Butch Harmon has worked his last at his eponymous Butch Harmon School of Golf and went out in style on Saturday.
Harmon, 81, the son of Masters champion Claude Harmon and the famous instructor who coached Greg Norman and Tiger Woods to world number 1, and countless other players such as Phil Mickelson at the majors and Rickie Fowler at the height of their careers, opened his golf school at Rio Secco GC in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson, Nevada, in 1997.
This final farewell was a surprise orchestrated by Harmon’s wife, Christy. ‘Butch had no idea this was going to happen until he walked into his teaching station and there were over 30 of his friends there,’ said Harmon’s younger brother Billy.
Twenty-seven years ago, Sam Reeves, who was Butch’s best man when he married Christy in 2001, attended Butch’s first golf school in the Las Vegas desert with nine members of his family. It was only fitting that Reeves and his family, now numbering some 25 people and spanning four generations, sponsor a two-day event that marked the last of Butch’s schools.
Billy Harmon, director of instruction at Toscana Country Club in Indian Wells, California, and former caddy of Jay Haas, and his brother Craig, former long-time pro at Oak Hill in Rochester, New York, attended as well as many other instructors who had worked with Butch over the years and learned under his wing.
‘Many of them worked with Butch more than 20 years ago,’ Billy said. ‘It was an incredible event and a truly unique experience.’
‘The Harmon brothers have been the luckiest family in the history of golf,’ Billy added. ‘The conversations we’ve shared over the past two days about our experiences in the game of golf have been both fascinating and humbling. Three ordinary guys who have lived extraordinary lives because of the game of golf and the wonderful people we have met.’
All this may be true, but so is the fact that countless golfers have been fortunate enough to receive instruction from one of the most brilliant teachers the game has ever known. And what an incredible way to end a career for Butch, arguably the most successful golf coach of the modern era.
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