April 18, 2007

By Bill Hass
TheACC.com

• 2007 ACC Men's Golf Championship Site 

You might wonder, as you watch talented young players during the three days of the ACC men's golf championship at the Old North State Club at Uwharrie Pont, if perhaps you'll see a future PGA winner.

The odds are pretty good you will. That's how good ACC golf has been in the first 53 years of the tournament.

Fourteen players who have been the ACC tournament medalist have gone on to win on the PGA Tour or the Champions Tour (formerly the Seniors Tour). It all started with the winner of the first ACC tournament, fellow by the name of Arnold Palmer.

Palmer took the 1954 ACC title, which was only 18 holes because the first round was rained out, then won the U.S. Amateur later that year and turned pro. His first professional title came at the 1955 Canadian Open, and a legend was born.

This is not an easy tournament for an individual to win.

"The game is so cyclical," said Wake Forest coach Jerry Haas, who tied for second with Davis Love in 1983 and was the runner-up to Love the next year. "One week you've got it and the next week you're not doing well.

"Good players usually rise to the top, but sometimes you have someone playing unexpectedly well that week. And there are so many good players in the conference that it's inevitable someone who doesn't win the ACC tournament will win on the Tour."

There are plenty of examples to prove that point. The last former ACC champion to win on the Tour was David Duval, who took the ACC titles in 1991 (in a tie with N.C. State's Kelly Mitchum) and 1993. Duval has 13 PGA victories.

Since then, however, numerous other former ACC golfers have won PGA events. Those include Jonathan Byrd, Lucas Glover and D.J. Trahan of Clemson, Matt Kuchar and Troy Matteson of Georgia Tech and Carl Pettersson of N.C. State. None of them won the ACC title.

The best Fred Funk of Maryland could do in an ACC championship was tie for seventh in 1979. On the PGA Tour, he has won eight times, including once this year, and twice more on the Champions Tour.

Other PGA winners who never could capture the ACC include Billy Andrade of Wake Forest (four wins), Stewart Cink of Georgia Tech (four wins), Larry Mize of Georgia Tech (three wins, including the 1987 Masters) and Leonard Thompson of Wake Forest (three PGA wins, three Champions wins).

Besides Palmer, Love and Duval, other big names to win ACC titles and PGA events include Lanny Wadkins, Curtis Strange, Scott Hoch, Jay Haas and Gary Hallberg, all of Wake Forest.

Strange, Jay Haas, Hallberg and North Carolina's John Inman all pulled off the "hat trick" - winning the ACC and NCAA titles and also on the Tour. (Palmer won two NCAA titles in match play, but those came before the ACC was formed.)

"It's hard to win any tournament, especially the ACC because it's so strong and has so many great players," said Inman, now the coach of the Tar Heels.

When Inman won the ACC as a sophomore in 1982, things were a bit different. The team title was paramount and players sometimes didn't know exactly how they stood in individual play.

"I can't remember if I was expecting to win or not," Inman said. "I played with Dillard Pruitt of Clemson and we knew we were right there but we didn't know exactly what was going on. We just added them up at the end."

Inman won with a score of 213 and Pruitt was second, three strokes back.

If Jerry Haas was disappointed or satisfied to be runner-up to Love by four shots in 1984, he doesn't recall

"I don't remember any emotion," he said. "We didn't play together. I was just playing the best I could to help the team win (the Deacons finished second to UNC)."

Things are easier to keep up with now, thanks to leader boards around the course posting the individual scores.

The ACC experience is advantageous to aspiring pros, much like it is in basketball and football.

"It's a big part of the learning process to step up to the next level," said Inman, who won twice as a pro. "I learned my craft well."

As did they all. Here's the list of players who have won the ACC championship and then won on the PGA Tour:

1954 - Arnold Palmer, Wake Forest. Far and away the most prolific professional winner of any ACC player, with 62 PGA wins (including seven majors) and 10 Championship Tour wins.

1960 - Dean Beman, Maryland (co-medalist with Ronnie Thomas of Wake Forest). Remembered more for a successful amateur career and 21 years as the PGA Commissioner, he also won four times on the Tour.

1963 - Jay Sigel, Wake Forest. Had a distinguished amateur career and never played as a regular on the PGA Tour. But he joined the Champions Tour in 1994 and won nine times.

1969 - Lanny Wadkins, Wake Forest (co-medalist with Thorny Hoelle of Duke). Won 21 Tour titles, including the 1977 PGA, and three times on the Champions Tour.

1972 - Jim Simons, Wake Forest. Won three PGA events.

1973 - Jay Haas, Wake Forest. Also won the 1974 NCAA title. Has nine PGA titles and six Champions titles to his credit.

1974 - Bob Byman, Wake Forest. Won the Bay Hill Citrus Classic in 1979.

1974 - Vance Heafner, N.C. State (co-medalist with Byman). His PGA win came in the 1989 Walt Disney World Team event, with Mike Holland.

1975 - Curtis Strange, Wake Forest. Also won the 1974 NCAA title. Won 17 PGA events, including back-to-back U.S .Open titles in 1988 and 1989.

1977 and 1978 - Scott Hoch, Wake Forest. One of just four players to win two ACC titles. Went on to 11 PGA wins.

1980 - Gary Hallberg, Wake Forest. Also won the 1979 NCAA title. Won three times on the PGA Tour.

1982 - John Inman, North Carolina. Also won 1984 NCAA title. Won two PGA events.

1984 - Davis Love III, North Carolina. Has won 19 times on the circuit, including the 1997 PGA.

1991 and 1993, David Duval, Georgia Tech (co-medalist in '91 with Kelly Mitchum of N.C. State). Thirteen Tour championships, including the 2001 British Open.

Bill Hass is a long-time observer of ACC sports. His career at the Greensboro News & Record spanned 36 years, from 1969 until his retirement in March, 2006. He is now writing "Bill Hass on the ACC" for TheACC.com. His weekly columns will keep fans plugged in to the Atlantic Coast Conference.

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