WORLD GOLF VILLAGE

Pete Dye holds his trophy as he is being inducted at the 2008 World Golf Hall Fame Induction Ceremony in St Augustine Florida.

         Golf course architect Pete Dye, and Carol Semple Thompson, a seven-time winner of USGA championships, and the first New Zealander ever inducted, Sir Bob Charles were all recognized alongside posthumous inductees Denny Shute, Craig Wood and golf writer Herbert Warren Wind as part of the 2008 Class at the World Golf Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on 11/12/08.

Carol Semple Thompson
         Carol Semple Thompson is a seven-time winner of United States Golf Association championships. “Carol’s life in golf is that of the quintessential amateur,” said Carol Mann, Hall of Fame member and ambassador.
         Thompson, selected in the Lifetime Achievement Category, is one of only 11 golfers to have won the United States Women’s Amateur and British Ladies Open Amateur, events she won in 1973 and 1974 respectively. She has won six additional USGA championships: the 1999-2002 USGA Senior Women’s Amateurs and the 1990 and 1997 United States Women’s Mid-Amateurs. She has played in more than 100 USGA championships, including 32 U.S. Women’s Opens. Thompson played on a record 12 USA Curtis Cup teams and captained the victorious 2006 and 2008 USA teams. She has played for the United States in five Women’s World Amateur Team Championships.
         Thompson has served on the USGA Women’s Committee and Executive Committee, as well as on the Advisory Committee for the PGA of America. She won the USGA’s 2003 Bob Jones Award, the Association’s top award given in recognition of distinguished sportsmanship in golf, and the 2005 First Lady of Golf Award presented by the PGA. She was born on Oct. 27, 1948 in Sewickley, Pa., where she still resides.

Sir Bob Charles
         The 1963 Open Championship winner, Sir Bob Charles, the first New Zealander inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame Charles was selected in the Veterans Category.
         In addition to the 1963 Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St. Annes, Charles’ has earned more than 60 international victories since turning professional in 1960. His record includes five PGA TOUR wins, eight European Tour titles and 17 additional international victories that include four New Zealand Opens and three New Zealand PGA Championships.
         Charles went on to lead an impressive career in the 50+ circuit, winning the 1989 and 1993 Senior British Opens, 23 Champions Tour titles and 10 additional senior tournaments around the world. He remains active in competitive golf yet today.
         “Bob Charles is a shining example of success in international golf—winning tournaments around the globe for half a century,” said Jack Peter, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the World Golf Hall of Fame. “We look forward to celebrating his achievements that will undoubtedly bring great pride to his fellow New Zealanders now and for years to come.”
         Sir Bob was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1972 and advanced to Commander in 1992. He became Sir Bob Charles when he was named Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 1999.

Herbert Warren Wind
         Wind, selected in the Lifetime Achievement Category, wrote for The New Yorker from 1947 to 1953 and again from 1960 to 1990, when he retired. He spent the interim years writing for Sports Illustrated and in April 1958, termed the phrase “Amen Corner” when writing about holes 11, 12 and 13 at Augusta National Golf Club. Wind also wrote several books about golf including “The Story of American Golf” and “Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf,” written with fellow Hall of Fame member Ben Hogan.
         Wind graduated from Yale University and earned a master’s degree in English at Cambridge University in England. He won the USGA’s Bob Jones Award in 1995 and remains the only writer to have ever done so. He also served as a volunteer on two USGA committees for nearly 30 years. Wind was born Aug. 11, 1917 in Brockton, Mass. and died May 30, 2005.
         Ben Crenshaw said, “Mr. Wind, in my mind, is the foremost golf writer in America. He knew so many people and witnessed so much in golf history, and had the talent to make people come to life through his writing. He enriched my life beyond golf and encouraged my love of golf history. He was a remarkable person.”

Denny Shute
         Shute, selected in the Veterans Category, has 15 PGA TOUR victories to his credit, including three majors: the 1933 Open Championship and 1936 and 1937 PGA Championships. For 63 years Shute carried the title as the last man to win back-to-back PGA Championship titles until Tiger Woods achieved the same in 1999 and 2000. Shute was a member of three U.S. Ryder Cup teams: 1931, 1933 and 1937.
         Shute first started winning as an amateur in West Virginia before returning to his native Ohio to win the Ohio Amateur in 1927 and the Ohio Open from 1929-31. From 1945 until he retired in 1972, he was the head professional at Portage Country Club in Akron, Ohio. Shute was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on Oct. 25, 1904 and died May 13, 1974.

Craig Wood
         Wood, elected on the PGA TOUR Ballot with 65 percent of the vote, earned 21 PGA TOUR titles, including the 1941 Masters Tournament, where he became the first wire-to-wire winner of that tournament. Wood won the United States Open the same year, becoming the first person to capture the first two major championships in one year. He also was a member of three Ryder Cup teams: 1931, 1933 and 1935.
         Wood was born in Lake Placid, N.Y., on Nov. 18, 1901 and died May 8, 1968. In 1948 Wood’s home city of Lake Placid honored him by renaming the Lake Placid Golf and Country Club the Craig Wood Golf Course.