When Bobby Greenwood left the PGA Tour in 1975 and came back to Cookeville to be with his children, he got into coaching through the basketball Optimist Club program; the baseball Little League and Babe Ruth programs.
“The biggest reward in coaching is to see my former players grow up to be successful, outstanding citizens… sometimes very surprising! 😊,” said Bobby. “I got a lot of help from my assistant coaches such as Coach Charles and Wes Keith, Stacy Farris, and Lon Marcum. I was also the assistant coach to Marty Cook in baseball and to Becki Holman, who was the head coach of the National Championship Girls Basketball team in 1986.
You would think my first love in sports was golf but not at all, my dream was to become a professional basketball player. That was before I realized at 5’9” tall, I was a dwarf.
The night that happened was when at a Cookeville High School game, I drove in and shot a fade away hook shot that was blocked into the 4th row of the bleachers! On the bus ride back to Cookeville I wondered if I might try golf. But, Cookeville High School did not have a golf team at that time… 1956.
In grammar school, I had played on the Old City school basketball team with the great Glynn Carmack. And in high school, I was point guard on the CHS team with the great Jim Ragland. The next year, I was the leading scorer on Riverside Military Academy basketball team.
I played freshman basketball at Tennessee Tech University where it was an honor when Coach Johnny Oldham asked me to guard the great Kenny Sidwell in practice every day.
Years later, I played Cookeville’s Independent Church League Basketball and was the leading scorer in the City until I broke my wrist in the Jere Whitson gym in 1967.
So, after all is said and done, I think that I should have pursued Pro Baseball… 😊”
COACHING RECORD:
*BASKETBALL 1 Tennessee State Runner-up 2 League Championship 1 Tennessee State Runner-up 1 Tennessee State Championship 1 National Championship
*BASEBALL 3 League Championships: 1 minor league 1 little league 1 Babe Ruth league
*5 years – Baseball Coach *6 years – Basketball Coach
SOURCES/PHOTO CREDITS:
*Personal recollections of Bobby Greenwood, January 28, 2023.
Memories: University of North Texas Athletic Hall of Fame 2002
Bobby Greenwood was inducted to the Athletic Hall of Fame on November 2, 2002, at the University of North Texas (formerly North Texas State University) in Denton, Texas. He was inducted with other four inductees, namely: Bill Blakely, Barry Moore, G. A. Moore, and Dee Walker.
[EXCERPT from North Texas Athletics – Mean Green History: “BOBBY GREENWOOD – Greenwood was a three-time letter winner in golf at North Texas from 1961-63, helping lead the Eagles to three consecutive Missouri Valley Conference championships. As a senior, he led the Eagles to the NCAA championship tournament in 1963, when North Texas placed third. Greenwood received honorable mention All-America honors as a sophomore in 1961 and was a first-team All-America as a junior and senior.” -Source: North Texas Athletics: Mean Green History, http://www.unt.edu/northtexan/archives/f02/hallof.htm%5D
[WRITTEN ON THE PLAQUE: “University of North Texas, Athletic Hall Of Fame – BOBBY GREENWOOD 2002
In the early 1960’s, Bobby Greenwood was instrumental in enhancing North Texas’s stature as a collegiate golf powerhouse when he led the Eagles to three consecutive Missouri Valley Conference championships while earning All-American recognition all three years he was on the team.
As a sophomore in 1961, Greenwood won the Southwest Recreation Championship and earned honorable mention All-American honors.
The next year he was named second team All-American and in 1963 as a senior, Greenwood won the Southern Intercollegiate Championship and was named to the NCAA’s first team All-American team.
Since earning a Business Administration degree from North Texas in 1964, Greenwood has enjoyed a lifelong association with the game of golf, including playing as a PGA Tour professional from 1969-1975.
He won more than 150 amateur and pro tournaments during his playing career, including the Rhode Island Open Championship (while he was on the PGA Tour), the Tennessee Open Championship and the Tennessee Senior PGA Championship three times. He served as the Director of Golf at the Sawgrass Country Club in Florida, which hosts The Players Championship, and has been active in golf course designing since 1978.
At the time of his induction, Greenwood was president of the Greenwood-Clifton Golf Design Group in Deltona, Florida.” – Transcribed by Elma Greenwood, Cookeville, Tennessee, October 31, 2003.]
[EXCERPT from Herald-Citizen, Cookeville, TN, December 19, 2002: Greenwood inducted into North Texas Hall of Fame By Buddy Pearson, Herald-Citizen Staff
It’s been almost 40 years since Cookeville golfing legend Bobby Greenwood played golf at the University of North Texas, yet the school located in Denton, Texas, still remembers the impact Greenwood had on the program. In a ceremony held recently at UNT, Greenwood was inducted into the North Texas Athletic Hall of Fame. Greenwood and four other inductees were the 2002 recipients of the University of North Texas Sports Hall of Fame awards and were honored during enshrinement. They each received a plaque and a Hall of Fame ring at the Hall of Fame Breakfast.
“North Texas is a big school and they treated me so nice, giving me the ring and the plaque at the breakfast,” Greenwood said. “North Texas is a great golf school. For me to get voted into the Hall of Fame is humbling. There are other players who should be in it before me, but I’ll take it.
A three-time NCAA All-American, Greenwood is the only First Team NCAA All-America in the school’s history. During his years at North Texas, the Eagles won three consecutive Missouri Valley Conference Titles.
Greenwood was selected by the NCAA Golf Coaches Association to play in the North-South All-Star matches in his senior year. And, he was also selected to the Prestigious 10-member Texas Cup Team in 1964.
“The greatest thing about it to me was that after 40 years, all my teammates decided to show up for my induction,” Greenwood explained. “I think there was one guy who didn’t show up and nobody knew where he was.”
In his rookie year on the PGA Tour, Greenwood was selected as “Champions Choice” to play in the Colonial Invitational Tournament in Ft. Worth, Texas. Past champions of the Colonial Tournament vote on the rookie to receive a sponsor’s exemption to play.
After spending seven years on the PGA Tour, Greenwood served as Director of Golf at Sawgrass Country Club, home of The Players Championship and most recently Head Professional at Suntree Country Club, a 36-hole Resort and home of the Suncoast Senior Golf Classic.
Greenwood, who currently resides in Cookeville with his wife Elma and daughter Viola, spends his time as a golf-course architect and also gives lessons on a limited basis.
Other than the induction ceremonies, Greenwood doesn’t get back to Denton much to watch any of the Mean Green sports teams, particularly basketball. But he will get a chance to see his alma mater play on Saturday when Tennessee Tech takes on North Texas at 7 p.m. at Eblen Center.
So, who will Greenwood be rooting for?
“I love Tennessee Tech,” Greenwood said. “There’s a different feeling about North Texas and the Missouri Valley Conference. I had a great experience out there and I love Texas people — they are positive and encourage you. I really had a great time there and was successful but Tennessee Tech is my hometown team.”
– Source: Herald-Citizen, December 19, 2002, 3:06 PM CST]
“During my seven years playing the PGA Tour (1969-1975), I would usually just pick up someone at the tournament site to be my caddy, usually in the parking lot when I first arrived. My preference was a young college student that was strong and hopefully loved golf.
Back in the 1970s on the PGA Tour, caddies would be required to shag balls on the practice range. This could be a dangerous situation because there were always 30-45 players warming up for their round; sure enough, one day I noticed my caddy staggering around, he was out about 200 yards away. He had been hit!
Sometimes I would get an exceptionally good and knowledgeable caddy.
LARRY ADAMSON and I met at the Robinson Open in Illinois. Larry was a High School teacher and he coached the basketball team. Larry was a great guy and he loved golf. He later worked for the USGA and became their Director of Championships. After I left the Tour, I asked Larry to make an appearance at Suntree Country Club, Melbourne, Florida while I was Director of Golf. I introduced Larry to my membership (36-hole resort with 1,650 members at Suntree). He was very interesting and a huge success.
[EXCERPT from Suntree In Review article: “United States Golf Association official Larry Adamson shared his various experiences working with the U.S. Open, U.S. Amateur, Senior U.S. Open, and other USGA tournaments during a March 3 ‘cracker barrel’ session in the Cabana Room (at Suntree CC in Melbourne, Florida).
The cracker barrel sessions were started in February by Suntree golf pro Bobby Greenwood and are designed to provide ‘a night of fellowship for members to get together with the pros and enjoy each other’s company,’ Greenwood said.
Greenwood and Adamson are golf buddies and met ‘in 1970 when Larry was a high school basketball coach and teacher. He brought his high school team to caddy at a tournament I was playing in and when they needed an extra caddy, they asked Larry. So, he was assigned to me and that is how we started our friendship,’ Greenwood said.”
-Source: Suntree In Review, by Vicky Valley, Melbourne, FL, March 1990.]
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GEORGE WATERHOUSE was another great caddy as a young boy and he followed the Tour and caddied for me for a couple of months. George later became a famous General Surgeon in Charlotte, North Carolina. I always knew that George would be a great man someday. George was a valued friend and supporter.
TOM McKENZIE caddied for me in the 1972 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, California. It’s a good thing I had an excellent caddy here because the conditions were tough to play, high winds, etc. Tom was older and smarter than me and he loved the Lord. He must have been praying because I was in 12th place after three rounds. I was paired with Masters Champ George Archer and British Open Champ Tony Jacklin in the final round. Tom McKenzie was a good friend in my time of need.
[EXCERPT from Tom McKenzie’s personal letter dated February 19, 2020: “I treasure memories of the US Open at Pebble Beach, nearly 48 years ago. I have been involved with Golf and Caddies since 1963. I can truly say that caddying for you at the US Open was my FAVORITE experience of all time. To make the cut, and be a part of the final round of the National Championship with you, a Christian influenced me forever!!!
You mentored me even from this distance and I love you for all the encouragement you continually provide.”]
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JIM BASS was a professional caddy and I think we joined forces in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. He was a character, very intelligent and a good sense of humor. Jim is now at the world-famous Kiawah Island Club in Kiawah Island, South Carolina. I still hear from these great guys from time to time. When I was inducted into the Tennessee Golf Hall of Fame in 2007, several of my closest friends showed up. One was Jim who had driven from South Carolina to Knoxville just to be there. Thanks Jim…
[EXCERPT from Jim Bass’ personal comment on a photo posted via Facebook dated January 10, 2010: “Bobby Greenwood’s induction into Tennessee Golf Hall of Fame. The first PGA Tour Player I ever caddied for. Magnolia Classic 1970 Hattiesburg, MS.”]
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In the heat of the battle, you think back in wonder, how did I treat my caddies?
DON ANDERSON was a strong supporter and loyal friend as my caddy in the Tennessee Open. I really liked Don a lot and we had a serious man to man working relationship. I feel he helped me win the Tennessee State Open tournament.
[EXCERPT from Nashville Banner: “The winning team, caddy Don Anderson and player Bobby Greenwood at work in winning the Tennessee Golf Association Open championship at Old Hickory. The two met several years ago at McCabe and Anderson, a brick laborer by trade, has carried for Greenwood in this area ever since. The pair cake-walked to the championship Sunday with a five-under-par 67 and a 54-hole total 208, eight strokes better than the nearest contestant.”
-Source: Nashville Banner, “GREENWOOD, HELPED BY CADDY, EASY WINNER”, May 13, 1968.]
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The late great BOBBY NICHOLS was my first caddy at the Cookeville Country Club when we were both teenagers. I helped Bobby with his game and he and I later played the Tour at the same time in the 1970s. Bobby also won the Tennessee Open and I picked him to play in the first Tennessee Challenge Cup Matches at Old Hickory Country Club in 1968. Bobby Nichols was a kind Christian man… I miss talking golf with him.
FREDDIE NELSON was one of my favorite caddies at the Cookeville Country Club. Freddie was the same sweet, soft-spoken gentleman that he is today as our current Putnam County Trustee. My grandmother, Viola Simrell Greenwood, would always be so happy when Freddie and Bobby Nichols would come home with me to eat some good home cooking at lunch time.
There was one caddy that was most important to the development of my golf game. His name was JERE MAXWELL. Jere was a local boy from Cookeville and we grew up together. Jere had a great sense of humor, and he kept me relaxed so I could play better. He was very loyal and smart and became one of my best friends.
Back in the 1950s and 1960s, Jere and I would hitchhike to tournaments in Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama to play the ‘fried chicken circuit.’ We had great fun.
Jere Maxwell helped me with the most important part of playing competitive tournament golf… the mental game.
I shall look forward to seeing Jere and others in heaven someday soon.
Nowadays, playing golf on the PGA Tour is a team effort. You have a swing coach, a physical trainer, a psychological mind coach, a caddy, and hopefully a good supportive and loving wife. This is a difficult thing to put together… but don’t leave home without it! 🙂
Please let me say THANK YOU to ALL the Caddies that have caddied for me throughout all the years. Wish I had the mind to remember you all.”
Source: *Personal recollections of Bobby Greenwood, August 20, 2020.
BOBBY GREENWOOD, PGA Former PGA Tour Player Tennessee Golf Hall of Fame PGA of America Life Member
“NCAA College Golf has really grown in the last few decades. But who had the best golf team in the nation in 1963? It was North Texas State University (now University of North Texas) in Denton, Texas. I am truly amazed that several great players would arrive at NTSU and play at the same time, 1963.
NTSU finished 3rd in the NCAA tournament that year so why do I think North Texas was #1?
In 1963, we defeated the NCAA Champion Oklahoma State University six times prior to the season ending NCAA National Championship. In so doing, NTSU won the #2 ranked college tournament, the Southern Intercollegiate in Athens, Georgia. We also won the South-West Recreational in Fort Worth, Texas; the Oklahoma Intercollegiate tournament; the Border Olympics in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico; and NTSU was Runner-up in All-American Intercollegiate in Houston, Texas. During this time, NTSU won three consecutive Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) Championships in 1961, 1962 and 1963.
If you add the two victories that year with OSU in the University Team matches, that would total six times we defeated OSU in 1963 when they were the National Champs!
In 1963, NTSU finished 3rd in the NCAA tourney ahead of USC, Georgia, Texas, Wake Forest, Navy and Stanford. And the year before in 1962, NTSU finished in 4th place but finished ahead of teams such as Stanford, Wake Forest, USC and Georgia.
So, how did that happen… How did we lose the NCAA? Well, we didn’t play well that week. I bogeyed the last hole for a 145 total, our #4 player Elgie Seamster shot even par 144 to be low for our team, another player on our team took a disastrous eight on the next to last hole, and… we only lost by four strokes!
Another very important fact: Our very best player on the North Texas team was our team captain, the great Dick Smith from Davenport, Iowa who was killed in a car wreck. I was not even in his class as a player and I was a First Team NCAA All-American selection that year. Dick was a beautiful player with great potential and probably would have been a major tournament winner if he had lived.
We developed wonderful friendships, shared many tough competitions, and created great memories. Thirty-nine years later when I was inducted into the UNT Sports Hall of Fame in 2002, I was surprised when all my fellow teammates showed up for the induction ceremonies. That my teammates would show up was what mattered most to me.”
NOTES:
*NTSU Golf Team Members FRANK LUKE, scratch player and winner of several tournaments in Texas; RIVES McBEE, voted Team Captain after Dick Smith died, winner of over three million dollars on the PGA Champions Tour; BILL GARRETT, the Coral Springs Open Champ, a PGA Tour event; DON WILSON, the NCAA Long Drive Champ and winner of the Oklahoma Intercollegiate, 1963 Honorable Mention NCAA All-American; ELGIE SEAMSTER, who shot even par 144 at the NCAA tournament and winner of numerous amateur events in Texas; and BOBBY GREENWOOD, Southern Intercollegiate Champ, South-West Recreational winner, 4th place Border Olympics golf tourney at Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, Runner-up All-American Intercollegiate in Houston, Texas.
*Bobby Greenwood is a 3-time NCAA All-American. He was one of six college golfers in America to be named First Team NCAA All-American in 1963. Greenwood was inducted into the UNT Sports Hall of Fame in 2002.
Sources: *Personal recollections of Bobby Greenwood, July 26, 2020. *1963 Yucca Yearbook, North Texas State University, Volume LVI
Memories: College Days at Tennessee Polytechnic Institute (now Tennessee Tech University)
From Bobby Greenwood:
“My freshman year at Tennessee Tech University in 1958-1959, formerly called Tennessee Polytechnic Institute (TPI), was exciting and a bit scary at times, to say the least.
My love for basketball was still intact so I walked on the freshman team and played under the great Coach Johnny Oldham.
I also joined the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) and was a member of the TPI’s Rebel Rifles Drill team.
Our golf team won the Tennessee Interscholastic Athletic Conference (TIAC) tournament that year and I was Runner-up in the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) Championship.
That was the first of my 4 runner-up finishes in college golf conference championships. So, I figured I was ‘first loser’ 4 times!… later to be told by TTU Golf Coach Bobby Nichols that he would always be happy to recruit any player that could finish 2nd four times in the Conference tourney.
As a member of the “T” Club, the initiation week was not much fun. Each freshman was designated an animal to keep with you. Mine was a horse that I rode to school each morning. They shaved our heads and cut a “T” in the top. One morning we were told to catch eggs in our mouth that were to be dropped from the roof of the cafeteria building… We were all given a wooden paddle and told to get 35 signatures before the week’s end. Each name was accompanied by a big lick with a paddle. Blood blisters were common on our backside. I don’t think they do that anymore…
I grew up loving Tennessee Tech and the Golden Eagles; I am so proud of the great University here in my hometown of Cookeville, Tennessee.”
Note:
*Bobby Greenwood was a member of the 1958 Collegiate All-State Golf Team, Tennessee Interscholastic Athletic Conference (TIAC).
*[Transcript: “THE BEST-DRILLED CADET”
“Cadet Pvt. Robert S. Greenwood of Cookeville received Tennessee Polytechnic Institute award as the best-drilled cadet private in the ROTC regiment. President Everett Derryberry made the presentation.
Platform guests, in addition to General Westmoreland, Colonel Thompson, and President Derryberry, were Col. C.A. Holmes Eubanks, PMST; J.M. Henderson, head of the school of engineering at TPI; Mayor Dero Brown; Col. William G. Downs, reserve officers association; Wilbur Shell, General Telephone Company; Miser Richmond, president of the Rotary club; Herman Yeatman, president of the Jaycees; and Hubert Crawford, president of the Lions.” — END. Source: Local newspaper published in Cookeville, Tennessee, c. 1958.]
From Bobby Greenwood, PGA: “You might ask how does Bobby Greenwood remember details of all those Amateur golf tournaments that he played 50-60 years ago.
Well, my grandmother, Viola Simrell Greenwood, was the first stenographer in Cookeville, Tennessee. She enjoyed keeping a scrapbook from all the newspaper articles. My wife, Elma, also enjoys history and genealogy and she found the scrapbooks that my grandmother had kept.
So, let me tell you about one of the best Amateur tournaments in the U.S. during the 1960’s. That would be the Top O’ Texas golf tourney in Pampa, Texas who would fly the best players from all over the country into town to play.
The field of 200 players would include several State Amateur Champions from Nebraska, Kansas, Illinois, Missouri, New York, Texas, Colorado, North Dakota, North Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. These players were former winners of the top tournaments of the day including the Eastern, Trans-Miss, Western, Sunnehanna Amateur, North-South and 2 NCAA Champions.
[EXCERPT from a Midland, Texas newspaper article titled: ‘Top Golfers Seeking Top O’ Texas Title’ PAMPA – A star-studded cast of 206, including two NCAA champions, state amateur champions, the Trans-Mississippi champion and defending titlist Bobby Greenwood, tees off at Pampa Country Club today in the first round of the 28th annual Top O’ Texas Golf Tournament.
Greenwood, the Cookeville, Tenn. champion, faces a rugged field in his quest for a second consecutive Top O’ Texas crown. NCAA champion Marty Fleckman of the University of Houston, Kansas Amateur champion, Jim Colbert, Trans-Mississippi titlist, the #1 ranked Amateur in the U.S., George Boutell of Arizona State, NCAA Junior College champ Jerry Smith, Nebraska Amateur winner Tabor, Amarillo’s John Farquhar and four-time Missouri amateur champ Bob Astleford will compose only a portion of the stiff competition which awaits the defending trophy winner.]
I won the 1964 Top O’ Texas with a 276 total, and the 1966 tourney with 280 to win by 5. In 1965, I made 26 birdies in 72 holes and finished 2nd to the great Johnny Farquhar. The NCAA Champion Marty Fleckman finished 3rd.
[EXCERPT: Here’s another newspaper article from Amarillo Daily News, published on Wednesday, September 8, 1965 by Frank A. Godsoe.
The USGA’s 65th men’s amateur golf championship is next week at Tulsa’s Southern Hills and the nation’s “little amateur” tourney (which really doesn’t suggest there is anything little about it) was concluded on Labor Day in Pampa, where the 28th Top O’ Texas tourney romped merrily into history.
Bobby Greenwood of Cookeville, Tenn., who was a first-team All-America Intercollegiate selection while at North Texas State, started the final day trailing Farquhar by five shots. So, he tooled off 14 birdies in 36 holes (he had 26 in his four rounds, or more than one every three holes) with 66-72-138 for 275, but Farquhar matched Bobby’s morning medal, and equaled it the afternoon.
WHEN A MAN SHOOTS 14 birdies and can’t gain a shot, it must be discouraging. Farquhar still wasn’t putting like Greenwood, and surely nobody else on this planet was. John still gained satisfaction in a jumbo measure, for a year ago Greenwood has edged him out by two shots in the Top O’ Texas jamboree.
Greenwood, to use his own phrase, made “five miles of putts.” The distance from the flagstick didn’t seem to matter.
Greenwood putted so well that had Billy Casper seen it, he would have hidden his head in shame.
The final 36 holes were played in a 25-mile-an-hour wind that swirled up enough dust to make the eyes of spectators and players feel like gravel pits.]
Another reason that the players loved to come to Pampa, Texas for the Top O’ Texas tournament was the exciting ‘Calcutta’ which was held at the club the night before the first round of the tournament. During the Calcutta, players were auctioned off to the highest bidder and the money that went into the pot. The wealthy oil men from Midland and around Texas would come to Pampa to bid on the big-name players. After I won in 1964, the next year in 1965, I was sold for 10,000 dollars… That was the year I finished 2nd. I think George Bush may have bought me… I’m not sure. 😊
As you may have heard, the Texans are the finest people in the world. They are so friendly and down to earth and so encouraging. Perhaps that is why I seemed to play well in Texas.”
NOTE: Bobby Greenwood won Top O’ Texas twice in 1964 and 1966 respectively. He finished 2nd in 1965.
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