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Fred Wampler
Wampler was born in Bedford in 1923 and caddied for his father at Otis before picking up his own sticks. He went on to become a three-time All-American at Purdue, won the 1947 and ‘49 Indiana State Amateur, won three straight Big Ten titles, and in 1950 won both the NCAA title and Indiana Open. Later that year he turned pro, and became known as “Little Hogan” for his emulation of Ben Hogan’s style.
Wampler won the Long Island Open in 1952, then captured the 1953 Manchester Open after joining the Tour, added the 1954 Los Angeles Open championship and lost a playoff to Sam Snead in the 1957 Greensboro Open. In 1965 Wampler began a 17-year career as pro at Denver Country Club in Colorado, where he was multi-time PGA Section champion and wound up playing in 14 U.S. Opens, 13 PGA Championships, and won the 1983 PGA Senior Open. Wampler is a member of the Indiana Golf Hall of Fame, Purdue Sports Hall of Fame, and Colorado Golf Hall of Fame. He died in 1985 at age 62.
Jim Flick
Flick has spent nearly 60 years working in the game of golf after spending three years at Bedford High School before his family moved to Jeffersonville his senior year. He went on to Wake Forest on a basketball scholarship, but by chance his roommate was a fairly decent golfer named Palmer — as in Arnold. Palmer talked Flick into coming out for the golf team, and the rest is history.
Flick has gone on to teach more than 200 touring PGA pros, and has earned the title of “America’s Master Golf Teacher.” He’s best known as the long-time mentor for Jack Nicklaus, and those two established the renowned Nicklaus-Flick Golf Schools. Flick was named PGA Teacher of the Year in 1988, and a Top 10 Teacher of the 20th Century by Golf World Magazine. Flick is a PGA Life Member, and has been inducted into the World Golf Teachers Hall of Fame, the Wake Forest Athletics Hall of Fame (for both golf and basketball), and the Indiana PGA Hall of Fame. Now over 80 and living in Scottsdale, Az., Flick is still teaching.
Gordon Jeffries
Jeffries started his career at age 9 as a caddie at Otis and went on to become a six-time Bedford Men’s City Champion, including four in a row from 1950-53. He still holds the course record for 18 holes at 61. In 1958 he became the pro-superintendent at Three Rivers Golf Club in Michigan, then became the pro at Highland Ridge Golf Club in Sebring, Fla., from which he retired in 1999.
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Tom Harris
Harris, a 1973 Bedford High grad, was the 1975 Men’s City runner-up and played four years at Ball State. He is the current PGA pro at Delaware Country Club in Muncie. He started his career as a club pro with an assistant’s spot at Killbuck in Anderson, and later became assistant pro at Crooked Stick in Carmel, and became the head pro at Owensboro Country Club in Kentucky. As a player, Harris has finished in the top 10 of both the Kentucky and Indiana PGA Tournaments, finished in the top five of the World Golf Hall of Fame National Pro-Am at Pinehurst, N.C., and teamed with Jim Ferrell Jr., to win the Indiana PGA Pro Assistant’s Championship.
Mark Wood
Wood, a 1980 grad of Bedford North Lawrence, is renowned as one of the top golf teachers in the world. He’s been the Director of Golf at Hamilton Farms Golf Club in Gladstone, N.J., and is currently the Executive Director of Golf at Cornerstone Club in Colorado (between Telluride and Montrose), where he also runs his Mark Wood Golf Academy. He was voted a Top 50 Teacher by Golf Digest, a Top 100 Teacher by Golf Magazine, and was the 2000 Teacher of the Year for the Southeast Chapter of the PGA while in Florida. He was also a pioneer of talk radio in golf, and can frequently be seen on The Golf Channel.
Derek Clouse
Clouse played for several state finals teams at BNL before graduating in 1990, and went on to play four years at Indiana University. He served as the PGA pro at Fox’s Den in Ohio, Cypress Lake in Texas and was on the golf management team at Shadow Hawk in Texas before becoming the head professional at Redstone Golf Club in Humble, Tx., which is the site of the PGA Tour’s Shell Houston Open.
Craig Bowden
Bowden also played for several standout teams at BNL and was the 1986 Bedford City Champion. He played collegiately at the University of Indianapolis. Bowden turned pro in 1989 and played several years on the Nike (now Nationwide) Tour before earning his PGA Tour card in 1997. In between he captured the 1994 and 1995 Indiana PGA Open (winning the ‘94 crown by a whopping 12 strokes at 18-under). Bowden has remained on the PGA and Nationwide Tours since ’97, with three wins on the Nationwide and several top 10 finishes on the PGA. He also played the 2002 U.S. Open at Bethpage.
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