Hall of Fame Class of 2024 Spotlight: Bob Ross

They don’t make them like Bob Ross anymore. Ross’s passion for golf and his achievements within the game are unrivaled.

Best known for his tenure as the PGA Head Professional at Baltusrol Golf Club, Ross, 92, spent 20 years (1977-1997) at the Springfield club.

"Baltusrol’s basic operation is to preserve and honor the game of golf, and it's all golf,” Ross explained. “We don't have pools, we don't have tennis, we don't have squash and a lot of these other amenities that may take away from the golf courses. Baltusrol is continually thinking about golf and the golfers in the history of the game, and that's the beauty of that golf club. It's a very, very special club. It was an honor and a pleasure for me to be their golf professional all those years because the membership there is the finest membership I've ever worked at. And I worked at some very nice clubs.”

While at Baltusrol, he was honored by the PGA of America as Golf Professional of the Year (1981) and Merchandiser of the Year (1989). Ross is respected for his career of devoted service to his membership, mentoring dozens of young golf professionals, a strong playing record, and for hosting multiple national championships and earning national recognition for his achievements.

“Everybody was so nice to me along the way at all the clubs that I worked at,” Ross recalled. “ So, I always felt I should be nice to everybody that worked for me because of how well I was treated everywhere I went.  So many of the young people that came to work for me weren't sure where they were going, what they wanted to do. It reminded me of when I'd just gotten started - and the more I was around these young professionals, the more I realized their ambitions were pretty similar to what mine were. I did whatever I could to encourage them and fortunately for me, it paid off because they were excellent people to have on my staff - they helped me, made me wiser and I learned from them.”

A slew of his former staff members — Doug Steffen (Baltusrol), George Deitz (Canoe Brook), Al Sutton (Paradise Valley, Arizona.), Mark Hartfield (Sankaty Head, Massachusetts), and Larry Dornisch (Muirfield Village, Ohio), to name but a few — went on to become standout head professionals in their own right.

“I was very proud of the fact that they've all gone on and become very successful and they're all at very nice clubs.”

He made the most throughout his time at Baltusrol, setting a certain standard in merchandising. Prior to the USGA taking over merchandising rights, Baltusrol was one of the first few clubs to sell event-specific merchandise.

"The pro shop was open, and I had a tent out on the upper course where people parked. When the USGA and the officials came and saw what was going on, we had a line from the pro shop all the way up to the parking lot in the driveway,” Ross said. “They were all standing in line to come down to buy a hat, a bag tag and souvenirs that I had bought. That entailed a lot of money, which was beyond anything I imagined.”

His operation was so popular and unheard of, that spectators came in droves.

"The fire marshal in Springfield came and closed the door. He wouldn't let the people in because there were about 300 people in the pro shop,” Ross started. “I lined the pro shop up like they do in Disney World, with the lines. So finally after that I asked the fire marshal that if we let three in, we're going to let three out the other door. That worked for the whole week, and it was amazing.”

An accomplished player, Ross won the New Jersey Senior Open, the Pennsylvania Open, and Philadelphia PGA Section Championship. He competed in six PGA and USGA Championships along with eight PGA and USGA Senior championships. When Baltusrol hosted the 1980 U.S. Open, Ross was the first host professional to qualify for the event in two decades.

“I didn't have time to think about my game, quite frankly. I managed to be half decent the first day, but I didn't make the cut,” Ross recalled about his Open appearance at Baltusrol. "It seemed like every Open that I played in, I shot a respectable score the first round and then the second round not as well. As a club professional, you're not used to playing every day like that. That was quite an experience, though.”

In recognition of his achievements, Ross was inducted into the Philadelphia PGA Section Hall of Fame in 2000, the New Jersey PGA Section (NJPGA) Hall of Fame in 2003 and was honored with the 2017 NJPGA/NJSGA Distinguished Service Award.

During his time at Baltusrol, he was named NJPGA Golf Professional of the Year and NJPGA Merchandiser of the Year (in addition to his national honors of the same nature).

Ross was instrumental in the development of Hawk Pointe Golf Club in Warren County, where he was the Director of Golf after its opening in 2000.

Born in Vermont, Ross grew up in Connecticut and learned the game as a caddie at Shennecossett Golf and Country Club in Groton.

“Thank god for my dad and mother, because luckily they moved from Vermont, where I grew up on a farm, and came down to Connecticut during the war because my dad went to work in the shipyard. That’s how I really got involved in golf.”

Later, he enrolled at Pasadena City College in California where he was coached by two-time PGA Championship winner Paul Runyon.

“I had an offer at a couple of different schools, like Boston University and UConn, but I decided to go to California for school because the weather was better there, and I could play golf in the wintertime,” Ross explained. “I went there and played on the golf team, and we did quite well, so that led to me really getting into golf.”

After college, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and served in the 77th Special Forces unit at Fort Bragg, N.C.

Before arriving at Baltusrol, Ross was first hired as an assistant at Shennecossett before moving on to another assistant position in Amarillo, Texas. His first head job was at the Susquehanna Valley Country Club in Selinsgrove, Pa., where he performed the dual role of head professional and greenkeeper. Then came a succession of head professional jobs: Valley C.C. in Hazelton, Pa.; North Hills in the suburbs of Philadelphia; the prestigious Philadelphia Cricket Club; and TPC Sawgrass in Florida prior to his appointment at Baltusrol in 1977.