AGA NEWS
HALL OF FAME
U.S. Opens, since 1999. He has served on the U.S. Senior Amateur Championship Committee since 1998. “It is totally unexpected,
Robin Farran If you have read the Rules of Golf in recent years, there’s a good chance that you have seen some of Robin Farran’s handiwork. Farran, 79, is one of the
foremost experts on USGA rules and has participated in editing several Rules of Golf revisions, including the 2019 rules modernization project. What makes that all
the more interesting, he said, is that “when I started, I didn’t even have a rule book. Before I went to my first workshop, I thought I probably should buy one. “Now, I guess I am afflicted
by the rules, but I realize that if I don’t stay up with it, I’m not going to know what I’m doing out on the golf course.” To that end, he said,
he is involved “virtually every day” in some aspect of rules administration and that devotion earned him induction to the Arizona Golf Hall of Fame for 2018. He spends more than 100
days a year on Arizona golf courses, as a rules official or in course preparation, and has officiated at more than 80 USGA national championships, including 14
www.azgolf.org
Bill Johnston Bill Johnston has filled many prominent roles during his extensive golf career but says that of club pro might be the most fulfilling, even though his first such experience was lacking one very important thing: a golf course. Johnston, 93, started
by accepting a position as a head pro in Vernal, Utah, but when he got to the site, instead of a course, he was shown a big farm. “I actually had to help
build the course first,” he said, “but it was very rewarding. I learned an awful lot in a short time and it was the start of an incredible life in golf.” Johnston also found
because I just do what I do,” he said of his induction. “The only people I really want to care about what I do are the people involved in the tournaments so that it is good experience for them. Any honors that might come along with that are not as important as knowing I have done a good job for them.”
success as a player, tournament director and architect, leading to his induction into the Arizona Golf Hall of Fame. During 43 years as a
club pro, he managed to play in nearly 200 PGA Tour events and nearly 200 on the Champions Tour. He won 15 titles, including the Arizona Open three times, and captured two PGA Tour victories. He revived the Arizona
Open when he became head pro at Arizona Country Club, co-founded the annual Goldwater Cup matches with Al Mengert and designed nine courses, including Lookout Mountain, Rancho Manana and the Adobe Course at Arizona Biltmore. Previously, he was
named to the Utah Golf Hall of Fame and University of Utah Sports Hall of Fame. “This is a great reward for
all of the hard work I’ve done here in Arizona, and I have loved every bit of it, at every stop,” he said. “I have had so much help from so many people. I was thrilled to be able to do what I have done. What more could I want?”
Dr. Paul Rowe Sometimes, it seems, the seeds of passion can be found even in an empty seed bag. That was the case for
Dr. Paul Rowe, a retired oral surgeon with a passion for golf agronomy, who was chosen for induction to the Arizona Golf Hall of Fame for 2018. Rowe, 79, was just 13 and
out picking up practice balls he had hit into an open field
when a course superintendent drove up in a tractor and gave him an empty seed bag. “My pockets were full,
so he handed me a bright orange bag with a drawstring and said, ‘Here you go, son, this will help you pick up those balls,’” Rowe said. “It was a simple gesture but I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for superintendents.” Rowe, who received the
AGA’s Champion of Golf Award in 2015, has been a member of Arizona Country Club since 1969, winning the club championship twice and serving for many years as volunteer green chairman. He has been a valued
member of the USGA Green Section Committee for more than 15 years and written several articles on the role of the greens committee. “I’ve always wanted
to be a champion of the superintendent and help him in his role,” Rowe said. “I think we in Arizona can be very proud of what we have done in terms of agronomy and water conservation. I am very humbled by this (induction), but I am proud to be a part of what we have done with our green section in this state.” n
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