of instruction, A Womans Way to Better Golf.

 

In 1953, the year she claimed North Carolina as home, she married Warren (Bullet) Bell, a former professional basketball player, and the couple, with Julius Boros and the Cosgrove family, bought a rundown golf course in Southern Pines. Two years later, the Bells bought out their partners and began building the Pine Needles Lodge and Golf Club, which she still operates today. Pine Needles is ranked among the top of the nations golf resorts and teaching centers. Mrs. Bell was inducted into the Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame in 1983 and is also a member of the NC Sports Hall of Fame.

 

Mrs. Bell's Honors:

1947 -Winner, Womens International Four-Ball

1948 - Member, US Curtis Cup Team

1949 - Winner, North and South Womens Amateur

1949 - Winner, The Titleholders, Augusta, Ga.

1950 - Winner, Womens Eastern Amateur

1961 - Named LPGA Teacher of the Year

1981 - Received National Golf Foundations Herb Graffis Award for Service to Golf Bobby Jones

1981 - Named LPGA Pro of the Year

Johnny Palmer was born in Eldorado, NC in 1918 and grew up in nearby Badin.   There he spent much of his free time caddying at the Stanley Country Club and learning as much as he could about the game of golf.  Then in 1938, feeling confident that he could earn a living playing golf, he turned to the professional tour.  However, it was not until a long nine years later that he proved to himself that he was indeed a winner.  That year, 1947, he won his first of eight PGA Tour events when he won the Western Open, at the Salt Lake City County Club.  Two years later, in 1949, at the Hermitage Country Club in Virginia, he came close to winning one of golf’s four “majors.”   He lost in the match play finals of the PGA Championship to Sam Snead three down and two to play.  In route to the finals, he beat such tour standouts as Jim Ferree and Lloyd Mangrum.

From 1946 to 1951 he averaged winning over $13,000.00 a year — very good money in those days — a figure broken only by Hogan, Snead, Middlecoff, Demaret, Mangrum and Ferree.  His best showing in the US Open was a 289 score at the St. Louis Country Club in 1947, which placed him in a tie for sixth. In 1949, he was fourth in the Masters Tournament and four back of winner Sam Snead.  He played in 13 Masters tournaments and in those days the scoreboard listed him simply as “Palmer” — until a second Palmer came along who, to differentiate between the two, was listed “A. Palmer,” for then Johnny was king.

Locally, Johnny was also successful in winning the Carolinas PGA Section title five times and the Carolinas Open three times.  He is a member of the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame, The Carolinas Section PGA Hall of Fame, and was inducted into the Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame in 1983.

During his two and a half years in the Air Force in World War II, he served as a side gunner aboard a B-29 and flew 32 missions over Japan.

Mr. Palmer’s tournament victories:

1947

The Western Open

1948

The Philadelphia Inquirer Open  (now the Philadelphia Classic)

 

The Mexican Open

1949

The Nashville Open

1949

Member US Ryder Cup Team

1949

The Houston Open The World Tam O’Shanter

1949, 50  '52  '54

'Among top 15 money winners on PGA tour

1952

The Canadian Open

1954

The Colonial Open

Johnny Palmer was inducted into the Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame in 1983.

Born in Plymouth, Mass., Henry Picard is a long time resident of Charleston, SC, where he moved as a young man.  He was one of the outstanding golfers of the 1930's and his swing was one of the finest in the game. Besides winning two of the Big Four Championships, he was successful in about thirty other tournaments in the twenty years of his playing career, which began in 1925.
 
His best finishes in the British and US Opens were 6th in 1935 and tied for 6th in 1936, respectively.
 
He experimented a good deal with his swing but never to the extent of damaging it.  In general, his game was conservative; he was a fine long iron player but seldom went for the difficult shot unless circumstances dictated.  He is the only player to ever defeat Walter Hagen in a play-off, which he did in the 1932 Carolina’s Open.

In 1935, he became a professional at Hershey, Pennsylvania, and almost immediately came to the fore, winning six tournaments in the same year; two in partnership with Johnny Revolta.  In 1938 he won the Masters by two strokes over Ralph Guldahl and “Lighthouse” Harry Cooper.  The following year he reached his peak, defeating Byron Nelson in the final of the PGA Championship with birdies on the 36th and 37th holes.  He also won five other tournaments, was leading money winner and was a member of his third Ryder Cup Team.

When in 1942 the war stopped the tour he virtually retired from competition, later taking a job at Cleveland’s Country Club.  His last attempt at a major title was to reach the semi-finals of the National PGA in 1950, played at the Scioto Country Club, Columbus, Ohio.  Since departing the tour he has become known far and wide as an instructor and players of all calibers seek his advice.

Mr. Picard was inducted into the Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame in 1983.  He is also a member of the National PGA Hall of Fame, the Carolinas PGA Hall of Fame, and the South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame.

A partial listing of Mr. Picard’s accomplishments include:

1934-1936

Winner, The North and South Open (Discontinued 1951)

1935

Winner, The Metropolitan Open

1937

Winner, The Argentine Open

1938

Winner, The Masters

 

Winner, The Hershey Open

 

Winner, The Charleston Open

1939

Winner, USF&G. Classic

 

Winner, PGA Championship

 

(Semi-Finalist 1938 and 1950)

A Charlotte native, this patriarch of golf grew up caddying at the Charlotte Country Club where he was the favorite bag-toter of James B. Duke of Duke Power and Duke University fame. He turned professional at age 18, taking his first job at Badin.  He later served brief stints at Bassett, Va., Forest Park in Martinsville, Va., Greensboro’s Green Valley Country Club and at New Bern Country Club, but most of his career was at the Lexington (NC) Country Club where he has been since 1938.  He is now professional emeritus there.

 

In 1940 he helped lead a move that enabled the Carolinas PGA to regain its charter after losing it to another section.  The 74-year-old Aycock was named professional of the year in the Carolina in 1957, that same year he won National Pro of the year honors.

 

Widely known for his many charitable projects, he has served 14 one-year terms as President of the Carolinas PGA Section and two different three-year terms as a National Vice-President.  He has held every office in the Carolinas PGA.  Aycock was chairman of National Golf Day two years, raising a record sum for charity in 1971.  He has also served on many PGA Championship and Ryder Cup Committees.

 

“Mr. PGA in the Carolinas ,” Dugan is a member of the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame, was in the inaugural class of inductees into the Carolinas PGA Section Hall of Fame and was voted into the Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame in 1982

Born at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the son of an army officer, Ray Floyd Floyd almost became a professional baseball player, but a victory in the National Jaycee Tournament in 1960 fortunately turned him to golf. He joined the PGA Tour in 1963, played in 10 events without even making the cut, but won the 11th, the St. Petersburg Open at age 20 years and five months. He was voted Rookie of the Year and went on to become one of the legends of the game.

That first win made him on the youngest winner in tour history and with a final tour win in 1992, almost 30 years later, at age 49 he also became one the oldest victors. Floyd's career included 22 PGA Tour wins, among them 1969 and 1982 PGA Championships, the 1976 Masters and the 1986 U. S. Open Championship. He won 14 times with the Senior and Champions Tours in a career tallying 62 wins worldwide. He was a member of eight Ryder Cup teams and captain of the 1989 Ryder Cup team.

A member of the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame, he was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1989. He was inducted into the Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame in 1982 and would be joined later by tha Army officer father, L.B. Floyd in 1997.

One of the most feared competitors on the professional golf tour in the 1940's and ‘50's, Heafner gained a reputation for unpredictability and was once described as the angriest man in golf.

 

Before his death in 1961 at age 47, Heafner bought and operated the Eastwood Golf Club in his native city Charlotte.  When his wife died a year later, Eastwood was left in trust for his three children.  One of his sons, Mike, operates the club and another son, Vance, followed his father to the PGA Tour for a brief stint.

 

Among Heafner’s notable tour victories was the Mohoning Valley Open in 1941 and 1942, the Jacksonville (Fla.) Open in 1947, and the Colonial Invitation in 1948.  Locally, he won the Carolinas Open in 1939 and 1953 and the Carolinas PGA Section title in 1950.  He was twice runner-up in the US Open and first came to public eye in the Open of 1939 at Medinah. He shot a third round 66, the lowest round of that championship.  It raised him into a tie for second place, but his last round of 80 dropped him out of contention.  Two years later he was tied with Ben Hogan with one round to play but Hogan returned an unanswerable 67 and won by 2 stokes.

 

Heafner played in two Ryder Cup matches and was unbeaten in four matches.  In 1951 at Pinehurst he halved with Fred Daly.  In that match he was laid a stymie by the Irishman, believed to be the last stymie on record.  the stymie was abolished six weeks later.  He played in nine Masters Tournaments with his best finish in 1946 when he took seventh.

 

Clayton Heafner was inducted into the Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame in 1982.