Hal Sutton

Sport: Golf

Induction Year: 2009

University: Centenary

Induction Year: 2009

Hal Sutton has reached the pinnacle in amateur, professional and world golf, and is believed to be the only player who has outdueled both Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods in the final holes of major golf tournaments.

The Shreveport native. who played collegiately in his hometown at Centenary, was named by Golf Magazine as the 1980 College Player of the Year after winning the U.S. Amateur, North and South Amateur, Western Amateur and Northeast Amateur titles. He also was a member of two U.S. Walker Cup-winning teams in 1979 and ’81. After that, he embarked on a PGA Tour career that would net him 14 wins and more than $15 million in career earnings between 1982 and 2006. His biggest win on Tour came in the 1983 PGA Championship when the 25-year-old Sutton opened with scores of 65 and 66 and went on to win his only major title by one stroke over a late-charging Nicklaus.

Sutton ranked in the top 10 of the world golf rankings for more than 50 weeks from 1986-87 and another 50 weeks from 1999-2001 and reached the top five at one point. Sutton’s best years came in the late 1990s when he claimed the title at The Tour Championship in 1998 and in 2000 beat Woods to win The Players Championship, which is often considered to be the fifth major. He won $1.8 million in 1998 with two wins, a second and nine top-10 finishes; $2.1 million on a win and 13 top-10s in 1999; and a career-high $3,061,444 with two victories and 11 top-10 finishes in 2000.

Sutton was a standout on four U.S. Ryder Cup teams (1985, 1987, 1999, 2002) and was the non-playing captain of the 2004 team. He also was chosen to represent the U.S. in Presidents Cup competition in 1998 and 2000. He received the Payne Stewart Award for his charitable efforts, which include the establishment of the Christus Schumpert Sutton Children’s Hospital, and shared the 2006 Charlie Bartlett Award after helping raise more than $2 million in hurricane relief funds.