Stepping to the first tee at Oak Hill Country Club’s East Course on August 7, 1980, host PGA Professional Craig Harmon had the honour in the final first-round pairing at the US PGA Championship.
As the starter called Harmon’s name, and with a large gallery in attendance, emotions began to envelop Harmon. He hit his drive out of the neck, leaving a two iron in, and managed to hit his approach close to the front edge of the green.
“I took a practice swing and hit a piece of turf about a foot wide, then took another practice stroke and jabbed the club into the ground about six inches,” recalls Harmon. “I couldn’t get myself to relax. Finally, I decided to just try to hit it and somehow the ball ran up and fell into the hole. I felt like a bag of air had just exploded. The crowd cheered and I started to cry again.”
Born in New Rochelle, New York, Harmon is a member of a famous family of teaching professionals, and he chuckles about that nervous round, back when the host PGA Professional was given an exemption into the Championship. Time has a way of caressing some awkward moments.
This week, as Oak Hill hosts a third US PGA, 67 year old Harmon marks his 41st season as PGA head professional at one of America’s most historic golf facilities. A member of Golf Digest’s list of 50 Greatest Teachers, Harmon is the Number One ranked instructor in New York.
One of four sons of legendary Claude Harmon Senior, Craig learned lessons well from a father who won the 1948 Masters Tournament while distinguishing himself as an instructor and popular head professional at Winged Foot Golf Club. Brothers Butch (Claude Jr.), Billy, and Dick, who died in 2006, have all also made respective impacts in teaching the game.
The Harmon brothers benefited from a father who was the epitome of a PGA club professional. Claude Harmon had an innate ability to connect with both the game’s finest players as well as amateurs, building lifelong relationships and enhancing one’s teaching skills.
“I always wanted to do what he did and used all his ideas all my life,” says Harmon. “To this day, I still think about how he handled certain situations. He was just so perfect with people.
“One of his great lines is that to be a golf professional with people, you have to have a duck’s back – meaning the water never gets inside the feathers and people never bother you.”
Brothers Butch and Billy marvel at how long their brother could remain at one club for so long.
“I can, because nobody bothers me,” says Harmon. “I enjoy everybody, and allow them to be who they are. Everybody has their idiosyncrasies and I kind of like them. I kind of like having the challenge of someone being different.”
As another Major Championship commences at Oak Hill, Harmon says that he has always enjoyed his daily drive to Oak Hill. “I still get excited going to work every day,” he says.
While brother Butch has distinguished himself with some notable names in his career – Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, among many others – Craig and brother Billy take pride in building players of perhaps a lesser pedigree. However, Craig’s stable of students currently includes former US PGA Champion Jeff Sluman, 2010 Ryder Cup star Jeff Overton and LPGA Tour Professional Alena Sharp.
Harmon said that golf was the glue that bonded the brothers. “If we didn’t have golf, we didn’t know what we were going to do anyway,” says Harmon. “But we had a good head start and we carried the ball from there.”
When Oak Hill’s board named Harmon its head professional in 1972, Claude Harmon had to get the last word. “He said that I would never have gotten the job if my name was Craig Schultz. He might be right there, but I kept it as Craig Harmon.”
