Around the Green

Robin Burke Inducted into Texas Golf Hall of Fame

SAN ANTONIO—Current U.S. Curtis Cup captain and two-time WTGA State Amateur Champion Robin Burke highlights the 2016 Texas Golf Hall of Fame Class, which was announced Wednesday.
 
Burke was inducted in the Amateur category, one of five classifications for induction. One of the best female amateur golfers in the state, she reached the finals of the 1997 U.S. Women’s Amateur and was a member of the USA Team in the 1998 U.S. Curtis Cup. Burke also made the semifinals of three U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championships. She’s a two-time winner of the Women’s Southern Amateur and played multiple times for Texas on the USGA Women’s State Team.
 
Burke lives in Houston, where she is the Vice President of Champions Golf Club. She’s also the wife of 1979 Texas Golf Hall of Fame inductee Jackie Burke, Jr., who won the Masters and PGA Championship in 1956 before he co-founded Champions GC in Houston the next year.
 
Joining Burke in this year’s class is Memorial Park Golf Course, the crown jewel of public golf in Houston. With the induction, the 1936 John Bredemus-designed municipal course will be added to the Texas Registry of Historic Golf Courses. Over the years, Memorial Park has hosted 22 USGA and TGA Qualifier tournaments. The 2008 Texas Public Links Championship was played at Memorial Park, which also played host to the PGA Tour’s Houston Open in 1957 and 1951-63. The classic, tree-lined course is the current home of the Greater Houston City Amateur Championship.
 
The TGHOF Board of Directors conducted the annual statewide nomination process and voting for Texas’ highest golf honor. The inductees will be honored at the 2016 “Gathering of Eagles” golf tournament and induction dinner to be held on Oct. 10 at Brackenridge Park Golf Course and San Antonio Country Club, respectively. Sponsorships are now available with more information available on the website www.texasgolfhof.com.
 
The TGHOF resides at Brackenridge Park, both in the clubhouse, along the adjacent Walk of Fame and inside the historic Borglum Studio. 
 
“We are certainly pleased to have such great Lone Star legends to enter the Texas Golf Hall of Fame for our class of 2016,” said TGHOF Board Chairman Jerry Smith. “It will be a great time to honor the best of the best in Texas golf for this year.”
 
In addition to the Burke and Memorial Park inductions, teaching professional Lindy Miller, who spent 22 years as the Director of Golf at Mira Vista Country Club in Fort Worth before moving across town to become an instructor at Shady Oaks in 2009, was inducted in the Golf Professional/Teacher category. Five-time PGA Tour winner and former University of Houston standout Blaine McCallister from Fort Stockton was inducted in the Professional Player category.
 
Longtime Texas golf course architect Joe Finger was inducted in the Lifetime Achievement category. Finger passed away in 2003. Among his many designs was a 1998 collaboration with Byron Nelson on Riverhill Country Club in Kerrville. His final work was a total renovation of Scott Schreiner Golf Club, also in Kerrville.
 
For more information on the Oct. 10 induction banquet and ceremonies along with sponsorships, contact TGHOF Managing Director Mary Carriker at [email protected]