Announcing Class of 2018: Chad Campbell, Billy Ray Brown, Bill Moretti, Bill Macatee and Austin Country Club.
SAN ANTONIO (Aug. 3, 2018) – The latest inductees to the Texas Golf Hall of Fame followed similar paths, from humble beginnings to golf’s biggest stage.
The Hall announced its 2018 class, the ninth in the edifice’s history. Chad Campbell, Billy Ray Brown, Bill Moretti and Bill Macatee, along with Austin Country Club, will be honored in a ceremony at San Antonio Country Club on October 8th.
“I’m not surprised that we have such a strong class this year,” said Loren Singletary, Board Chairman of the Texas Golf Hall of Fame. “I was really pleased with the quality of the nominations, so I knew the inductees would be outstanding. We are really pleased to honor this remarkable group.”
The 2018 class has come a long way to be commemorated on granite markers on the prestigious Texas Golf Walk of Fame at historic Brackenridge Park Golf Course.
Campbell, who grew up in Andrews, Texas, has pocketed four victories, 56 top-10 finishes, and $26 million in earnings during his 18-year career on the PGA Tour. He will be honored in the professional player category.
Self-taught, Campbell paid his dues, spending two years at Midland College before landing a scholarship at UNLV. He “won” his way onto the PGA Tour, posting 13 victories on the NGA Hooters Tour and then his three wins on the Buy.com Tour in 2001 earned him an automatic promotion to the PGA Tour.
With a flat swing that drew comparisons to Texas legend Ben Hogan, Campbell was among the game’s most skilled shotmakers his first 10 years on Tour. In 2003, he won the Tour Championship, placed second at the PGA Championship, and finished seventh on the Tour money list.
He claimed his second PGA Tour victory in 2004 and went on to win the 2006 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic and the 2007 Viking Classic. In 2009, he posted the best start in Masters history with birdies on the first five holes and eventually finished second, losing in a three-man playoff involving Angel Cabrera and Kenny Perry.
Campbell’s lowest score on Tour is 61, which he has shot twice. Fittingly, one of those rounds came at Fort Worth’s Colonial Country Club, known as “Hogan’s Alley.”
“Shooting 61 here with all the history and everything about Hogan, and just the tradition, it doesn’t get much better than that,” Campbell said afterward.
Brown, honored in the amateur player category, was born, raised and still lives in Missouri City. His Dulles High School teams won three state regional championships and state titles in 1980 and 1981. He kept winning at the University of Houston, claiming the NCAA Championship individual and team titles his freshman year.
In each of his four seasons at UH, Brown earned NCAA All-America and All Southwest Conference accolades. His Cougars captured three NCAA titles, and Brown added Southwest Conference individual crowns in 1983 and 1984.
He also was honored with the 1982 Bill Ennis Award as Houston’s athlete of the year.
Brown carried his success onto the PGA Tour. He won three times and posted 17 top-10s before his playing career was cut short by an injury and subsequent surgeries to his wrist.
Brown stayed in golf as an on-course reporter for ABC Sports from 1999 to 2006. In 2007, he joined the Golf Channel as an on-course reporter.
Moretti, honored in the golf professional / teacher category, was an accomplished player before becoming teaching professional in 1979. The St. Louis native has been a Top 100 Golf magazine teacher since its inception. He has been honored as Southern Texas PGA Teacher of the Year (nominated 11 times) and Chapter Teacher of the Year.
His knowledge of the swing is so vast that he has written seven books, five teaching manuals and more than 50 articles published in golf magazines.
Of the 25 PGA teaching professions Moretti has worked with and groomed, three have been named PGA National Teachers of the Year, and six have been honored as Top 100 Golf Magazine instructors.
Moretti began his teaching career at Lockhaven Country Club, then served at the Andy Bean Golf Studio with David Leadbetter (1983-1986) before assuming his current position at the Academy of Golf in Austin. He also teaches at the Austin Golf Club.
Since 2009 Moretti has focused on individual lessons and junior golfers, donating his time for half of those lessons. His list of pupils includes Tour players Fred Funk, J.L. Lewis, Tom Purtzer, Joe Ogilvie, and Harrison Frazar.
Macatee, honored in the lifetime achievement category, has been a major force in the golf world for some 30 years as national television golf broadcaster.
The El Paso native has worked 28 Masters, 20 PGA Championships, and every Ryder Cup from 1991 to 2006. He has also served as lead announcer of PGA Tour events such as the AT&T Byron Nelson and the Valero Texas Open on CBS.
For 20 years he has covered the 14th hole at the Masters, as well as provided insightful interviews for CBS with players such as Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Jordan Spieth. Over the last 18 years, one of his roles for CBS at the PGA Championship has been interviewing and presenting the Wanamaker Trophy to the winner.
Through his television company, Macatee has created, hosted and produced 12 golf-themed documentaries airing on CBS. All were produced in Texas.
Macatee has been inducted into the El Paso Sports Hall of Fame and sponsors the Sonya and William Macatee Scholarships for the Boys & Girls Club of Dallas.
Austin Country Club, which will be added to the Texas Registry of Historic Golf Courses, has seen many changes in its 119 years. The club moved to its third _ and current _ site in 1984. The challenging course on the south bank of the Colorado River (Lake Austin) has hosted the WGC Match Play championships for the past three years.
Austin Country Club’s previous location was in east Austin _ now Riverside Golf Course _ adjacent to the Riverside campus of Austin Community College. This is where major champions Ben Crenshaw and Tom Kite were coached by legendary Harvey Penick.
The club’s original location was at 41st Street, northeast of the University of Texas campus. The current nine-hole Hancock municipal course is all that remains. The other holes are now a shopping center.
Austin Country Club’s rich history features 79 Harvey Penick Invitationals dating back to 1935, seven Morris Williams (University Of Texas) Intercollegiate events, five Texas State Amateurs, and the 2010 Texas State Mid-Amateur.
The current layout ranked No. 4 on Golf Digest’s list of Best Remodels, and has been consistently ranked by the Dallas Morning News and Golf Digest.
This will be the Texas Golf Hall of Fame’s ninth class to be inducted since the Hall’s reconstitution in 2009. Public nominations made online were voted on by living Hall members, the Texas Golf Hall of Fame Board of Directors, and designated Texas golf media members. The Induction Dinner will take place at the historic San Antonio Country Club.
