William Joseph Patton (April 19, 1922 – January 1, 2011) was an American amateur

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

er best known for almost winning the

1954 Masters Tournament The 1954 Masters Tournament was the 18th Masters Tournament, held April 8–12 at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. Sam Snead defeated defending champion Ben Hogan by one stroke in an 18-hole Monday playoff to win his third Masters to ...

. Patton was born in

Morganton, North Carolina Morganton is a city in and the county seat of Burke County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 16,918 at the 2010 census. Morganton is approximately northwest of Charlotte. Morganton is one of the principal cities in the Hick ...

. He graduated from

Wake Forest University Wake Forest University is a private research university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Founded in 1834, the university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina. The Reynolda Campus, the un ...

in 1943. In the 1954 Masters Tournament at

Augusta National Golf Club Augusta National Golf Club, sometimes referred to as Augusta or the National, is a golf club in Augusta, Georgia, United States. Unlike most private clubs which operate as non-profits, Augusta National is a for-profit corporation, and it does no ...

, Patton came within one stroke of being in a three-man playoff with

Ben Hogan William Ben Hogan (August 13, 1912 – July 25, 1997) was an American professional golfer who is generally considered to be one of the greatest players in the history of the game. He is notable for his profound influence on golf swing theory and ...

and

Sam Snead Samuel Jackson Snead (pronounced English_phonology">sni:d.html" ;"title="English_phonology.html" ;"title="nowiki/>English phonology">sni:d">English_phonology.html" ;"title="nowiki/>English phonology">sni:d May 27, 1912 – May 23, 2002) was an ...

. His final round 71 included a hole-in-one on the par-3 6th hole and a double bogey on the par-5 13th hole, when he tried to reach the green in two and put his ball into Rae's Creek. Patton won several amateur tournaments including the

North and South Amateur The North and South Men's Amateur Golf Championship, commonly known as the North and South Amateur, is an annual golf tournament held since 1901 at the Pinehurst Resort in Pinehurst, North Carolina, USA. An invitational tournament, participants are ...

three times and the

Southern Amateur The Southern Amateur is an amateur golf tournament. It has been played since 1902 and is organized by the Southern Golf Association. From 1902 to 1963, it was played at match play. Since 1964, it has been played at stroke play. In December 2021, ...

twice. He also won the

Carolinas Open The Carolinas Open is a golf tournament played in the Carolinas, open to both amateur and professional golfers. It is run by the Carolinas section of the PGA of America. It has been played annually since 1923 at a variety of courses around both sta ...

twice. Patton played on five

Walker Cup The Walker Cup is a golf trophy contested in odd-numbered years by leading male amateur golfers in two teams: United States, and Great Britain and Ireland. The official name is the Walker Cup Match (not "Matches" as in Ryder Cup Matches). It is ...

teams; 1955, 1957, 1959, 1963, and 1965 and was captain of the 1969 team. He played on the

Eisenhower Trophy The Eisenhower Trophy (World Men's Amateur Team Championships) is the biennial World Amateur Team Championship for men organized by the International Golf Federation. Since the tournament was first played in 1958, it is named after Dwight D. Eisen ...

team in 1958 and 1962. Patton was awarded the

Bob Jones Award The Bob Jones Award is the highest honor given by the United States Golf Association in recognition of distinguished sportsmanship in golf. It is named in honor of Bobby Jones. Winners *1955 Francis Ouimet *1956 William C. Campbell *1957 Babe Za ...

by the

United States Golf Association The United States Golf Association (USGA) is the United States national association of golf courses, clubs and facilities and the governing body of golf for the U.S. and Mexico. Together with The R&A, the USGA produces and interprets the rules ...

in 1982. Patton was inducted into several Halls of Fame: *

North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame The North Carolina Museum of History is a history museum located in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina. It is an affiliate through the Smithsonian Affiliations program. The museum is a part of the Division of State History Museums, Office of Archives ...

in 1967 *Wake Forest University's Sports Hall of Fame in 1974 *Southern Golf Association Hall of Fame in 1975 *Carolinas Golf Reporters Association Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame in 1981

Tournament wins

*1947 Carolinas Amateur *1951

*1952 Carolinas Open (tied with

Bobby Locke Arthur D'Arcy "Bobby" Locke (20 November 1917 – 9 March 1987) was a South African professional golfer. He is generally regarded as one of the greatest golfers of all time. He won The Open Championship four times and 15 PGA Tour events in total ...

) *1954

*1958 Carolinas Amateur *1961

Azalea Invitational The Azalea Invitational is an annual amateur golf tournament. It has been played since 1946 at the Country Club of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina. Several past champions have subsequently gained membership to the PGA Tour, including m ...

, Carolinas Amateur *1962 North and South Amateur *1963 North and South Amateur *1964 North Carolina Amateur *1965 Southern Amateur *1979 Carolinas Senior Amateur *1981 Carolinas Senior Amateur

Results in major championships

LA = low amateur
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place
R256, R128, R64, R32, R16, QF, SF = Round in which player lost in match play Sources: Masters, U.S. Open, U.S. Amateur, British Amateur: 1955, 1959

U.S. national team appearances

1955 Events January * January 3 – José Ramón Guizado becomes president of Panama. * January 17 – , the first nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut. * January 18– 20 – Battle of Yijian ...

(winners),

1957 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th y ...

(winners),

1959 Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...

(winners),

1963 Events January * January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Cov ...

(winners),

1965 Events January–February * January 14 – The Prime Minister of Northern Ireland and the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland meet for the first time in 43 years. * January 20 ** Lyndon B. Johnson is Second inauguration of Lyndo ...

(tied, cup retained),

1969 This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon. Events January * January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco. * January 5 **Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to ...

(non-playing captain, winners) *

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...

1962 Events January * January 1 – Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand. * January 3 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro for preaching communism. * January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the wors ...

(winners) *

Americas Cup The America's Cup, informally known as the Auld Mug, is a trophy awarded in the sailing (sport), sport of sailing. It is the oldest International sport, international competition still operating in any sport. America's Cup match racing, match ...

: 1954 (winners), 1956 (winners), 1958 (winners), 1963 (winners)

References

External links

Seventy Years of Great Golf with Billy Joe
- ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...

'', August 23, 1954 {{DEFAULTSORT:Patton, Billy Joe American male golfers Amateur golfers Wake Forest Demon Deacons men's golfers Golfers from North Carolina People from Morganton, North Carolina 1922 births 2011 deaths