Ralph “Whitie” Reed

Born in Lincoln in 1915. Whitie has won tournaments in 8 successive decades (1929 to 1997). He has won 45 tournaments at every level except National, including the Greater Lincoln High School Championship representing Lincoln High School (1931 and 1932), the Lincoln City Championship (1940, 1957, and 1959), the Big 6 Conference representing the University of Nebraska in (1936), and the 1953 Nebraska Amateur. In addition, he won regional tournaments in Central and Eastern Nebraska, and Western Iowa.

Whitie competed in 9 National Championships, including 2 NCAA’s (1936 and 1937), 2 U.S. Publinx (1939 and 1967), 2 U.S. Senior amateurs (1970 and 1971), the 1948 U.S. Amateur and U.S. Open, and the 1997 U.S. Senior Olympics. Always competitive, Whittie was medalist or finalist an additional 39 times, including the Nebraska Amateur, the Nebraska Sand Greens (twice), and the Lincoln City (5 times). He has shot his age or better nearly 500 times on 22 golf courses of 6000 or more. He has 10 holes-in-one, including 3 in Nebraska and 7 in Arizona. Whittie was a member of Hillcrest Country Club from 1940 to 1960 and current plays 5 days a week at the Sun City Country Club in Arizona.

To give something back to the game, he served as Marshall or Marshall Captain for 34 PGA, LPGA, and Senior PGA events. During a period of 7 years, he was the Marshall Captain in charge of 40 volunteers on the first hole of the Phoenix Open. He also served for 8 years as a rules official for the Arizona Golf Association.