Ed Hoard was a master golf professional. But his love for the game wasn’t just in playing it. He treasured teaching it, too. In fact, he was a renowned expert in the rules of the game.
“He loved its history. He loved its rules, and he loved sharing his knowledge of golf with other people,” said Kathy Hoard, his wife of 33 years.
Mr. Hoard, inducted into the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame in 1999, was currently serving as a teaching professional at the University of Georgia Golf Course in Athens. Before that, he was the head golf professional at the Athens Country Club.
In the mid-80s, one of his students was Dennis Terry.
“I noticed right off the bat just how friendly and how giving he was to accommodate me,” said Mr. Terry, now a volunteer rules official for the Georgia State Golf Association and United States Golf Association.
For two hours a week for 10 years, Mr. Hoard taught Mr. Terry the rules of golf. That’s no small task. After all, it consists of two books. One is a small book that lists the 34 rules. The other is a decision and interpretation book, about 2 inches thick, that covers “every known thing that can happen with the golf ball,” he said.
He recalled how Mr. Hoard, who instructed at least 1,000 people in his lifetime, would take him out on the course and teach him one or two excerpts at a time.
“I learned not to say, ‘That’s not fair,’ ” Mr. Terry said. “He pitched me the rule book one day and he said, ‘I want you to find the word fair, and when you do come back. ... One shot always pleases somebody. It may not be you, but it’ll please somebody.’ ”
Edgar Paul Hoard, 63, of Athens died Monday of a heart attack while walking his dog near his home. The funeral will be at 11 a.m. Friday at the Athens First Baptist Church. Bernstein Funeral Home and Cremation Services is in charge of arrangements.
Mr. Hoard was born in Atlanta in 1946. From the time he was 12, he played golf on the Bobby Jones Golf Course, where he later held the record for lowest score at 63.
“Ed would often joke that the one thing that was not noted was that he also probably held the record for playing the most rounds there,” said Mrs. Hoard, adding that he recorded playing 300 days one year.
After graduating from Northside High School, he went on to play for the University of Florida golf team that won the 1968 SEC and NCAA championships.
For Mr. Hoard, golf was his job and his hobby.
In 1984 and 1985, he was president of the Georgia section PGA. He was a longtime board member and president of the Georgia Junior Golf Foundation. He served as rules chairman of the PGA Championships from 1995 to 2000, and he was a referee for the 1991 and 2002 Ryder Cup matches. He taught at more than 40 Rules of Golf workshops.
In addition to being inducted into the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame, he was also inducted into the National PGA Golf Hall of Fame in 2005 and was National PGA Professional of the Year in 1999.
Mrs. Hoard said despite her husband’s accolades, he was an unassuming person.
“Those who know him best say he was a true sportsman and really loved the history of the sport and honored it,” she said.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by sisters Harriett Nix of Athens and Helen Pulaski of Loganville.
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