Savannah's Sauers Elected to Georgia Golf Hall of Fame

Savannah native Gene Sauers has been elected to the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame.  Sauers attendend Benedictine Military Academy and Johnson High School before playing for Georgia Southern.

Here is the full bio from the Georgia State Golf Association:

– The Georgia State Golf Association is pleased to announce the 2012 inductees into the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame (www.gghof.com):  

Gene Sauers

Gene Sauers was born in 1962 in Savannah and attended Benedictine and Johnson High Schools. As a junior, he was runner-up to Georgia Golf Hall of Famer Peter Persons in the 1980 Georgia Junior Championship and was a member of the Georgia team that included Persons, Davis Love III and Hugh Royer III in that year’s Georgia-South Carolina-Florida Junior Challenge Match.

Sauers went on to attend Alexander City (Ala.) Junior College for two years, where he finished third and fourth in the junior college national championships. He graduated from Georgia Southern University, where he won the TAAC conference title.

Gene was the youngest person to earn a PGA TOUR card out of the 1984 Qualifying School and soon after won his first of three TOUR titles, the 1986 Bank of Boston Classic. He also won the 1989 Hawaiian Open and 2002 Air Canada Championship. After having the outright lead after 54 holes of the 1992 PGA Championship at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis, he finished tied for second, three strokes back of Nick Price.

In 1988, Sauers became the first PGA TOUR player to win a Nationwide Tour event, the South Carolina Classic, following a victory on the PGA TOUR. He also won the unofficial 1990 Deposit Guaranty Classic and pocketed two other second-place finishes. Sauers posted seven seasons on the PGA TOUR in which he finished 42nd or better on the money list, but his 2002 victory earned him more money ($630,000) than in any single previous season.

Sauers, who still resides in Savannah, hopes to play some PGA TOUR or Nationwide events next year in preparation for the Champions Tour, for which he will be eligible in late August 2012.

 OTHER INDUCTEES:

Richard Crawford, a golfer who enjoyed competitive success at the college, amateur, state and tour professional levels, and who was also highly recognized as a club professional and first-rate teacher; whose achievements were honored in all facets of the game;

Vicki Goetze-Ackerman, one of Georgia’s most decorated female golfers at the national level, winning two U.S. Women’s Amateur titles and who represented her country four times in international team events;

Alfred "Tup" Holmes (posthumous induction), an outstanding amateur golfer who made an immeasurable impact on the game by virtue of his leadership in the opening of Atlanta’s golf courses to black citizens, which became an important step for equality in the sport;

The Class of 2012 was selected by Georgia Golf Hall of Fame Committee, based on the recommendation of the GGHOF Nominating Committee. These four inductees will bring the total number of Georgia Golf Hall of Fame members to 90.

The Georgia Golf Hall of Fame Induction Banquet and Ceremony will take place on Saturday, January 21, 2012, at the Atlanta Athletic Club in Johns Creek.

The Atlanta Athletic Club holds a long and storied place in the history of golf in the state of Georgia, as the home club of the greatest amateur golfer of them all, Bobby Jones, along with no less than 13 other members of the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame. The club hosted its third PGA Championship earlier this month, and in 2014 will host the U.S. Amateur, its sixth USGA national championship.

Biographical information on the four inductees:

Richard Crawford

Richard Crawford was born in 1939 in El Dorado, Arkansas. He won the high school junior championship of Little Rock before moving on to join college golf powerhouse University of Houston. There, Crawford became the first player in NCAA history to win the national individual title twice (1959 and ’60), was a member of two NCAA championship teams and All-American in 1960 and 1961. He was selected as the team’s most outstanding player at Houston three straight years (1959, ’60 and ‘61). Crawford also won the Southern Amateur in 1959, was third in the Houston Open in 1961 and participated in the Masters Tournament in 1961.

Richard played on the PGA TOUR regularly from 1965-75 while living in Arkansas. He was runner-up three times on the TOUR (including the 1967 Atlanta Classic), and won the South Central PGA Section title and two Arkansas PGA Chapter titles during that time.

Crawford’s connection to Georgia began in 1985, when he became the head professional at Green Island Country Club in Columbus. He also served as head professional at Jennings Mill Country Club in Bogart and as a teaching professional at Druid Hills Golf Club in Atlanta.

During this same time, Crawford was active on Georgia PGA competitions circuit. He won the Section Championship in 1981, was runner-up in the 1982 National PGA Club Professional Championship, was Georgia Section Player of the Year in 1983, a member of the 1983 PGA National Cup Team, won the 1989 and 1991 Brannen Perry Classic and the 1991 Georgia PGA Senior championship. He also qualified to participate in the Billy Peters Cup (Georgia PGA vs. GSGA matches) several times between 1991-2001.

In the area of education, Crawford was an instructor at national PGA business schools from 1984-86, was a coordinator of the Georgia Section PGA business seminar and a member of the Section education committee in 1987-88, and served as an instructor in the Crawford-Rudolph School of Golf.

Crawford, who was inducted into the Arkansas Golf Hall of Fame in 2003, currently lives in Alabama.

Vicki Goetze-Ackerman

Vicki Goetze was born in 1972 in Mishicot, Wisconsin. The family moved to Georgia and most of her golf accomplishments occurred during the time they lived in Hull, just outside Athens.

Goetze shot 70 in winning the 1991 Georgia Class A High School individual championship by six strokes…as the only girl in the field. Her Athens Academy team also won by 12 strokes. She was named the American Junior Golf Association’s Player of the Year in 1988, 1989 and 1990.

Goetze had great success in USGA national championships. In the U.S. Girls Junior, she advanced to the quarterfinals at age 13, the semifinals at ages 14, 15 and 16, and the finals at 17. She was also a runner-up (to fellow Georgian Cindy Schreyer) in the 1986 U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links before her 14th birthday. Her amateur career was topped by victories in the 1989 and 1992 U.S. Women’s Amateur championships, including a win in the 1992 final over Annika Sorenstam. Though she never played in any statewide competitions, those accomplishments on the national level earned her the first four GSGA Women’s Player of the Year honors from 1989-1992.

In the two years she played at the University of Georgia (1991-92 and 1992-93), Goetze won the 1992 NCAA individual title and earned All-American honors.

She also represented the United States in two Curtis Cup and two Women’s World Amateur Team competitions, both in 1990 and ‘92. In 1990, she was the individual medalist in the Women’s World Amateur for the victorious USA team.

Professionally, Goetze-Ackerman qualified for the LPGA Tour on her first attempt in the fall of 1993 and played for 16 years before retiring as a full-time member. Her best finish was a tie for second in the 2000 and 2004 Corning Classics. She served on the LPGA Player Executive Committee and Board of Directors in 2005-2007 and was President of the Association in 2007. In 2006, she was honored with the William and Mousie Powell Award, chosen by her peers, as the player whose behavior and deeds best exemplifies the spirit, ideals and values of the LPGA.

Goetze-Ackerman and her husband, Jim, have one son, Jake. They reside in the Tampa, Fla., area where she teaches at Buckhorn Springs Golf and Country Club.

Alfred "Tup" Holmes (posthumous induction)

Alfred F. "Tup" Holmes was born in 1917 in College Park, graduated from Booker T. Washington High in Atlanta in 1935 and earned a degree from Tuskegee (Ala.) Institute in 1939.

Holmes excelled as a young amateur golfer. In college, he won the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference three times. He also captured the black-only Southern Amateur title three times and was the National Negro Amateur Champion four times.

After having been denied the opportunity to play a round at Bobby Jones Golf Course in 1951, Holmes and his family were instrumental in obtaining the right for blacks to play golf on City of Atlanta public golf courses. They subsequently brought suit against the city and the case wound its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, whose final ruling would end segregation of the City’s courses and eventually lead to the desegregation of all City of Atlanta public places.

The case was first ruled in Federal District Court in Atlanta that blacks could play on city public courses but only on certain days. The family appealed the verdict and an appellate court upheld the district court’s decision. Holmes obtained assistance from Thurgood Marshall in the family’s appeal to the Supreme Court and it struck down the original ruling by the district court, sending the case back to the original judge with instructions to end segregation on the City’s courses.

On December 23, 1955, "Tup" Holmes, his brother, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and friends Charles T. Bell, T.D. Hawkins and E.J. Peterson played a round of golf at North Fulton Golf Course, thus legally breaking the color barrier on Atlanta’s public golf courses.

Holmes passed away from cancer in 1967, but his family and the City of Atlanta joined together to dedicate a golf course in his honor in 1983. The Alfred "Tup" Holmes Memorial Golf Course is located in Adams Park on the site of a Civil War battlefield.

The Georgia Golf Hall of Fame, which came under the management of the Georgia State Golf Association in 2010, is dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Georgia’s golf traditions, heritage, achievements and excellence. For more information on the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame, please visit

Founded in 1916, the Georgia State Golf Association (GSGA) received its official charter on June 24, 1924. Since that date, the GSGA has grown to one of the largest state amateur golf associations in the country, with over 350 member clubs and 85,000 individual members. With a mission to promote and preserve amateur golf in the state of Georgia, GSGA offers a computerized handicapping service, course rating and measuring, and annually conducts a full schedule of statewide competitions for men and women of all age groups. In addition to managing the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame, other services include a summer-long junior sectional program, award-winning Golf Georgia magazine, membership recognition and rewards programs and a charitable foundation administering two college scholarship programs.