Sam Farlow leaves behind a legacy of winning

The 19^th hole at the Country Club of Birmingham won’t be the same going forward.

That’s what one commenter posted in the online obituary for Sam Farlow, one of the top golfers the state of Alabama has produced. Farlow, who learned the game at the Country Club of Birmingham, died Dec. 22 at 77.

The Birmingham native had a knack for storytelling and was a regular in the club’s 19^th hole. He also will be remembered as one of the state’s most decorated golfers. He played briefly on the PGA Tour before entering the medical sales field.

After regaining his amateur status in 1983, Farlow went on to win 17 Alabama Golf Association championships (four State Amateurs, six Senior Amateurs), five Birmingham Golf Association championships, four Birmingham Invitationals, 14 Country Club of Birmingham Club championships, and many invitationals throughout the region. Farlow competed in more than 20 USGA championships, including five U.S. Opens and even made a run to the finals of the 2007 U.S. Senior Amateur.

Sam Farlow: Good enough to play on the PGA Tour

Cullman’s Charlie Krenkel, another Birmingham native who also had a brief stint on the PGA Tour before becoming a club pro at several courses in the state, recalls playing with and against Farlow. He had lunch with Farlow as recently as November.

“He was always such a good player,” Krenkel said. “He could launch it so high with his long irons and drop it in there softly. We would play often over at Birmingham [Country Club] and more often than not one of us would get way up on the front nine and the other would come back and be way up on the back nine. We’d get to the 18^th hole and just call it even. That got to be a regular habit.”

Krenkel, an avid fisherman, remembered taking Farlow, who was just getting into fishing, out on a lake in Florida “where you couldn’t help but catch 5- or 6-pound bass.”

“I hadn’t cast more than three or four times and already had caught one that was about six pounds,” Krenkel recalled. “Sam was using an open-face reel and couldn’t get a line in fast enough. He ended up with a big bird’s nest (tangled line) and had to clip all of his line out of there. It took him about 15 minutes while I was reeling in big fish after big fish.”

In October, Farlow was a guest on the Alabama Golf News-sponsored “The Cart Barn podcast.” In what was to be his final public interview, in a nearly an hour-long conversation, Farlow talked about everything from his first set of clubs and to playing the Lady Precept golf ball.

Sam Farlow always wanted to be a professional golfer

Farlow grew up playing at the Country Club of Birmingham under the tutelage of John Gustin. He knew early that he wanted to play golf for a living.

“I think at 12, 13 years old, somebody said, what do you want to be? And I said I think I’ll be a golfer, a professional golfer,” Farlow said on the podcast. “I had a real good summer my last year in college (at the University of Alabama). I think I won five straight invitationals. Anniston and Selma and up at Turtle Point was a big tournament and Birmingham and Vestavia. I mean you go out to play the finals and a lot of them, I mean Selma, there would be 400 or 500 people walking around watching.”

Encouragement from boyhood friend and eventual World Golf Hall of Fame member Hubert Green that gave Farlow the confidence to try to make it on the PGA Tour.

“Hubert had just gotten out there and he says, you keep working at it, you’re good enough,” Farlow recalled. “So, I said, ‘I’m gonna give it a try.’ It took me a couple of times to get out there, but I got out there in 1974.”

Playing the Tour in those days was not nearly as lucrative as it is now. There were Monday qualifiers and players needed top finishes to make a living at it. Farlow left the Tour after 1977 and eventually got into medical sales. He said chipping and putting were the two areas of his game that kept him from having a better professional career.

He played his best golf as an amateur

“I was never a great putter,” he said. “I hit the ball well; drove it straight and had good distance, but I wasn’t a great putter and wasn’t a great chipper. It was funny. Somebody said, ‘well, why didn’t you work on your chipping?’ I said I was thinking I needed to hit more greens. If I did, I wouldn’t have to worry about chipping. I mean, I didn’t three-putt much, but I didn’t make enough of those 15 footers.”

Farlow regained his amateur status in 1983 and started winning just about everything tournament played in. In the late 1980s, Farlow said he was playing the best golf of his life – even better than when he was on Tour.

“I got more relaxed and more confident. I felt like I could beat those guys,” he said. “Probably in about the late 80s, I played better than I played when I was on the tour. I scored better. I loved to practice.”

Krenkel recalled playing in the Heart of Dixie tournament on a team with Farlow, and Allen Doyle among his amateur partners.

“We blew everybody away,” Krenkel said. “I actually beat Allen Doyle – first time playing with him. It was incredible playing with him. Sam and I just laughed all the way around the golf course. Watching Allen hit shots – they never left the pin. I was low pro; Allen was low amateur and our team ran away with it. It was just super fun.”

Near the end of the Cart Barn podcast, Farlow lamented how many of his contemporaries have died. Two months after his guest appearance, Farlow joined them, leaving behind a legacy and the standard for current and future players in Alabama.

Gregg Dewalt is the editor of Alabama Golf News

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Featured image: Birmingham Golf Association