Elmer McKinney

Elmer McKinney was the only winner of the Nebraska Amateur and the state sand-greens championship and later was a six-time U.S. Amateur qualifier who reached the semifinals. His first home course was Grandview in Kearney, nine holes and sand greens, where he was hired part-time for security detail. It gave him opportunity to practice. As a Kearney State college student, he and Harold Bacon organized the Antelopes’ first men’s golf team and he won team and individual titles in the Rock Mountain Conference.

His Nebraska Amateur title came in 1939 on the sand greens of Beatrice Country Club. He was Albuquerque city champion and won the New Mexico Amateur while in the U.S. Army Air Force. He captained the Air Force golf team, the “Flying Kellys,” that played exhibitions around the country.

Elmer was a 1948 graduate of Texas Tech, where he was captain of the golf team and won the Border Conference championship. Owner of an insurance agency in Lubbock, he served six years as Director in the West Texas-New Mexico Senior Golf Association, winning the association championship in 1977 and 1981. He served on the USGA’s national committee for junior golf. Elmer McKinney passed away in February of 2001.