MIDLOTHIAN — The Virginia Golf Hall of Fame will induct a four-member class at its 2024 Induction Ceremony, which will be held on October 22 at Hermitage Country Club in Manakin Sabot.
The Class of 2024 includes J.P. Leigh, Jane Mack, Tom Strange, and Robert Wrenn.
Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis will serve as the ceremony’s emcee. He joined the network in 2008 and currently is an on-site reporter and host for Golf Central, as well as Golf Central Live From, originating from golf’s biggest events, including major championships, the Ryder Cup, Presidents Cup and the Olympics. Lewis also serves as a reporter/interviewer and occasional play-by-play announcer for GOLF Channel’s PGA TOUR live tournament coverage.
J.P. Leigh
John Leigh, known by most as J.P., will turn 77 in September, yet he shows no signs of slowing down. Just this year, he partnered with Glenn Morris to win the 75+ division at the Virginia State Golf Association Super Senior Four-Ball Championship, the 10th title of Leigh’s illustrious VSGA career. Only eight have reached the 10-win mark, and seven of them are in the Virginia Golf Hall of Fame.
Among Leigh’s 10 championships are a Mid-Amateur win, a Four-Ball victory, four consecutive Senior Stroke Play titles (2003-06), and four Super Senior Four-Ball victories. Leigh reached the final of the VSGA Amateur in 1985, falling 3 and 2 to Tom McKnight in the championship match.
A native of Chesapeake, Leigh is small in stature but not in accomplishments. He got into the game because both of his parents played, but also because he found his lack of height was not problematic when he played golf. He briefly turned professional from 1969-74 but returned to amateur golf in 1977, where he began to excel once again. Leigh’s highlight as a pro was earning low-professional honors at the 1972 Virginia State Open.
During his brief professional career, Leigh also worked as an assistant pro at Elizabeth Manor Golf & Country Club, along with Sleepy Hole Golf Course. He also taught golf classes at Old Dominion University. Upon his return to amateur golf, he partnered with Murray Rudisill—the longtime ODU men’s golf coach—to win the Four-Ball title in 1978. In 1982, he won the VSGA Mid-Amateur at Farmington CC.
Leigh was ODU’s first golf All-American and was inducted into the ODU sports Hall of Fame in 1984.
Jane Mack
Mack learned the game at Willow Oaks Country Club, and her unmatched success at the local level in Richmond translated nicely to VSGA championships. She’s tied for 15th in VSGA history with five victories, with four coming in the VSGA Women’s Amateur Championship over a span of three decades. She won back-to-back titles in 1977 and 1978, added another in 1982 and won once more in 1992. She also added a Women’s Stroke Play title in 1978.
Born on September 20, 1944, in Richmond, Mack died on December 30, 2016, at age 72. She’s a 2009 inductee of the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. Mack was a mainstay on the Virginias team for the Virginias-Carolinas Women’s Team Matches, appearing from 1967-73, 1976-88, and 1990-97. Mack captained the team twice.
Mack played in two U.S. Women’s Opens and three U.S. Women’s Amateurs. Mack also contributed to golf advocacy in Richmond and throughout Virginia, working closely with the VSGA on course ratings and rules.
A graduate of Queens University in Charlotte, Mack spent much of her working career as a teacher. She earned a master’s degree in fine arts, painting, from VCU and in 1971, she was honored as Richmond’s “Undiscovered Artist of the Year.”
Tom Strange
A native of Cincinnati, Strange became a Virginia mainstay thanks to happenstance. During his time in the U.S. Coast Guard, Strange was stationed in Norfolk, where he began to assimilate into the local golf community. By 1958, he was the head golf professional at Elizabeth Manor Golf and Country Club in Portsmouth. After two years there, Strange left to head west to work with Sam Snead at the Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia. He returned to the Tidewater area in 1962 to become the head professional at Bow Creek Golf and Country Club, and while there, he gained membership in the PGA of America.
Strange was in the process of negotiating to buy Bow Creek when he died in 1969 of cancer at age 38.
The father of twins Curtis (inaugural Virginia Golf Hall of Fame class) and Allan, Tom Strange was no stranger to golf success himself. Tom won the State Open of Virginia in 1957 and followed that with a dominant run through the mid-1960s in which he won three VPGA Opens and one VSGA Open. He also played in six U.S. Opens.
In 1997, Strange was inducted in the MAPGA Hall of Fame. A year later, he was voted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame.
Robert Wrenn
Wrenn, who will turn 65 in September, has made his mark in several aspects of golf—as a player, broadcaster and golf-course design consultant.
Born in Richmond, Wrenn attended Wake Forest where he was an all-ACC player for four years before turning pro in 1981. His biggest amateur win came in the 1981 Trans-Mississippi Amateur. After turning pro, he quickly found PGA Tour success. He competed in 308 PGA Tour events between 1982 and 1998, with 15 top-10 finishes, including a victory at the 1987 Buick Open. In that win, he established the tournament record of 262.
Wrenn also won three State Open of Virginia titles in 1983, 1989 and 1991. He won once on the Asia Golf Circuit (Indonesia Open, 1983).
Wrenn participated in seven majors, with his top finish coming in 1988 when he tied for 25th in his lone Masters appearance.
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The four new members bring the total Hall of Fame roster to 41 inductees. Previous Virginia Golf Hall of Fame classes, with the site of the Induction Ceremony, were:
- Class of 2023 (Salisbury CC): Tom Barry, Jim Kite, Peter McDonough, Bobby Mitchell, and Bob Moyers.
- Class of 2022 (Independence GC): H.M. Bunny Blankinship, Grace Anne Braxton, Galen Hill, Jack Isaacs, Lily Harper Martin, and Phil Owenby.
- Class of 2021 (Hermitage CC): Moss Beecroft and David A. King.
- Class of 2020 (Hermitage CC): Kandi Kessler Comer, Wayne Jackson, David Partridge, Richard Smith, and Wynsol Spencer.
- Class of 2019 (Farmington CC): Bobby Cruickshank, Harry Easterly, Mary-Patton Janssen, Tom McKnight, and Bill Millsaps.
- Class of 2018 (Hermitage CC): Dr. Lew Blakey, Robbye Unger, Bobby Wadkins, and Lew Worsham.
- Class of 2017 (CC of Virginia): Donna Andrews, Keith Decker, Wallace McDowell, and J.C. Snead.
- Inaugural Class of 2016 (The Omni Homestead Resort): Vinny Giles, Chandler Harper, Clyde Luther, Sam Snead, Curtis Strange, and Lanny Wadkins.