PNGA Inducts Four into Hall of Fame

Kabler, Moore, Fought and Forster are Class of 2009 for Pacific Northwest Golf Hall of Fame

Federal Way, Wash. – On Friday, April 24, the Pacific Northwest Golf Association (PNGA) inducted Carole Jo (Kabler) Whitted, Gail (Harvey) Moore, Ken Forster and John Fought into the Pacific Northwest Golf Hall of Fame. These four join the Hall of Fame’s 50 existing members.
During a banquet held at Columbia Edgewater Country Club in Portland, Ore., Kabler, Forster and Fought were on hand to receive their awards. Moore, who passed away in 1993, was represented by her husband Jim and daughter Julie, who both spoke movingly about Gail’s award. Moore, who played out of Vancouver, BC, won six Canadian national championships, and won both the Canadian Ladies Amateur and BC Ladies Amateur in 1970. Moore is also a member of the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame and the BC Sports Hall of Fame.

Kabler dominated the Oregon golf scene during the 1950s and ‘60s, winning two Oregon Junior Girls’ titles and four Women’s Oregon Amateur titles. She also won the 1955 U.S. Girls’ Junior championship and the 1957 PNGA Women’s Amateur championship. Kabler went on to win several events on the LPGA Tour.

A longtime native of Salem, Ore., Forster recently retired from teaching and coaching golf for 28 years at the high school level. He is a three-time winner of the PNGA Senior Men’s Amateur; is a two-time Oregon Senior Stroke Play champion; played in the 1998 U.S. Senior Open; was the low amateur in the 2000 British Senior Open; was twice selected as the PNGA Senior Player of the Year; and is a 12-time participant in the Hudson Cup, being named Senior MVP three times.

Portland native John Fought had a meteoric amateur playing career in the mid-1970s. In 1975 he won the Pacific Coast Amateur, and in 1976 won the Northwest Open, was the low amateur in the U.S. Open and was an All-American at BYU. And all of this was but a prelude to 1977, when he won the U.S. Amateur, the Broadmoor Invitational, the Trans-Mississippi and was a member of the Walker Cup.

He played six years on the PGA Tour, winning twice in 1979 while being named Rookie of the Year. He has since gone on to a successful career in golf course design, which includes such Northwest courses as Crosswater GC in Sunriver, Ore. and Centennial GC in Medford, Ore.
Master of Ceremonies for the event was Bill Yeend, the on-air news anchor for KOMO Radio 1000 (based in Seattle).

Inductions into the Pacific Northwest Golf Hall of Fame occur every two years. The Hall of Fame was established in 1978 by the PNGA to recognize men and women from throughout the Pacific Northwest who have made extraordinary contributions to the game of golf in the region, through their playing achievements or through their contributions of time and effort to the advancement of golf in the Northwest.

Visit www.thepnga.org for a complete list of Hall of Fame members and to read their biographies.