2014 CONNECTICUT GOLF HALL OF FAME
ROY PACE
Inducted into Connecticut Golf Hall of Fame for Distinguished Golf Achievement
O
ne of the greatest players in
Connecticut golf history, Roy
Pace enters the Connecticut
Golf Hall of Fame in 2014 in the category of
“Distinguished Golf Achievement.”
Pace played the PGA Tour for more
than ten years from the early 1960s through
the early 1970s. He competed in a total of 178
PGA Tour events, made 163 cuts, and recorded
fifteen top-10 finishes. In 1971 he won the
Magnolia Classic in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
The Magnolia was played opposite the Masters
each year and featured the best players in the
world who were not otherwise eligible for
Augusta. In addition to Pace, past winners
include Craig Stadler and Payne Stewart.
Pace played college golf at Louisiana
Tech University where he won the Gulf States
individual title three times. He returned to
Connecticut regularly during his time on
the PGA Tour, and worked as the Assistant
Professional at Wee Burn Country Club in
1966 and 1967. Pace was a back-to-back
winner of the Connecticut Open in 1966 at
Tumble Brook Country Club, and in 1967
at the Golf Club of Avon. He also won the
Westchester (N.Y.) Open in 1967.
www.csgalinks.org
Left: Roy Pace won two consecutive Connecticut Open
Championships in 1966 and 1967; Above: Roy Pace (right) at
Pebble Beach in the Bing Crosby ProAm with Bob Shea and a
representative from Teacher’s Scotch Whiskey.
In 1976 Pace began a twenty-three
year career as the Head Golf Professional at one
of Connecticut’s most historic and prestigious
clubs, Wee Burn Country Club in Darien. At
Wee Burn, Pace further immersed himself into
teaching the game to others and continued
to earn national and regional acclaim. A
consummate head professional, more than
twenty of his assistants have become head
professionals at golf facilities in the United
States.
Longtime Wee Burn member, Rich
Duffy described Pace as “an excellent and
most worthy candidate for the Connecticut
Golf Hall of Fame. Roy has been a tremendous
player and teacher for his entire career, but
more importantly, Roy and his wife Sandy are
just great people.”
At Wee Burn, Pace received the Bill
Strausbaugh Employment Award in 1983
and 1984, and in 1987, Pace was named the
Met PGA Golf Professional of the Year. The
following year in 1988, Pace earned the Met
PGA Teacher of the Year award.
Pace’s career in Connecticut and
in particular his span at Wee Burn from
1976 through 1999, established his national
reputation as an energetic and tireless teacher
with an unrivaled passion for the game. HHe
moved back to his hometown of Longview,
Texas after his time in Darien and quickly
made his mark within the Texas PGA. For the
past twenty-five years Pace has also partnered
with top-100 teacher, Ted Sheftic in directing
the Pace Sheftic Golf School in Vero Beach,
Florida.
Presently co-owner of the Alpine
Target Golf Center in Longview, Pace has
continued to garner recognition and awards
for his teaching prowess. For five consecutive
years, from 2004 through 2008 he was named a
“Top-50 Instructor in America” by Golf Range
Magazine, and in 2001 and again in 2011 he
was named the East Texas PGA Teacher of the
Year.
In recent years, much of Pace’s work
has centered around young golfers. He was
named a Top-50 US Kids Instructor in 2007,
and from 2006 through 2011 he received three
Junior Leader Awards from the PGA Section.
In 2009, Pace established the First Tee of Piney
Woods in Longview and continues to serve as
president of the chapter.
About
his
most
recent
accomplishment and award Pace said, “It
is a great honor for me to be inducted into
the Connecticut Golf Hall of Fame. I will
always have fond memories of Connecticut.
The Connecticut Opens, my years as golf
professional at Wee Burn Country Club
and my association with the CSGA all have
their own stories that I will never forget. Our
common ground of loving the game of golf
makes this honor even better to me.”
At the age of 73, former PGA
Tour player and longtime Wee Burn head
professional Roy Pace still spends most of his
day giving golf lessons, and sharing with his
students a lifetime of unique knowledge and
love of the game.
Connecticut State Golf Association 2014
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