JOHNNY AUSTIN - INDUCTEE #110
hall of fame fast fact:
Teaching didn't stop for Johnny Austin when he got home. He taught all his family members how to play golf and gave each, including sons-in-law and grandchildren, a set of golf clubs, according to daughter Linda Bailey. He taught his wife, Marge, how to play when she was 28, and she won a Pampa city women's golf championship in the 1960s. Pretty amazing, considering the circumstances. "My mother was not an athlete of any kind," Bailey said.
Johnny Austin
At age 11, Johnny Austin carried clubs at Pampa Country Club. His golf career began as a caddy, but he is best known as the longtime pro at Amarillo’s Tascosa Country Club.
Austin was born into a large family – he had 10 siblings – that moved from Oklahoma to Pampa when he was 6. Except for a few odd jobs and a stint in World War II, he never left the golf course.
Austin won the Pampa city golf championship at 19 years old. He served in the Army in the war, but contacted malaria in New Guinea and received an honorable discharge.
At 29 years old, Austin became the Pampa Country Club golf pro. Seven years later, in 1955, Tascosa Country Club opened its operation and Austin became TCC’s first pro. He stayed there for 28 years, retiring in 1983.
The North Texas PGA selected Austin as golf pro of the year in 1973.
Austin died in 1997 at age 78.
