William Joseph Patton was an American amateur golf

Golf

Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....

er best known for almost winning the 1954 Masters Tournament

1954 Masters Tournament

The 1954 Masters Tournament was contested from April 8 to April 12 at Augusta National Golf Club. It was the 18th Masters Tournament.Sam Snead defeated Ben Hogan 70-71 in an 18-hole playoff to win his third Masters tournament. Sneads's 289, along with Jack Burke, Jr. in 1956 and Zach Johnson in...

.

Patton was born in Morganton, North Carolina

Morganton, North Carolina

Morganton is a city in Burke County, North Carolina, United States. Reader's Digest included Morganton in its list of top ten places to raise a family. The town was recently profiled in The 50 Best Small Southern Towns. The population was 17,310 at the 2000 census...

. He graduated from Wake Forest University

Wake Forest University

Wake Forest University is a private, coeducational university in the U.S. state of North Carolina, founded in 1834. The university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina, the state capital. The Reynolda Campus, the university's main campus, is...

 in 1943.

In 1954, Patton came within one stroke of being in a three-man playoff with Ben Hogan

Ben Hogan

William Ben Hogan was an American golfer, generally considered one of the greatest players in the history of the game...

 and Sam Snead

Sam Snead

Samuel Jackson Snead was an American professional golfer who was one of the top players in the world for most of four decades. Snead won a record 82 PGA Tour events including seven majors. He failed to win a U.S...

 for the championship. His final round 71 included a hole-in-one on the par-3 6th hole and a double bogey on the par-5 13th hole, when he tried to reach the green in two and put his ball into Rae's Creek.

Patton won several amateur tournaments including the North and South Amateur three times and the Southern Amateur

Southern Amateur

The Southern Amateur is an amateur golf tournament. It has been played since 1902 and is organized by the Southern Golf Association. From1902 to 1963, it was played at match play...

 twice. He also won the Carolinas Open

Carolinas Open

The Carolinas Open is a golf tournament played in the Carolinas, open to both amateur and professional golfers. It is run by the Carolinas section of the PGA of America...

 twice.

Patton played on five Walker Cup

Walker Cup

The Walker Cup is a golf trophy contested biennially in odd numbered years between teams comprising the leading amateur golfers of the United States and Great Britain and Ireland...

 teams; 1955, 1957, 1959, 1963, and 1965 and was captain of the 1969 team. He played on the Eisenhower Trophy

Eisenhower Trophy

The Eisenhower Trophy is a biennial world amateur team golf championship for men organized by the International Golf Federation. It is named for Dwight D. Eisenhower, the President of the United States when the tournament was first played, who was a keen amateur golfer. Recent tournaments have...

 team in 1958 and 1962.

Patton was awarded the Bob Jones Award

Bob Jones Award

The Bob Jones Award is the highest honor given by the United States Golf Association in recognition of distinguished sportsmanship in golf. It is named in honor of Bobby Jones.-Winners:*1955 Francis Ouimet*1956 William C. Campbell*1957 Babe Zaharias...

 by the United States Golf Association

United States Golf Association

The United States Golf Association is the United States' national association of golf courses, clubs and facilities and the governing body of golf for the U.S. and Mexico. Together with The R&A, the USGA produces and interprets the Rules of Golf. The USGA also provides a national handicap system...

 in 1982.

Patton was inducted into several Halls of Fame:

• North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in 1967
• Wake Forest University's Sports Hall of Fame in 1974
• Southern Golf Association Hall of Fame in 1975
• Carolinas Golf Reporters Association Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame in 1981

Tournament wins

• 1947 Carolinas Amateur
• 1951 Carolinas Open
  Carolinas Open
  The Carolinas Open is a golf tournament played in the Carolinas, open to both amateur and professional golfers. It is run by the Carolinas section of the PGA of America...
  
  
• 1952 Carolinas Open (tied with Bobby Locke
  Bobby Locke
  Arthur D'Arcy "Bobby" Locke was the first internationally successful South African professional golfer. He won four Open Championships.-Early years:...
  
  )
• 1954 North and South Amateur
• 1958 Carolinas Amateur
• 1961 Southern Amateur
  Southern Amateur
  The Southern Amateur is an amateur golf tournament. It has been played since 1902 and is organized by the Southern Golf Association. From1902 to 1963, it was played at match play...
  
  , Azalea Invitational
  Azalea Invitational
  The Azalea Invitational is an annual amateur golf tournament. It has been played since 1946 at the Country Club of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina.-Winners:*2011 Cheng-Tsung Pan*2010 Tyson Alexander*2009 Tyson Alexander*2008 Zack Sucher...
  
  , Carolinas Amateur
• 1962 North and South Amateur
• 1963 North and South Amateur
• 1964 North Carolina Amateur
• 1965 Southern Amateur
• 1979 Carolinas Senior Amateur
• 1981 Carolinas Senior Amateur

Results in major championships

Tournament	1949	1950	1951	1952	1953	1954	1955	1956	1957	1958	1959
Masters Tournament	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	3 LA	T49	T12	CUT	8 LA	T8
U.S. Open U.S. Open (golf) The United States Open Championship, commonly known as the U.S. Open, is the annual open golf tournament of the United States. It is the second of the four major championships in golf, and is on the official schedule of both the PGA Tour and the European Tour...	DNP	CUT	DNP	T36	T54	T6 LA	DNP	13	T8 LA	CUT	DNP
U.S. Amateur	R64	DNP	R32	R64	DNP	R64	R256	R32	R128	R64	R32
The Amateur Championship The Amateur Championship The Amateur Championship is a golf tournament which is held annually in the United Kingdom. It is one of the two leading individual tournaments for amateur golfers, alongside the U.S. Amateur...	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	QF	DNP	DNP	DNP	R128

Tournament	1960	1961	1962	1963	1964	1965	1966	1967	1968	1969	1970	1971	1972
Masters Tournament	T13 LA	CUT	CUT	48	T37	CUT	CUT	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
U.S. Open U.S. Open (golf) The United States Open Championship, commonly known as the U.S. Open, is the annual open golf tournament of the United States. It is the second of the four major championships in golf, and is on the official schedule of both the PGA Tour and the European Tour...	DNP	DNP	CUT	DNP	CUT	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
U.S. Amateur	R64	R32	SF	R64	R16	T19	T26	DNP	T8	CUT	DNP	DNP	T23
The Amateur Championship The Amateur Championship The Amateur Championship is a golf tournament which is held annually in the United Kingdom. It is one of the two leading individual tournaments for amateur golfers, alongside the U.S. Amateur...	DNP	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

LA = Low Amateur

NYF = Tournament not yet founded

NT = No tournament

DNP = Did not play

WD = Withdrew

"T" indicates a tie for a place

DNQ = Did not qualify for match play portion

R256, R128, R64, R32, R16, QF, SF = Round in which player lost in match play

Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10

Source for The Masters: www.masters.com

Source for U.S. Open, U.S. Amateur: USGA Championship Database

Source for 1955 British Amateur: The Glasgow Herald, June 4, 1955, pg. 9.

Source for 1959 British Amateur: The Glasgow Herald, May 27, 1959, pg. 9.

U.S. national team appearances

• Walker Cup
  Walker Cup
  The Walker Cup is a golf trophy contested biennially in odd numbered years between teams comprising the leading amateur golfers of the United States and Great Britain and Ireland...
  
  : 1955 (winners), 1957 (winners), 1959 (winners), 1963 (winners), 1965 (winners), 1969 (non-playing captain, winners)
• Eisenhower Trophy
  Eisenhower Trophy
  The Eisenhower Trophy is a biennial world amateur team golf championship for men organized by the International Golf Federation. It is named for Dwight D. Eisenhower, the President of the United States when the tournament was first played, who was a keen amateur golfer. Recent tournaments have...
  
  : 1958, 1962 (winners)

External links

• Seventy Years of Great Golf with Billy Joe
• Let's Smile Again - Sports Illustrated
  Sports Illustrated
  Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...
  
  , August 23, 1954