Remembering Bobby Howard: a legacy to treasure with unique impact on SC golf

One of those happy accidents more than three generations ago changed his life, and the result brought golf in the Carolinas — and especially the Midlands — into a new era.

Indeed, Bobby Howard, a baseball and basketball player in his youth in North Columbia, discovered what would become his life almost on a whim, and he jumped headlong into his new-found endeavor. The result: He earned a place in the Carolinas PGA Hall of Fame.

Howard died Monday at age 90, and family and friends will gather Sunday to celebrate both a life well lived and his numerous achievements.

Norman Flynn, a Howard protégé who is now retired after a long tenure at the Country Club of Lexington, can talk forever about the man who not only altered his life but also took the lead in charitable fund-raising.

Bobby Foster, an accomplished junior amateur and later a pro who is a member of the S.C. Golf Hall of Fame, remembered how Howard reached out to S.C. State University and offered his Sedgewood Golf Club facility for the golf team’s home course.

Long-time pro Robin All recalled Howard winning the Columbia City Golf Championship at old Willow Lakes Golf Club and later setting the course record at the Country Club of Charleston with a 9-under-par 62.

In reminiscing about his life in golf prior to his induction into the Carolinas PGA shrine three years ago, Howard talked about his introduction to golf.

Fresh out of the military and attending USC on the GI Bill in the early 1950s, he worked part-time at a clothing store in Five Points. His colleagues needed a fourth for their Wednesday afternoon game at the old Glenwood course in Forest Acres and asked Howard to play.

“They told me we would play for 10 cents a hole, and I figured I couldn’t lose more than $1.80,” Howard said that day at his home alongside the fourth fairway at Golden Hills. “I played out of their bags and somehow won $4.40. That day hooked me on golf.”

He played at USC and recalled a match at Willow Lakes against Arnold Palmer’s Wake Forest team. More important, he looked for ways to stay in the game.

He accepted an offer to turn pro and oversee Lykesland Country Club (later Pine Forest and Hickory Ridge before being sold for development). His wage: $100 a week, plus golf cart, concessions and pro shop revenue.

Fledgling pros who felt his guiding hand included Flynn and Ronnie Smoak. Equally important, veterans of the game profited from his leadership in the Carolinas PGA section.

His success at Pine Forest led to him to Sedgewood, which became a must-play course before falling on hard financial times after he left. He later operated courses in North Carolina.

“Bobby put together the first tournament in the state with a $10,000 purse at Lan-Yair,” Flynn said. “He had a $10,000 Carolinas Open at Sedgewood in 1970.”

Howard had become a leader among the pros. He tripled membership in the South Carolina PGA to 120, reworked the organization’s constitution and led the way for members to earn their way into the area’s PGA tournaments rather than being chosen by a vote.

He led the effort to secure land in North Myrtle Beach for the Carolinas PGA Section headquarters and served on the executive committee for 14 years. Along the way, he found time to raise almost $3 million for cancer research through Walter Hagan Cancer Society research and became one of the first course operators to open their facilities to minorities.

“He was a gentleman’s gentleman,” Bobby Foster said. “He found a way to make money in golf at a time nobody made money in golf. But the thing that has always stood out to me was his inviting the S.C. State team to Sedgewood in the 1970s.”

Said Flynn: “He was so good for South Carolina golf, and he was almost forgotten. In nominating him for the Carolinas PGA Hall of Fame, we didn’t ask for votes. We just ask the board to look at the resume’ and decide for themselves.

“One board member told us, ‘We never knew.’ ”

They should have known. His is a legacy to treasure.

Chip shots: Service for Bobby Howard will be held at 2 p.m. on Sunday (Jan. 30) at Caughman-Harman Funeral Home, 503 North Lake Drive in Lexington with a reception to follow. ... Registration has opened for 2023 Drive, Chip and Putt qualifying at www.drivechipandputt.com. Competition for boys and girls in four age categories begins in May. Sites in South Carolina include Par Tee Golf Center, West Columbia, May 21; Mid-Carolina Club, Prosperity, June 13; Legends Resort, Myrtle Beach, July 12, Wescott GC, North Charleston, July 14; and Cross Creek Plantation, Seneca; July 28. A sub-regional will be Aug. 27 at Fort Jackson GC, Columbia.