1996 PPA Hall of Fame Inductee
Buddy Taylor
Buddy Taylor |
Born: July 7, 1936 Birthplace: High Point, North Carolina Residence: Severn, Maryland Occupation: Distribution Center employee, Former Putt-Putt Golf Course owner, Glen Burnie, Maryland Turned Professional: 1960 Lifetime PPA Stroke Average: 29.5 Lifetime Money Winnings: $75,000 Major PPA Tour Victories: 1972 $5,000 BG-Pardisco Open; 1976 $5,000 Bicentennial Open; 1978 $110,000 World Putting Championship. |
| Other PPA Tour Victories and Accomplishments:
1968
Charlottesville, Virginia; 1969 Rockville, Maryland; 1970 PPA Sportsmanship Award; 1970
Kettering, Ohio; 1970 Lynchburg, Virginia; 1970 Maple Heights, Ohio; 1972 Durham, North
Carolina; 1975 Virginia Beach, Virginia; 1976 Virginia Beach, Virginia; 1976 Sharon,
Pennsylvania; 1978 Eden, North Carolina; 1979 Eden, North Carolina; 1979 Elton Davis
Dedication Award; 1980 Alexandria, Virginia; 1983 Tracy Moore Memorial Stroke Average
Award; 1983 Richmond, Virginia; 1984 National Seniors Championship; 1984 Frederick,
Maryland; 1984 Newport News, Virginia; 1984 Richmond, Virginia; 1986 Virginia State
Sportsmanship Award; 1986 Newport News, Virginia; 1987 Petersburg, Virginia; 1987 Fall
Putting Classic; 1989 Fall Putting Classic; 1989 Virginia State Championship (Newport
News, Virginia); 1989 Fredericksburg, Virginia; 1990 Richard Buchan Award; 1990 Richmond,
Virginia; 1990 Virginia Skins; 1991 Richmond, Virginia; 1992 Virginia Beach, Virginia;
1992 Lynchburg, Virginia; 1993 Fall Putting Classic; 1994 Richmond, Virginia; 1996 Hall of
Fame
Buddy Taylor was 24 years old when in 1960, while vacationing in his boyhood hometown of High Point, North Carolina, he picked up a putter and played a game of Putt-Putt Golf with his wife Audrey. It became his game. One week later, in Baltimore Maryland, he won a putter and free passes in the novice division of a tournament held on his local Putt-Putt Golf Course. It inspired him to join the Professional Putters Association. By the end of the summer, he won his first professional event, ironically, in High Point - where it all began. Today, Buddy Taylor is a legend in the sport of putting. His ascent to stardom was long and labored. Taylor often found himself a contender, but victories on the PPA Summer Tour did not come easy against some of the game's greatest players - Neil Connor, John Connor, John Roessner, Bob Williamson, Tracy Moore, Darryl Freeman, Lee Weldy, and Vance Randall. But in 1968 when he won the Charlottesville, Virginia Open, Taylor followed that win with 15 PPA National Tour victories over the ensuing 17 seasons including four major titles - the $5,000 Pardisco Open in 1972, the $5,000 Bicentennial Open in 1976, the World Putting Championship in 1978, and the PPA Seniors National Championship in 1984. "It was worth the wait," said Taylor, who was 42 when he won the World Putting Championship at the PPA Course in Columbus, Ohio. A charter member of the PPA, Taylor won 37 professional events in a career that spanned four decades and will extend into the 21st Century. Hi humility earned him respect throughout his career and his putting skills were an example for other such as Danny Dore, Gary Hinshaw, and Jim Christina to follow. But his most avid fans were his family - Audrey, his wife of 39 years who once competed in the Ladies Professional Putters Association circuit; sons Dave, Rusty and Justin; and daughter Kim, the 1982 LPPA National Champion. "In our family Putt-Putt is just tradition," Dave Taylor says. If there was a Professional Putters Association tournament you always found the Taylor family there. Buddy and the children did the playing, while Audrey nervously cheered them on. "When I first started playing this game, the PPA Hall of Fame was something I never dreamed of," Buddy Taylor said. But dreams do come true. Buddy Taylor was inducted by his son, Dave, as the 23rd person in the PPA Hall of Fame in ceremonies September 7, 1996, at Orange Lake Resort and Country Club in Orlando, Florida. |
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