OKLAHOMA HALL OF FAME Nice guys finish first Dickson’s class, humility and talent to lift Hall’s status by ken macleod their early years on the PGA Tour. “Some people don’t have On his way to becoming the best a real killer instinct. Bob hit amateur golfer on the planet, good enough the ball better than anyone to ruthlessly take down all comers in the I ever saw. He always hit it U.S. Amateur and British Amateur in the perfectly straight, a lot like same year, . But he was just must have Bob hit the ball better an incredibly nice stepped on a person and didn’t few toes. than anyone I ever saw. enjoy traveling If he did, He always hit it perfect- that much. He he probably ly straight... was very content still hasn’t Joey Dills to be at home.” stopped Dickson, now apologizing. retired and living “Bob is comfortably with just what he seems, one of the nicest guys wife, Carolyn, in Ponte Vedra you’ll ever meet,” said longtime friend Beach where he plays the TPC Mike Norman, a district judge in Musk- courses almost daily, did ogee. “He was kind and courteous and get out of his comfort polite. The kind of guy you’d be proud to zone this summer for have your daughter marry. an extended road trip “He never drank, never smoked, never to his old Oklahoma got a speeding ticket. If he played a bad haunts. 2015 INDUCTEE round, he would say I’ve got to go hit 500 He and Carolyn Bob Dickson celebrates a winning balls before I play again. And with your put an exhaust- putt on the Champions Tour. own shag bag, that was a two- or three- ing 3,500-plus day process, but he would do it.” miles on the family car doing what “Never again,” Dickson said after ar- Wait a minute. Dickson fesses that there Dickson called his Friends and Family riving back home and resuming his near was the time he and a friend snuck off to Driving Tour. The trip went from south daily golf outings with friends. “The next the woods and “enjoyed” an entire pack of Florida to Kansas City, then south through trip we make like that, it will be fly to cigarettes, one right after the next. Oklahoma and down to Granbury, Texas. Kansas City, fly to Texas, fly to Oklaho- “You’ve never seen a kid so sick,” he It was a hard but rewarding trip for ma. The old body doesn’t take driving 500 said. “That was the last time for me the 71-year-old, who on Oct. 25 will be miles a day too well anymore.” smoking.” inducted into the inaugural class of the The trip had its rewards, however, Joey Dills, another former Muskogee Oklahoma Golf Hall of Fame. Hopefully including visits to the two courses where running mate, said Dickson’s only failing many of those same friends and family the young Bob Dickson forged the skills as a golfer, and the reason his profession- will be on hand when Dickson joins Perry that would take him to the top of the al accomplishments didn’t quite match Maxwell, Bill Spiller, Mike Holder, Charlie amateur golf world and lead to a success- his amateur record, was that he had no Coe and in the Hall during ful professional career both as a competi- mean streak. the ceremony at the National Cowboy tor and administrator. “The weakness in his game is that he & Western Heritage Museum. Ticket in- Dickson grew up in McAlester at what was just too nice,” said Dills, who played formation and more is available at www. was then a nine-hole course with common and traveled frequently with Dickson in oklahomagolfhof.org. Bermuda greens. He lived in a small room

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on the top of the clubhouse, he played his high school golf, built in 1912, where his father, winning the Class 2A state Ben, was both the head pro and championship in 1960, ’61 and superintendent and his mother ’62. His older brother, Ben, a ran the clubhouse and food and great player in his own right, beverage operations. He learned was the head professional there to play golf there at age 4, when Dickson began to play trailing after his dad and older there. brother, Ben Jr., with a sawed “I remember the day he off club. first played with us,” Norman This was his first time back said. “It was a cold November since the club added nine holes afternoon and his brother asked in 1999 under the auspices of if Bob could join us. We all shot designer and former competitor about 40 and he shot 35. As he Mark Hayes. And also since the left for the parking lot, we all 400 pine trees his father planted agreed we were moving down as saplings in 1957 grew into in the pecking order, because he full size guardians that pinch was the No. 1 pecker by far. the fairways on the original “We never could beat him. holes. I could have gone to Harvard “It’s a lot tighter than it Law School if he hadn’t kept used to be,” Dickson said. taking my money.” “The greens were Champion Dickson played a round Bermuda, which we only had of golf with Dills and some common, and they were in other old friends on his recent great shape. It was a lot of fun trip. He shot 69 on his first to play.” visit since Tripp Davis redid Dickson also stopped by the greens during an extensive Muskogee Country Club, where renovation.

The U.S. Amateur and British Amateur trophies were his in 1967, the last man to win both in the same year.

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“His nickname was Greas- The following year Dickson repeated invite, which he won. He then began eight er, given him with affection as state amateur champion and added the weeks of basic training and was fortunate by Mike,” Dills said. “It was meant that Oklahoma Open as to be given leave at the he always had greasy luck. But when you well, becoming the last minute to compete hit the ball better than everyone else and first and only man in the U.S. Amateur never miss a green or fairway, you don’t to win the two top at The Broadmoor. need much luck.” OGA titles in the Dickson had someone After his three state titles at Muskogee, same year. looking out for him on he was off to Oklahoma State to play for That wasn’t to be that occasion. legendary coach Labron Harris Sr., where the last of Dick- “A U.S. Senator made he was a two-time All-American from son’s rare doubles. a call to a command- 1964-66. He won the Oklahoma State In 1967, he broke ing general, who, as it Amateur Championship in 1965, but even through nation- turned out, was married before that he was given a rare opportu- ally by winning the to a lady from Roches- nity that inspired him to greater heights. British Amateur and ter, New York, whose In May 1965, a glamorous foursome the U.S. Amateur, father had planted was put together at Southern Hills to help the only man to 10,000 trees at Oak kick off what later became the Fore Tulsa accomplish that feat Hill,” Dickson said. “So charity event. Included were Charlie Coe, since I got two weeks off (subbing for ), in 1935. and got to go to play in and Dickson, who was then It almost didn’t the Amateur. The only the Big Eight champion. It was the only happen. Dickson thing I was expecting round Dickson and fellow inductee Coe had joined the was that I would get to ever played together. National Guard in wear civvies for a few “I had not even won the state amateur 1967 and put off ac- Dickson at the 1967 British Amateur weeks. I had not exactly yet, and they chose me to play with these tive duty until after been beating balls all three champions of golf,” Dickson said. playing for the U.S. team in the Walker summer.” “They couldn’t have been nicer to me.” Cup. That earned his British Amateur With just a couple of nine-hole rounds

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as preparation, Dickson brought home the prestigious title, beat- ing by a single shot. It was a crown he should have worn in 1965 at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa. It was there, in the second round, that Dickson found to his horror that he had an extra club in his bag, a sand iron he had never before seen. It was put there inadvertently by a bag- room attendant, but Dickson alerted USGA rules officials and was assessed a four-shot penalty. He still nearly won the event, but passed him on the 17th and 18th holes of the final round. Dickson did cement his reputation in that tournament as a man of integrity and class. He was given the for sportsman- ship the following year by the USGA. “That’s the best example of what kind of man Bob Bob Dickson, 10, with Oklahoma Dickson is,” Norman said. State Amateur trophy won by old- “He never even thought er brother, Ben; later won two con- about not calling that pen- secutive years by Bob. alty on himself.” The country’s top amateur turned professional in 1968 and won the Haig Open Invitational his first year out. After 10 years of grinding on the PGA Tour, however, he accepted an offer from Commissioner to join the PGA Tour and help sell and market the new Tournament Players Club and Tournament Players Championship. There were still two more major chapters of Dickson’s career to write before retirement. In 1990, he was tasked with finding 30 title sponsors to launch what was then the Tour, now the Web.com Tour. He ran and strengthened that tour for four years, spending entire sum- mers on the road with Carolyn at his side as a scoreboard calligrapher. His golf game, howev- er, was rusting away. Then, late in 1993, he surprised himself by shooting a 67 in a ca- sual round with friends. After a few more solid efforts, he called Carolyn in the middle of the night and said Bob and Carolyn Dickson ‘Honey, I’m thinking about going to Q School.” She gulped and said, “Go for it.” Well, he earned his card on the Senior Tour and spent eight successful and enjoyable years, including one victory, on what once called “one of life’s great mulligans.” No one deserved it more.

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