Jack Burke Jr., who was the oldest living member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, has died at age 100

Burke claimed that he received more for attending the Champions Dinner at the Masters than he did for winning it.

John “Jack” Joseph Burke Jr. won 16 times on the PGA Tour, including two majors in 1956 – the Masters and PGA Championship – earning him Player of the Year honors. In 1952, he won four tournaments in a row, along with the Vardon Trophy, which is awarded for low scoring average. He played on five Ryder Cup teams during the 1950s, captained twice and hosted another at his own course.

Burke died on Friday at the age of 100.

While still at the peak of his abilities, he retired from the Tour and built one of the country’s first golf-only clubs – Champions Golf Club in Houston – with his former childhood babysitter and closest friend, fellow World Golf Hall of Famer Jimmy Demaret.

Burke grew up on River Oaks Country Club in Texas during the Great Depression, where his father, Jack, served as the first club pro in the state’s history and mentored the likes of Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson, Jack Grout and Harvey Penick. Young Jackie suffered from asthma and couldn’t play other sports so at age 7 he began sitting and listening at the feet of his father, who is himself a member of the Texas Golf Hall of Fame.

By age 12, Burke Jr. could break par and a year later gave his first lesson to John P. Fusler, who paid him $350 when Burke helped lower his scores from 100 to 85.

“He thought I was the greatest teacher in the world, but all I was doing was relating what I had heard at the dinner table,” Burke told the USGA’s Golf Journal in 1995.

He landed a job as a teaching professional at Galveston Country Club in Houston before he turned 20, and would later hold jobs at Hollywood Golf Club in New Jersey and Metropolis Country Club in New York. One time, in the company of Demaret and his golf buddy Bob Hope, the comedian innocently asked Burke, “What do you do?”

“I’m a golf professional,” Burke answered.

“Where?” Hope asked. “At Boys Town?”

The finest hour as a player for “the pro from Boys Town,” as Burke was affectionately called, may have been the final round of the 1956 Masters, which is still widely considered to be the toughest conditions of cold, wind and rain in tournament history. Somehow, Burke held it together against the elements to shoot 71 and erase an eight-stroke deficit as amateur Ken Venturi ballooned to an 80.

“He handed me the trophy,” said Burke, overlooking the fact that he tied for the low round of the day to finish at 1-over 289, still tied for the highest winning score in tournament history. “I thank him a lot for that.”

Burke, who was paired in the final round with Mike Souchak, always was known for his stellar putting and his short stick was his sword and his shield at Augusta National as he relied on a short, tap putting stroke.

“Sand had blown out of the bunkers all over the green,” he told Golf Digest in 2002 of a critical birdie putt he holed at 17. “I’d putted on sand greens in east Texas that were really fast, and factored that in, but I still thought I’d hit it about halfway — till the wind blew it right in the center of the cup. Mike’s a cheerleader-type guy, and he ran to pick the ball out of the cup and then clapped me so hard on the back I had to walk around on the 18th tee to recover. I put my second shot on 18 in the right bunker and had to make a downhill four-footer to save my par. It still makes me almost ill to think about that putt with the outcome riding on it.”

Burke won the 1956 PGA Championship at Blue Hill Golf & Country Club in Canton, Massachusetts, just outside of Boston, back when it was contested at match play, defeating Ted Kroll, 3 and 2, in the final.

“I beat eight guys to win the PGA,” Burke recalled. “Each day you felt like you’re standing on the edge of a cliff and some guy was going to push you off. I never felt like I was going to win the PGA. Never.”

Indeed, Burke needed two extra holes to prevail over Fred Haas in the third round and was five down after 14 holes in the 36-hole semifinals before rallying to knock off Ed Furgol on the 37th hole. And for good measure, he trailed three down midway into the finals before edging Kroll.

At the time, the life of a Tour pro was a meager existence, even during a banner year. Many years later, Burke claimed that he received more for attending the Champions Dinner at the Masters than he did for winning it.

“I won the PGA in Boston and my check was hot,” Burke once told the Houston Chronicle. “I couldn’t cash my check for $6,000. The PGA had to guarantee my check.”

It led Burke to consider scaling back his tournament schedule to spend more time with his family. He and Demaret, a three-time winner of the Masters who died in 1983, shared a mutual interest in creating a haven for hardcore golfers that would capitalize on the knowledge and experience they’d gained from playing the game around the world.

“Golf is really in your blood when you drive through a strange area and start envisioning golf holes on every piece of property around the next bend,” Burke said in his autobiography, “It’s Only a Game.”

“This is what happened with Jimmy and me when we envisioned Champions. We looked at several pieces of property, but the land here looked just right for a golf course.”

They acquired 500 acres (at $500 per) in Northwest Houston in 1957, out in what was then a forest of pine and oak trees in the middle of nowhere, to build two courses – Cypress Creek and Jackrabbit – and hired Ralph Plummer as the architect.

On April 21, 1959, celebrities Bing Crosby, Mickey Mantle and James Garner joined Ben Hogan, Jay Hebert, Bob Rosburg and Souchak among the more than 6,000 who attended the grand opening. A day earlier, Burke and Julius Boros battled in an 18-hole playoff at the Houston Classic. Boros shot a 3-under-par 69 at Memorial Park … and lost by five.

“I believe we should have a saliva test on Jackie,” Boros said at the time. “As soon as he is available, I would like to sign up for a series of lessons.”

Burke’s reputation as “America’s grand golf sage” helped attract numerous prominent competitions to the club and tested golf’s elite amateurs and pros ever since. The Cypress Creek Course was home of the Tour Championship five times between 1990 and 2003, hosted tour events from 1966-’71 – Ben Hogan chose the course for his final tournament appearance of his career at the 1971 Houston Champions International – the 1967 Ryder Cup, 1969 U.S. Open, 1993 U.S. Amateur, 1998 and 2017 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur, and 2020 U.S. Women’s Open. Burke was one of five Champions members who have won the PGA Championship, along with Steve Elkington, Hal Sutton and the late Dave Marr and Jay Hebert. When a local sportscaster asked Burke if that’s unusual, he said, “Hell, we’ve got three members who walked on the moon,” referring to astronauts Alan Shepard, who hit a golf ball there, Gene Cernan and Charles Duke.

Jack and Robin Burke
Jack and Robin Burke in 2016. (Golfweek/Tracy Wilcox)

Burke continued to foster the same atmosphere that his father promoted at River Oaks. Golf is it at Champions. In fact, he was so dedicated to protecting the spirit of competition that he refused to consider members who have a handicap higher than 15.

“You play your way in, you don’t buy your way in,” Burke once said.

Burke claimed that a country club where no one plays the game seriously “is like a yacht club where no one can sail a boat.”

Champions Club likely will be his most lasting legacy, which is just how Burke always wanted it.

“My dad said to me once, ‘Son, before you leave this planet, you try and leave more than two footprints here. So, I said, ‘I will do that,’ ” he said. “This is my footprint.”

Burke, who served in the Marines during World War II and fathered six children, was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2000, and in 2004 received the Bob Jones Award from the U.S. Golf Association, which is considered its highest honor and awarded for distinguished sportsmanship.

Burke has tutored the likes of Crenshaw, Elkington, Sutton and Phil Mickelson. Crenshaw once described a lesson with Burke as “a full-contact sport,” and former touring pro turned Golf Channel commentator Billy Ray Brown is living proof of that. Brown, a former University of Houston star, missed a putt at the start of a lesson from Brown and received a whack alongside the head for it.

“Son,” Burke said, “I want you to feel pain when you miss a putt.”

When Mickelson made his first pilgrimage to Champions for a lesson from Burke, he was challenged to pass Burke’s putting-pressure test: holing 100 straight three-footers. In typical Mickelson fashion, he bet Burke dinner at Houston’s finest restaurant in town that he could do it on the first try. Mickelson missed his fourth putt and wanted to double down.

In recounting the story to Golf Digest, Burke said, “Man, I can’t eat that much.” During his heyday, Burke would make the 100 putts every night before allowing himself dinner. “You’d get to 89 and you were a little tired and hungry. The key is to strike a carpenter’s 90, with the blade square to the line, and concern yourself less with sinking putts. Losers are result-oriented — winners are execution-oriented. On long putts, your target is that three-foot cup. You need mental aids.”

“Being with him was like a tonic for the soul,” Crenshaw said.

Sutton, who made Burke one of his assistant captains to the 2004 U.S. Ryder Cup team, said the smartest decision he made as a young pro was buying a house next door to Burke, who he considered one of the few people who really understood the game in its entirety.

“He’s seen all the great players, he knows how they hit it. He understands the golf swing, he’s made it happen and he’s been a great player in his own day,” said Sutton, who looked at Burke as a spiritual advisor, sports psychologist, sounding board, confidante, cheerleader and surrogate parent. “Without even knowing it, he did a great deal to make me a better, more well-rounded person.”

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Steph Curry to receive Charlie Sifford Award at World Golf Hall of Fame’s Pinehurst debut

The award honors recipients for their spirit in advancing diversity in golf.

Steph Curry has piled up a number of awards through his feats on the basketball court, but his stockpile of golf trophies is catching up due to the hard work he has put into growing the sport.

The World Golf Hall of Fame announced Tuesday it will honor Curry with the Charlie Sifford Award at its induction ceremony next June. The award honors recipients for their spirit in advancing diversity in golf.

The ceremony will be the first after the hall officially opens its doors at Pinehurst Resort and Country Club.

Padraig Harrington, Tom Weiskopf, Sandra Palmer, Johnny Farrell and Beverly Hanson will join the remaining seven of the 13 LPGA Founders in the World Golf Hall of Fame’s Class of 2024.

“I’m incredibly honored to be chosen as the recipient of this year’s Charlie Sifford Award and am grateful to the World Golf Hall of Fame for the recognition in this sport that I am so passionate about,” Curry said. “I believe that we have the opportunity to grow the game of golf by providing equity, access and opportunity to young golfers who have that same passion, dedication and determination as so many of us out on the green.”

Curry’s advocacy through the PGA Tour and the guarantee he issued in 2019 to fully fund men’s and women’s golf at Howard University for six years have led to a number of honors, including being named the 2023 recipient of the Ambassador of Golf Award.

According to the National Golf Foundation, only 16% of all golfers are black or Latino.

“Steph Curry has shown passion and a commitment to giving more opportunities to young people who do not have access to the game of golf,” said Greg McLaughlin, the CEO of the World Golf Hall of Fame. “Steph’s dedication in advancing diversity in golf epitomizes the groundbreaking work demonstrated by Charlie Sifford. The World Golf Hall of Fame in partnership with Southern Company is committed to ensuring his legacy endures for future generations by recognizing others – like Steph – who are devoted to making golf an environment for all.”

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Photos: The best (and worst) of World Golf Hall of Fame plaques

Some of the bronze plaques for the 176 members of the World Golf Hall of Fame are better than others.

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — It’s golf’s highest honor.

To be elected into the World Golf Hall of Fame is to be enshrined among the greatest. There have been only 176 men and women to be inducted in the Hall.

When the facility opened at World Golf Village in 1998, the members were commemorated with crystals but they were mounted in the floor and took up too much space for special events. So, the crystals were removed and bronze plaques replaced them. Some are better than others. According to the Florida Times Union, the plaques will not be relocated to Pinehurst, N.C., where the Hall will take up residency again in 2024.

Some of the plaques, it really helps to have the name written below it because the resemblance is minimal at best. See if you can name the Hall member.

Photos: One last tour of the World Golf Hall of Fame

After 25 years, the Hall is shutting down at World Golf Village and relocating to Pinehurst.

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — For more than six years I worked at the World Golf Hall of Fame. I was there on opening day — May 19, 1998 — and was the last person to walk out on Friday, Sept. 1, 2023, when the Hall closed for good at 1 World Golf Place.

After 25 years, the World Golf Hall is shutting down at World Golf Village and relocating to Pinehurst, North Carolina, where it was originally born in 1974.

I hadn’t been inside since before COVID-19, so I wanted to make one last trip. Admission was free and the place was hopping late Friday afternoon. I forgot how much of a treasure trove of golf memorabilia was housed there. One of my former colleagues, who joined me for “last call,” compared it to the end scene of “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” where all the trinkets from the Hall of Famers will end up boxed in a warehouse somewhere as the new facility is expected to be about one-tenth the size at approximately 3,500 square feet of exhibit space. One of the Hall’s employees — “I’m officially unemployed five minutes ago,” he said in a moment of gallows humor —noted that some staff from the USGA would be visiting soon to determine what items they want for the Pinehurst location. The rest will be returned to the members and their families.

Check out the photos of some of the exhibits — from a replica of Alan Shepard’s makeshift 6-iron used to hit a ball on the moon to Sam Snead’s lunchbox and Lloyd Mangrum’s Purple Heart — to the bronze plaques (some are better than others).

The World Golf Hall of Fame isn’t the only museum struggling right now

The World Golf Hall of Fame and Museum fell victim to dwindling attendance even before the pandemic.

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ST. AUGUSTINE, Florida — The World Golf Hall of Fame and Museum, the brainchild of former PGA Tour commissioner Deane Beman, who was later one of its inductees, fell victim to dwindling attendance even before the pandemic when most museums closed in 2020.

The challenges of keeping the facility open were not unique: according to the American Alliance of Museums, attendance at museums nationwide was still down 38 percent in 2022 from pre-pandemic levels and 17 percent of museum directors believed there was some risk of having to close.

Once a 20-year sponsorship agreement with Shell ran out in 2018 it became harder and harder for the Hall of Fame to pay for itself.

But World Golf Foundation officials are quick to point out that the Hall of Fame is only changing places.

In the spring of 2024, the United States Golf Association will open the new version of the Hall of Fame at its six-acre Golf House Pinehurst Campus. That means it will have come full circle — the inaugural Golf Hall of Fame, with the charter class selected by the Golf Writers Association of America, opened at Pinehurst in 1974.

“It’s back where it started,” said Melody Herbert of St. Augustine, who came to the Hall of Fame with her husband Hank and their granddaughters Camille and Audrey during a visit last week. “It makes perfect sense to relocate it there.”

From now on, the World Golf Hall of Fame will be a joint operation between the USGA and the World Golf Foundation, which has moved to offices at the PGA Tour’s Global Home in Ponte Vedra Beach.

The Foundation will manage the process of nominating and electing new members, and plan and stage the induction ceremonies. The next ceremony will be the week of the U.S. Open in Pinehurst next June, with Padraig Harrington, Tom Weiskopf and the 13 founding members of the LPGA highlighting the Class of 2024.

“Once in the USGA will manage [the Hall of Fame] day-to-day,” said Greg McLaughlin, the executive director of the World Golf Foundation. “The foundation will work in concert with them for events and offer curating support.”

A rendering of the World Golf Hall of Fame Members Locker Room at the Pinehurst Resort. It will open in the late spring of 2024.

What to do with the property?

The issue now is what to do with a 64,000-square-foot Hall of Fame and Museum building, a 17,865-square-foot IMAX Theater and 36 acres of land.

There also will be the issue in early 2025 after PGA Tour Entertainment vacates its 32,000-square foot building for a new structure in Ponte Vedra near the Tour headquarters.

St. Johns County is in the midst of soliciting public opinion on the uses of the property and buildings, through a survey on the county website and two public meetings.

The meetings will be Sept. 27 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. and Sept. 28 from 9-11 a.m. at the St. Johns County Administration Building Auditorium, 500 San Sebastian View in St. Augustine.

Sarah S. Arnold, vice-chairman of the St. Johns County Commissioner who represents District 2, which includes the World Golf Village, said the county has received more than 2,300 responses on the survey or through emails. She said many of the ideas center around the recreational use of the property, which has served that purpose in the past through Easter Egg hunts, holiday tree decorating contests, car shows and school field trips.

“I think people very much want to see some form of recreation,” she said. “A community asset that serves all the demographics and the county as a whole. It’s important to have a strategic plan going forward.”

Arnold all but ruled out additional residential development, pointing out the number of single-family homes and condo communities on the site or that have been built around it over the past quarter-century.

“We have plenty [residential] there and don’t want to add to the traffic concerns,” she said.

Dean said other ideas have included using part of the Hall of Fame building as another branch of the county library and renting kayaks and canoes for the lake.

“It could be sort of a town center, a multi-use park, a place for kids and families to play,” he said. “But want our residents to have some creative thinking. We’re listening.”

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In photos: Here’s a look back at the World Golf Hall of Fame and some of its greatest moments

The upcoming closure has us feeling nostalgic — so here’s a look at some of the greatest moments in the village’s history.

ST. AUGUSTINE, Florida — It’s almost the end of the line for the World Golf Hall of Fame and Museum, which is closing after 25 years in this Northern Florida town that sits about a half-hour from the PGA Tour headquarters.

The complex’s run included 16 induction ceremonies, 76 new members, special exhibits honoring the game’s greatest players, entertainers and U.S. Presidents — plus the memories of as many as 280,000 visitors per year at its peak.

Much of the contents from the museum are being shipped to the Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina as part of the United States Golf Association’s new USGA Golf House Pinehurst, set to open in the late spring of 2024.

The upcoming closure has us feeling nostalgic — and found us taking a walk down Memory Lane at some of the greatest moments in the village’s history.

More: Where will the assets from the World Golf Hall of Fame go?

Where will the assets from the World Golf Hall of Fame go?

There are about 7,500 other items that were on loan or donated to the Hall of Fame

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ST. AUGUSTINE, Florida — The World Golf Hall of Fame and Museum is closing its doors for good in less than a week and that leaves an issue — what to do with the Museum assets other than the lockers and their contents.

Pinehurst is accepting items such as Gene Sarazen’s 1922 PGA Championship and 1935 Masters Championship trophies; Jack Nicklaus’ MacGregor bag from his 1965 Masters victory; Johnny Miller’s clubs, ball and gold medal from the 1973 U.S. Open at Oakmont (where he shot a record 63 in the final round); Seve Ballesteros’ wedge he used when he won the first of his five majors at the 1979 Open Championship; and the shirt worn by Annika Sorenstam when she became the first woman to play in a PGA Tour event at the 2003 Colonia.

Volunteer Coulter Schmitt walks past the wall of bronze plaques honoring members of the World Golf Hall of Fame. St. Johns County will retain possession of the plaques to be displayed in the reimagined Hall of Fame and Museum building.

But there are about 7,500 other items that were on loan or donated to the Hall of Fame. McLaughlin said the offer was made to living Hall of Fame members and the families of those deceased to return some items but other members have opted to send the items elsewhere:

  • Two-time U.S. Open champion Curtis Strange has asked for his donations to be sent to his alma mater, Wake Forest.
  • Items belonging to Chick Evans will be sent to the Western Golf Association.
  • Augusta National is accepting memorabilia associated with founder Clifford Roberts.
  • More than 3,000 books went to the USGA of the Southern Methodist Sports Management program.

“We haven’t had a problem finding a home for most of the assets,” McLaughlin said. “Eventually we hope to find a home for everything.”

The daunting process begins in six days — after the final visitor leaves the structure.

That’s when one era in First Coast golf history closes in St. Augustine, to be followed by the Hall of Fame’s mulligan in Pinehurst.

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The World Golf Hall of Fame is just days away from closing. Here’s why

It’s been with a mixture of curiosity, sadness and regret that visitors are prowling the halls in the final days.

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ST. AUGUSTINE, Florida — The World Golf Hall of Fame and Museum will be in business for one more week in St. Augustine — after a quarter-century that included 16 induction ceremonies, 76 new members, special exhibits honoring the game’s greatest players, entertainers and U.S. Presidents — plus the memories of as many as 280,000 visitors per year at its peak.

Therein lies the problem: attendance dipped to around 40,000 during the pandemic year of 2020 and was around 60,000 in 2021 and 2022.

That wasn’t enough to financially sustain the facility and some of its assets — and the brand — are being shipped to the Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina as part of the United States Golf Association’s new USGA Golf House Pinehurst, set to open in the late spring of 2024.

And it’s been with a mixture of curiosity, sadness and regret that visitors are prowling the halls and exhibit rooms of the Hall of Fame in the final days.

“It was so much fun to come here,” said Melody Herbert of St. Augustine, who came to the Hall of Fame with her husband Hank and their granddaughters Camille and Audrey to escape the heat of a late summer afternoon. “I loved the putting course and now that they’re old enough for that, it’s gone. I thought they had made improvements after [the recession of 2008].”

Another set of visitors were the Reyes brothers Benny (and his wife Janie) and Arnold (and his wife Elizabeth) from Corpus Christi, Texas. Arnold Reyes’ son had graduated from the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Field Operations Academy in Brunswick and they took the opportunity to drive to St. Augustine when they read about the facility closing.

“It’s a bucket list item,” said Benny Reyes. “We’re just lucky we could get here before it closed. It’s a shame, really. If you’re a golf fan this is an incredible place.”

2022 World Golf Hall of Fame induction ceremony
David Feherty hosted the 2022 World Golf Hall of Fame Induction ceremony at the PGA Tour Global Home in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Photo: by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)

They’re not alone with those feelings.

“We are sad … the vision 25 years ago was incredible,” said Sarah S. Arnold, vice-chairman of the St. Johns County Commissioner who represents District 2, which includes the World Golf Village. “Unfortunately times have changed.”

Henry Dean, the District 5 commissioner who formerly represented the district where the World Golf Village is located, said the county has an opportunity for the future of the property, rather than dwelling on why the concept failed.

“I think all of us at the St. Johns County Commissioner and many citizens of the county are a bit sad about the Hall of Fame leaving,” he said. “It had become sort of a fixture but it was never as successful as we hoped and what they [the World Golf Foundation and PGA Tour] thought. We’re turning the page. We have a blank canvas and we’re going to decide what’s best for the residents on what to do with the property. We look at this as an opportunity to bring good things to the area.”

Free admission the final week

With one week left, the facility is giving golf fans on the First Coast a parting gift.

Admission will be free to the Hall of Fame and Museum, plus the IMAX Theater, from Aug. 28 through Sept. 1 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (no visitors will be admitted after 5 p.m.). The theater will show a series of documentaries, with the movies and showtimes available on the IMAX website.

All of the golf artifacts and memorabilia still remain at the Museum, such as the Hall of Fame Members Locker Room, the replica of the Swilcan Bridge at St. Andrews, plus bags, balls, clubs, clothing, trophies, trinkets and treasures that tell the stories of the game’s greatest players, administrators and course architects.

The Hall of Fame and Museum, and the IMAX Theater are all that are departing at this time. Still in place will be the St. Johns County Convention Center, the Renaissance Hotel, resort condos, the two golf courses that are managed by Troon Golf (the Slammer & Squire and King & Bear) and the Caddyshack Restaurant.

Also remaining will be the bronze plaques honoring the World Golf Hall of Fame members, which at this time will remain in the rotunda of the Museum building, on the second floor.

“It’s important to the community that there still be some kind of identity to golf,” Arnold said.

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What will become of the World Golf Village? Upcoming meetings will help to decide

The World Golf Foundation announced last year that the Hall of Fame will be moved to the USGA headquarters at Pinehurst, N.C.

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St. Johns County in Florida has scheduled two public meetings in September to get more input on the uses of the World Golf Village property that will be vacated after Sept. 1 by the World Golf Foundation.

The meetings will be Sept. 27 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. and Sept. 28 from 9-11 a.m. at the St. Johns County Administration Building Auditorium, 500 San Sebastian View in St. Augustine.

The World Golf Foundation announced last year that the Hall of Fame will be moved to the United States Golf Association’s new headquarters at Pinehurst, N.C. The museum’s locker room will be moved to Pinehurst and other assets are being returned to Hall of Fame members or their families.

World Golf Village
The World Golf Village Resort in St. Augustine, Florida. Photo by Troon

The St. Johns County commissioner staff has been taking ideas online but wants to hear verbal comments at the meetings. That input, along with other research being conducted, will be used to develop a report to the board of county commissioners.

The meetings also can be viewed lived or replayed online on GTV.

The county set up an informational website earlier this summer and set up a survey for county residents. The survey will end Sept. 30. Comments can still be emailed WGV@sjcfl.us.

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Padraig Harrington, Sandra Palmer, Tom Weiskopf, remaining LPGA Founders inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame Class of 2024

The induction ceremony will be June 10, 2024, at Pinehurst and will coincide with the U.S. Open.

Padraig Harrington, Tom Weiskopf, Sandra Palmer, Johnny Farrell and Beverly Hanson will join the remaining seven of the 13 LPGA Founders in the World Golf Hall of Fame Class of 2024, it was announced on Wednesday.

Harrington has 21 victories worldwide, including three majors. He was a part of six Ryder Cup teams and he was the captain of the 2020 European squad.

“This is very exciting, obviously a huge honor,” said Harrington. “It’s somewhat humbling. At this stage of my life, it gives me some validation to what I’ve done in golf. Brings back a flood of memories. This is a deep-down satisfaction, and I’m very proud to be included with the players before me. Seeing your name beside the names that I’ve looked up to as a boy and young golfer, it’s very nice. Everybody on the ballot deserves to be there. It’s unfortunate that everyone can’t be in, but it’s great to be included in the Class of 2024.”

Six LPGA Founders – Patty Berg, Marlene Bauer Hagge, Louise Suggs, Babe Zaharias, Marilynn Smith and Betty Jameson – were already in the Hall. They will soon be joined by Alice Bauer, Bettye Danoff, Helen Dettweiler, Helen Hicks, Opal Hill, Sally Sessions and Shirley Spork.

Hagge is the only living LPGA founder.

The induction ceremony will take place on June 10, 2024, at Pinehurst Resort & Country Club in the Village of Pinehurst, North Carolina, and will coincide with the 124th U.S. Open.

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