Wayne Jackson
A
Hampton native, Jackson was 15 years
old when he first met Wynsol Spencer
at Hampton Country Club. Spencer was 15
years older than Jackson.
David Partridge
D
avid Partridge says his body reminds
him often that he’s been playing golf
and competing for 50 years.
What a successful 50 years it has been,
but you have to twist his arm to tell you
that in that span he has won 83 golf tourna-
ments, 13 of which are VSGA titles.
There is at least one more title he would
like to add to an accomplishment only he
holds. Partridge is the only player in Vir-
ginia to win state titles in four different age
divisions: the VSGA Amateur, Mid-Ama-
teur, Senior Amateur and the Mid-Senior
Amateur. He’s shooting for a Super Senior
crown, and he has from age 65 to beyond
75 to get it done.
Always known for being a methodical
player—less slow now that he is older—he
has been called the ultimate grinder, and
once on a local television show, he was
called “the human rain delay.” A follow-up
“Once I got to the point I could play
a little bit, he kind of took me under his
wing,” Jackson said.
While Spencer was making his name, so
was Jackson. He won his first VSGA Ama-
teur in 1956 when he defeated his fellow
co-medalist Harry Easterly Jr., who was
in the 2019 Hall of Fame class, in the final.
Jackson added a second VSGA Amateur
title in 1965. He was runner-up to inaugu-
ral class Hall of Famer Vinny Giles in 1968
and again to Giles in 1969.
The VSGA was the first to conduct a
Mid-Amateur (players 25 and older). It was
held in 1977 and Jackson won. He also was on
the winning side at the VSGA Four-Ball in 1967.
Jackson is a member of the Athletics Hall
of Fame at Randolph-Macon College. He is
a longtime member of James River Country
Club where he is a 17-time club champion.
GOOD TO BE FRIENDS
Spencer, whom Jackson knew for more
than 60 years, and Red Speigle (a VSGA-
VIP Scholarship is named for him), who
was Jackson’s teacher, served as inspira-
tions for Jackson.
“We were really close,” Jackson said of
Spencer. “When he went to Fort Eustis,
there were years when I didn’t see a lot of
Wynsol. You don’t need to see a friend to
know that he’s there if you need him.
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
Won VSGA Amateur in 1956 and 1965 and was runner-up twice.
Won inaugural VSGA Mid-Amateur in 1977 and also won VSGA Four-Ball in 1967. Four times
between 1959 and 1966 was low amateur at either the VSGA Open or VPGA Open.
Appeared in six U.S. Amateurs and in the 1963 U.S. Open.
Won 10 consecutive Peninsula Amateur titles; was member of the All-Army golf team that won the
Interservice Championship.
caller said, “No. He’s slower than that.”
Partridge laughs about it even now.
Only four players have won more VSGA
championships than Partridge and three
of them—Keith Decker, Vinny Giles and
Chandler Harper—are in the Virginia Golf
Hall of Fame.
Partridge grew up in Waynesboro and
played collegiately at the University of Vir-
ginia (1977 graduate).
His contributions to the VSGA and to
Hermitage Country Club where he has been
a longtime member go beyond winning golf
tournaments. Some of them have been in
the background and others have been in the
forefront. Still, his influence, humbleness
and gentlemanly manner are always factors.
SUCCESSFUL PARTNERSHIP
“My long association with Keith Decker is
one of the best things that ever happened
to me, but playing with Keith was not
always just as wonderful as everybody
thought it was.
“When we would bunk together, which
we almost always did when we were in Four-
Ball events, he would invariably wake me up
yelling at the top of his lungs ‘Go in, go in.’
Finally, one time I got so tired of that I had to
wake him up and I said, ‘Keith, you’re going
to have to stop doing that.’ And he said, ‘I just
holed out two 4 irons in a row.’
“It just speaks to how positive of a per-
son he is. He obviously was an incredible
partner. And as great a golfer as he is, he’s
an even better person and that’s a side of
Keith that a lot of people don’t get a chance
to see or appreciate.”
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
Five-time VSGA Player of the Year
13-time VSGA champion: 2 VSGA Amateurs; 3 Mid-Amateurs and 3
Four-Ball titles among them.
First player, and one of only two, to win a state championship in the
Amateur, Mid-Amateur and Senior Amateur. Decker is the other.
He and Decker are also the only two players to win a Senior Amateur
and Senior Open of Virginia.
vsga.org
Third member of the 1995 squad (Decker and 2019 HOF inductee Tom
McKnight were the others) that won the inaugural USGA State Team
Championship.
One of only a handful of golfers to win the Middle Atlantic Amateur and
Middle Atlantic Senior Amateur.
Longtime contributing author of the Great Holes article that appears in
each edition of Virginia Golfer.
J A N UA RY / F E B R UA RY 2 0 2 0 | V I R G I N I A G O L F E R
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