Ohio native Tom Weiskopf will be inducted posthumously into the World Golf Hall of Fame in a ceremony that will be held in Pinehurst, Monday, June 10, 2024.
Also being inducted will be the 13 founding members of the LPGA, plus Sandra Palmer, Padraig Harrington, Johnny Farrell and Beverly Hanson.
Weiskopf grew up in Massillon, Ohio and was a freshman at Ohio State when Jack Nicklaus was in his last year with the Buckeyes. It seemed Weiskopf was always in the shadow of the Golden Bear.
‘Tom Terrific’ possessed one of the purest golf games in the history of golf. He won 16 PGA Tour titles including the 1975 OPEN Championship held at Troon.
He was born November 9, 1942, and as an amateur won the Public Links Championship, plus the Western Amateur.
He achieved All-American Honors in 1962, his lone season with the Buckeyes and was inducted into the Ohio State University Athletics Hall of Fame in 1985.
After turning professional in 1964, he won the 1965 Ohio Open and was enshrined into the Ohio Golf Hall of Fame in 2004.
Always in the shadow of Jack Nicklaus, his contemporary in amateur golf, as well as on the PGA Tour, Weiskopf was a curious study throughout his professional career. He could be moody and quiet, but as a golf announcer, his insight and intelligence was clearly evident.
He competed with Jack Nicklaus his entire golfing career and sometimes it seemed like being in the Golden Bear’s shadow was a bit too much to bear.
He was famous for saying of Nicklaus, “Jack knew he was going to beat you. You knew Jack was going to beat you. And Jack knew you knew, he was going to beat you.”
It always seemed that Augusta National was made for his game and he recorded four runners up on those hallowed grounds. Most famously he and Johnny Miller finished runner up to Jack Nicklaus in the 1975 Masters, which has over time become one of the most memorable finishes in Masters history.
In 2020 Weiskopf was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died in August last year at the age of 79.
After his playing days were over, he took to the broadcast booth, but primarily is known for his 40 brilliant golf designs. He is credited with adding the Ocean and Cliffs Courses to the Olympic Club in San Francisco. His work at Troon North in Arizona and Loch Lomond in Scotland have been lauded worldwide.
He is credited with designing two great Ohio courses, Double Eagle, north of Columbus and Quail Hollow near Painesville.
Tom Weiskopf was somewhat of an enigma as a golfer, but his golf course designs will live on as a testament to his love of the game and appreciation for providing the best elements of golf course design.
Newest Hall of Famer, Shirley Spork Has Ohio Ties
It was announced last month that Shirley Spork would be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. Although Spork, one of the original 13 founders of the LPGA, was born in Michigan, she had deep ties in Ohio. She traveled with the other golfers during the fledgling days of the LPGA, but her passion leaned more to teaching the game. She earned a teaching degree from Eastern Michigan University and taught Physical Education at Bowling Green State University.
Shirley started the first women’s golf team at that school. She and her good friend Peggy Kirk Bell, who had also started a women’s team at nearby Findlay University arranged the first golf matches for women golfers.
Spork went on to convince the LPGA to start an LPGA Teaching arm and helped bring more women into the game of golf.
Back 9 Report was fortunate to interview Ms. Spork during the Solheim Cup held at The Inverness Club in Toledo. Watch this entertaining interview here:
Her family lived near the Bonnie Brook Golf Club and her first golf club was a putter that she bought for a dollar, at the age of 12, with money earned from selling golf balls she had found. She was forced to endure the laughter of the boys who caddied at the club because she used that putter to hit full shots. It was her only club.
“Through the years I have met a lot of people and made a lot of dear friends,” Spork said. “It was fun to go to work every day and teach because people who came to me wanted to learn how to play. Learning to play the game of golf is like eating an elephant. It’s overwhelming unless you eat just one bite at a time and slowly digest it.”
Shirley passed last year at the age of 94. She lived through the Great Depression and World War II, she helped found the most successful women’s sports leagues in the world and was one of the leading teachers of her time. She did it all with a quick wit and flair for life.
