Inductees

You look at the track record of success now and assume he was born with a golf club in hand, that he spent every summer day of his teens fine-tuning his short game all before dominating in college. But …

“Coming out of high school,” Wayne Fredrick said, “I wasn’t very good.”

Then, in the early 1990s, more than a decade after his last round at Missouri State University, the narrative dramatically changed. After a round at Hickory Hills Country Club, Fredrick got pulled aside by none other than renowned golf pro Sam Reynolds.

“I was walking into the pro shop after shooting a 74 or 75, and he looked at me and said, ‘How did you play?’ I told him what I shot. He looked at me and said, ‘I’m so tired of watching this,’ Fredrick recalled. “He took me on the driving range, and we went out there for two hours. He basically chewed me out and changed the way I was doing things.”

Now look who is one of the state’s best amateur golfers, which is why the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame proudly inducted Fredrick with the Class of 2021.

A 1980 Glendale High School graduate, Fredrick is the only player to have won all six men’s state championships in the Missouri Golf Association: the Missouri Amateur (1996), Missouri Stroke Play (2001), Missouri Mid-Amateur (2007), Missouri 4-Ball with Kory Bowman (2014), Missouri Senior Amateur (2018, 2019), and Missouri Senior 4-Ball with Brian Haskell (2020). He also was medalist at the 2015 Missouri Amateur, and was the MGA Senior Men’s Player of the Year in 2019 and 2020.

Additionally, Fredrick has won 10 Springfield City Championships (Regular and Senior) and eight invitational titles in the Midwest. Nationally, Fredrick has competed in three USGA (United States Golf Association) national championships, most recently qualifying for Match Play in the 2019 USGA Senior Championship.

And to think it all started thanks to Reynolds, the head golf pro at Hickory Hills from 1957 to 1994 who played on the PGA Tour. Fredrick’s dad was a major influence in business, but Reynolds kick-started his golfing career.

“He took out a golf club and beat my right forearm with the grip of the club to get me to relax my right arm and change my grip,” said Fredrick, who had risen to No. 1 his final two years at MSU. “Previously, I had won a few local tournaments, and I asked Sam, ‘How did I win if my grip and set up are wrong? He said, ‘You’re a good athlete, but you could be a lot better.’ And I took it to heart.”

Two years later, he won the Missouri Amateur. In the quarterfinals, he lost three of the first five holes but won the match against Jason Schultz, the defending champion. In the finals, he lost the first three holes, had a whiff, a 4-putt and hit a tee shot out of bounds.

Yet Fredrick rallied to win 3 and 1.

“That,” Fredrick said, “started my love affair with golf.”

Rick Neal, the Hickory Hills golf pro the past 20 years, has been a positive influence, too.

“Most recently, I called him from the U.S. Senior Amateur, told him what my shot pattern was, and he gave me a quick tip over the phone,” Fredrick said. “I called him back after a trip to the range and said, ‘You’re a wizard.’ I couldn’t have won the events over the last few years without his help.”

Fredrick holds the record for lowest score in the Springfield City Championship, a 63-66-129. He won the 2018 Senior Amateur at Westwood Hills Country Club in Poplar Bluff after firing a 62 in the first round. A year later, he shot a 66 in the final round to successfully defend his title.

He also has had a tremendous support system, thanks to his wife, Cathy. They are parents to Nate, Maddy and Anna. These days, he runs See the Field Consulting, a real estate coaching company, and has long served on the Executive Committee of the Missouri Golf Association, which voted Fredrick to be its next president.

“I always tell everyone … everything I know in life I learned from my father or on the golf course,” Fredrick said. “I’ve been very lucky to find a sport that mirrors life and teaches you something about yourself every round. Just like life, you have to expect everything to go perfectly, but accept whatever happens.”