One of the country’s leading amateurs for almost three decades, Dale Morey was born in Martinsville, Ind., where he was a high school basketball star in the late 1930's.  He moved to North Carolina over 20 years ago at the urging of his friend and fellow Carolinas Hall of Famer, Billy Joe Patton.

At Louisiana State University, he was on a basketball scholarship and played on NCAA championship golf teams with such notables as Jay and Lionel Hebert, Gardner Dickinson, Johnny Pott, and Earl Stewart. 

He was unbeaten in match play in both high school and college.  After graduation, Morey played pro basketball briefly with the Anderson Packers (Anderson, Ind.) and then served as a golf pro in St. Louis and Louisville before regaining his amateur status.  His best tour finish was 4th at Montgomery, Ala. He has won most of the country’s amateur and senior amateur events among his over 200 tournament victories. 

His list of wins includes state championships in 4 states (North Carolina, Indiana, Kentucky and Texas), two Southern Amateur crowns, a Western Amateur, The North and South, The Mid Atlantic Amateur, four Indiana Opens, two NC Amateurs, a Carolinas Amateur, an NC Open and 14 major senior championships.

Although he never won the US Amateur, he did reach the finals in 1953 and birdied the 34th and 35th holes at Oklahoma City to bring Gene Littler back to all square.  However, Littler’s birdie on the last hole cost Morey the championship.  Morey also reached the quarterfinals in 1954 and 1964, ten years apart! Dale played on two Walker Cup Teams, two Americas Cup Teams and a World Amateur Team. 

He was voted into The Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame in 1982. As a competitor, he won the 1974 Carolinas Father-Son with Doug and took the 1962 Dunes International Four-Ball title.

Born in Spartanburg, SC, Betsy Rawls grew up in Texas.  During her amateur years in the Lone Star State, she won the Texas Amateur twice, the Trans-National in 1949 and the Broadmoor (Colorado) Invitational in 1950.

Miss Rawls turned professional in 1951 and was elected secretary of the Ladies’ Professional Golf Association when the group was chartered.  She won 55 tournaments, putting her third on the all-time winners' list behind Kathy Whitworth and Mickey Wright.

Miss Rawls holds the unique distinction of having won the Women’s US Open four times.  Only one other player, Mickey Wright, shares this prestigious feat.  In her first clash with the pros in 1950, she finished 2nd in the Open 9 strokes behind the winner, Babe Zaharias.  The following year, her first full year on tour, she won the Open.  She was leading money winner in 1952 and 1959.  As an indication of the size of the tour at that time her earnings in 1959 were under $27,000, in spite of winning 10 tournaments and capturing the Vare Trophy for lowest stroke average.  During her tournament career, she was elected president of the LPGA in 1961 and ‘62.

Rawls retired as a player in 1975 but remained with the LPGA tour as tournament director.  More of her time was then devoted toward administrative golf and in 1980 she became the first woman ever named to serve on the rules committee of the Men’s US Open.

She was elected on the LPGA Hall of Fame in 1960 and to the Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame in 1982.

Born in East Orange, NJ, March 22, 1907, Mrs. Page made Chapel Hill, NC home since early childhood.  She was taught the game of golf by her father, Dr. Robert Lawson, a University of North Carolina Faculty member.

One of the nation’s leading women amateurs for over two decades, from the early 1930's to the mid 1950's, she won the qualifying medal in the USGA Women’s Amateur in 1937 and 1938.  The former year she won the national title played at the Memphis Country Club beating Patty Berg in the finals 7 and 6.  The following year, 1938, at the Westmoreland Country Club, Wilmette, Ill., she lost to Miss Berg, again in the finals, by 6 and 5. Competing in the Women’s North and South Amateur at Pinehurst in 1950, she played the last two days of the event with acute appendicitis, and after losing in the finals by 3 and 2 to Pat O’Sullivan, drove home to Chapel Hill and was later that day admitted to the hospital for an emergency operation.

She was founding member of the North Carolina Women’s Golf Association and served as an officer for many years, including the presidency.  She has been inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame in two states: New Jersey and North Carolina.  Though her competitive career spanned a period of over 20 years, never once did her domestic or social life suffer thereby.

Mrs. Page’s Record:

USGA Women’s Amateur Championship

Winner, 1937

Runner-up, 1938

Semi-Finalist, 1941,1947, 1951

Curtis Cup Team,

1938, 1948

Women’s North and South Amateur Championship

Winner, 1935,1937, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1944, 1945

Runner-up, 1942, 1946, 1950

Semi-Finalist, 1947, 1949

Women’s Southern Amateur Championship

Winner, 1946

North Carolina Women’s Amateur Championship

Winner, 10 times, Runner-up twice

Estelle Lawson Page was inducted into the Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame, June 1981

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.

Born in Scotland in 1872, Donald James Ross started his working days as a carpenter.  Because he lived close to Royal Dornoch Links, he developed an interest in golf.  He trained as a golf professional at St. Andrews, returned to Dornoch in 1893, and remained until 1898 when he emigrated to Boston, MA, where he became a pro-greenkeeper at Oakley Country Club.

In 1890 he moved to Pinehurst Country Club and remained there until his death in 1948.  Mr. Ross later became interested in golf course architecture and went on to design, build or remodel more than 600 courses, including Pinehurst No. 2, Seminole, Dunedin, Inverness and Oak Hill.

As a player, Ross won the inaugural North and South Open in 1903 and repeated those victories in 1905 and 1906. 

He was inducted into the PGA World Golf Hall of Fame in 1977 and into the Carolinas Hall of Fame in 1981.

Tufts was president of the USGA in 1956 and 1957 but his influence was strong before then and still influences the game today. In 1951 he played a central role in the rules summit in which the USGA and the Royal and Ancient agreed to uniformity. In concert with the USGA, executive director, Joe Dey, Tufts crafted the standard set-up for championships - tight fairways, graduating rough and near fast, firm greens. Tufts also formulated the modern USGA handicapping system of drawing on the best 10 of the past 20 rounds. He also instigated the conversion of the USGA Green Section from a modest research supporter to a national network of visiting agronomists.

Grandson of James W. Tufts, founder of Pinehurst, Richard S. Tufts left his own indelible mark on the game. Soft spoken and thoughtful, he was known as "Mister Richard" to residents of Pinehurst and golfers at the famous resort where he was president during the flourishing post-war years.

He founded the Tufts Archives in Pinehurst making thousands of historic photographs, negatives, maps, artifacts, and memorabilia available to the public and scholars. The Carolinas Golf Association player of the year award is named in Tufts' honor.

Richard Tufts was inducted into the Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame in 1981.

Harvie Ward was born in Tarboro, NC, on the 8th day of December, 1925.  During the 1950's he was one of the most accomplished golfers in the world, and supreme as an amateur.  He won the British Amateur at Prestwick, Scotland in 1952; was runner-up the following year at Hoylake, England.  In 1955 at the Country Club of Virginia in Richmond, he defeated Bill Hyndman in the finals to win his first US Amateur Championship, a feat he later described as being his greatest moment in golf.  The following year at the Knollwood Club, Lake Forest, IL, he again became the US Amateur Champ by beating Charles Kocsis 5 up and 4 to play.  In reaching the finals that year, Ward disposed of a Texan 6 and 5 in the third round.  The Texan?   Miller Barber!

Before he could attempt another defense of his title, he was suspended for a year by the USGA for allegedly accepting expense money by his employer for playing in amateur events.  The irony of it was that had he received a larger salary and paid his own way, there would have been no debate, no suspension.  As it was, the USGA clearly decided to make an example of their Amateur Champion.  The effect upon Ward was immediate; his golf lost its tremendous flair and although he finished 4th in the Masters in 1957, and competed with distinction in his last Walker Cup Match in 1959, he was never quite the same player again.

Typical of Ward’s lust for competition and aggressive play were his two finishes in the 1948 and 1949 North and South Amateur Championships when in both years he played Frank Stranahan in the 36 hole finals.  In 1948, he beat Stranahan 1 up; in 1949, he lost to Stranahan 2 and 1.

Ward’s Record:

North and South Amateur
       Winner, 1948
       Runner-up, 1949

NCAA, winner 1949

Carolina’s Amateur Championship
      Winner, 1949, 1950

British Amateur Championship
       Winner, 1952
       Runner-up, 1953

USGA Amateur Championship
       Winner; 1955, 1958

Canadian Amateur Champion, 1954

Walker Cup Team: 1953, 1955, 1959