Eight new inductees welcomed to PGA Golf Professional Hall of Fame

By Bob Denney, The PGA of America- PGA.com

May 5, 2009 -- PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. - PGA Honorary President Brian Whitcomb of Bend, Ore., said that there is a "little guy" he had never met, but who had been sitting on his shoulder for many years and driving him forward.

"He kept telling me to 'Try harder! Try Harder,' " said Whitcomb, one of eight inductees Tuesday evening into the PGA Golf Professional Hall of Fame. "He drives me to be the best that you can be every day. I have tried to live by that goal every day. There are days when I don't like hearing that voice, but I go forward anyway."

Whitcomb, who completed his term in November 2008 as the 35th president of The PGA of America, joined an elite class of inductees who were honored as significant contributors to the Association and the game of golf. Their names were enshrined in granite with a brick resting on a wall at the PGA Historical Center at PGA Village in Port St. Lucie, Fla.

The inductees included 2006 PGA Golf Professional of the Year Jim Manthis of Coon Rapids, Minn., 2007 PGA Golf Professional of the Year Brent Krause of Montgomery, Ala., former Masters Champion Claude Harmon Sr.; legendary teaching professional Harvey Penick; former PGA Rules Committee Chairman Don Essig III of Indianapolis, Ind., former UCLA Coach and renowned instructor, Eddie Merrins of Los Angeles; and Harry "Cotton" Berrier of Pigeon Forge, Tenn., a three-time PGA of America Board member and a co-founder of the Tennessee PGA Section.

The inductees were honored in conjunction with The PGA of America Spring Meeting, conducted at the nearby PGA Education Center at PGA Village.

Manthis and Krause were recipients of The PGA of America's highest honor to a member professional.

"This class distinguished themselves in so many ways," said Krause, "but wears one badge. In the vernacular of the military, you leave no one behind. As PGA members, we can't leave any of our members behind."

Manthis said that one of his friends, Ken Venturi, had left him with an everlasting mission in his profession.

"Ken would say, 'Don't just take, but give something back along the way,' " said Manthis. "Wally Mund [a 1969 PGA Golf Professional of the Year] was my mentor and among many things he said was that 'the only thing we have to sell is service. If we do that, it will all work out."

The late Harmon was patriarch of perhaps the most famed golf teaching families in the sport while Penick's imprint upon the game transcended a long line of major champions to the amateur player who eagerly followed his written advice in books long after his death.

Accepting the honor for Harmon were three of his four surviving sons - Claude "Butch" Jr., Craig and Billy. Craig, who is the PGA head professional at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, N.Y., was previously named to the Hall of Fame in 2006.

"He was the last of the great teaching players and was a great club professional at the same time," said Butch. "He encompassed everything that golf is about. He figured out at an early age what was necessary to accomplish many roles. He was far ahead of his time."

Craig Harmon said that every PGA Professional has had to matriculate through PGA Business School at one time or another in their career.

"We had Harmon Tech," said Craig. "We trained them at the highest level. I know that Dad would have been very honored to have gone into the Hall of Fame with these honorees."

Merrins, whose students include current U.S. Ryder Cup Captain Corey Pavin, said "a teacher's job is helping someone to help themselves. Whatever I have done to be honored here tonight is the result of the cooperation of so many assistants and workers I have been with over the years. It is an honor I will cherish forever."

Pavin paid tribute to Merrins during a recent visit to PGA of America Headquarters in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

"Eddie and I go back a long way. He is such a unique, great guy," said Pavin. "His teaching philosophy is a very simple one and easy to understand. That is why he is so successful. Eddie has a lot of respect in the golf industry, and his longevity as a teacher is amazing. He taught a simple action with the golf swing, where there weren't a lot of moving parts. He was what you might say 'swing plane oriented. 'He was a pioneer in that regard. I am honest that I didn't grasp a lot of what he said from the start. Over the years the more I learned about the swing, the more I understood how he knew so much and was ahead of his time."

PGA Life Member Tinsley Penick accepted on behalf of his later father, Harvey, who passed away in 1995 less than a week before one of his famed students, Ben Crenshaw, won a second Masters.

"What a thrill it would have been for my father to have been here tonight," said Tinsley, who had succeeded his father as PGA head professional at Austin (Texas) Country Club. "My father once said that he had seen more golf shots than anyone alive. He spent 82 years watching golf shots.

The PGA of America meant so much to him, and one of the greatest honors that he said he received was when the Southern Texas PGA named its Teacher of the Year Award after him."

In a video tribute, Crenshaw said Penick "dedicated his life to get people in the game and keep them there. I carry his thoughts with me every day. Once his books were published, we were happy that people could be reading what we had been hearing all these years."

Berrier, who campaigned by crisscrossing his home state to form the Tennessee PGA Section, said that he shares his Hall of Fame honor "with all the grassroots PGA Professionals, who are the heart and soul of the Association."

Essig, one of the most popular and most respected PGA Rules officials, said that there are three tenets of his family's firm, Essig Golf Management: "Faith first, Family second and Work in Golf Third."

Click here to read the full story including profiles of all the inductees.