CRAIG HARMON, PGA
PGA Head Professional
Oak Hill Country Club, Rochester, N.Y.
Stepping to the first tee at Oak Hill Country Club’s East Course on Aug. 7, 1980, host PGA Professional Craig Harmon had the honor in the final first-round pairing in the Season’s Final Major. Prior to that tee shot, Harmon’s mind was on the club’s merchandising plans for that year’s PGA Championship.
As the starter called Harmon’s name, a large gallery erupted with cheers. Harmon began to cry, and walked over to his bag to wipe his eyes with a towel. The emotions began to envelop Harmon, who hit his drive off the neck of the club weakly down the fairway. He was left with a 2-iron approach, from where he managed to make contact and hit his ball across water. The ball came to rest near the front edge of the green. With a large gallery surrounding the green, things only got worse.
“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, N.Y., Craig Harmon is a member of golf’s “First 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 year, the 67-year-old Harmon marks his 41st season as PGA head professional at one of America’s historic golf facilities. A member of Golf Digest’s list of 50 Greatest Teachers, Harmon is the No. 1 ranked instructor in New York and has been a member of GOLF Magazine’s Top 100 Teachers in America roster since its inception in 1996, and Golf Digest’s Greatest Teachers original roster since its launch in 2000.
He’s a past honoree on the signature “Hill of Fame” by the 13th hole as Oak Hill hosts a third PGA Championship, Aug. 8-11. This will be the 11th overall premier event conducted on the East Course.
One of four sons of legendary Claude Harmon Sr., Craig learned lessons well from a father who won the 1948 Masters while distinguishing himself as an instructor and popular head professional at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, N.Y. Brothers Butch (Claude Jr.), Billy, and Dick, who passed away in 2006, all made respective impacts in teaching the game.
Craig attended the College of the Desert in Palm Desert, Calif., and San Jose State University in San Jose, Calif., before joining the staff at the Lakeside Golf Club of North Hollywood, Calif. from 1969 to 1971. He then spent a winter at Thunderbird Country Club in Palm Springs before he was named Oak Hill’s PGA head professional. He has gone on to become one of the country's most influential and respected PGA Professionals.
Harmon was the 2004 PGA Golf Professional of the Year, a five-time Western New York PGA Teacher of the Year. In 2005, he was inducted into the PGA Golf Professional Hall of Fame, where his father was posthumously inducted in 2009.
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 Craig. “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 a club so long. “I can, “because nobody bothers me,” says Craig. “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.
Butch Harmon has distinguished himself with “thoroughbred” students in his career – Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson – among many others. Craig and brother Billy take pride in building players who don’t carry a world-class pedigree. However, Craig’s stable of students currently includes former PGA Champion Jeff Sluman, former U.S. Ryder Cup member Jeff Overton and LPGA Tour Professional Alena Sharp.
In 41 years, with a scrapbook full of memories in his Oak Hill career, Harmon could easily point to any major or a Ryder Cup (1995), but one he said will forever rest at the top of his list. On Aug. 6, 2002, the Oak Hill membership, the Harmon brothers and one of Craig’s longtime students, 1988 PGA Champion Jeff Sluman, appeared for a special event.
They celebrated Harmon’s 30th anniversary at Oak Hill. “That day was easily my best moment here,” says Harmon. “There was a fun members outing, and they had me sit down on the Hill of Fame, where they picked on me.”
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 Craig. “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.”
CRAIG HARMON
Born: May 9, 1946
Birthplace: New Rochelle, N.Y.
Residence: Rochester, N.Y.
Joined Oak Hill Country Club, March 1972
Elected to PGA Membership: January 1976
Attended College of the Desert, Palm Desert, Calif. & San Jose (Calif.) State University
1969-71, PGA Assistant Professional, Lakeside Golf Club, North Hollywood, Calif.
Winter 1971, PGA Assistant Professional, Thunderbird Country Club, Palm Springs, Calif.
HONORS
2005 Inductee, PGA Golf Professional Hall of Fame
2005 Inductee, Western New York PGA Hall of Fame
2004 PGA Golf Professional of the Year
2003 Inductee, Hill of Fame – Oak Hill Country Club
1983 Western New York PGA Golf Professional of the Year
1986, ’91, ’95, 2002, ’10 Western New York PGA Section Teacher of the Year
PGA Teaching & Coaching Summit (Chair, 1996, Co-Chair 1994)
1996 – Present, Member, GOLF Magazine Top Teachers in America
2000 – Present, Golf Digest’s Greatest Teachers
1999 – Present America’s 50 Greatest Teachers – Golf Digest
2013 Golf Digest, No. 1 ranked Teacher in New York State
###