BOYNTON BEACH, Fla., Jan. 22, 2012 –– Record six-time Virginia State Golf Association Senior Amateur champion Morris “Moss” Beecroft Jr. and Bob Cochran Sr. were inducted into the Quail Ridge Country Club’s Sports Hall of Fame during a ceremony Wednesday night.
     
Beecroft (center, pictured with fellow VSGA member Stan Fischer, left, and Vinny Giles) was one of the U.S.’s top amateurs from 1971-96. The Newport News resident was ranked among the top 10 senior amateurs in the national three times by Golf Digest. He spent a good part of his career playing – and beating – recognizable players such as Tom Kite, Lanny Wadkins, Davis Love III, Steve Melnyk, Billy Joe Patton and Dale Morey.
     
Despite his many accomplishments, Beecroft said he was shocked when he heard he had been elected into the Hall of Fame.
     
“We have some very good golfers here at Quail Ridge, so for me to be put into that category with them, it’s a mighty humbling thing,” said Beecroft, who was presented by two other former top amateurs, Vinny Giles and Stan Fischer, both of whom reside in Richmond and are past VSGA Senior Amateur champions. “I’m very pleased and very proud to go into this Hall of Fame.”
    
Beecroft won the VSGA Senior Amateur Championship 1986, 1990, 1992, 1994 and collected another title in 1999, with each of his triumphs coming at The Homestead’s Cascades Course.

Among his many impressive accomplishments, Beecroft was the medalist at the VSGA Senior Amateur in 1985, 1992 and 1994, posting a then- record qualifying score of 142 in ’94. Additionally, he captured the 1986 and 1997 VSGA Senior Stroke Play Championship. The VSGA member at James River Country Club in Newport News was honored as the 1986 VSGA Golfer of the Year. In team-match competition, Beecroft long represented the Virginias team at the Captain’s Putter Matches in which the premier amateurs from the Virginias and the Carolinas compete against one another in the event.

On the national stage, Beecroft was the runner-up at the 1991 USGA Senior Amateur Championship at Crystal Downs Country Club in Frankfort, Mich. He was also the low amateur at the 1992 U.S. Senior Open at Saucon Valley Country Club’s Old Course in Bethlehem, Pa., where he was 13 strokes better than the next non-professional. Beecroft’s first big taste of success came in 1967 when he won the Kenridge Invitational at Farmington Country Club where he took home the coveted blue blazer awarded to the champion.
    
“He has been a mainstay of golf in Virginia for more than 50 years,” said Giles, the only player to have ever won the U.S. Amateur (1972), the British Amateur (1975) and the USGA Senior Amateur (2009). “He’s 81 years old and he can shoot his age almost every time he plays. He’s a tribute to the game.” 
      
Cochran dominated an earlier era, being born the same year (1912) as legends Ben Hogan, Sam Snead and Byron Nelson. Cochran won his first significant title in 1931 and the St. Louis native continued to collect trophies until 1982 – an amazing gap of 51 years. Cochran – dubbed the Old Grey Fox — played in three Masters, 14 U.S. Amateurs and six USGA Senior Amateurs, and finished second to Freddie Haas when Haas won the 1945 Memphis Invitational to end Nelson’s streak of 11 consecutive PGA Tour wins.
    
“Bobby Jones in 1945 said my dad was the best amateur golfer in the world,” said Bill Cochran, a son of Bob. “My dad played all those guys (Hogan, Snead and Nelson) and beat them all, too. But he could make more money from his business selling paper bags than he could playing golf, so he never turned professional. His four priorities were always 1. God, 2. Family; 3. His business; and 4. Golf.”
     
Cochran won the St. Louis District Golf Association Championship eight times, a feat topped only by a 32-year gap between his first and last titles. He also won the St. Louis District Senior Championship eight times during a 19-year span and the Missouri State Amateur four times. He was a member of the victorious 1961 USA Walker Cup team and was runner-up to Joe Carr in the 1960 British Amateur.
    
Cochran was past president of the St. Louis District Golf Association, three-time President of the Missouri Golf Association and a 50-year member of the Missouri State Amateur Board and the USGA Board before becoming a longtime resident at Quail Ridge Country Club. Fittingly, when he died in 2003 while walking in his neighborhood at 90, he was holding a golf club in his hand.
     
Beecroft and Cochran are the 11th and 12th inductees in the Quail Ridge Sports Hall of Fame. The others: Sam Snead and Dr. Robert Harris (2011), Robert Hardy (2010), William Ely and Claude Harmon (2009), Bruce Karr, Harreld Kirkpatrick and John Owens (2008) and Ralph Bogart and Morey (2007).
     
Quail Ridge Country Club, located in Boynton Beach, Fla., offers its members two Joe Lee designed championship golf courses, extensive practice facilities, a 16-court tennis center, a clubhouse for fine and casual dining and a modern, free-standing health and fitness center. For more information about Quail Ridge Country Club visit www.quailridgecc.com.