BOB CHARLES (VETERANS CATEGORY)The late Johnny Bulla, who was a fine tour player in the 1930s and 1940s and an even better man, never forgot the discouragement he got as a child when it came to his being a left-hander. When he told the stories, I sensed he could still feel the sting of a ruler on his left hand. Bulla always believed he would have been a better golfer if he had been allowed to develop as the natural lefty he believed he was, but old customs got in the way.Being a southpaw athlete did come naturally for New Zealander Bob Charles, and no one tried to make him change -- although he never thought of himself as a lefty."Why I'm called left-handed, I don't know," Charles says. "I'm right-eyed, right-handed, right-footed. Anything I do with two hands, I automatically put the left below the right. As I say in a lot of my clinics, I wear a right-handed glove, stand on the right side of the ball and hit the ball on the right side of the clubface."Charles' way worked out pretty well, from his breakthrough victory at the 1954 New Zealand Open as an 18-year-old amateur to today, when he routinely breaks his age of 72. (His longevity was punctuated in 2007 when he became the oldest player to make a cut on the European Tour.)In the 1963 British Open, Charles became the first left-handed golfer to win a major championship when he defeated Phil Rodgers in a playoff. It was the highlight of a remarkably durable career, throughout which Charles wielded his trusty Bulls Eye putter with a jeweler's precision en route to 24 international titles, six PGA Tour victories and 23 triumphs on the Champions Tour. He was knighted in 1999 by his native New Zealand, becoming Sir Bob Charles, a fitting honor for a member of golf royalty.--Bill FieldsMORE ON BOB CHARLES:Local Knowledge: Charles Will Be Hall of Fame's First LeftyBOB CHARLES (VETERANS CATEGORY)The late Johnny Bulla, who was a fine tour player in the 1930s and 1940s and an even better man, never forgot the discouragement he got as a child when it came to his being a left-hander. When he told the stories, I sensed he could still feel the sting of a ruler on his left hand. Bulla always believed he would have been a better golfer if he had been allowed to develop as the natural lefty he believed he was, but old customs got in the way.Being a southpaw athlete did come naturally for New Zealander Bob Charles, and no one tried to make him change -- although he never thought of himself as a lefty."Why I'm called left-handed, I don't know," Charles says. "I'm right-eyed, right-handed, right-footed. Anything I do with two hands, I automatically put the left below the right. As I say in a lot of my clinics, I wear a right-handed glove, stand on the right side of the ball and hit the ball on the right side of the clubface."Charles' way worked out pretty well, from his breakthrough victory at the 1954 New Zealand Open as an 18-year-old amateur to today, when he routinely breaks his age of 72. (His longevity was punctuated in 2007 when he became the oldest player to make a cut on the European Tour.)In the 1963 British Open, Charles became the first left-handed golfer to win a major championship when he defeated Phil Rodgers in a playoff. It was the highlight of a remarkably durable career, throughout which Charles wielded his trusty Bulls Eye putter with a jeweler's precision en route to 24 international titles, six PGA Tour victories and 23 triumphs on the Champions Tour. He was knighted in 1999 by his native New Zealand, becoming Sir Bob Charles, a fitting honor for a member of golf royalty.--Bill FieldsMORE ON BOB CHARLES:Local Knowledge: Charles Will Be Hall of Fame's First Lefty
PETE DYE (LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT)Nobody ever whipped up turfgrass soufflés quite like Pete Dye. He draped Bermuda grass over a chicken-wire frame to produce a tabletop green at Kiawah's Ocean Course, flipped a frying pan into an island green that makes professionals pucker at TPC of Sawgrass, and left the lid off the blender to scatter his bunkers about the faux dunes at Whistling Straits.His course designs are more than some golfers can stomach, but vast majorities find them exotic, tantalizing, even addictive.His greatest accomplishment as a golf architect is the revival of the idea that golf is an emotional game, not a leisurely stroll through the park. By perching greens atop vertical railroad ties and stacked-sod bunkers, he slapped American golf out of a post-World War II stupor with the concept of "abrupt change." Hit or Miss. Sink or Swim. Death or Glory.A Pete Dye design can be artistic, adventurous, difficult, devious, even preposterous, all within the same 18 holes. He forces duffer and pro alike to play above their comfort zones, rewarding patience, precision and, above all, imagination. Players must decipher the lines and angles of his fairways and hazards to identify the proper position for the next shot. Those not content with just hitting a green must hit throw-rug targets for favorable bounces down to the flag. Miss a Pete Dye green, and you're inventing a recovery shot, perhaps chopping off the side of a pointy knob with one knee up by your ear. Pull it off, and you'll feel like King of the World. Fluff it, and you curse Pete. His is emotional architecture.Pete Dye's legacy as one of history's greatest golf course architects is so secure that he really doesn't need induction in the World Golf Hall of Fame to solidify it. But it's nice to know that he's now a member.-- Ron WhittenMORE ON PETE DYE:Golf's Wisest Man | Dye: The Man And His Work | My Shot: Pete Dye | Dye: Called To The Hall | Public Courses Designed by DyePETE DYE (LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT)Nobody ever whipped up turfgrass soufflés quite like Pete Dye. He draped Bermuda grass over a chicken-wire frame to produce a tabletop green at Kiawah's Ocean Course, flipped a frying pan into an island green that makes professionals pucker at TPC of Sawgrass, and left the lid off the blender to scatter his bunkers about the faux dunes at Whistling Straits.His course designs are more than some golfers can stomach, but vast majorities find them exotic, tantalizing, even addictive.His greatest accomplishment as a golf architect is the revival of the idea that golf is an emotional game, not a leisurely stroll through the park. By perching greens atop vertical railroad ties and stacked-sod bunkers, he slapped American golf out of a post-World War II stupor with the concept of "abrupt change." Hit or Miss. Sink or Swim. Death or Glory.A Pete Dye design can be artistic, adventurous, difficult, devious, even preposterous, all within the same 18 holes. He forces duffer and pro alike to play above their comfort zones, rewarding patience, precision and, above all, imagination. Players must decipher the lines and angles of his fairways and hazards to identify the proper position for the next shot. Those not content with just hitting a green must hit throw-rug targets for favorable bounces down to the flag. Miss a Pete Dye green, and you're inventing a recovery shot, perhaps chopping off the side of a pointy knob with one knee up by your ear. Pull it off, and you'll feel like King of the World. Fluff it, and you curse Pete. His is emotional architecture.Pete Dye's legacy as one of history's greatest golf course architects is so secure that he really doesn't need induction in the World Golf Hall of Fame to solidify it. But it's nice to know that he's now a member.-- Ron WhittenMORE ON PETE DYE:Golf's Wisest Man | Dye: The Man And His Work | My Shot: Pete Dye | Dye: Called To The Hall | Public Courses Designed by Dye
DENNY SHUTE (VETERANS CATEGORY)Career Highlights: Won 15 PGA Tour titles, including 1933 British Open and 1936 and 1937 PGA Championships. Before Tiger Woods, he was the last back-to-back PGA champ. Member of three U.S. Ryder Cup teams. Cleveland native was head professional at Portage CC in Akron, Ohio, from 1945-1972.Denny Shute's full name was Herman Densmore Shute, a mouthful that would have made life a bit difficult for engravers who had to put his name on 15 PGA Tour tournament trophies during the 1930s. A taciturn Ohio native, Shute was referred to as the "Calvin Coolidge of professional golf" because of his reserve. Whippet-thin in his early years on the fledgling circuit, Shute was content to let his clubs do the talking.Born in Cleveland in 1904, Shute was on three U.S. Ryder Cup teams (1931, 1933, 1937) and counted three major championships among his triumphs while enjoying eight other top-10 major finishes. He won the 1933 British Open at St. Andrews, beating Craig Wood in a playoff. At the 1936 PGA Championship at Pinehurst (N.C.) No. 2, Shute defeated long-hitting Jimmy Thomson 3-and-2 in the final, paying no attention to Thomson's massive length. "Jimmy hit so far I wouldn't look at his shot from the tee," Shute recalled years later. "Every time Thomson walked down to his drive, I'd have one on the green, pretty close (to the hole)."In 1937 at Pittsburgh Field Club, Shute successfully defended his title with a 1-up victory on the 37th hole over Harold (Jug) McSpaden. Shute was the last man to win consecutive PGA Championships until Tiger Woods won the 1999 and 2000 editions. For many years (1945-72) Shute was the head professional at Portage CC in Akron, Ohio."If I could putt like in the old days, I could still win," he mused when he was 49 and his short game wasn't what it had been. For Shute, the old days indeed were good days.--Bill FieldsMORE ON DENNY SHUTE:Best Playoffs at the U.S. Open: 1939DENNY SHUTE (VETERANS CATEGORY)Career Highlights: Won 15 PGA Tour titles, including 1933 British Open and 1936 and 1937 PGA Championships. Before Tiger Woods, he was the last back-to-back PGA champ. Member of three U.S. Ryder Cup teams. Cleveland native was head professional at Portage CC in Akron, Ohio, from 1945-1972.Denny Shute's full name was Herman Densmore Shute, a mouthful that would have made life a bit difficult for engravers who had to put his name on 15 PGA Tour tournament trophies during the 1930s. A taciturn Ohio native, Shute was referred to as the "Calvin Coolidge of professional golf" because of his reserve. Whippet-thin in his early years on the fledgling circuit, Shute was content to let his clubs do the talking.Born in Cleveland in 1904, Shute was on three U.S. Ryder Cup teams (1931, 1933, 1937) and counted three major championships among his triumphs while enjoying eight other top-10 major finishes. He won the 1933 British Open at St. Andrews, beating Craig Wood in a playoff. At the 1936 PGA Championship at Pinehurst (N.C.) No. 2, Shute defeated long-hitting Jimmy Thomson 3-and-2 in the final, paying no attention to Thomson's massive length. "Jimmy hit so far I wouldn't look at his shot from the tee," Shute recalled years later. "Every time Thomson walked down to his drive, I'd have one on the green, pretty close (to the hole)."In 1937 at Pittsburgh Field Club, Shute successfully defended his title with a 1-up victory on the 37th hole over Harold (Jug) McSpaden. Shute was the last man to win consecutive PGA Championships until Tiger Woods won the 1999 and 2000 editions. For many years (1945-72) Shute was the head professional at Portage CC in Akron, Ohio."If I could putt like in the old days, I could still win," he mused when he was 49 and his short game wasn't what it had been. For Shute, the old days indeed were good days.--Bill FieldsMORE ON DENNY SHUTE:Best Playoffs at the U.S. Open: 1939
CAROL SEMPLE THOMPSON (LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT)While the accomplishments of Carol Semple Thompson -- seven-time USGA champion, 12-time U.S. Curtis Cup player and two-time victorious captain, 109-time (and counting) participant in USGA events (17 more than any other golfer) -- would stand out whenever she achieved them, they become more impressive given the current bent of the competitive game. Playing in an era where career amateurs have become as anachronistic as persimmon woods and balata balls, the 60-year-old from Sewickley, Pa., earned the moniker grand dame of the amateur golf while taking the road less traveled.Truth be told, Thompson once did flirt with turning pro. After graduating from Hollins University with an economics degree in 1970, she took time to sharpen her game. Her father, long-time USGA volunteer/ eventual president Harton "Bud" Semple, agreed to support her financially with one caveat: she had to remain an amateur for a year. "I went out the next summer and played like a dog," Carol recalls, who decided then to keep golf her passion rather than profession.Thus began among the most impressive sustained performances in amateur golf history. Dominant locally (she eventually claimed 22 Pennsylvania state amateur titles), she broke through nationally with a victory at the 1973 U.S. Women's Amateur, her father getting the honor of awarding her the Cox Cup. Two U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur triumphs eventually followed (1990, 1997) along with four straight victories in the USGA Senior Women's Amateur (1999-2002)."I really thought I'd get lost on the tour, that I'd just be another touring pro," Thompson once said when asked if she ever regretted not turning pro. "As an amateur I could be a big fish in a little pond."Thompson's dedication to the game, meanwhile, has gone beyond collecting trophies. She served on the USGA executive committee from 1994-2000 and runs the Harder Hall Invitational each January, keeping the historic amateur event alive."She's just a classy individual," says current U.S. Women's Amateur champ Amanda Blumenherst. "We can all learn a lot from the way she carries herself."--Ryan HerringtonMORE ON CAROL SEMPLE THOMPSON:Formidable foursome gains HOF entry | Captain Thompson: 2006 U.S. Curtis Cup teamCAROL SEMPLE THOMPSON (LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT)While the accomplishments of Carol Semple Thompson -- seven-time USGA champion, 12-time U.S. Curtis Cup player and two-time victorious captain, 109-time (and counting) participant in USGA events (17 more than any other golfer) -- would stand out whenever she achieved them, they become more impressive given the current bent of the competitive game. Playing in an era where career amateurs have become as anachronistic as persimmon woods and balata balls, the 60-year-old from Sewickley, Pa., earned the moniker grand dame of the amateur golf while taking the road less traveled.Truth be told, Thompson once did flirt with turning pro. After graduating from Hollins University with an economics degree in 1970, she took time to sharpen her game. Her father, long-time USGA volunteer/ eventual president Harton "Bud" Semple, agreed to support her financially with one caveat: she had to remain an amateur for a year. "I went out the next summer and played like a dog," Carol recalls, who decided then to keep golf her passion rather than profession.Thus began among the most impressive sustained performances in amateur golf history. Dominant locally (she eventually claimed 22 Pennsylvania state amateur titles), she broke through nationally with a victory at the 1973 U.S. Women's Amateur, her father getting the honor of awarding her the Cox Cup. Two U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur triumphs eventually followed (1990, 1997) along with four straight victories in the USGA Senior Women's Amateur (1999-2002)."I really thought I'd get lost on the tour, that I'd just be another touring pro," Thompson once said when asked if she ever regretted not turning pro. "As an amateur I could be a big fish in a little pond."Thompson's dedication to the game, meanwhile, has gone beyond collecting trophies. She served on the USGA executive committee from 1994-2000 and runs the Harder Hall Invitational each January, keeping the historic amateur event alive."She's just a classy individual," says current U.S. Women's Amateur champ Amanda Blumenherst. "We can all learn a lot from the way she carries herself."--Ryan HerringtonMORE ON CAROL SEMPLE THOMPSON:Formidable foursome gains HOF entry | Captain Thompson: 2006 U.S. Curtis Cup team
HERBERT WARREN WIND (LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT)Career Highlights: Massachusetts native best-known for long, descriptive essays about golf's people and places in The New Yorker, where he worked from 1947-54 and 1962-90. Author of The Story of American Golf and collaborator with Ben Hogan on Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf. While covering the Masters for Sports Illustrated in 1958, coined "Amen Corner" to describe holes 11-13 at Augusta National.When Herbert Warren Wind was a freshman at Yale, he chose to write his English thesis on "a brief history of golf." As anyone familiar with Herb's later work knows, he never wrote BRIEFLY about anything.But on this occasion, what may have been his first essay about the game, he confined his research entirely to a reading of the golf entry in the Encyclopedia Britannica.He got a good grade, but years later he distinctly remembered the professor's written comment. "What I like most about your history of golf is that it is completely different from anything that one might find in the Encyclopedia Britannica."Herb was completely different. Born in 1916 in Brockton, Mass., a golf town, he said. His father owned a company that manufactured shoe components. After Yale, he studied for two years at Cambridge University in England, where he played rugby and golf for his college and met the late British essayist Bernard Darwin, the only other pure writer in this Hall of Fame. Herb was a pretty good golfer himself. As he said, he once made his way to the first round of the British Amateur.During World War Two, Wind served in the U.S. Army Air Corps in China. During the occupation of Japan, he wrote a script for the first radio show that gave a true account of the war to the Japanese people called, "Now It Can Be Told."In 1947 he joined The New Yorker as a staff writer during the literary magazine's halcyon days of E. B. White, James Thurber and A. J. Liebling. One of his first profiles was about Robert Trent Jones, the architect.He switched allegiances to a brand-new magazine called Sports Illustrated in 1954 and worked as its golf editor until 1960. He then consulted on Shell's Wonderful World of Golf, writing many of the show's scripts, before returning to The New Yorker and taking over the Sporting Scene column. I edited him at Golf Digest, where he contributed regularly from the 1960s into the 90s. He wrote many books on golf, but the one that stands above the others is a continuation of his freshman English paper. It's called The Story of American Golf, required reading for anyone serious about the game. He wrote the autobiographies of Gene Sarazen and Jack Nicklaus, two classics, and he collaborated on the best instruction book of all time, Ben Hogan's Five Lessons.I was looking through my own library the other night and came across one of Herb's books called, The Realm of Sport, a wonderful anthology of sporting non-fiction. I bought it second-hand. When opened, I saw it was signed by Herb to an old friend, in his beautiful penmanship: "You'll love the stuff on fox-hunting," he wrote, "but the modern pieces are weak. All good regards, Herb Wind"I'm afraid that's the opinion he'd have of modern golfers and golf writing, the game's governing bodies and equipment regulation -- You'll love the original stuff, but the modern pieces are weak.If Herb were here today, he would say that the ball goes too straight, the drivers go too far, the wedges spin too much, the putters are too long, and the number Tiger's chasing is not Jack's 18, but his 20 major championships, because he'd count the U.S. Amateurs.My favorite line ever written about a golfer is Herb's description of Bobby Jones, which told the story of a lifetime. He wrote: "As a young man [Jones] was able to stand up to just about the best that life can offer, which isn't easy, and later he stood up with equal grace to just about the worst."He had an ear for the strategy of golfers, like no one before him: About the 11th hole at Augusta National, he once quoted Hogan as saying: "If you ever see me on this green in two, you'll know I missed my second." Today's pro will write a whole instruction book that doesn't say as much as that one sentence.HERBERT WARREN WIND (LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT)Career Highlights: Massachusetts native best-known for long, descriptive essays about golf's people and places in The New Yorker, where he worked from 1947-54 and 1962-90. Author of The Story of American Golf and collaborator with Ben Hogan on Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf. While covering the Masters for Sports Illustrated in 1958, coined "Amen Corner" to describe holes 11-13 at Augusta National.Herb wrote not with the humor of Dan Jenkins, or the flourish of Charles Price, or the wit of Peter Dobereiner -- all of whom deserve their place in this hall eventually. Herb wrote with an elegant, spare and knowing style that made him the most important American golf writer of the 20th Century. With Herbert Warren Wind now in, the World Golf Hall of Fame just got smarter.-- Jerry TardePhoto By Dom Furore
CRAIG WOOD (PGA TOUR BALLOT)Career Highlights: After several close calls in majors -- including a playoff loss to Gene Sarazen in the 1935 Masters after Sarazen's famed final-round double eagle -- in 1941 became the first golfer to win the Masters and U.S. Open in the same year, two of 21 PGA Tour wins. Known for his generosity to fellow players.Golf wins more often than a golfer, which was a fact Craig Wood knew all too well, although he was too much of a class act to take out his bad breaks on anyone.A native of Lake Placid, N.Y., who was bequeathed the strength of his lumberman father, Wood won the 1941 Masters and U.S. Open, the first man to capture those major championships in the same year (only Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods have followed suit). The two major triumphs and three Ryder Cup appearances (1931, 1933, 1935) highlighted Wood's 21-win PGA Tour career, which also included a number of heartbreaking major losses. Gene Sarazen's victory, set up by his dramatic and unlikely double-eagle, over Wood in the 1935 Masters is well known. But Wood also had close calls in the 1933 British Open, where Denny Shute beat him in a playoff; the 1934 Masters, where he came up one stroke behind Horton Smith; the 1934 PGA, where he lost on the 38th hole of the final to Paul Runyan; and the 1939 U.S. Open, where he lost a marathon playoff to Byron Nelson.Through all the "almosts," Wood had the respect of his peers and the admiration of galleries. His swing, which featured a powerful delayed hit that presaged the action of current stars such as Sergio Garcia, was ahead of its time. But his personality -- charismatic, generous and friendly -- was timeless. Wood always had time for fellow pros, men who were trying to beat him and those on the way up, including a young Claude Harmon."If World War II hadn't interrupted his reign," Harmon's son, Butch, wrote in The Pro, "Craig Wood might have been the Arnold Palmer of his era."Even so, he was special. Sam Snead told Golf World in 2001, "He was the nicest guy I think I've ever met."--Bill FieldsCRAIG WOOD (PGA TOUR BALLOT)Career Highlights: After several close calls in majors -- including a playoff loss to Gene Sarazen in the 1935 Masters after Sarazen's famed final-round double eagle -- in 1941 became the first golfer to win the Masters and U.S. Open in the same year, two of 21 PGA Tour wins. Known for his generosity to fellow players.Golf wins more often than a golfer, which was a fact Craig Wood knew all too well, although he was too much of a class act to take out his bad breaks on anyone.A native of Lake Placid, N.Y., who was bequeathed the strength of his lumberman father, Wood won the 1941 Masters and U.S. Open, the first man to capture those major championships in the same year (only Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods have followed suit). The two major triumphs and three Ryder Cup appearances (1931, 1933, 1935) highlighted Wood's 21-win PGA Tour career, which also included a number of heartbreaking major losses. Gene Sarazen's victory, set up by his dramatic and unlikely double-eagle, over Wood in the 1935 Masters is well known. But Wood also had close calls in the 1933 British Open, where Denny Shute beat him in a playoff; the 1934 Masters, where he came up one stroke behind Horton Smith; the 1934 PGA, where he lost on the 38th hole of the final to Paul Runyan; and the 1939 U.S. Open, where he lost a marathon playoff to Byron Nelson.Through all the "almosts," Wood had the respect of his peers and the admiration of galleries. His swing, which featured a powerful delayed hit that presaged the action of current stars such as Sergio Garcia, was ahead of its time. But his personality -- charismatic, generous and friendly -- was timeless. Wood always had time for fellow pros, men who were trying to beat him and those on the way up, including a young Claude Harmon."If World War II hadn't interrupted his reign," Harmon's son, Butch, wrote in The Pro, "Craig Wood might have been the Arnold Palmer of his era."Even so, he was special. Sam Snead told Golf World in 2001, "He was the nicest guy I think I've ever met."--Bill Fields