Two golfers with Peninsula ties will be part of the Class
of 2020 Virginia Golf Hall of Fame.
Wayne Jackson and Wynsol Spencer will join Kandi Kessler
Comer, David Partridge and Richard Smith as the newest members of the Hall, in
a ceremony to be held at Hermitage Country Club in Manakin-Sabot on May 5.
Their addition will boost the Hall of fame’s membership to 24.
CBS Sports broadcaster Dottie Pepper
is scheduled to emcee the ceremony. Pepper is a two-time major champion, a
17-time winner on the LPGA Tour and a six-time member of the United States’
Solheim Cup team.
Here are the bios on the two newest
members as chronicled by Chris Lang, editor of Virginia Golfer magazine.
Wayne
Jackson
Jackson won his first VSGA Amateur
Championship in 1956, jumpstarting a career that included six trips to the U.S.
Amateur and an appearance in the 1963 U.S. Open Championship. Jackson won a
second VSGA Amateur in 1965.
In 1977, Jackson became the first
winner of what has become the nation’s longest-running championship for the
25-and-older set, the VSGA Mid-Amateur. Jackson also counts the 1967 VSGA
Four-Ball Championship among his victories.
A Hampton native, Jackson graduated
from Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, where he is enshrined in the school’s Athletic
Hall of Fame. He is a longtime member of James River Country Club, where he won
17 club championships. On four occasions between 1959 and 1966, he was the low
amateur at either the VSGA or VPGA Open championships. He also won a record 10
consecutive Peninsula Amateur Championships and was a member of the All-Army
Golf Team that won the Interservice Championship.
Wynsol Spencer
Spencer, who was born in Kentucky
but moved to Newport News at age 5, died in 2013 at age 94. He was a dominant
player both on the Peninsula and statewide. As a youth, he helped lead the
Typhoon of Newport News High School to two state championships. He won the
first of five VSGA Amateurs in 1939 before departing to serve in the U.S. Navy
during World War II. Upon his return, he won four more Amateur championships in
1948, 1953, 1955 and 1959. He was a finalist on three other occasions.
In 1959, Spencer turned professional
and was the head professional at Fort Eustis Golf Club. He played in the 1965
PGA Championship, missing the cut by a stroke.
Spencer was inducted into the
Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 1991 and is one of 10 individuals to have been
elected into both the Virginia Sports and Virginia Golf halls of fame.
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