Inductees

Back in 1949, long before he beat a future 13-time PGA Tour winner and owner of a Master’s green jacket – and years before he himself would win the Kansas Amateur, Missouri Amateur and Missouri Senior Amateur – Bruce Hollowell found his calling.

Or, more accurately, golf found him.

You see, when his dad was recruited out of Texas for a job in Springfield, the negotiations included this interesting request: a membership at Hickory Hills Country Club.

“I went crazy with it,” Hollowell said, recalling a childhood also spent playing in Kiwanis League baseball. “I loved golf because it was hard to get hurt.”

Much has been written of Springfield’s rich golf history, and one of its chapters certainly includes Hollowell, Missouri State University standout who later carved out success in high-profile amateur competition across the country. It’s quite a resume and why the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame proudly inducted Hollowell with the Class of 2020.

A 1960 Parkview High School graduate, Hollowell is believed to be the only golfer to pull the trifecta of winning the Kansas Amateur (1972), Missouri Amateur (1975) and Missouri Senior Amateur (1997). He qualified for the Missouri Amateur 20 out of 22 years, earning runner-up finishes in 1973 and 1977.

Hollowell also was a multiple qualifier for the USGA Amateur (1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1976), and the U.S. Mid-Amateur (1981, 1982, 1984). He reached the prestigious Western Amateur quarterfinals and semifinals in different years, with a notable victory against Craig “The Walrus” Stadler, a 13-time PGA Tour winner and 1982 Master’s champion. Hollowell also qualified for a British Amateur at St. Andrews.

The Western Amateurs were played against some of the most elite in the country, and it was grueling, considering the last three days are 36 holes each until you lose.

“You had to be really focused,” Hollowell said.

In 1971, he and Ken Lanning won the Heart of America Four-Ball Invitational, and he and Ron Boyce did so in 1975.

All that came after Hollowell fueled Missouri State’s successful golf teams of 1962, 1963, 1964 and 1966.

The 1963 team of Hollowell, Larry Gooch, Larry Pegg, Dick Baxter, Jim Wheeler and Bill Lucas recorded an 11-stroke margin of victory for the first D-II golf championship ever awarded and, a year later, MSU was a national runner-up. In his time on campus, the Bears won the Missouri Intercollegiate Athletics Association and a regional in each of his first three seasons, with Hollowell winning the 1966 MIAA’s individual title.

“My dad taught me as much as he could,” Hollowell said.

Among his mentors was Rolla’s Ken Lanning, who enhanced Hollowell’s grip.

“The grip is the most important thing,” Hollowell said. “It took me a year with Mr. Lanning to get a grip that we perfected.”

Well, that’s the Disney version. Lanning repeatedly hit Hollowell’s hands with the shaft of his club following tee shots in order for the grip to come together. Ultimately, Hollowell’s game centered on his tee shots as well as putting.

Success followed. Hollowell beat four-time winner Frank Rose for the 1972 Kansas Amateur, besting the 220-man field.

He won the 1975 Missouri Amateur against Jim Sid Rollins 5 & 4. That was part of a seven-year run in that event in which Hollowell reached the finals three times, the semifinals twice and quarterfinals twice.

“I was playing against a really good player that time (in 1975),” Hollowell said of Rollins, who had beaten a young Payne Stewart (MSHOF Legend 2000) in the semifinals. “And I had a lot of confidence.”

By winning the state Amateurs, he qualified for the prestigious Sunnehanna Amateur in Pennsylvania.

At the inaugural 1981 U.S. Mid-Amateur at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis, he beat John Grace and Dobbs Long in the first two rounds before losing to Danny Yates. All three were All-Americans and former Walker Cup players. In 1984, Hollowell competed against Jay Sigel, who was on nine Walker Cup teams and later played on the Senior PGA Tour.

Years later, he had the support of his wife, Satch, and children Nicole and Bryce as he won the 1997 Missouri Senior Amateur at Twin Hills Country Club in Joplin. Two years later, he qualified for the USGA Senior Championship.

“All of them were great accomplishments. You had to actually qualify for them,” said Hollowell, the Missouri Golf Association’s executive director from 1985 to 1988. “It wasn’t that you paid an entry fee and got in. I was fortunate to have the longevity to play that well.”