Unlike Texas Basketball, Football, Track And Baseball There Are Very Few Books Or Research Material That Discuss Longhorn golf.  I Hope With Time This Site Can Add Some Historical Insight And Tell The Full And Compelling Story Of The Texas golf Tradition. 

• 1971, 1972, and 2012 National Champions with four runner-up finishes (1983, 1989, 1994, and 2016)

• Longhorn’s success in golf started with Legendary golf instructor Tom Penick followed by his younger brother Harvey Penick.

  the story of playing golf. A PSYCHOLOGY of golf that will never change.

To paraphrase professional golf writer Kevin Robbins “ golf takes “perseverance, trust, and luck of the good kind.” Winning and losing are just part of learning, re-learning, and correcting a golf swing and a mental attitude. Jordan Spieth knows this well. Entering the 2021 Texas Open he has participated in 83 starts with nothing to show. It took peace of mind playing on native soil, a return to the swing of his youth, and remembering the past to resurrect the game he had forgotten. His epiphany was not unusual in the sport of golf. All golf players at some point need to reference the past to resurrect their game. Spieth said after winning the Texas Open “ It’s about throwing out results and instead working on freedom.”

The history of Longhorn Golf has many individual stories of winning, losing, and new beginnings like Jordan Spieth experienced. All are part of the game of golf.

1913

 The Athletic Council is formed. Its goal – conduct sports in an “honorable and beneficial manner”, promote suitable exercise for UT students, and raise and disburse funds to maintain the athletic programs. 

1923- PENDING

Texas supports seven sports in 1923- football, baseball, basketball, track, cross-country, tennis, and wrestling. There are no varsity sports for women, and no coed golf for either sex. 

1926- PENDING

The SWC adopts men’s golf as an official sport. 

COACH TOM PENICK 1927- 1930

Tom was Harvey Penick’s older brother. If not for Tom’s insistence that Harvey works as a Caddie, we may never have learned the principles of golf thru Harvey’s eyes. Golf is considered a “minor sport” at Texas.

1927- Coach Tom Penick – SWC champions

Golf is recognized as a varsity sport at UT. Harvey gives credit to his brother for planting the seeds for future UT National Championship teams.  The team had no uniforms or team home.   

Conference Champion 

1928- Coach Tom Penick pending content

 Individual championship was won by the captain – Gib Payne

In 1928 Golf was made a conference sport. L-R. Gibson Payne, Morris Gydeson, Tom Haynie, Pat Patrice, Shorty Long. Texas beats the Aggies for the first SWC championship.

1929 Coach Tom Penick Pending Content

Mac Burnett was a good football player and the captain of the 1930 Golf team

1930 Coach Tom Penick Pending Content

Mac Burnett wins the trophy for the longest drive at the Oakmont tournament.  

Tom Penick resigns to focus on his job as the head professional golf instructor at Lions. During his years at Texas, Tom’s role was unofficial golf coach of the Longhorn golf team. As such, he was an excellent teacher of fundamentals and link play.

Coach Harvey Penick 1931-1963 

Kevin Robbins, the author of the book Harvey Penick, says that Harvey wanted his pupils to swing the bucket, clip the tee, give luck a chance, and take dead aim.

Sports writer Bud Shrake says that take dead aim was the most important message in sports. Harvey point was players have to be aware of the moment. He said that once you addressed the ball hitting it has got to be the most important thing in your life at that moment. The player should shut out all thoughts other than picking a target and taking dead aim believing you’re going to hit what you’re aiming at and swing away.   

Sally Brown chose the motto “Take Dead Aim” for the 2005 National Championship game. Harvey’s spirit was with the Horns on their journey to the national championship.

Harvey Penick’s coaching expertise was derived from a lifetime of experience of playing golf. He knew the truth about a golf swing without knowing the reason it worked. He just taught the premise without discussing the cause, and he never tried to answer the question of why “taking dead aim” worked. 

 Harvey Penick Earned A National Reputation As The Pro’s Pro, Among His Students, Were Ben Crenshaw, Tom Kite, Don Massengale, Kathy Whitworth, Mickey Wright, And Sandra Palmer. 

Harvey is 26 years old when he accepts the head coaching job for the men’s UT golf team.

• HOH 1969

• Coached UT to 20 SWC golf titles

• Eight times Harvey’s team finished in the NCAA top 10 including runner-up for the National Championship in 1949

• 19 individual conference medalists and one National Medalist  

• Named “National Coach of the Year” by PGA in 1989.

• 1985 Penick was inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame.

In the book Harvey Penick-The Life and Wisdom of the Man Who Wrote the Book on Golf by Kevin Robbins, Kevin makes a profound statement that captures the life work of Harvey Penick.  Kevin says Harvey was a “caddie who became a player, who became a club professional, who became an instructor”, and …… is “ensconced, firmly and forever, as the guardian of golf’s simplest truths”. 

Kevin’s book is a great read that not only captures the essence of Harvey Penick, but captures in mesmerizing detail some of the most important tournaments and  historical moments in the history of  Golf.   

1931- 1932 Harvey Penick 

Harvey’s first team consisted of Dick Gregg, Lane McAfee, Fred Gross, and Jack Tinnin Scholarships were forbidden because the NCAA ruled that a scholarship was compensation, and therefore the golfer was considered a “professional.” 

1933-Harvey Penick SWC Champions are pending info.

SWC Champs – Tinnin is the captain 

The Longhorns finish 4th at the NCAA Championship. It is the first time the Longhorns place at an NCAA event. 

1934-Harvey Penick SWC Champions- pending info.

 Horns win the SWC shooting a course record of 299. Texas ranked 5th in the country  SWC Champs5th at the NCAA ChampionshipGolf is recognized at UT as a “major” sport.Ed White, Nelson Munger, Raymond Ramsey, Bill Welch, and Bob Battle are members of one of the best golf teams in UT history.  

Ed White is SWC Medalist 1933, 1934, and 1935.  He is the first NCAA medalist for the longhorns. Harvey Penick said that Ed White “hit the ball as well as anybody ever did.” 

1935-Harvey Penick Pending Content SWC Champs

 In the 30’s college players had more prestige than the professional golf athletes.

Horns golf team wins all their matches in the SWC in 1935.

Texas finishes 5th at the NCAA tournament behind Michigan, Yale, Georgia Tech, and Notre Dame led by White and Welch.

Top of the Charts- I am in the mood for love

1936-Harvey Penick SWC Champs Pending Content

SWC Champs

 Bill Welch is SWC Medalist 1936 and 1937

1937-Harvey Penick Pending Content

SWC Champs- 6th SWC in a row

1938-Harvey Penick Pending Content

Walter Benson joins the team (audio below)

SWC Champs

1939-Harvey Penick SWC champs Pending Content

14th at the NCAA Championship

1940-Harvey Penick Pending Content

SWC Champs

17th at the NCAA Championship

Buck Luce is SWC Medalist 1940

1941-Harvey Penick Pending Content

SWC Champs

6th at the NCAA Championship

Leonard Spitzer  is SWC Medalist in 1941

1942-Harvey Penick SWC champions Pending Content

John Russell is SWC Medalist in 1942

1943-Harvey Penick SWC champions Pending Content

1944 Harvey Penick SWC Champions Pending Content

SWC Champs

Frank Hoover is SWC Medalist in 1944 (no picture)

1945- SWC Champs Harvey Penick Pending Content

Joe Ruby is SWC Medalist in 1945 (no picture) Sterling Browning receives the Massingale trophy. The team withdraws from the NCAA tournament because Nat Johnson is called into service the day before the tournament.

1946- 14th SWC under Harvey Penick Pending Content

Hugh Dahlberg  Is SWC Medalist In 1946 (no picture) ;

14th SWC championship 

Bob Watson wins the Massingill trophy 

1947 Harvey Penick Pending Content

Team wins 8th consecutive SWC championship.  Ed Hopkins wins the Individual championship.

Morris Williams is the only player in the state of Texas to win the Texas Junior, Open, and the PGA in the same period. On September 16, 1953, Morris Williams was killed on a training flight in a Lockheed F-80. The golf world was devastated by the news. Harvey Penick said talking to Morris Sr. after his son’s death’ was the toughest day of his life.  Morris William Golf Course was built in his memory in 1964. Morris was enshrined in the Texas Golf Hall of Fame in 2010.

 SWC Champs

30th at the NCAA Championship

Harvey Penick said that Ed White, Morris Williams, Tom Kite, and Ben Crenshaw (in that order) were his best students. 

1948-Harvey Penick Pending Content

Runner up in the SWC.   Dahlberg wins  the Massingill Trophy

12th at the NCAA Championship

Bob Watson Is SWC Medalist In 1948 and 1949

1949-Harvey Penick Pending Content

2nd at the NCAA Championship- Bob Watson, Reece Alexander, Marion Pfluger, William Smith and Morris Williams. 

Top of the Charts 1949

1950-Harvey Penick Pending Content

Harvey thought that Morris Williams was one of the purest and most endowed golfers he had ever seen or coached. Williams wins the Massengale trophy.

SWC Champs

The team wins 3rd consecutive SWC championship. Eleventh championship in the last 12 years and 20th since the first Conference title started in 1927.

Wesley Ellis is in the #1 position (no picture)

11th at the NCAA Championship

1951-Harvey Penick Pending Content

13th at the NCAA Championship

SWC Champs

Roane Puett was Born into a family of Longhorn athletes. His father was the star quarterback on the 1911-12 University of Texas football team. His older brother played football for the University of Texas in the late 1930s. Roane’s great-grandfather, Thomas Moore Harwood, was a member of the commission that created the University of Texas and served on the very first University Board of Regents. The Legislature vested the governance of The University to the Board of Regents on October 19, 1881.  

Roane Puett first row orange shirt 2006

1952-Harvey Penick Pending Content

Harvey says this team is one of his best teams. 

4th consecutive SWC Championship . 

Lee Pinkston wins the Massingale Trophy.

4th at the NCAA Championship

Team wins 29 matches 

Wesley Ellis  Is SWC Medalist

In 1959 Longhorn Wesley Ellis won the Texas Open. Penick said Ellis “always seemed to select the right club at the right time.”

1953-Harvey Penick Pending Content

6th at the NCAA Championship

Julian Oats attends Texas to play tennis and wins two individual conference championships.  His last year at Texas he switches to Golf and is the medalist at the SWC championship tournament.

More to follow on Bobby Moncrief and Bernard Riviere 

1954-Harvey Penick pending

TOP OF THE CHARTS

SWC Champs

8th at the NCAA Championship

Joe Golden Is SWC Medalist In 1954

Davis Love is inducted into the HOH in 2016

Team wins the SWC Championship with Joe Golden, Raymond Leggett, Davis Love, F. Lee Pinkston, and Teddy White. Joe Golden had the low score at the SWC championship. Pinkston won the Massingale Trophy for the 3rd straight year . The award is given to the team member with the lowest score in team qualifying matches.

1955-Harvey Penick pending

1955 begins a slow decline in Texas men’s golf. The team finished next to last in the SWC.

23rd at the NCAA Championship

Davis Love was 3rd at the SWC tournament. Theodore White wins the Massingill trophy, but did not participate in any post season events. 

1956-Harvey Penick pending content

Finished 3rd in conference with a 4 – 2 record.  Kirby and Attwell finish 8th and 11th in the conference meet.

1957-Harvey Penick Pending Content

1958-Harvey Penick Pending Content

18th at the NCAA Championship

1959-Harvey Penick Pending Content

A 5th place finish in the SWC is the best record in the last 5 years.  Bob Nelson and Sonny Rhodes were the key to the team.  There were some ugly defeats as Texas Tech beat Texas 6-0 and A & M beat Texas 5-1.

1960-Harvey Penick Pending Content

Top of the Charts 1960

34th at the NCAA Championship

Terry Dill receives the first full scholarship to Texas

 Terry Dill  Is SWC Medalist In 1960. Terry is a West Texas boy who shined for the Longhorns.  Dill was only defeated one time the whole season.  Texas finished 6th in conference.  Dill  made the quarter final round at the NCAA tournament. 

1961-Harvey Penick

The Horns finished 6th in the SWC. Terry Dill led the team finishing in second place in SWC rankings.

ABC asked Harvey Penick to share his knowledge of golf with their T.V. audience. He declines the offer.   This was Penick’s  9th year in a row with poor results in the  the SWC.  

Harvey’s commands a price of $3 for a golf lesson at the Austin Country Club. 

20th at the NCAA Championship

1962-Harvey Penick Pending Content

Harvey decides he wants to simplify his life. His passion is teaching at the Austin Country Club, so after 32 years as the UT Golf coach, he resigns.    

1963-Harvey Penick Pending Content

6th at the NCAA Championship

A Reflection on Harvey Penick’s teaching style.

According to the book Harvey Penick- The Life and Wisdom of the Man Who Wrote the Book on Golf by Kevin Robbins, Harvey was non-confrontational, kind, disarming, and non-aggressive. Harvey’s skills at instruction were learned from all the great players he met. He was a listener more than a talker, and his listening skills made him one of the greatest college coaches of all time. Harvey said, “Most of my knowledge came from other pros. He also listened and learned from his UT players. He started high school, “Boys had pros” that taught them before he was their coach at Texas. 

Kevin Robbins says – “Harvey’s life was blessed- he was in the right place, at the right time, and in the right frame of mind for the rise of women’s golf.” Fred Davis says about Harvey “He is simple but not simplistic, reserved without being passive, disciplined but not rigid, and confident without being presumptuous.”

Harvey Penick’s coaching style was based on a lifetime of experience. He never tried to answer the question of why “taking dead aim” works. He just taught the premise without discussing the nature of things. He had a knack for not over coaching his pupils. 

Tom Kite said that Coach Penick was a great coach because “he understood the way the body worked,” and he “totally understood what made the golf swing work.”  

Testimonials from Women Golfers.

Harvey’s key to success for a women’s golf game is “let go of the tension in your elbows and shoulder.”

As of 1995 13 women were inducted into the LPGA Hall of Fame. 5 of them practiced with Harvey Penick. Harvey says “I don’t change my fundamental teaching because I have a woman pupil- but I do change my commentary.”

Betsy Rawls said that Harvey’s greatest strength as a teacher lay in his ability to see each pupil an an individual and to discern how that person should be taught to play golf.”

Sandra Palmer– “ His guidance, his patience, his sense of humor, his philosophy, and above all his love for people and for golf have been a great source of strength and inspiration for me. “ On the night before Sandra one the U.S. Open she called Harvey for reassurance. Harvey said if you have the desire to win “then let God’s hand rest on your shoulder, and if it is your turn to win, you will win.”

Kathy Whitworth Harvey’s books are “instructional , humorous, and philosophical.”

Cindy Figg-Currier says that after she turned professional whenever she needed advice on fundamentals Harvey Penick was available.

Susan Watkins- in 1978 met with Coach Pat Weiss and Harvey Penick. She said that Harvey made me a better golfer and “I realized I wanted to teach.” She followed her dream and coached at Cherry Hills in Denver , The Austin Country Club, and at the University of Texas.

Susan says of Harvey “is not only a teacher of golf , he is a teacher of life. He says he learns something every day and tries to pass it on.”