Remembering a good man

Ken Crow, 1958-2021

Back in the 1970s, the Pinehurst area wasn’t the breeding ground for promising golfers that you might think it was. But that didn’t stop a cadre of us from being hooked on the game big-time and pursuing it passionately, even if we weren’t going to end up on tour. I sure did. And so did Ken Crow.

I have a newspaper clipping from our teenage years, a story and photograph about the local Jaycees junior golf event, a summertime staple that decided which players would go to the state tournament, where we’d find out we really weren’t that good despite all the time we put into golf.

There are half a dozen boys in the image. Ken is in the front row, in polyester pants and holding a trophy. I’m in the back row, in polyester pants and holding a trophy. Neither of us had won, but you couldn’t tell it from the smiles. Placing or showing was pretty cool, even if the tiny club in the little golfer’s hands on the chrome prize was bound to go missing sooner rather than later.

I was saddened to find out on social media that Crow had died Aug. 23 of cancer. He was 62. Ken and I weren’t in regular touch since those junior golf days, but it always was good to catch up when we crossed paths through the years—at the Masters or an airport or back home, where Ken worked most of his career after graduating from Campbell University in 1980.

He was a fixture at Pinehurst Resort and Country Club for more than two decades in a variety of roles, including as a teaching professional, director of golf operations and in business development.

As a young assistant pro, Crow had a hand in establishing one of the prominent tour pro-instructor relationships in the modern era. Mark O’Meara was struggling with his swing on the Pinehurst practice range during the 1982 Hall of Fame Tournament, desperate for something to get him back on track. Ken happened to be standing nearby when O’Meara made a plea for a tip. Surprised by the request and knowing that another young Pinehurst pro already was climbing the instruction ladder and might be better suited for the task, Ken went and got Hank Haney. O’Meara and Haney sat down and talked, with Haney eventually being pivotal in O’Meara developing an action that won 16 PGA Tour events, including the Masters and Open Championship in 1998.

Ken would become a fine teacher golf instructor himself, teaching players of various backgrounds and abilities. As his obituary stated, “He had a special love and talent for teaching and mentoring junior golfers, many who went on to college and professional careers.”

Later on, Ken worked as a club manager and in golf management. Whatever the position, he brought a smile and bunch of positive energy, qualities cited in many of the hundreds of condolence messages accompanying the Facebook post by his wife, Melody, announcing Ken’s passing.

Benjamin Crow, son of Ken and Melody, was on three 4-A state championship golf teams at Pinecrest High School and plays for UNC Greensboro. On Thursday, the day after a memorial service for Ken in Southern Pines, Benjamin and his mother went out for some sunshine to The Cradle, Pinehurst’s popular nine-hole short course not far from the clubhouse where Ken worked for many years and where we posed with our junior-golf prizes in 1974.  

Benjamin hit two tee shots on every hole, letting his Mom, who is just getting back into golf, have her choice of which ball to play on the green. The pair got to the ninth hole. From 101 yards a bit downhill, Benjamin hit a 52-degree wedge.

“Landed on the ridge and just trickled down 30 feet and went right in the center of the hole,” Benjamin said, describing the shot on a video tweeted by Pinehurst Resort. “[Mom’s] jumping around yelling and there were 10 or 12 people sitting in chairs going nuts. We celebrated for a second. I’d already thrown the second ball down on the ground. So hit basically a carbon copy of the first one. I thought, ‘This one has a great chance.’ Sure enough, it hit the green, rolled down and went in.”

News of the twin aces brought more comments online from friends of the family. I recognized some of the names of those who reacted to the unlikely shots.

“This,” said Jason Dove, who was on the Union Pines high school golf team with Ken, “will never lose its wonder!”