Class of 2012

Sam Goldfarb Sr.

Lifetime Achievement

Biography

Sam M. Goldfarb, Sr. was one of a half-dozen businessmen to form the San Antonio Golf Association, SAGA, now Golf San Antonio, in 1938. The group’s main purpose of bringing back the then defunct Texas Open. He was a long time president of the San Antonio Golf Association in the 1940's and 50's when the Texas Open was played at Brackenridge Park Golf Course in San Antonio, Texas.

He helped by bringing Bob Hope and Bing Crosby as special guests in the early 1940’s.

Sam was involved with professional golf, amateur golf and junior golf for more than 50 years. Sam Sr. was asked to run the Texas State Junior Golf Championship by the San Antonio Light Newspaper in 1946. So, he took care of the ‘State Junior’ as he called it, until 1972 with the help of his wife Dorothy Goldfarb, Brackenridge Golf Pro, Murray Brooks and several dedicated friends.

Birthplace: Overby, Mississippi

Born: July 13, 1895

Died: July 5, 1982

Legacy Video

Scratching the Surface

Sam grew up in rural Mississippi, but moved to San Antonio from Memphis, Tenn., in 1925 when he heard that golf was playable year-round. Sam did just that, becoming a scratch golfer and qualifying for the Texas State Men’s Amateur Championship on numerous occasions. Sam’s daily interest in the game of golf morphed into years, as he was involved with professional, amateur, and junior golf for more than 50 years until his passing in 1982.

Maybe It’s Really Sam Antonio

In 1938, Sam was among a half-dozen businessmen who formed the San Antonio Golf Association (SAGA), now called Golf San Antonio. The group’s main goal was to revive the then-defunct Texas Open, a professional tournament that began at Brackenridge Park Golf Course in 1922 but was played just once between 1932 and 1938 due to the Great Depression. Sam served as both the president of the San Antonio Golf Association and the tournament’s director in the 1940s and 50s.

Bringing Hope to San Antonio

A popular media member due to his job as the radio voice of the popular San Antonio Missions minor league baseball team in the 1930s, and an active community leader, Sam was charged with helping to promote the return of the Texas Open. Among his most influential moves was bringing in world-famous entertainers Bob Hope and Bing Crosby as special guests in the early 1940s, boosting the tournament’s clout within the region. In the first decade upon its return, Texas Open winners included Byron Nelson (1940), Ben Hogan (1946) and Sam Snead (1948).

Senior Serves the State Junior

In 1946, Sam Sr. was asked by the San Antonio Light Newspaper to oversee the Texas State Junior Golf Championship. And with the help of others, including his wife Dorothy and Brackenridge head professional Murray Brooks, Sam ran the “State Junior” (as he called it) for more than a quarter of a century until 1972. In 2012, when Sam was posthumously inducted into the Texas Golf Hall of Fame, Ben Crenshaw, who had won the Texas State Junior in 1967 and 1969 attended the induction ceremony and fondly recalled Sam’s golf game.